Waluigi says screw it, invites himself to 'Super Smash Bros.'

Thousands (if not millions) of gamers watched recently as Masahiro Sakurai named Kingdom Hearts' Sora as the last character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But while this means that the villainous Waluigi will never officially make his way into the game that promoted itself with the slogan "Everyone is here!", a few fans decided to take matters into their own hands.

Uninvited — YouTuber and animator King Bob Gaming collaborated with a few other fans to create the above trailer, which shows various denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom receiving their invites to the Smash Bros. tournament. Needless to say, it does not go well for our friend in purple. Though we've seen our fair share of charming fan-crafted videos in the gaming space over the years, this is one of the best ones, so definitely give it a watch — it's really well-done.

Even in an industry that is constantly congratulating itself, Sora's addition to the roster was a legitimate "end of an era" moment, as Nintendo has continued to work on Ultimate for the better part of three years now. Still, the decidedly unofficial Smash mod community has been hard at work as well, as this trailer is meant to advertise a mod that adds Waluigi to Project M, a modern, fan-driven version of 2008’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl remade with gameplay mechanics from 2001’s Super Smash Bros. Melee. Versions of that mod have been available for download since 2016, but modder MKHT has been working on upgrading Waluigi recently, and the new release will drop sometime this month.

The forgotten ones — While many Nintendo aficionados have a soft spot for Waluigi, let's not forget the dozens of popular characters that gamers lobbied to see in Smash, but didn't make the cut. Habitual contenders included Lanky Kong (a "cousin" of Donkey and Diddy from Donkey Kong 64), Devil May Cry's Dante, and Doomguy from the Doom reboot series. Several of my friends have carried a torch for Viewtiful Joe, and Ammie from Okami. As for me, I suppose it's probably time to admit that Yuri the Harmonixer from Shadow Hearts was always a long shot.

Disney dreams — And while Sora is definitely a good choice for the final spot, it is somewhat strange that he isn't accompanied by any of the licensed Disney characters that made the series such a success — particularly his party-mates Donald Duck and Goofy — but hey, if the mouse doesn't return your call, what are you supposed to do?