Masahiro Sakurai
In the "Super Smash Bros." series, starting with "Brawl", Waluigi appears non-playable as an Assist Trophy item, while his purple color palette appears as one of Luigi's alternate costumes and in later installments, for Mario and Wario as well. During Waluigi's reveal for "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U", game director Masahiro Sakurai jokingly stated that "just because you try hard doesn't mean you'll make it into the battle."