Do we like them?

Do we like Luigi?

A character from Super Mario Bros. / Luigi's Mansion (1983–present)

Our score: 8 out of 10. Easy yes. He is scared of nearly everything and goes anyway, which makes him the kind of brave we'd back. We'd just keep the lights on.

Luigi began in 1983's Mario Bros. as the second-player version of Mario, a palette swap with the same moves. Over the years Nintendo made him his own person: taller and thinner, with a higher jump and a slippery stride. He is a plumber from Brooklyn in the Mario stories, and he's usually at his brother's side as they take on Bowser and look after Princess Peach.

Luigi is timid and easily spooked, and he hums nervously when he's frightened. He is also very loyal. He has his own series in Luigi's Mansion, where he's armed with a ghost-sucking vacuum called the Poltergust. His fear never stops him when someone he loves needs help, and that gap between how scared he is and what he does anyway is why people like him.

In the first Luigi's Mansion, he wins a mansion in a contest he never entered. He goes in alone, scared stiff, to find Mario. He captures the ghosts one by one and takes on King Boo to free his brother. He's the lead in that game, and he does it without any of Mario's swagger.

He scores an 8 because he's gentle, dependable and brave in a way that costs him something. He loses a couple of points because he panics and gets in his own way, and he's often the one left behind.