Nintendo dubs 2013 the 'Year of Luigi'

The February 14 edition of Nintendo Direct marked the announcement of the "Year of Luigi," with Nintendo Global President president Satoru Iwata introducing segments on "Luigi's Mansion 2," "Mario & Luigi: Dream Team," "Mario Golf: World Tour" and the "New Super Luigi U" add-on, among other titles.

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The February 14 edition of Nintendo Direct marked the announcement of the 'Year of Luigi,' with Nintendo Global President president Satoru Iwata introducing segments on 'Luigi's Mansion 2,' 'Mario & Luigi: Dream Team,' 'Mario Golf: World Tour' and the 'New Super Luigi U' add-on, among other titles.

The Year of Luigi celebrates thirty years since the green-costumed Mario brother made his first appearance in the original arcade game 'Mario Bros.'

'Luigi's Mansion 2' for the portable Nintendo 3DS will feature multiplayer for up to four players, with local and online modes available, and has already been dated for March 2013: March 20 in Japan, March 24 in North America, and March 28 in Europe.

'Mario & Luigi: Dream Team,' which will be known as 'Mario & Luigi RPG 4: Dream Adventure' in Japan, is a new role-playing adventure for the Mario brothers to take part in -- the last one was the excellent 'Bowser's Inside Story' on DS in 2009. That's expected summer 2013.

'Mario Golf: World Tour,' also due in summer, is to feature a variety of Mario characters including Luigi, Donkey Kong and Wario, and is being developed by Camelot, the studio which created the 'Everybody's Golf' franchise for PlayStation before moving over to make the 'Mario Golf,' 'Mario Tennis,' and 'Golden Sun' series for Nintendo.

Lastly, 'New Super Luigi U' was described by Iwata as being 'large-scale downloadable software' for the Wii U game 'New Super Mario Bros. U,' and one which will arrive 'in this Year of Luigi.'

Though this latest Nintendo Direct feature arrives one week before Sony's PlayStation Meeting on February 20, at which the PlayStation 4 is due to be unveiled, and therefore could be seen as strategically timed, Nintendo has been issuing video updates on a monthly basis since April 2012.