About

Wanted! or Find Luigi is a minigame on Super Mario 64 DS in which players must find and tap on an image of a given character's face as it bounces around a screen full of other characters' faces. The game was released on November 21st, 2004, and became the subject of memes throughout the 2020s. In November 2024, a gimmick account, @FindLuigi, on X / Twitter started posting "Find Luigi" videos of varying difficulty levels, becoming notably popularized that month and inspiring memes and parodies.

Origin

On November 21st, 2004, Super Mario 64 DS was released on the Nintendo DS. The video game includes several minigames exclusive to the DS version of the game, including "Wanted!" In the minigame, players are tasked with finding a specific character's face as it bounces around the screen, covered by other characters' faces.

The earliest known example of a meme asking people to "find Luigi" was posted by 9GAG^[1] user grugatti on June 28th, 2018, consisting of an image covered in Yoshi sprites with one Luigi sprite hidden in the mix, garnering over 1,100 upvotes in six years.

Spread

Similar memes about finding Luigi and the Wanted! minigame became increasingly popularized over the following years. For example, on May 24th, 2019, X^[2] user @checo__10 posted a screenshot of Wanted!, writing, "I’m this old," garnering over 73,000 likes in five years.

On August 26th, Redditor u/AnonymousAndWhite posted a meme to the subreddit /r/okbuddyretard^[3] in which a woman asks Luigi for child support and he disappears, as represented through a screenshot of the Wanted! minigame, garnering over 12,000 upvotes in five years.

On April 28th, 2022, a now-deleted Redditor posted a recreation of the meme to /r/memes^[4] using Princess Daisy in place of the original woman, garnering around 120 upvotes in two years. On March 6th, 2023, it was reposted to /r/196,^[5] garnering over 1,200 upvotes in a year. On July 19th, it was posted to /r/PeterExplainsTheJoke,^[6] garnering over 5,300 upvotes in a similar span of time. On October 12th, 2024, Instagram^[7] user uncrustable.memess reposted it, garnering over 53,000 likes in two months.

Find Luigi Gimmick Account

On November 26th, 2024, X^[8] user @FindLuigi posted a video recreation of the Wanted! minigame, asking users to "find Luigi," garnering over 57,000 likes and 4,800 reposts in a week.

The user continued to post versions of the game with varying difficulty levels over the following days, each tasking players with finding Luigi, inspiring memes. For example, on November 28th, X^[9] user @KolinkIThink posted a version asking players to "find Groudon," garnering over 111,000 likes in four days.

On November 29th, X^[10] user @TheSillySnail posted a version of the Leaning Forward in Chair meme writing, "Me locking the fuck in when the find luigi tweet pops up on my tl," garnering over 66,000 likes in three days. On the same day, a parody version of the meme was posted to /r/tomorrow^[11] that garnered over 700 upvotes in the same span of time.

On November 30th, the @FindLuigi X^[12] account posted their first "boss level" difficulty version of the game, in which a flock of Boos fly over the screen to further obscure Luigi's location, garnering over 24,000 likes in two days.

Various Examples

difficulty: lunatic https://t.co/M7W2st6DaD pic.twitter.com/Buia1NS7qi

— Bat Mox 🦇 (@bat_mox) December 1, 2024

Search Interest

External References