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L is Real 2401 is a theory / Easter egg in Super Mario 64. It involves the character Luigi and his absence from the game. This led to a lot of theories and bogus cheat codes about its non-existent aspect.

On July 25, 2020, 24 years and 1 month (or rather, 24 years, 1 month, 2 days, or 8798 days) after the game's initial release in Japan, a leak of Mario 64's source code appeared on the internet. Among the contents of the files was Luigi's model.

Origin[]

Super Mario 64 was originally going to be a 2-player game, with Mario and Luigi as playable characters. Unfortunately, the system's capabilities at the time prevented that from happening, and Luigi was taken out of the game. Luigi did, however, finally make his Nintendo 64 debut in Mario Kart 64.

In Super Mario 64's Castle Courtyard, there is a statue in the heart of the courtyard. The statue depicts a giant star with a blurry inscription beneath it. Although it is hard to read, the text on the inscription can be interpreted as either 'Eternal Star' or 'L is real 2401', depending on the player's viewing angle. While 'Eternal Star' made much more sense considering the star directly above the inscription, people quickly latched onto the 'L is real' idea. People thought that L stood for Luigi, and therefore Luigi would have been in the game. One theory was that 2401 represented every gold coin in each world of the game and that by collecting them all, the player would have to come back to the statue where Luigi would then emerge as a playable character. 

Impact[]

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IGN responded to the number of questions about Luigi by offering a $100 bounty to anyone that can prove Luigi is hidden in the game.

In 2020, internal documents detailing Nintendo's consoles, and source code for various games were leaked, This was on the 25th of July, 24 years and 1 month after the release of the game, which coincidentally aligns with said leaked source code containing a model for Luigi and it's associated textures, thus completing the prophecy.

A widespread belief exists that the leak was deliberate. Initially, it was said in a letter from Nintendo dated May 7, 1998, that the developers added it as a joke[1], but after two decades, Luigi was discovered.

Trivia[]

  • The news can also be found above and below Dodongo in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
  • The message can also be found in the Dojo Pathway in Club Penguin Rewritten.
  • Mario's first title for the Nintendo GameCube, Luigi's Mansion, didn't show Mario in the flesh until the end of the game and had Luigi as the only playable character, though Mario was planned to be playable in Luigi's Mansion.
  • Luigi was actually going to appear in a Super Mario 64 sequel, but the game was cancelled due to the commercial failure of the Nintendo 64 DD (Disk Drive). 

See also[]

References[]

  1. Letter from Nintendo about Luigi in SM64. 1998 (December 3, 2016), r/retrogaming. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
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