Detective Luigi

Detective Luigi is a ROM hack created by rovertronic. It was released on January 1st, 2020 as part of SimpleFlips' "Mystery Hacks" SM64 ROM hack competition.

In this hack, you play as Detective Luigi, who is tasked by his superior officer Cokdong to investigate a string of disappearances including his brother Mario. The main gameplay takes place in the sandbox level New Block City. Luigi must collect "clues" in the form of stars and information from townsfolk to piece together the solution to the mystery. New mechanics are also included through the usage of decomp, such as ladder-climbing, wall sliding, Odyssey-style dive jumping, and global coins.

The hack was met with positive reception, with many people praising it for its gameplay and scenario but knocking it for questionable writing in its multiple endings. It ended up placing 6th in the SimpleFlips competition.

Stars[]

All of the following stars are located in New Block City.


Name	Location	Notes
The Mafia Boss	On top of the central tower.	Start climbing towers in the south-east, making your way north, and finish your climb on the central tower to get here. You must fight the Mafia Bob-Omb ("Al Caboom") before you can collect his star.
The Markings	In various places around the city, with the star spawning at the start location.	The markings are located as follows: - On the north side of the central tower - On top of the north-western-most building, bordering the exit to the forest - Behind the south-western-most building, where the secret-giving Koopa is - In the water at the south-eastern-most part of the map - North-east of the city, plastered against the wall bordering it on the forest side
The Forest Ride	At the end of the path in the forest.	Drive to the forest north of the city and use your car to traverse the path to get the star. To obtain a car, find a Koopa in the north-east part of the city and give him 20 coins. The car will persist between all stars from now on.
The Merchant	In an alleyway in the south-western-most part of the city.	Collect 30 coins, then talk to the merchant to gather information and collect the star.
The Garden	On top of the north-western-most building.	Either long-jump off the top of the central tower or triple-jump-dive from the border of the city to the star.
The Rooftop	On top of the western building.	Long jump off the central building to get here.

Bosses[]

WARNING: Past this point, this article contains story spoilers for Detective Luigi. Proceed at your own discretion.


Name	Location	Fight	Reward
Al Caboom	Top of the central tower	The first half of this fight is a regular King Bob-Omb fight. However, in the second half, you must descend to the lower city and find boxes to throw and deal damage to the mega-sized Al while he sends shock waves and throws bomb projectiles at you.	"The Mafia Boss" star
BUP	Any place in the level (after collecting all six stars)	Run away from the BUP, avoiding his toad head projectiles and shock waves. When boxes appear on the ground, pick them up and throw them at the BUP to deal damage.	Fake ending
Sans Thwomp	Any place in the level (after killing every enemy)	Avoid the projectiles thrown by the thwomp, then approach him, jump, and ground pound on him to deal a hit. After each hit, he will throw a harder pattern of projectiles to avoid. Instead of hurting you directly, all the projectiles in the fight bestow the "CRINGE" status effect, which slowly depletes your health for a variable amount of time. In the middle of the fight, he will ask to create a truce by having you enter the water. However, entering the water during this fight immediately kills you, and the only way to continue the fight is to attack him again.	True ending

Trivia[]

This is the first documented SM64 ROM hack release of 2020, though its release was in December 31st, 2019 in some time zones.
This is a hack in the Rovert Cinematic ROM Hack Universe, proceeding the events of "BUP" and "Darius the Janitor," also created by Rovert. The BUP featured in this hack is a collection of consumed bodies from the end of the BUP hack, which Mario is a part of. The (currently unexplained and unnamed) commander of BUP is revealed to be Darius' boss, who is now spiteful of Darius because he "cucked me and quit my job." Along with this, Detective Luigi's boss Cokdong is a character from the Gay Baby Jail trilogy of hacks created by Rovert.
This hack spawned the "FAKE ENDING: KILL THEM ALL" meme, extracted from the completion of the BUP fight where the end screen bluntly explains the results of Detective Luigi's quest and his actions needed to achieve the true ending. This meme circulated around ROM hacking communities for several months, most noticeably being featured in Mish Koz's Super Mario 64 Iceberg: Explained video.
Due to how the true ending is unlocked, you are actually able to beat the game without ever collecting a star. During the fake ending, the game tells you to kill every enemy in New Block City, which must be done in an uncleared file since a file with six stars will always warp to the BUP boss fight. However, the game never checks to see if any file has been cleared before the true ending can be triggered. Thus, with no save data on the game, you are able to go straight to the true ending. This has famously (and accidentally) been done in SimpleFlips' playthrough of the hack.