Taking over the world has never been crazier. Starring Waluigi and Psycho Iris.
Psycho Waluigi is a fangame made by Thunder Dragon of MFGG fame. Set in the Mario Universe, it stars Wario's underappreciated partner, Waluigi.
After taking a nasty fall from his hot air balloon, Waluigi wakes up in an unfamiliar land with a strange, purple, eyeball cloud watching him. The eye identifies itself as Psycho Iris and tells Waluigi that he is in the land of Unconcia. He goes on to explain that due to both the natural influence of the land and his own phenomenal power, Waluigi now has psychic powers. Now that he has his own superpowers, what will he do with them? Save a princess of his own?
Nah, he's gonna go conquer Unconcia for himself, with the help of Psycho Iris. And to do this, he will need to overthrow the various kings and queens, and take out General Hazel and her Hazelnaut Army.
The gameplay is like a cross between Wario Land and Psychonauts, with classic platforming action. Using Psycho Iris, Waluigi can use Psychokinesis to weaponize the environment and his enemies. For example, by lifting up a fireball-spitting Piranha Plant you can force it to shoot out fireballs for you.
A Creator-Driven Successor titled Psycutlery was released for free in 2024, following years of development.
Examples:
- A Day in the Limelight:
- And what a day it is for Waluigi.
- The final World 0 stage has the player controlling General Hazel in a Journey to the Center of the Mind, and takes the opportunity to go into her backstory. Getting all 40 gold crowns lets you play as her in the main game.
- All Just a Dream: Played with. Unconcia is a place where people go when they're knocked unconscious, but it seems to be an actual, separate world as well, similar to Subcon. Flashbacks in the final World 0 stage show that Waluigi isn't the first visitor Psycho Iris has tempted with promises of conquest.
- And I Must Scream: Subverted when Iris possesses Waluigi and traps him inside his own mind — Iris, being genuinely Affably Evil, gives Waluigi the option of living forever within a dream world of his choosing.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: Some specific levels have this. Almost every level in the game has this occur when you reach the throne.
- Big Bad: Psycho Iris is the one who sends and accompanies Waluigi on his conquering journey, and has tried to conquer Unconcia in the past. He also becomes the Final Boss when he decides to destroy the world instead, prompting Waluigi to turn on him.
- Big "NO!": Waluigi lets one loose whenever he dies.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: The Final Boss fight takes place here. After Psycho Iris takes over Waluigi's unconscious body and seals the purple plumber in his own mind, Waluigi uses his imagination to create his own psychic powers and exorcise the iris from his body.
- Battleship Raid: Dreadnought Kingdom.
- Bittersweet Ending: For our protagonist, at least. Waluigi ends up back in the Mushroom Kingdom, with no one believing/caring about his adventures. However, Unconcia is saved and Waluigi is recognized as a hero, getting a giant statue built in his honor.
- Blah, Blah, Blah: Psycho Iris is quite prone to this.
- Boss Rush: Available after beating the game.
- Breaking Lecture: Psycho Iris gives one to Waluigi once his own plans for Unconcia come to light.
- Brick Joke: When you reach the very end of the Falling Sky Kingdom, it finally hits the ground.
- The Cameo: After unlocking Hazel, return to Monkeybag's shop and fly over the roof to the other side. You'll find Reckloo, a recurring NPC from Thunder Dragon's other big-name fangames, hiding in the shadows under some crates, as usual.
- Continuing is Painful: Losing all your coins once Waluigi runs out of health isn't so bad, since earning gold crowns is optional. However, the timer doesn't reset, which can be inconvenient on harder levels (particularly the Final Conquest).
- Cross Player: Alluded to by Psycho Iris, in the stage description for Ninjette's Challenge...while seemingly talking to the player about their own desire to be a cute ninja girl.
- Crosshair Aware: Dreadnought Kingdom and Warm Welcome Kingdom.
- Creator Cameo: The ruler of the Static Void Kingdom will look very familiar to anyone who's seen Thunder Dragon's signature on the MFGG forums.
- Darker and Edgier: By Mario standards, that is. Conquering kingdoms as a Villain Protagonist can be somewhat jarring to players that are used to saving them.
- Death from Above: By the end of World 5, the Hazelnauts have apparently decided to forego trying to defeat Waluigi through normal means in favor of simply bombing the crap out of him.
- Destructible Projectiles: Hazelnaut bullets can be shot at fireballs.
- Double Jump: Pink and Gold Eyeflies give Waluigi this ability.
- Dystopia Is Hard: Psycho Iris explains that this is why he would rather destroy the world than rule it — being a dictator would be too much effort and become boring.
- Easily Conquered World: You think there would be at least more defenses in each king's throne room at the end of the level besides the king himself shooting magic at you.
- Easter Egg: Try letting your time run out on a level and then waiting a moment on the "Time Up" screen and you'll hear Totaka's Song.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Once Psycho Iris is freed, he fuses with Waluigi, creating the titular Psycho Waluigi. While in this form, Waluigi can fly and shoot an incredibly powerful laser blast from his mind.
- Elite Mook: The Hazelnaut Infantries and Pyros essentially take the place of Hammer Bros in this game.
- Expy:
- Many enemies in this game are expies of various enemies of the Mario series. The only two enemies that are actually from the Mario series are Bob-ombs and Piranha Plants. These two enemies are commonly associated with Waluigi.
- General Hazel is very reminiscent of Dr. Eggman, showing up to fight you at the end of each world, piloting a variety of mechs, and flying away after she's beaten. However, she is much more of a Hero Antagonist out to stop the Villain Protagonist Waluigi.
- The Psycho Iris fight is very reminiscent of Kirby's final bosses, which are infamous for being significantly darker than you’d expect from a Nintendo game and for having a Giant Eye of Doom.
- Gimmick Level: Every stage, usually in the form of a level-unique task, hazard, or other gameplay mechanic.
- The Goomba: Goomlet.
- Goomba Stomp: Waluigi can do this, as expected.
- Gravity Screw: Falling Sky Kingdom.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: When Waluigi returns to the Mushroom Kingdom, he tries to tell Wario about his adventures, but Wario doesn't believe him. Well, less "disbelieving" than plain not caring and getting bored to sleep (thanks to the former's story delivery).
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Your standard attack is to pick people up and throw them at other people.
- Hell Is That Noise: The first final boss theme
, “Iris In My Mind”. Never has Waluigi laughing sounded creepier. - HP to One: In the area before the battle with Psycho Iris. Waluigi heals himself before long, though.
- Invincibility Power-Up: With a twist — the Ragin' Rainbow Stars are harmful to you, so you need to grab it with your psychic powers and use Mind Control to become invincible. Continuing the twist, the enemies themselves are invincible to everything except mind control, and being invincible yourself.
- Jump Scare: The Face (an MFGG In-Joke) makes a cameo appearance in Static Void Kingdom.
- Meaningful Echo: Psycho Iris, when trapping Waluigi inside his own mind, tells him that being trapped will not be so bad — "After all, this is your mind. Anything you think up will become reality..." When Waluigi recalls this a little later, he decide to conjure up his own Mind Control cloud to replace Iris and defeat him.
- Meaningful Name: Blind Eye Kingdom was built primarily to seal away Psycho Iris, thus blinding him.
- Mind Control: In a manner reminiscent of Kirby, Waluigi can use the Mark of Psycho Iris to pick up minions with special powers and use their skills against the other enemies. This can turn
Goddamned Bats like the Frolruses into weapons of mass destruction. - Mind Screw: The Static Void Kingdom.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The Home Hardware Kingdom, which is just a hardware store with "kingdom" in the name. Waluigi wants to conquer it anyway.
- Nobody Can Die: At least, not in Unconica, according to Psycho Iris.
- Our Founder: Most post-boss level cutscenes involve Waluigi spreading statues of himself over the kingdoms he's conquered. At the end of the game, it's revealed that a statue was erected in honor of Waluigi defeating Psycho Iris and saving Unconcia.
- Power-Up Food: Waluigi can collect eggplants to attract Eyeflies.
- Punny Name: The Rest Ruin Kingdom, which is a restroom with the appearance of Ruins for Ruins' Sake.
- Rainbow Speak: How the NPCs talk.
- Reality Is Out to Lunch: In Static Void Kingdom.
- Recurring Riff: The Waluigi Pinball theme gets remixed a few times throughout the game.
- Recursive Reality: Subverted. In the ending, it initially looks like Waluigi would be forced to create another Unconcia-like world inside his own mind. However, he breaks out of Psycho Iris's control.
- Slouch of Villainy: The goal of every level is to reach the kings and take over their thrones.
- Sugar Bowl: Amusingly, the penultimate level, Blind Eye Kingdom, is one of these, despite being being set up as a dark and spooky place and being smack in the center of the Mordor-like World 6. Made even better by Psycho Iris' apprehension about the stage, his horror story about his first defeat there, and his terrified Screw This, I'm Outta Here once you finally reach it.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: Waluigi can stay underwater without having to come up for air
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Played with twice.
- Psycho Iris constantly tries to put Waluigi's mind at ease that he has no plans to betray him when he is free. He's telling the truth. He wants to join forces with Waluigi to make the most of their combined power. Then he eventually ends up having a different plan for the conquered Unconcia than Waluigi does — destroy it. And he winds up locking Waluigi up in his mind when he is knocked unconscious.
- After buying the Gold Crown from the shop, it's replaced with a $10,000 "Commemorative Coin" that the owner insists is not a scam. It really isn't. The coin shows up on the screen after completing a level. You can get several more as well, each with a unique design.
- Take Over the World: The goal of the game is to conquer Unconcia.
- Timed Mission: Each level has a time limit of 400 seconds.
- Title Drop: "Now, you and I have truly become one... from this day forward, we shall be known and feared as Psycho Waluigi!"
- Also done during the ending for comedic effect while Waluigi and Wario are talking. "Psycho... Psycho... Psycho..." "WALUIGI! WALUIGI! WALUIGI!"
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Occasionally, Waluigi will commandeer a tank or airplane from the Hazelnauts, leading to shooter segments with unique controls. Also, the world 0 stages have you take control of a mook, giving you unlimited access to that particular species' power.
- Verbal Tic: Iris does this whenever he's talking at length, Blah, Blah, Blah yadda yadda yadda etc etc...
- Victory Is Boring: Discussed. Once Psycho Iris reveals his true intentions, he explains to Waluigi that he'd rather have Unconcia destroyed than have to deal with all that comes with ruling it (bureaucracy and so forth). He does initially relent, hoping that Waluigi will eventually snap from boredom. Then Hazel attacks them and Waluigi gets knocked out, allowing Psycho Iris to take over his body.
- Villain Protagonist: Waluigi, of course.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After being defeated by Waluigi, Psycho Iris's final fate is left unknown. On the MFGG forum,
Thunder Dragon provided the explanation that he is now trapped inside Waluigi's head and remains unseen, outside of the occasional freak signal. But then, they went on to state that they could be wrong or lying. - You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted. After Waluigi frees Psycho Iris, the latter says he's going to destroy the former. Psycho Iris then admits he's just telling Waluigi what he expected to hear.
