Someone made the Waluigi's Taco Stand 64 meme into a real game
Mouth wah-tering.
If there are three guarantees in life, it's death, taxes, and the internet's enduring obsession with Waluigi.
For over a decade, the internet has circulated a meme about a mythical lost Nintendo game for the N64 called Waluigi's Taco Stand. Like all memes, it's hard to say exactly who started it, but the internet seems to agree it originated from the GameFAQs forums around 2002.
This week, the ancient meme resurfaced when ROM hacker Kaze Emanuar posted a video of a "lost N64 commerical" for Waluigi's Taco Stand. Several commenters claimed it looked just like an authentic N64 advert from the 90s. Having been too young to remember this myself, I sought confirmation by sending the video to our News Editor Tom Phillips for a second opinion. He said it did look authentic, based on other videos he had seen "on the Youtube". Sure thing, Tom.
The advert Kaze created was impressive enough, but the meme didn't stop there, as he posted another video showing a cartridge version of Waluigi's Taco Stand. Complete with a box, stickers and an instruction manual, it's an incredible replication of an N64 game's packaging. In the video, Kaze even boots up the game on an N64 and plays it for a few minutes.
Looking at the music, font and save select screen, the game itself is likely a Super Mario 64 ROM hack. Digital Foundry's Tom Morgan viewed the gameplay and described it as "a bit of a mess," with "lots of flickering textures and weird walking animations" - but he was nonetheless intrigued by the attempt and was particularly impressed by the cartridge stickers. It's clearly convincing enough to have fooled a number of people (such as this very angry person on Twitter). Waluigi's Taco Stand truly is the meme that keeps on giving.
If you consider yourself the ultimate Waluigi fan, you can own this very special N64 game for yourself, as the cartridge and packaging is being sold on German eBay. The current top bid is a hefty €281 (£251.39), so you'll have to part with a number of gold coins to take home this classic-that-never-was.
If you want to try out the digital version of the game, Kaze has left a download link the video's description on YouTube. It may help satisfy your cravings for a Waluigi game, given Nintendo won't even include the leggy lad in Smash Bros. What a wah-nderful creation.