New Super Luigi U is a 2D side-scrolling platform video game in the Super Mario series developed by Nintendo for the Wii U. The game was first released in June 2013 as an expansion pack for New Super Mario Bros. U, purchasable as downloadable content. It was later released as both a separate stand-alone game, and bundled with later physical copies of the base game. In New Super Luigi U, Luigi is made the central protagonist and Mario is omitted as a playable character, replaced with Nabbit, a non-playable character from NSMBU. All levels are replaced with shorter, more challenging versions. Barring other various differences, the general gameplay is identical to that in NSMBU.