Luigi’s Mansion (2001)
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Luigi’s Mansion Game Review
Luigi’s Mansion is a 2001 action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is one of the most underrated games out there.
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“M-M-Mariiiio?“
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When this game was first released, it was not well received due to people wanting a proper Mario game to be the first game on this console. Nowadays, it continues to be criticized for its supposed short length. Both of these criticisms are ridiculous, making the game rather mistreated by the critics, but thankfully not the fans who know it’s amazing, such as I do.
Luigi is fooled into thinking that he won a mansion, which is amusingly ridiculous as he never participated in any contest. Once he arrives, he realizes that the mansion is haunted and that Mario has disappeared. He is on a quest to save his brother through the use of an excellent ghost sucking device. Interestingly enough, Luigi’s Mansion has a much richer and more engaging storyline than any previous core Mario game. It’s not terribly complex, but it’s the type of script that would be perfect in an animated feature format. It’s a shame then that the developers did not include more cutscenes as this type of story would be perfect for that longer cutscenes treatment.
Another highlight is the characterization. Professor E. Gadd is this helpful, but goofy sidekick scientist while bringing back Bowser for the final boss fight was an ingenious idea as it wonderfully connected this series to the mainstream Super Mario franchise. Mario is only present here in a couple of scenes. The brotherly bond was sweet and Mario being made fun for his low intelligence was hilarious throughout.
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But the standout is obviously Luigi himself. This game did not only give more time to shine to Mario’s less popular brother, but it also deepened his character by giving him a distinct personality and cute mannerisms. He is so believably realized in fact that it’s difficult not to fall in love with him. When he gets scared, he starts singing nervously and calling Mario in full-on panic mode. Both occurrences were so endearing that they never got old despite being repeated constantly. Luigi’s just so likable and so relatable and he is the highlight of the entire game.
Luigi’s Mansion plays entirely differently than the regular Mario game. In fact, it isn’t even a platformer. It’s an action-adventure game that focuses extensively on exploration and that was its biggest asset. The splitting of the game into these four stages wasn’t really necessary as it is basically an early open world game, so there was no need for this structuring decision, but that’s a small nitpick of mine. The gameplay consists of you as Luigi exploring the mansion, clearing each room one at a time, hunting down all the ghosts in the room, beating a boss and then requiring a key that will be used on another room in the mansion. Some have accused this structure of getting stale and/or repetitive, but I disagree wholeheartedly. The game is so varied in each room’s challenge and ghosts that the end result was never at all repetitious, but actually rather diverse and consistently engaging to play.
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The professor gives you the Poltergust 3000, which is this highly specialized vacuum cleaner. Its usage is very difficult at the beginning and highly strange, but when you get used to it, it becomes a blast to play. Basically, you first have to light the ghosts with the flashlight, effectively stunning them and revealing their heart. This is the point when the sucking up begins, but this can be a long process as it requires you to gradually reduce the ghost’s health to zero. When it comes to regular sucking, this is the most basic explanation you may need, but the game is rather complex, so playing it through will make you learn more new things in the process.
Speaking of complexities, this vacuuming process is a perfect example of the game’s highly engaging variations in gameplay and scenarios. First off, there are these portrait ghosts that have to be caught, but you can only hunt them down by first fulfilling a certain objective in the room. Most importantly, the latter half of the story introduces the elements into the proceedings, meaning that you would first need to freeze a fire ghost for instance before sucking it up.
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The Game Boy Horror (an obvious riff on Game Boy Color) functions as a map that lets you see where the rooms are on each floor and also the treasure that you’ve collected. The treasure is just there for numbering purposes. It’s an arcade relic of chasing the highest score possible and it’s well implemented, but just not at all important to the overall campaign. The potions are also obviously in line with Mario’s games, but they felt like an unnecessary afterthought here.
There is one aspect to the game that I just adored and that is the side quest of hunting down Boos. They are these special ghosts that you can hunt down on your own if you wish. Being a completionist myself, I decided to track them all down and suck them up. The result was wildly entertaining, if a bit repetitive in the final couple of Boos. They are so much fun to catch as they are rather demanding at times. Not only do some of them have huge stamina, but most will actually run away through the wall, forcing you to go after them in a nearby room. But the aforementioned device beeps whenever one is in your vicinity and that made catching all fifty Boos not too difficult. This side activity was so great that I wish the developers included some more side quests as the game sorely needed them.
Luigi’s Mansion does get bogged down by backtracking in its last section that requires you to constantly go back to the basement and then up to the last floor. However, that also gave me the opportunity to explore and finish up the side quests and all the collecting that I’d forgotten before. The game is in my opinion not short at all despite so many people categorizing it as such. I may have gotten lost too many times, but regardless I got many hours out of this wonderful game and I loved every second of it once I got used to it as it does require a lot of patience with its gameplay mechanics and especially the controls.
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The bosses are pretty straightforward here, though mostly stupendously executed in level design and mechanics required to beat them. The game was at its best and hardest when it continued to throw countless ghosts at you. In those instances, sucking them up all at once instead of one at a time was the best option. The stories behind each ghost’s demise were surprisingly mature and dark for a family-friendly game – just witnessing the ghost baby gave me chills.
Graphically speaking, Luigi’s Mansion is by far one of the best-looking games of 2001. It aged so beautifully in fact that it is still rather polished and not all that dated, which is a huge feat given how many of the games from this era have aged poorly. This is because the game is in 3D, but confined in its setting and very poorly lit, which was fitting for the horror atmosphere and it truly is one of the creepiest Nintendo games, but it led to the game still looking excellent even today.
The art direction was gorgeous and the rooms are all so well designed and unique in their own right. The character designs of the ghosts and Luigi are incredibly detailed and fluid while the attention to detail in every room was so amazing that it led to a world that felt truly alive. You can interact with so many things in each room and everything is moving on its own. The dust is everywhere, which made this mansion both believable and very different from other houses in games.
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The score is also incredible. The main theme is repeated throughout the game, but it’s such an excellent, fittingly eerie and gorgeously composed theme that I didn’t mind that it was present in so many parts of the story. And so many iterations of the theme were included here with Luigi even humming it awkwardly while being scared. Those little touches made the game utterly charming and truly alive.
