Luigi's Mansion is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube, and was a launch title for the system in 2001. The game of course stars Luigi, and takes place inside a haunted mansion where you must capture ghosts and rescue Luigi's older brother, Mario. Seems like when Mario isn't doing the rescuing he's getting himself kidnapped. Oh well, grab your proton packs – I mean, Poltergust 3000, and follow me. We have ghost busting to do.
We kick things off with Luigi coming to his new mansion. He won the mansion in a contest that he never entered, so I'm sure there's nothing suspicious going on. Here is where we get our early feel for the gameplay and to familiarize ourselves with the controls. The game takes some cues from Resident Evil, a sequence playing whenever you open doors, almost every room in the house starting out as locked, the requirement for keys, and it takes forever to turn around.
Once you meet up with Professor E. Gadd (who sounds like an Ewok for some reason), that's when the Ghostbusters inspiration really starts to shrine. The Poltergust 3000 sucks up ghosts in a similar manner as the proton packs from Ghostbusters, and you put them into a machine just like they did in the movie, only the machine is for converting them back into paintings. An old scientist ran around the world catching ghosts and trapping them in a 2D space to hang on his wall for all eternity. Are we sure Professor Gadd isn't the villain here?
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Put your back into it, Luigi!
Now the real ghost nabbing begins. Luigi's Mansion makes use of a flashlight to momentarily stun a ghost so you can use the Poltergust 3000 to suck them up. Each ghost has a set health that goes down the longer the vacuum is running. Ghosts range from the standard yellow like we see here, to ghosts that charge you, grab you, drop banana peals on the ground, and hangs upside down. Then we have mice ghosts, bat ghosts, portrait ghosts from Gadd's gallery that escape, and Boo. That isn't me trying to scare you, there really is a reoccurring ghost in Mario that's called Boo.
Portrait ghosts and Boos are the hardest ghosts to get. With the portrait ghosts you have to wait for them to reveal their heart (see above) before you can suck them up. With Boos, you have to clear a room for the lights to come on and then use the Game Boy Horror to track it down. Unlike the rest of the ghosts, Boos can leave a room and you'll have to chase it around the mansion if you want to catch it. Don't worry too much if you lose it, since you can always just find it at a later date and their health won't go back up or anything. There are fifty Boos you can catch overall for a perfect game, but you only need to capture forty in order to progress.
There are four areas in the mansion overall, with each area ending in a boss fight. I was able to beat the game in two days, so it isn't that long, but it makes up for its short length with a new game plus, and unlocking a hidden mansion that's more challenging. It's the same mansion F.Y.I., just that the ghosts are tougher and so is your Poltergust.
If you're looking for a challenge, then I regret to inform you Luigi's Mansion isn't that hard. The only things that gave me trouble were the Boolossus and King Boo bosses. Boolossus only because once you break him down to smaller Boos they move faster than Luigi. The first two bosses were pretty easy, and the rest of the ghosts aren't that challenging unless you're surrounded by a bunch of them, but even then you'll get it eventually.
After you complete each area Luigi returns to the lab to turn the ghosts he caught back into paintings and tally up your score. From there you can choose to go back to the mansion, train, or view the ghosts you caught in the art gallery.
Luigi can tap or vacuum multiple objects in various rooms to collect hearts, and money. Using the Game Boy Horror you can even find a piece of cheese that when activated will summon a ghost mouse that you can suck up to get a lot of money. When you get your hands on elements, you can even collect more money by watering plants. This is also how you find objects belonging to Mario to help you track him down. Needless to say, it pays to explore.
Conclusion: Luigi's Mansion is a fun game that wouldn't make a bad survival horror for children. If you like Luigi and ghost busting, then you may very well enjoy this game.
Get it.
