Luigi's Mansion
Reviewed by James Wardle
The european line-up for the Nintendo Gamecube was
quite amazing. Star Wars, Super Monkey ball, Luigi's
Mansion, Sonic Adventure II and other good games. The
downer for the launch is the absence of Pikmin and
Super Smash Bros: Melee. However, Luigi's Mansion and
Super Monkey Ball are the only games I need at the moment.
Now the two games I got are very, very original. The
one you are reading about is Luigi's Mansion. The
game feels like a cute version of Resident Evil, and
a fun version of Casper for Playstation. The idea is
one mansion... ghosts instead of Zombie's... A
Vacume-Cleaner style machine instead of a shotgun and
an electrician instead of S.T.A.R.S. officers make
this game hard to miss.
Moments from starting the game, you will begin to
love Luigi's mansion. The load-up time takes less
then five seconds to get to the "Press Start" menu.
In the introduction, we see how much we love all love
our little green man when he is walking through the
woods looking at a map.
The story is about Luigi winning a contest he never
entered, and he won a mansion. Luigi tells Mario to
meet him at the mansion, but when Luigi gets there,
his porky brother, Mario is nowhere to be seen (For
once... It is usually Mario who stars). Luigi picks
up enough of his courage to enter the mansion. After
a certain amount of time, Luigi gets scared when a
key floats in the aair, all by itself. Luigi picks up
the key and enters a door and inside it is an old
geezer chasing a ghost around a room with a vacume
cleaner. The old man turns out to be a proffessor who
works with ghostd. Hre gives Luigi some quick journy
and tells our infamous hero to run along and rescue
his brother, Mario!
Controlling the vacume cleaner devise is a task
itself, no matter how much training you have at
first. You will get used to it, however, it is not
the ideal control system that I expected a few months
ago. You see, Luigi moves with the grey movement
stick. You position your torch/vacume with the yellow
stick, press A to turn the toch on and off, and the R
shoulder button to turn the vacume cleaner on. Then
we have the Gameboy Advance- I mean, Gameboy Horror
which shows the map of the mansion, shows where which
key goes where and also acts as a first person
camera. These are very good features, I must admit
but you have to use just about all of these skills
just to get one ghost.
Each room in the mansion contains a puzzle. Usually
it is just getting rid of the ghosts in a room and
get the key, but there is more to it then that, for
example in the study, there is a hidden ghost who
enjoys reading books, and will not be sucked up
easily, you have to catch him off-guard by waiting
for him to yawn, then strike. There are many ghosts
like this which takes a bit of thinking to beat the
game. That is the fun in it in my opinion.
Miyamoto, the creator of Mario did a fantastic job on
showing the ammount of detail the Nintendo Gamecube
can pull off. As soon as you go in to the main
hallway of the mansion, you won't believe your eyes.
The cold air that Luigi breathes out, the animation
when Luigi hoovers up a tablecloth, the blowing
movements of a curtain in the wind and the detail on
everything really. There is no limit to what Luigi
can do, like search drawes, put out lights, read
books for clues, spin around in the ballroom and even
cry out Mario's name in a cute and scared-like voice.
Poor Luigi, I hope he knows what he is letting
himself in for.
Like most Mario (hmm... this is a Luigi game...)
game's, there are many bosses for you to take care
off, and because Mario is not in the title does not
mean this game is an exception. Luigi will encounter
only a handful of bosses, but they are fun to fight
and patterns change over-time. Finding out for to
defeat the bosses is both fun and rewarding!
My only complaint in this game is the lack of music.
The lack of music is there to create an atmosphere,
and the sound effects like thunder, lightning and
groans match that of Resident Evil... though it does
give you a bit of a jump. the music that is there is
good, and proves that Mario music is not cute, it
shows how well it is done in a certain enviroment.
One or two music pieces are cute though, for example
the save theme (which is also Toad's theme tune).
Many say that Luigi's mansion will only last a couple
of hours as it is so easy. As a gamer who like's his
games to last, it is best to take your time on
Luigi's Mansion, enjoy it, explore everything like
you would on Shenmue, experiment with everything and
have fun. Even if you manage to beat it within days
of buying it, you will never regret going back for
"one more go!".
Good
- Luigi has his first starring role since Mario is Missing
- A unique, original, gorund-breaking idea
- All the fun you need
- The detail in the game is amazing
Bad
- On the short side
- Lack of Music
- Why Luigi and not Wario? Only kidding, Luigi is fanatastic!
Alternatives: Resident Evil, The Resident Evil remake, Casper
for Playstation and even Mario is Missing...
Graphics - 10/10
Music - 5/10
Sound - 8/10
Story - 9/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Challenge - 4/10
Ideas - 10/10
Lifespan - 8/10
Enjoyment - 10/10
Overall - 8/10