The Ghostbuster (Luigi's Mansion (GC))

Member Name: 3rd Rock Satan

Product:	Luigi's Mansion (GC)
Date:	07/05/02 (350 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Graphics are great, Fun to play

Disadvantages: Repitive, Short

With every new Nintendo console launch there?s a new Mario game. Except this one. While gamers wait eagerly for the release of Super Mario Sunshine Nintendo have decided to let the lankier, greener Luigi have his very own game to star in. Luigi?s Mansion lets you control Luigi as he goes searching for his brother Mario inside a haunted house that he mysteriously won for no apparent reason.

You start the game armed with only a flashlight as Luigi cautiously pads around the mansion?s foyer. After you have explored a bit you see an orange glow which drops a key. Picking up the key and using it you enter a room where a ghost suddenly appears and a strange little man with little hair and little teeth appears armed with a vacuum cleaner to try and suck the ghost up, failing to you follow him to his little workplace.

This fellow, Professor E. Gadd (there?s a joke in there), explains to you that the mansion is overrun with ghosts and its up to Luigi to try and rid them from the mansion (and also to save Mario) by sucking them up in the ?Poltergust 3000? a vacuum cleaner that can suck ghosts up. Of course its not quite that simple as ghosts will need to be stunned by the torch first then they will freeze for a moment for Luigi to suck up using the Poltergust. This is achieved by moving the control joystick the opposite direction to pull the ghost in and also moving the C button around to force the ghost into the vacuum instead of it pulling away. The more you pull the more energy is sapped from the ghost until it reaches 0 and goes into your vacuum. It does sound complicated and it does get some getting used to which is why a Training Room is provided for beginners. However once you get the hang of it it?ll become easy to master and the Nintendo controller suits the game perfectly.

The overall structure of the game is simple. There are different levels to the game (which corresponds to each floor of the house) each level consists of no
rmal ghosts, portrait ghosts and a boss. Normal ghosts can be sucked up easily into the vacuum and appear in any room that?s dark. They come in various forms, some are bog standard ghosts that just require a quick stun n? suck, others may try to grab you and others wear masks that must be sucked off before you can stun them. As well as this some ghosts are immune to light until you can get to their hearts with various elements, namely fire, water and ice. For example some ghosts need their hearts frozen before they are vulnerable to light. Portrait ghosts are like mini-bosses and more often then not require some thinking before they can be sucked up and returned to their portrait form by the Professor. For example one such ghost is brushing her hair in the mirror and she wont reveal her heart until you blow a curtain to let some draft through, she will then get up and her heart is revealed. These ghosts will have higher levels of energy than normal ones and therefore more time is needed in sucking them up. Finally there are the bosses. There are 3 main bosses, one for each level, then the final boss ?King Boo?. Bosses, again, require some thinking in order to defeat them but usually this is pretty clear-cut as to how to do so.

As well as these three types of ghosts there are also the Boos. These troublesome ghosts are the ones that have captured Mario. Luigi must collect as many Boos as possible to progress through the game (40 out of the 50 must be collected to get to the final level). Boos don?t appear like other ghosts. They hide in rooms that are cleared of ghosts and in drawers, chests and other things to avoid the light as every time a room is cleared the lights will come on and a chest appears. The chest may contain some money, gems, keys to other rooms or other objects.

So that is the structure of the game. Enter room, suck up ghosts, open chest, search for Boos and anything else that crops up along the way. This can f
eel fairly linear and may get tiresome doing the same thing over again which is a disadvantage of the game, yet the feeling is kept fresh with some amazing visuals and neat little touches. But although the path is linear the game sometimes gives you very little clue as to what goal you?re heading towards. You can seemingly go to every room in the house that you can time and time again and not know what to do. Although this happens rarely (and is more often than not just a case of capturing enough Boos) it can prove quite frustrating if you are wandering around with no clue as to what you?re supposed to be doing.

The graphics on this game are excellent as well as the numerous effects. It has been argued by some people that this game is little more than a showcase to reveal just what the GameCube can do and if it is then who?s going to complain? The mansion itself is well drawn to a cartoon horror effect. Each room is different from the last to keep repetitiveness in the graphics department down. The lighting effects are amazing. When you enter a dark room and a ghost pops up its great to see the shadows it creates around itself. Other little touches include the swaying of objects when Luigi blows his vacuum on them, little puffs of smoke that appear when he walks along on the floor, the water and fire effects are also well done (though obviously the water effects aren?t quite as good as Waverace).

The sound is also masterfully done. The music is great and sets the scene well; Luigi even hums along to it as he is walking around the mansion. The sound effects are great, from the ghost?s wails to the sucking of the vacuum and to the lighting that echoes around the mansion. Also pressing the A button when the flashlight off causes Luigi to call out for his brother but his calls become ever more desperate as his health decreases.

Other nice touches to the game include the GameBoy Horror. This portable device serves a number of f
unctions. One is to provide a map to the mansion, which is quite easy to make out and follow. Another is to show what ghosts you have captured, what objects you are carrying and how much money you have. The more money you have the higher grade score you will get when you finish the game. Money is earned by either sucking up ghosts or hidden in chests, chandeliers and even plants. Another use of the GBH is the track down Boos with its signal turning from blue, to yellow to red to show how close you are. Little in jokes are also dotted around the game. In one room you can play instruments to do a nice rendition of the Mario theme tune. Also well-known characters such as Toad pop up. Toad is also used as a save game point (as well as when you suck up a Boo or complete a Boss) you can reach Toad in a number of different places which makes saving quite easy to do and leaves out the problem of making them too far apart that you have to keep repeating tricky spots. The only slight annoyance is the fact you always start in the Foyer from a save point.

All in all this is a successful launch game from Nintendo that shows the GameCube at its best. The graphics are excellent and make up for the slightly repetitive game play. The control system, while hard at first, its relatively easy to master. The game though, as many people have observed, is quite short. The game took me a few days to complete but this was because of on and off game playing times and the fact I had three other launch games to play with. I would say that a hardened game player playing it non-stop could easily have this done in a day. Yet to do so would miss the point. This is a game to be played at leisure and to be marvelled at while you take you?re time to see everything it has to offer. So no this isn?t a masterpiece, and arguably it was never designed to be, but its still one hell of a great game.

(Memory Blocks Used: 3)

LUIGI?S MANSION IS

Great to l
ook at
Varied in graphical style
The words first suck em? up

LUIGI?S MANSION IS NOT

Short
Varied in game play
A game that sucks badly

Summary: