Who Ya Gonna Call? Luigi!

When Nintendo first unveiled the GameCube, everyone, including myself, assumed that a new Mario game would launch with it. This has been Nintendo's standard MO since the NES era, after all. However, as the GC launch drew closer and closer, it was revealed that no new Mario game would be available at launch. Instead, a game featuring Luigi was made.

The resulting game, Luigi's Mansion (LM), featured Luigi trying to rescue his brother from a haunted mansion. It seems that Mario won a mansion in a contest, but he disappeared when he went to collect his prize. This, of course,  prompted Luigi to come looking for him. It turns out the mansion is haunted by ghosts, and they have captured Mario! Along the way, Luigi runs into Professor E. Gadd, who equips him with all the latest gear that he will need to rescue his brother. These include a flashlight to stun ghosts with, a vacuum ( cunningly dubbed the "Poltergust 2000"), and a GameBoy Horror that acts as a radar, map, and walkie-talkie.

Graphically, LM is quite impressive. This game started as a tech demo, but was later developed into a full game. The emphasis of the graphics is on the particle effects, making the translucent ghosts, fire, water, ice, dust, and other assorted effects look amazingly life-like. The characters all look very nice, with a high polygon count and colorful textures. The only downside to this game's graphics are that the backgrounds often look plain or even ugly. This is because the textures used in the background are of a sufficiently low resolution to make pixilation obvious in many locations.

The sound of LM is respectably well done, although it pales in comparisons to games such as Rogue Leader. The music, especially the theme song, is very catchy, although it isn't at CD quality. The sound effects are well done, giving a great sense of atmosphere to the game. The real stand-out feature of LM's sound is Luigi's voice sampling. The player can press a button to call for Mario, and Luigi has at least half a dozen different ways of calling for him. All of them are quite humorous.  Another neat touch is that as the player is moving along a dark corridor, Luigi will nervously begin humming along to the background music. Overall, the sound of LM is passable, but with the exception of Luigi's vocal exclamations not much stands out about it.

Controlling LM takes a little bit of getting used to. When the vacuum is engaged, both analog sticks are brought into play to control the angle of the nozzle and to rotate Luigi clockwise or counter-clockwise. This requires a bit of coordination, although not as much as Resident Evil's control scheme does. So, there is a bit of a learning curve to LM as far as the controls are concerned, but it isn't too steep.

The gameplay of LM feels quite fresh. Essentially, Luigi spends the game doing his best Ghostbuster impression. Using his flashlight and vacuum, Luigi must stun and then suck up a number of ghosts. Some ghosts also require that certain puzzles be solved before they can be caught. However, catching this crafty spirits will allow the player to gain access to new areas of the mansion. One feature of LM that strikes the player almost immediately is how much of the game's world can be influenced by the vacuum. Luigi can rattle drawers or suck in drapes and table cloths for example. Also, the vacuum can suck in fire and ice elementals and then expel them. This becomes an essential element to completing puzzles later in the game. The gameplay consists of catching "boss" ghosts until the final boss is reached. While this can get old after a while,  LM is a fairly short game, lasting an average of 10 hours the first time through. Therefore, just as the game begins to get too repetitive, it ends.

Overall, LM is a fun and enjoyable game with a lot to like about it. The visual effects are superb, the gameplay is fresh and interesting, and Luigi's vocalizations are quite entertaining. However, this game is short, and the control scheme is difficult for new players to pick up right off the bat. I feel this game tends to get a lot of bad press simply because it isn't the new Mario platformer that everyone was expecting out of the GC launch. However, on its own merits, LM is a fun game that deserves at least a rental, although because of it's length I can't recommend buying this game unless you are a real Luigi fanatic or a die-hard Nintendo fan.

By Andy Rucker