Introduction
Portrayed as only a game to fill the gap in the wait for the next true Mario game, Luigi’s Mansion pits you as Luigi. A frightened little plumber who never plumbs, yet has one a mansion. Mario has already made it to the mansion, and once you, Luigi, arrives, you realize that Mario has been kidnapped. Pulled away from the mansion, a professor hands you the Poltergust3000! that will help you out through the mansion. In an attempt to find your brother and clear the mansion, the struggle begins...Presentation
One of the coolest things about Luigi’s Mansion, is the GameBoy Horror. Used as most of your menus, it tracks your items and carries a map. Through it you can find places you’ve been, locked doors, and other things. Also, it is used as a first person view to investiage objects, and give clues. Oddly, this view is hardly ever used and pretty much pointless in the end.The look and feel of the game is great, and nothing really stands out, but nothing really detracts from the game either. With such simple gameplay, there isn’t much to keep track of anyway. As well, even the money you’ll notice you collect is pretty much pointless as of late.
The controller seems to fit perfectly with this game. With the left control stick, you control Luigi. With the right C-Stick, you control your flashlight and vacuum. Very simple control. You never have to look down, and the ease of use is amazing. I caught on very quickly.
Two control setups are available for use during the game. Standard and Sidestep. In the Luigi’s Mansion manual, Sidestep is said to be used for more advanced users. After completing the game, I went back to try sidestep. Because the C-stick is used to change direction, to me this setup is much more difficult. Keeping your flashlight off to attract ghosts, isn’t very easy, because its hard to use both the ’B’ button (used for the flashlight) and the C-stick to control its position. When using standard, control is great. For sidestep, unless I’m just getting it wrong, its just too hard. Overall, the presentation is great and the control just the same. Few flaws.
Graphics & Sound
The visuals for this game are awesome. A very unique look topped with lighting effects brings this game some of the best visuals I’ve ever seen on a game of this type. All in all, the visuals have a nice sense running with them. The environment itself that you move through isn’t near-perfect or anything, and consists of noticable blocks. No doubt, however, that this may have been the intentions of master-designer Shigeru Miyamoto, in an attempt to set the cartoony setting of the game in an eerie mansion. A flash of lightning through one of the few windows in this mansion, and everything lights up with remarkable shadows.
The vacuum cleaner has wonderous effects on the environment. Pulling cloths and dust from wherever, there’s always motion happening somewhere. The dust particles constantly fill the air as the years and years of dust gather within this mansion.
The flashlight has nice lighting effects on the surroundings and on anything. As we’re moving into the next generation of gaming, its not even easy to compare this to anything. From what true light should be, the flashlight does put out a very distinct cone, but from what I’ve seen, the lighthing from the flashlight are brilliant, and once again, the years of dust float around in the spectrum of the light as well as Luigi’s hot breath filling the air.
All in all, the more blocky areas take away from the fantastic physics in this game, but basically still puts this game on top. Not one of the best ever, but very noteworthy.
The sound is another thing. One thing that is at first easily noticable, is the lack of sound in this game, or moreso music. As you walk through the halls there is little music. The only sounds heard are coming from Luigi whistling the theme of well... Luigi’s Mansion. And nothing is more funny than listening to Luigi yell for his helpless brother, over and over, with the continuous pressing of the ’A’ button.
There’s much more sound in an attempt to catch a fleeing ghost, as the second the player starts sucking them up, they try to escape wildly making huge noise.
To me, the sound fitted perfect with this game, especially since it is aimed at a more broad audience. As many are well aware, the only thing that truly makes a game scary is the setting and the music. If this game had the music like Resident Evil pulls off, I would have been just as scared when that pink crying baby through rocking horses at me than when a zombie tried to eat my face, trust me.
Gameplay
Simple. This game is all about sucking up ghosts. Moving from room to room, find more ghosts, suck mores ghosts up. That’s really all there is to it. With simple puzzles that are barely noticable, many times stumbling into the answer on accident, without having to investigate at all, this game is perfect to showcase the GameCube’s controller setup. This can get repetitive, but it does keep you coming back for more to finish the darn thing. Someone could easily sit down and finish it in a few hours, but all in all this game is short and sweet. Use your flashlight to freeze ghosts momentarily, quickly suck them up, and move on to do the same thing. With the occasional boss, VERY occasional, there are short puzzles, and until you have lit up the room (once you complete what was meant for that room, it is lit up), ghosts keep coming back to be sucked up.
Lasting Appeal
A very solid and linear story, do one thing and move on the next. Its very straightforward. Once you do one thing, you move on to the next thing that was just unlocked. Totalling about maybe 6-8 hours of my time, this game is very short, something that would easily be noticed once you beat it. After you beat it, a new "Hidden Mansion" is unlocked. I’m not quite sure at this point what this mansion is, because I haven’t played too much of it. It may add some more playtime, but you can only suck up ghosts for so long before it gets rather old.
Conclusion
Basically, as I have said, this game is one to show the GameCube’s controller, and isn’t really meant as much. Its perfect as a starter to give people a glimpse into what the machine can pull off. The first time through, this game is fun and exciting, and the ghosts are fun to rid the mansion of. But once this is over, its hard to come back right away to play again. All in all, a great showcase piece, but hardly anything to go ga-ga over. My opinion, get it. It’s a great game, and deserves to be a part of everyone’s game collection.
~ EAGLE ~
THANK YOU IGN FOR THE SCREENSHOTS
