Luigi's Mansion

aka: Luigi Mansion
Moby ID: 5501
GameCube Specs
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Description official descriptions

Luigi's Mansion pits you as Luigi, Mario's forgotten brother.

Luigi, while checking his mail, found out he won a mansion in a contest. What's weird, is he never entered any contest to begin with. Being the curious person he is, he calls up his brother, Mario, and asks to meet him at the house.

Luigi sets forth through a dark and scary jungle to find the house, but sees that Mario is nowhere to be found. Puzzled, Luigi enters the mansion, only to encounter ghosts. He meets up with a scientist, Professor E. Gadd, who explains the situation and hands over the Poltergust 3000. Luigi must now make his way through the mansion's many rooms, sucking up as many ghosts as he can.

As you explore, you must solve mysteries, collect cash/gems/jewels/coins, and encounter boss characters. Luigi's vacuum has the ability to suck up ghosts that have inhabited this strange mansion. However, the ghosts will not give up so easily. You must struggle with them and pull them back to catch your prey with your trusty vacuum. As you continue to your goal, you must face off with the deceased denizens of the house and the boos that haunt it, and unlock new rooms with the keys you find along the way. You can also gain special abilities for your vacuum, such as the ability to shoot fire, water, or ice. Remember though, treasure is scattered everywhere. Check all the objects for coins and paper money, and who knows, you may just make enough money for Luigi to buy a mansion of his own...

As you explore the strange mansion, the plot slowly unravels and it becomes apparent that something more sinister is going on in that haunted house. Will you ever see your lost brother Mario again?

The 3DS version has some difference from the Gamecube original. Changes include coins lasting longer before disappearing after being hit, the addition of local co-op with another player being able to control a character named Gooigi, a new control option that allows the use of the Strobulb flashlight from Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon , an achievement list, and a boss rush mode, among other tweaks. The 3DS version Hidden Mansion follows the adjustments made in the Gamecube's PAL version

Spellings

  • ルイージマンション - Japanese spelling

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Credits (GameCube version)

93 People (92 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 62 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 83 ratings with 7 reviews)

Who Ya Gonna Call? LUIGI!

The Good
Luigi's Mansion finally allows Mario's little brother to step into the hero role and rescue his brother from evil ghosts, who have hidden inside a giant mansion. Luigi must rid the mansion of ghosts, stop the evil Boos who have escaped, and find clues to track down Mario. It's a pretty straight forward game, but it's fun.

The best part about Luigi's mansion is Luigi's Vacuum Cleaner Pack. Much like Mario's Water Pack in Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi needs to use his pack to solve his problems. In addition to sucking up ghosts and hard to reach items, Luigi can get special stones that equip his pack with elemental powers like Water, Fire, and Ice. Luigi can use his powers to attack special ghosts, solve element specific puzzles, and other things.

The mansion itself is a sight behold and is plenty big. Nearly every room contains something helpful and there are tons of things to uncover. Several rooms have secret passages which lead to other rooms or to a healthy jack pot of coins.

Luigi's mansion also provides a well balanced challenge. The game is rarely unfair and puzzles aren't stare-at-the-wall mind boggling. Ghosts are not easy to beat but at the same time not impossible. Its the right amount of challenge for both hardcore and casual gamers.

The Bad
Luigi's Mansion, though fun, is a little on the short side. When all the Boos escape from the basement, you have already explored 56% of the mansion. While the boss battles extend the game's life span, they are pretty simple and only add mere minutes to the gameplay. Most expert gamers will be able to beat the game in about a week, maybe a few days if they spend some dedicated time to it.

The mansion's layout can become pester some at times. Several rooms can't be accessed on the same floors as other rooms, which can make getting from place to place a bit hassle-some.

The Bottom Line
While on the shorter side, Luigi's Mansion is an enjoyable survival game (You can't really call it survival 'horror' unless little white ghosts are what you consider horrible). The gameplay is interesting and the mansion can be at times fun to explore. This game is well worth your time and you will probably play it until you find all the secrets and beat the game.

GameCube · by Lawnmower Man (137) · 2008

Luigi finally gets his own game, but he has to rescue ... Mario???

The Good
For everyone who ever thought that Luigi ought to have his own game, this is the one. Luigi's first chance at solo stardom. That alone is enough to make me like the game, but even more, it's pretty fun in a Ghostbusters kind of way. The game controls are easy to master, and the graphics are beautiful, particularly the various rooms of the mansion.

The Bad
For starters, the game is just too short. Most people will get through it in about six hours, and after that, if you really want to, you can play through the "Secret Mansion" really the same mansion with extra traps, but most people won't have the patience to do that, particularly in light of the game's other two major flaws: clueless AI and terrible camera angles. Admittedly, the clueless AI really isn't that bad. However, the bosses and tougher ghosts have exactly one method of getting Luigi; the follow him relentlessly. That's it, nothing more complex than that. As for the other problem, the camera is likely the most irritating thing in the entire game. It is essentially fixed in a flat 3rd-person view, on level with Luigi. While it occasionally moves, the inability to view an entire room without resorting to the "Gameboy Horror" is incredibly irritating.

The Bottom Line
Despite it's flaws, Luigi's Mansion is a pretty fun game. By this time, you should be able to pick it up in the used section for a reasonable amount of money, and it's worth having in your library. For everyone who wanted Luigi to have his own adventure, this is a must have. Let's just hope that next time Luigi will get his own princess to rescue, instead of having to save his brother the glory hound.

GameCube · by Shadowcaster (252) · 2002

Who'd have thought Luigi has to rescue Mario from a haunted mansion?

The Good
This game's graphics were quite nice, and the music was cool and creepy(that's to be expected in games like this). I also had a huge laugh at some of Luigi's lines. The rest of my family had quite a laugh and loved to occasionally quote Luigi's lines. I also liked the bosses as well as the challenge they gave me. The storyline also suits this game quite well, but it might have been better if Luigi had to save Peach instead of Mario.

The Bad
I was annoyed by the camera, and a lot of the puzzles are just too easy to solve, it would probably only take people about 5 minutes to figure them out. I was also irritated that the game was 4 to 5 hours long.

The Bottom Line
Luigi's Mansion is cool. To me, it's Nintendo's way of apologizing that Mario was hogging the spotlight for years. On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a nice way of bringing Luigi back to the Mario series.

GameCube · by Dark Cloud (31) · 2003

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Luigi's Mansion appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Hidden Mansion

The Hidden Mansion mode was adjusted in the PAL releases of the game. The main difference is that the mansion is mirrored in the PAL releases but keeps its original orientation in the NTSC releases. Other notable differences include: * Ghosts from later in the game will appear earlier in the PAL hidden mansion, but will not do so in the NTSC hidden mansion * Boos are more agile and have higher HP in the PAL hidden mansion * 45 boos are required to reach the final room of the game in the PAL hidden mansion, as opposed to 40 in the NTSC hidden mansion (and, by extension, the normal game mode)

Many features of the PAL hidden mansion would later make their way to all hidden mansions in the 3DS remaster.

Launch game

Luigi's Mansion was not only a launch GameCube game, but the first GameCube game ever shown. On August 24, 2000, when Nintendo showed the first demo reel for their new system, Luigi was the first thing shown. At the time he was without his backpack and it wasn't announced as an actual game, though, with popular conjecture being it was part of the newest Mario platformer.

Lighting Glitch

There is a lighting glitch in the game that occurs in the telephone room which appears to make Luigi's shadow look as if it were hanging itself.

Lawsuit

Shortly after the game's release, Nintendo was sued by the production company of Ghostbusters, claiming that using a vacuum to suck up ghosts infringed on the movie. The case was dropped.

Other regional differences

  • Luigi makes a different damage noise in the Japanese version of the game compared to international versions
  • The Japanese version uses the same music for catching standard ghosts when catching portrait ghosts, whilst international releases have a new track created for this
  • In the Japanese version some audio sequences suffer from delays, and overs don't play at all
  • In the Japanese version the music tempo randomly speeds up at times, suggesting it might not be locked to the game's framerate
  • The Pikmin trailer is absent in the Japanese version

Information also contributed by JPaterson and Thomas Dowding.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

Nintendo 3DS added by Rik Hideto.

Additional contributors: Joshua J. Slone, gamewarrior, Grandy02, FatherJack, Deleted.

Game added January 9, 2002. Last modified January 17, 2024.