Luigi's Mansion

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.

The Good
Luigi's Mansion mixes Ghostbusters with the green goofball himself, Luigi. Does it work? Despite the ridiculous concept, yes it does!

What the game is basically about is you win a mansion from a contest you didn't even inter. Strange, huh? To make matters worse, Mario went there to check it out and has gone missing! Again!!! But this time, it's fun!

What makes it a fun game? If it were a boring game, I wouldn't be typin' here disscusin' it with ya, now would I!?!? ...But seriously, what you do is you suck up ghosts... Ghostbusters style. Well, only not as dangerous and literately sucking them up... WITH A VACUUM!!!

The story, while I said it was ridiculous, doesn't mean it's bad. Ridiculous can be good. This is one of those cases. After all, it is refreshing to have something different from the usual save the Pea- I mean Princess formula, right?

The music, while not to much of it, is very enjoyable. It's not the best, but it's still good. I like the fact that in lighted rooms, Luigi whistles the theme, while in dark rooms, he hums it. What I like even more is that the weaker he is, the more frail he sounds. But probably the best part of the sound department is when you press A when not against a wall, he yells "Mario!". The funniest one he does is the one where he goes "MAAAAARIOOOOOO!!!". I crack up every time I hear that.

The graphics are surprisingly good, especially for an early GC game. The models look good, if not to terribly detailed. The art in the art gallery kind of sucks, though.

The Bad
It can sometimes be irritating to scare and suck up ghosts. ESPECIALLY the rare light blue ones. You have to get them juuussst right or... poof. Gone forEVER! And... that's about it.

The Bottom Line
If you like Luigi, you should definitely buy this. Even if you don't, consider it. It is a very fun, if not sometimes irritating, game.

PS: If you play it at midnight in the dark, I think you could actually get scared!

The Good
The graphics and sound were absolutely stunning when it came out. Very colorful, very whimsical, very, well, Mario-ish. The gameplay is fun (you control Luigi while he walks through a haunted house and suck up ghosts with your vacuum, just like in Ghostbusters). All the different rooms and ghosts are different, with different graphics, and somewhat different strategies used to proceed. The sound is just as good, everything's technically very neat and tidy.

The Bad
The controls took a while to get used to (you use one set of controls on your joypad to control Luigi and another one to control your vacuum). Took me a while to get used to it but a more experienced action gamer might feel differently. But if the game is designed for young kids (it's Mario, after all), then it might be a tad too difficult.

There's zero replay value. Seriously, nothing to unlock really so the second game is essentially the same as the first.

Also, the game feels too short. Even though the graphics are stunning and every room of the house is different, it's still the same house and it doesn't have the same feel as most Mario games, where you discover entire worlds.

The Bottom Line
This is NOT a typical Mario brothers game. Keep that in mind.

Remember the original Mario for the NES? It came with the system (along with Duck Hunt), just to showcase the system. They should have done the same with this game and the GameCube. Hey, this is a short, not too demanding game that'll show you exactly what your new system can do. But as a seperate purchase it's still nice to own and more than adequate, but I can't shake the feeling that it would have been a better rep if it came bundled with the GameCube. Still, it's been republished under the "Player's Choice" budget games, and for that price it's a nice pickup if you like the whimsical colorful Mario stuff (and really, who doesn't?)

Of course, the problem with games that make you "Ooh" and "Aah" when you first get it because of their technical standards have one major problem: you won't "Ooh" and "Aah" any when you get the game for the first time years after it's release and more impressive stuff is on the market when you first see it. But so far, time's been kind to it - I can still fire it up and consider it a beautiful game. Ten years from now my opinion might be different.