Luigi's Mansion

While Mario gets zillions of games to himself every year, it's not often that Luigi gets his own lead, unless you count 1993's MARIO IS MISSING on the SNES.

In this cool little game, Luigi goes Ghostbusting in a haunted mansion (one of those Scooby-Doo types) that he has mysteriously won in a competition he didn't even enter. The mansion is crawling with spooks of all kinds but Luigi get's help from a crackpot inventor living nearby. Now armed with a special vacuum cleaner, Luigi must clear every room in the mansion and find his missing brother, who has apparently vanished inside.

The gameplay is simple and very easy to get the hang of. Some of the rooms you clean up require some extra investigation and puzzle solving so be sure to check everything (I though the piano room was a cool puzzle to solve) and use your Gameboy Horror to have a good look round.

The graphics in Luigi's Mansion may not be up to the standard of Super Mario Sunshine but they're still very, very smooth and look amazing. Some of the SFX look highly realistic and there's no loading times at all between scenes. The music sounds like it's been done on a Commodore 64 and doesn't sound all that great but it's a cute little theme and I thought it was very funny when Luigi would whistle it whenever it wasn't playing.

The mansion itself isn't that big and you'll finish the game in about a week, but when you have this much fun playing it is still worthwhile.

When it was released with the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube in 2001, "Luigi's Mansion" took both praise and criticism for being an a-typical "launch game" for the new system. Both viewpoints are valid depending on what type of gamer you might be.

Basically, this game puts you in control of the usually second-fiddle Luigi, who is searching for brother Mario in a haunted mansion full of Boos. Armed with a ghost-sucking vacuum device, Luigi must suck up all the ghosts and get his fellow plumber out of the house of horrors.

In terms of gameplay, this game gets old quickly. Basically, you just go around sucking up ghosts and getting keys to rooms to...suck up more ghosts. It's fun for awhile, but gets tedious after about the first 5-6 ghosts or so.

The presentation, however, is what makes this game still fun to play even 10+ years after its inception. The graphics are perfect for this type of game (cartoony yet clean), while the humor of many of the situations is pitch-perfect. Because Luigi is such a quirky character in the Nintendo cannon, there isn't that "Mario pressure" and thus the game developers were just able to let things loose and have a little fun with this one.

Overall, "Luigi's Mansion" is a fun game because of (not in spite of) its quirkiness. Younger gamers will especially love this effort, as the gameplay will never feel stale for their skill set. More seasoned gamers will just laugh at the presentation/atmosphere and take the goofiness all in stride. I'd give it 3.5 stars to be exact, but it gets bumped up to four full stars here because it is just so innocent and fun.

Luigi's Mansion is one of launch titles of the new Nintendo Gamecube which was released just recently. In the game, you play Luigi (Mario's little bro) who goes into a spooky mansion to save Mario who ends up being missing when he entered the mansion. However, you have one big thing in the way: The supernatural! You end up sucking these ghostly beings with your trusty vacuum cleaner, and sometimes you'll face boss ghosts along the way. Though the game is fun, it's good while it lasts since it's far too short since the mansion lacks more areas to explore since it's small. Still, if catching ghosts isn't for you check out the new smash bros game, or Pikmin (one game i'm looking forward too.)when they come out.

I found the game pretty original and very interesting to play. Its a story where Luigi will need to help his brother Mario. I found the characters pretty well maDe. The Mansion is interesting to exploreand the monsters that you will encounter will vary a lot. The game design is pretty good and the atmosphere is clearly there. A game that completely worth your time.

We get hype, we get better graphics, we get the same old games!

With Microsoft and Sony that is....

With Nintendo we get innovation - this game is like nothing you have played before, you won't find an similar game because Nintendo have once again had an idea of there own and used it. I am yet to see a game on any of the other consoles which can't be described using the phrase "Its a cross between x existing game and y existing game".

The game plays well, and the graphics are awesome due to the extra alpha channels on the gamecubes 'gekko' chip (the other consoles couldn't actually run this game if they tried) the puzzles are all slightly tricky but not too hard to let you get bored. My only complaint is that the game doesn't last long enough, but Nintendo probably had to rush to get it out for the launch date.

If you want games, get a gamecube, and get luigi's mansion. (super-monkey-ball is good too)