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First impression
2001 was the year when GameCube came to be. I didn’t own a GameCube than later years (2005) and it was my favourite console ever. Resident Evil –games, and especially Resident Evil 5, were the ultimate games to me and bunch of other titles as well. Even so Luigi’s Mansion, ルイージマンション [Ruīji Manshon] wasn’t a game I played back then, I played it much, much later years and I loved it. I decided to make a review of this title on its original platform before 3DS remake, so I played Luigi’s Mansion once again after at least a decade from the last time I played it.
(Note: I have to apologize for the images as I used my phone to take the screenshots)
Story
Luigi goes after his brother Mario who is kidnapped into a ghost mansion by ghosts themselves. Luigi is scared as he can ever be, but he has a friend helping him; a professor Elvin Gadd (who ever that is) gives Luigi a vacuum cleaner to suck ghosts in there. This weapon collects ghosts (or souls, whatever they are) and you can empty your vacuum cleaner tank to his laboratory.
Gameplay & Controls
I found controls to be kinda horrible, at least aiming. Surely they are old-fashioned but aiming and controlling the vacuum cleaner is terrible. I do not know why they didn’t simplifie the aiming to be kid friendly but then I realized this was a launch title for GameCube console and maybe they wanted to show all the potential of the system, and the controller, had. It’s smart move for them but not so good for the players. Throughout the gameplay I didn’t learn to move the vacuum cleaner correctly and it was a hassle all the time. It could’ve be more easier to control and do things and that is one of the most minus-ing thing in Luigi’s Mansion. The capturing ghost was fun and I liked it a lot. It was just not pressing a button to suck them in — it was more than that. Player have to make ghosts to show their heart and then she sucking can commence and the ghost is pulling itself all over the place and you need to just pull the opposite direction to make it more vunerable and therefore its heart”rate” goes down until you can suck it into the vacuum cleaner. Mini boss ghosts are little bit more complex; player have to first figure out how to make the ghost to reveal its heart.
Gameplay is the same all the time; suck everything you see, meaning not just sucking ghosts, but sucking the surroundings for healt or money or other collectables. The mansion has secrets that player needs to unsolve and usually you are rewarded with diamonds that I didn’t find any use to. What bothered me the most was how little clues there is what to do next or how to solve something. There came parts that I literally didn’t know what to do so I just tried everything until watching playthrough videos from youtube (before you judge me; I have life and I have timeframes).
Graphics
I played Japanese version of this game and it has 480p output and I used it.
(extra info: Europe version of GameCube games does not have 480p output at all. That’s why I play many GameCube games as Japanese or NTSC (North-America) version, as they have this option. GameCube consoles in EU don’t have adapter behind the console, but one type of the console; the black version and the cable for it is to be ordered from Japan. It is pretty weird that one type of the console has this adapter and the cable is only sold in Japan and I’m pretty sure no one had option to order it back in 2001 as online stores such as Ebay wasn’t widely known back then.)
So the graphics looked great with progressive image and it was sharp as hell. Graphics didn’t look bad at all and the art style was beautiful and unique. It’s funny how this old classic has better graphics than many PS4 games nowdays. I’m not talking about polygons or resolution, more of how graphics looks and work.
Sound
Only spoken word is ‘Mario’ as Luigi is calling him by pressing A–button (it also opens doors and is the action button so you can hear it a lot), everything else is gipperish and it is something we know from 90’s and early 2000’s when video games didn’t have capacity to hold dialogues.
Luigi’s Mansion also has all kind of fun and quirky sound effects and they make sure this isn’t a horror game but just merely a fun and family friendly.
Difficulty
Luigi’s Mansion is a demo for the console and its capabilites, so the difficulty is easy to hard. At least for the little kids it might be difficult to maneuver Luigi and capturing some ghosts/mini bosses. I’m not going to lie, but sometimes it felt that I just go from room to room and back to same rooms to capture ghosts like a some kind of Ghostbuster and many times I had hard time to figure out what to even do next.
The main difficulty, though, is the last boss because of this horrible controls. I had to try it many, many times until I finally beat it and rescued Super Mario. He jumped out of a green pipeline and said ‘It’s-a me, Mario!’… no it didn’t but it would’ve be funny :)
Last impression
I absolutely love this old gem as I played it again after all these years. It has been over 17 years when this game came out and it hasn’t lost its touch. Luigi’s Mansion is fun for everyone, even just family members or friends who are watching you playing. Making me think; why there isn’t co-op or split screen mulptiplayer thing going on? It would be absolutely fun if there were a multiplayer competition of who can catch most ghosts or someone helping you in the main game… maybe this is added in the 3DS version of the game which is coming out tomorrow 19/10/2018. I hope there is some online multiplayer or 2-player mode going on since it would kill if it weren’t.
Luigi’s Mansion is loveable game and I’m sure the 3DS version is even better. It’s always questionable to make reviews of older games since the gaming has changed since then. I always have an issue how to review older games; do I have to review them thinking back then or as today? Well, Luigi’s Mansion is easy to review because it was great back then and today :)
Participate my newest giveaway of copy of Red Dead Redemption 2
RELEASE DATE: Oct 19, 2018
GENRE: Adventure-adventure
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
DEVELOPER: Nintendo EAD
PLATFORMS: GameCube
One More Level 
I’ve never played Luigi’s Mansion but I was a fan of the Game Cube. I bought it because Resident Evil was exclusive to Nintendo for a period of time. I still go back every now and again and play the Resident Evil 1 remake. I don’t know if anyone remembers Eternal Darkness but that was also a hell of a horror game. Viewtiful Joe, Metroid… awesome games. Game Cube was a fun little console with a crazy form factor. In my opinion it was the last great Nintendo console.
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Gamecube is one of my favourite consoles even though the library of good games are narrow, but mostly resident evils are the best. I just started play Beyond Good & Evil. Somehow I never have played that and barely know anything about it. I wanted to play this ‘cos the upcoming sequel. It’s funny how many old games are million times better than many games today… just blows my mind how developers can put out 50% done game and +2 years of patched and updates the game is ready. It will eventually go to situation when pre-orders drop and then what? WHere they gonna get money to finish the game?
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I am also excited for BG&E 2 but I don’t believe we are going to see it this generation. I never played the first one but part two looks insanely huge and almost technologically unattainable. The E3 game play reveal showed a size and scope beyond anything I’ve ever seen. As for the past vs the present, quality control is sorely lacking today. Back in the day the game had to ship in a perfect state. Nowadays devs and pubs are willing to ship trash and patch it to death. It is a good and bad thing. I really wish Nintendo would make a “real” home console again.
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I would like to have that feeling again what I had with Nintendo before. I didn’t like Wii and only reason because of the motion controllers. I’m not fan of them, I always liked just normal controller. Wii controllers seemed fun, though. I bought Breath of Wild when it was released, but I NEVER EVEN OPENED THE WRAP! I have never played it and barely seen any gameplay videos of it. I just never felt like playing it (WII U). Now it’s been so long that I don’t want to open it anymore -.-‘
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I hate gimmicky controls. Nintendo’s last three home consoles all use gimmicks to differentiate themselves from the competition. In my opinion, touch screens, motion controls and portability should be defining features of handhelds, phones and VR. Home consoles should focus on giving us the best sit down, couch experience possible. Nintendo continues to confuse gimmick with innovation and has consistently sacrificed power and fidelity.
For another example take a look at the Xbox1. Microsoft tried to force motion and voice controls on its customers when it made Kinect mandatory. They sacrificed power, affordability, and simplicity for the sake of a gimmick. Sony has had the most gimmicks but never at the sacrifice of the core experience. I just want Nintendo to make a capable console that could give me a true “next gen” Metroid and Bayonetta with mind blowing visuals. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying graphics are the most important thing but the switch is just so lacking compared to the PS4 and XB1.
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