The GameCube seemed like the golden era for Nintendo to bust loose and get as creative as possible. This was shown right at launch, with Luigi's Mansion releasing alongside their brand new, six-faced gaming machine. Luigi's Mansion was technically the third time that Luigi was the main character of a game (Luigi's Hammer Toss and Mario is Missing unfortunately exist), but this was the first Mario game of the sixth generation of consoles.
Premise
After receiving a letter stating that he's won a free mansion, Luigi agrees to meet Mario outside of the mansion to check it out. After Luigi arrives, he quickly finds that the place is completely overrun by ghosts and that Mario is nowhere to be seen. Luigi has a brief encounter with some ghosts after going into the mansion, but is saved by Professor E. Gadd, who gives him the Poltergust 3000 (a portable vacuum cleaner) to eliminate any ghosts unlucky enough to cross his path, along with the Game Boy Horror, which acts as your map and inventory screen. Eventually you find that Mario is being held captive by King Boo in the basement of the mansion, inside of a painting (oh, the irony).
Atmosphere (Visuals and Audio)
Right off the bat, the overall atmosphere of the game comes in full-swing. The spooky forest surrounding the mansion is full of dead trees, the sky is completely dark, with the occasional crack and hiss of lightning. The inside of the mansion is dark, dusty, and dreary. The ghosts just appear and disappear out of thin air, scaring the hat right off of Luigi's head. This game's soundtrack oozes spookieness with every single track. Lots of organ wails and theremin whines as you creep through each hallway, but then the tempo increases when you come across a portrait ghost or a boss. One of my favorite little things the game does is having Luigi himself occasionally hum bits of the main track that plays in the mansion.
The visuals in this game are out-freaking-standing. Despite being a launch title, every room in the mansion feels like it was carefully hand-crafted, making each room feel easily memorable. Luigi himself has so much expressiveness in every action and every scene. Whenever he's supposed to be scared, you'll know it. His hat will fly off of his head, his jaw drops to the ground, and he lets out a high-pitched "WAHHHH" as he falls to the ground. You can see the easiness and tension in Luigi's hand as he reaches for a doorknob before entering a room, a-la Resident Evil. Each portrait ghost is also very unique - from the mother and father figures, to the glutton gobbling plates of ghostly food, all the way to the parka-clad frozen man in the basement.
Gameplay
Gameplay consists of wandering around the mansion and clearing out each room by eliminating the ghosts inside of them. You'll eventually come across the portrait ghosts, which act as mini-bosses and provide you with keys upon capture. You'll use these keys to unlock more areas of the mansion and progress the game, until you come across a boss ghost. The overall gameplay loop is incredibly satisfying and the pacing of the game is never dull. Well, except for the one time when the power goes out and ghosts pop-out from every single corner as you desperately try to make it to the cellar to flip the breaker. But that part is very brief as long as you use a mirror to fast-travel back to the parlor and go from there.
Thoughts Overall
This was my first playthrough of Luigi's Mansion in more than 10 years, so I was very surprised to find a lot of things that I'd missed back in my younger years. There are so many hidden rooms and small callbacks to other Mario games that took me for surprise. Also, the Game Boy Horror is so cool!
All-in-all, I greatly enjoyed my latest playthrough of this game. The only blemish on this game is that the Boo catching is a pain is the ass. Having to go from room to room to room and suck those things up was a total pain. That aside, Luigi's Mansion is without a doubt one of the best games that Nintendo has ever made.
