Luigi's Mansion
Reviewed by MaxH
Luigi's Mansion is an ideal introduction to the
Gamecube's controller as it uses every part of it
(Aside from the awkwardly tiny d-pad, designed by
equally tiny Japanese men). However, as an
introduction to a new Nintendo console, it's quite
disappointing. It is by no means awful, on the
contrary it is well thought out and deals out
surprises quite a large amount of times considering
it's limited premise. But while it's consistently
entertaining it's never exhilarating, exciting and
it's not very varied at all. These aren't phrases I
want to be using to describe a first party Nintendo
title (And a flagship one from designer Shigeru
Miyamoto no less), but while it was fun while it
lasted (Which wasn't that long at all), it certainly
hasn't had me yearning for another Luigi-fronted title.
The story is about as complex and involving as the
Mario 64 equivalent. Luigi has won a mansion in a
competition he didn't enter, and arranges to meet
brother Mario at said Mansion. When Luigi gets there,
he finds that Mario is missing (The situation, not
the terrible SNES edutainment title) and the mansion
is haunted by ghosts. A friendly little old man with
whirly spectacles (Doc E Gadd. Ha) offers to help
Luigi and equips him with a ghost sucking vacuum
cleaner. Luigi has the task of sucking up all the
ghosts he can (He must capture portrait ghosts for
Gadd, these are portraits which have turned into
ghosts and provide some logic puzzles) and saving his brother.
And so after a brief session in Gadd's practice room,
you begin your game in the foyer, where you'll find
the ever-irritating Toad crying in the corner
(Several of these miserable vegetables are dotted
about the mansion to save your game). It is here that
the most striking element of the game becomes clear:
it's impressive attention to detail and use of
effects. Wave your hoover around the floor and grime
will billow up around the edges and waft lazily in
whatever direction you drag it with the hoover. And
almost everything in the mansion can be moved or
manipulated, you can open drawers to find money, sway
chandeliers to and fro to affect the lighting in the
room and even suck up huge cloths from tables without
affecting what lies on top of them.
And with the gameplay being so basic, you learn to
extract some joy from these little things, if you are
creative enough with your vacuum you'll yield lavish
rewards. But what is the ACTUAL foundation of Luigi's
Mansion? Well it's sucking up ghosts of course. A
process that seems quite complicated at first will
soon succumb, and you'll be ghost-busting like a pro
with the rather camp plumber in no time. In every new
room you enter, ghosts of several varieties will
appear out of nowhere and gravitate towards you
cackling and screeching. Turn to face them with your
flash light and their heart will become visible for a
second, signalling it's time for you to quickly pull
out your vacuum with the R button and start reeling
it in. Every ghost has health points (Usually 10, 20
or 30) and you must pull at the c-stick while they
are in the field of your vacuum until it is whittled
down to zero and you can finally suck them in. It
works like this for every ghost in the game, be they
ghost, portrait ghost or Boo.
Portrait ghosts won't show their heart with a simple
flash of the light though, you'll have to think of
ways to have them make themselves vulnerable. I'll
try not to spoil anything, but it's usually a case of
manipulating the environment in a way that will
irritate the ghost (Like maybe making the room colder
or smacking them with an object from the room). Boos
are the most annoying things in the game, with 50 of
them floating throughout the mansion, they can pull
away from your vacuum with ease and float through
walls, making catching them a real chore. Things get
a little more complicated later in the game when new
features are added to Luigi's vacuum, giving him the
ability to shoot fire, ice and water from the machine
when he has vacuumed up the appropriate element ghosts.
It's quite a unique concept, and the stunning
animation of both Luigi and the ghosts makes for
quite a memorable experience. But soon the excitement
fades, certainly not into boredom, but it's no longer
the unique idea it once was, as you are essentially
doing the same thing over and over again. Catching a
particular stubborn portrait ghosts (and these beasts
have 100 health points each) provides a burst of
satisfaction (along with a key to access the next
room) and the one or two plot twists and truly
bizarre moments (I won't spoil, but I'll say one
involves outer space) keep the game fresh enough to
make sure it never gets monotonous, and the intense
pace and immense character of the action barely gives
you time to get bored either. So while the execution
of the concept is less than what was hoped for, there
is plenty of enthusiasm and great design to keep you going.
But it confuses me why Nintendo have opted for such a
straightforward approach. The game is as linear as
linear can get, has no tasks that deviate from the
main concept of sucking up ghosts and doesn't really
try anything new. It's slick and fun, and some of the
tougher ghost battles will have you on the edge of
your seat, but the repetitiveness of it all will get
to you after a while.
But while the gameplay doesn't exude the Nintendo
brilliance many have come to expect (not quite
anyway), the graphics put on a fantastic show. From
the sudden bursts of lighting that illuminate rooms
momentarily to the way blowing the light bulbs and
chandeliers will have the shadows on the walls
rapidly morphing and sliding in sync with their
movements, the mansion itself packs in some stunning
lighting effects. Not to mention the amount of detail
that has been lavished upon every item in every room.
But the real stars of this show are the ghosts,
transparent, yet strangle full and glossy, they are
exquisitely lit and superbly animated. Their ominous
glow is both shocking and stylishly cartoon-like, and
their faces when they scare you, or when they are
dragging desperately out of your vacuum are just
priceless. Quite endearing at times. Luigi himself
will also cause you to sympathise as he grimaces in
terror while he is being flung about the room by the
ghosts. He was born to suffer, that Luigi. My only
gripe is that with the entire game being set inside
the same mansion (The interior designer of which was
obviously in no hurry to differentiate one room from
the other) the style of the locations becomes very
drab. I longed for a stereotypical Mario snow-world or volcano!
The sound also goes a long way to add character. I
was a bit disappointed that with the advent of
mini-discs Nintendo still haven't added in real
speech, but if Sega's latest sonic games are anything
to go by maybe this is a good thing. Professor Gadd's
mock voice is quite amusing anyway. But it is the
typically slapstick-cum-sinister tunes that grace the
mansion's corridors and rooms that really gets the
personality of the game running, occasional remixes
of classic Mario themes mixed in with different
interpretations of the Luigi's Mansion tune. The
music that is played when talking to the fortune
teller is my favourite, being the boldest and most
comedic of all, closely followed by the beepy gameboy
tune you're treated to when chatting with Prof Gadd.
Ghosts make the requisite screeches and chuckles, but
the variety of their taunts isn't as wide as I would
have liked, but what's there is good.
The big problem with Luigi's Mansion? It only lasts
for a few hours! Admittedly you can go back through
the game a second time, finding as much treasure as
you can, but when the only reward is a slightly
better picture of the mansion than you got first time
round, it's not really worth bothering with unless
you particularly want to play through again. It's
quite a short game but more than anything else it's
just easy. I only died three times during the game,
and two of those times occurred during the final
boss. With Luigi's range of attack limited to two
things (Suck and blow. And I'm above making cheap
jokes right now), getting through the game is
extremely effortless, the harder ghosts of the game
just take more time (rather than effort) to catch.
But perhaps I've been too hard on Luigi's Mansion.
While it's no substitute for a Mario game and fails
to live up to expectations, it still shines brightly
for the duration with excessive imagination, creative
design and aesthetic brilliance. But however
beautiful it is, and however much fun it may be, it's
just too short to recommend it as a purchase for many
of you, so I'd recommend everyone rented it before
they considered shelling out serious money for it.
Let's hope Nintendo EAD's frightening new mantra of
'short and sweet' which is underlined by this and
Pikmin, goes out of the window for their future titles.
Overall: 7 out of 10