Luigi's Mansion

Luigi's Mansion
Reviewed by Pirate Yoshi

Over-view: Finally, a game of his own! Luigi gets his name in the title for the first time ever, although he starred in one other game already (although his brother still was the one to have his name in the title; ever hear of Mario Is Missing? Yeah, I didn't think so--there's a reason it did poorly, perhaps, and I believe it may have something to do with one of the title characters missing...). As the debut title for the GCN, Luigi's Mansion was both a model for the system and for games to come.

Graphics: 9.8/10
Luigi's Mansion had very excellent animation, with fluid movement and enchanting, haunted backgrounds for each room and location. The characters were well animated and the lighting, in particular, was very good. One of the best parts of the game were its cutscenes, which were fabulous! In some ways, this game looks better playing on the disc than the computer-animated pictures you might find in the manual or the guide. I was astounded, and feel, in some ways, that graphics for the GameCube have since declined some. Perhaps Luigi's Mansion was ahead of its time here...

Sound: 7.6/10
Okay, and maybe it fell down and got run over by time here. While Luigi's theme is a great tune and never gets old (at least, for me), it was under utilized, I thought. Some parts of the game are completely barren of any musical score, too. The music that was there, however, was good. The sound effects were rather blunt and weak--the crackle of fire was a bit over-pitched (boom! Snap! Pop! Crackle! I've listed the Rice Crispy guys! Crack! Bang!), and the sound of water, the vacuum, and the shaking of objects becomes a bit monotinous and boring. The voice acting was also rather weak, although E. Gadd's voice is hilarious and extremely well done.

Controls: 9.3/10
My complaint here isn't really with the controls that exist--it's with the controls that DON'T exist! Don't worry, I'm not going all cooky on you! The problem, you see, is that I found way too often, only a few buttons are actually of use: R and A (and, later on, L--to a degree). It seems like SOMEBODY could've thought of SOMETHING for those other, poor, sad buttons to do, other than shuffle menus and maps...

Replay: 3.8/10
There's not much of a reason to go back through Luigi's Mansion again. About the only redeeming factor here, besides pure fun, is that the game awards you different houses for Luigi each time you finish, based upon how much money you've collected during your adventure. A die-hard player will replay the game and replay the game until they've seen the best of homes available; the standard player will take what they can get, and the lazy player might not even finish a first round! There's honestly not much of a purpose for playing through Luigi's Mansion a second time, so consider yourself a diligent gamer if you do it more than twice.

Gameplay: 8/10
Luigi's Mansion is something of a genre all its own. A simple concept, catch the ghosts, always seems to be a bit more difficult than it sounds, and puzzles and traps are strung all along the way through. The bosses in particular are very well designed, with certain patterns and weaknesses that must be exploited in order to achieve victory and capture them. Collecting money is not only busy-work, but also fairly rewarding (read above paragraph). I would definately like to see a sequel, but with improvements over the first in some of these areas.

**Story: .7/1
For a Mario game, Luigi's Mansion has a fine storyline, and for any game, it is more than average! The basic plot for Luigi's first title is that our hero (the green one) has entered some mysterious contest and won his own mansion! Amazing....but how many applicant were there in this contest, anyways? Whatever it matters, Luigi is excited and invites Mario to celebrate the victory (apparently Mario is somewhere else...maybe he's moved out?), and agrees to meet him at the new mansion. Luigi uses an odd map he has to find the mansion, which ends up being in the midst of an eerie forest. He steps into his mansion--and finds that perhaps that mansion already has owners... Ghouls attack, and Luigi is barely rescued in time by the valiant Professor E. Gadd, a legendary ghost-hunting expert and the creator of the Poltergust 3000, a ghost-catching tool. Gadd concludes that Luigi's brother, Mario, has probably been abducted by the ghouls inside, and Luigi (armed with the Poltergust) will have to take out the ghosts to rescue his brother from an unfavorable fate... I'll avoid the rest of the storyline here, but it's all pretty good (up until the end, which is a bit disappointing...funny, isn't that how it worked with Super Mario Sunshine?).

**Multiplayer: 0/1
This game does not support multiplayers.

Graphics: 9.8/10
Sound: 7.6/10
Controls: 9.3
Replay: 3.8/10
Gameplay: 8/10

**Story: .7/1
**Multiplayer: 0/1

Total Mathematical Score: 7.84
Total Assigned Score: 6.5

Final Score: 7.17

Score Explanation: This looks about right--better than average, but hurt by some of the replay issues. A bit more variety in most aspects of the game would've helped. Oh, well....better luck next time, Luigi!