Nintendo Okie

Let’s take a trip all the way back to 2001. November 17th of 2001 to be exact, which happens to be one day before the GameCube launched. Nintendo fans were eagerly awaiting the release of the system and you could walk into stores and pick up the launch title that featured Mario characters. Only this time it wasn’t a platformer starring Mario, but rather an adventure game starring Luigi. If you haven’t figured it out by now we’re talking about Luigi’s Mansion. The game that launched the GameCube was a bit of a departure for Nintendo and was developed by their Entertainment Analysis & Development team. This was actually the first title developed by that team, who went on to develop such titles as Nintendogs, Mario Kart Double Dash, DS & Wii, Wii Fit, and Wii Fit Plus. Needless to say they’ve proven they can develop a top notch title.

Luigi’s Mansion was the first game since Mario is Missing to feature Luigi in the title role. In the game Luigi has won a mansion in a contest that he didn’t even enter. Mario had gone to the mansion earlier and ended up going missing (again). When Luigi gets there the house is more or less abandoned and when he walks into one of the rooms on the second floor he gets ambushed by ghosts. He’s rescued by Professor Elvin Gadd, or E. Gadd for short who sucks up the ghosts in his new invention, the Poltergust 3000, which is essentially a ghost vacuum cleaner. The two head back to his lab and after talking it’s learned that the professor saw Mario go into the house earlier and never leave. Luigi decides to go after Mario and help the professor with his research into the mansion.

The game took great advantage of Nintendo’s new controller using both sticks, the analog stick and the C stick, to control Luigi’s movement. The analog stick controlled Luigi’s walking, while the C stick controlled where he was looking and aiming his “weapon”. The camera remained in a fixed point on the screen so there was not much of an issue with the camera “getting in the way” or being fidgety. The wall that was closest to you, the player just never appeared on screen. It introduced you to what would become the third person genre and did so in a light hearted, fun way. The new analog shoulder buttons allowed you to have more control over the amount of action that the vacuum cleaner had. The right shoulder button was used to suck things up, the left shoulder button would be used to shoot elements, such as fire and ice, out of the vacuum cleaner. Each of these elements was used to great effect in the game and because of it there were some very inventive puzzles that you needed to solve to get to different parts of the mansion. Probably my favorite button was the big green A which you used to have Luigi call Mario’s name. It didn’t serve much purpose in terms of game play, but the different ways that Luigi yelled made for some highly entertaining moments. Every ghost in the game, aside from boos, had to be frozen by shining your flashlight at their heart and this wasn’t always the easiest task. You could turn off the flashlight and shine it at them quickly to stun them and many times this was easier than trying to turn Luigi while his flashlight was on.

In terms of visuals it was, even then an amazing game to just look at. The lighting effects, such as the glow from Luigi’s flashlight hitting dust in the air and refracting through ghosts were amazing to look at and a huge leap over the visuals the N64 could provide. Even today the game holds up quite nicely and the progressive scan option enhances those visuals just enough to make you realize how much detail went into the game. Great little touches like the shakiness of Luigi’s hand as he opened doors to new areas were things that I would find myself doing along with him sometimes. This was also the first game you really got to see Luigi’s nose in action, and let me tell you that thing is bouncy when he moves.

Do you remember the theme to the game? I do, it still pops into my head every time I think of this title. It was used so well during the game and you didn’t even realize it sometimes until after you were done and though back to it. Luigi would hum the game’s theme when he was walking through dark rooms and the hallways of the mansion and after he had cleared a room he would cheer up a bit and start whistling the tune as if there wasn’t a care in the world. Classic Mario themes were brought back and inserted into the game in ways that many developers don’t do even today. The boss fight with the piano playing ghost had you take trivia quizzes based on those old themes and the ghostly instruments would play symphonic versions of the tunes from the original Super Mario Bros. Luigi’s voice quivered when he would yell Mario’s name and you really felt his unease at being in the mansion that was scary, yet at the same time humorous to the player.

The bosses themselves were all unique. From the very first boss you knew you were in for an interesting ride as you get transported to a baby’s crib and you have to fight a giant baby throwing rocking horses and beach balls at you. Some of them were tricky in hiding their weakness and took a lot of trial and error to figure out. You could get a hint by looking at their heart in first person, but it wasn’t always the easiest clue to figure out. The dancing couple on the rotating floor was especially devious because you couldn’t look directly at them or they’d vanish. Luigi’s Mansion also hearkened back to earlier generations in that it was a story driven game, but also had scoring elements that would, in the end, be used to obtain a better mansion as your reward. There was money littered everywhere throughout the mansion and the bosses also rewarded you with money. After every few bosses you would be graded on how much money you had earned during that section of the game and through subsequent playthroughs you’d try to best your previous totals, just to see how the mansion changed at the end of the game.  The final boss battle against King Boo is classic.  It’s a clever way to get a traditional Mario villain into the game without having him in the game.

There was very little that I could find wrong with this game. If anything Luigi moved a little slower than I would like. The difficulty ramped up in spots only to fall back down very quickly right after. Overall though, it was a brilliant entry into the series and really showcased who Luigi is. He’s extremely loyal to his family, even if he is cowardly. It’s one of the few games, if not the only game that continues to be played through on a regular basis at my house. If I pull it off the shelf everyone flocks to the living room to watch. I was playing the game the day my middle child was born. There is no game I want to see revisited on Wii than Luigi’s Mansion. I think the Wii Remote fits the game play style perfectly. I would rather see Luigi’s Mansion 2, but New Play Control Luigi’s Mansion would be an instant buy.  If you haven’t played this game you really owe it to yourself to give it a try.  It was given a bit of a bad rap, mainly because it was such a departure from the previous Mario titles.  People were hoping for a traditional Mario game to launch the GameCube and this wasn’t what they wanted.  I think it was a brilliant move on the part of Nintendo and the start of a great string of games by the development team.  It should definitely have a place in any Nintendo fan’s library.