ith Luigi’s Mansion 3 coming out on Nintendo Switch last year, it's time to review the throwback of the early GameCube days and review the original Luigi’s Mansion taht started it all.
Although it was rated somewhat poorly for a Mario Bros game, the 2001 title symbolized the breakout of the lesser famous Mario Bros character, Luigi. It served as the launch title for GameCube and was the only Mario Bros game released for GameCube at the time.
Despite being so different in gameplay, plot, and visuals from the typical Mario Bros games, Luigi's Mansion played surprisingly well and was a pleasant blend of action and adventure. After winning a mansion in a contest, Luigi steps foot into his new house where he meets professor E GAD. After acquiring the poltergeist 3000 from the professor, Luigi is tasked with solving the mansions mysteries while trying to find his brother, Mario.
As to be expected, the plot gets away from the traditional Mario based games and is structured in a unique way. The game is played out over 4 stages that each end with a final boss. Defeating the final boss also opens up previously closed off parts of the mansion which house level specific items. Being that the entire game is based out of one mansion, after the completion of a level you have to back track quite a bit through the mansion to get to the other levels. The game developers implemented teleportation mirrors to help make the game a little more fast paced to make up for the amount of back and forth.
The game is largely centered around entering new rooms, solving puzzles and defeating ghosts. As simple as it sounds, Nintendo held up its end on how much fun you can have playing it. Defeating rooms in the mansion can be as simple as sucking up ghosts or as hard as mini-boss ghosts which require unique interactions to initiate the fight as well as different strategies. Defeating the room spawns an item or key which opens up more rooms to explore.
Impressive is an understatement for describing the overall game mechanics. The game is damn near 20 years old but it doesn't feel like it. The camera angle changes from behind Luigi, almost like an FPS, to a side view with almost seamless transition. The flashlight he uses is very responsive and lights up only the portions of the room that it is pointed at. The sounds that the characters make are also entertaining and timed very well.
Luigi's Mansion is no Super Mario 64 or even Super Mario World, but it certainly held its own. It didn't sell like a Nintendo launch title normally would, nor is it talked about as much as hits such as Super Smash Bros. It does however have a charm about it that cannot be taken away and is a nice breakaway story from the original Mario Bros story line. At the end of the day, the game stands up to this day and if you’re looking to venture out from playing the typical Mario Kart and Smash Bros games, maybe Luigi's Mansion is game that helps you ease in to your other GameCube titles.
Check out our full length review below!
