-(Game Information)-
Name:Luigi's Mansion
Published and Developed by Nintendo
Genre:Fantasy Action Adventure
Release Date:May 3, 2002
Age Rating:3+
Number Of Players:1
Developer Site:www.nintendo.com/home
Memory Card Usage:3 Blocks
-(History)-
Nintendo is one of the primary hardware ... Read review
Advantages: Terrific graphics; good gameplay; excellent music; good controls. Disadvantages: Can get repetitive; short story with little replay value; no speech; some graphical blemishes.
...let's clear something up quickly, Luigi's Mansion is NOT a platformer. I mean you can't even jump, so i don't see how you can have platforming sections when you can't even jump. Anyway, Luigi's main mechanic is that you catch ghosts. Catching ghosts is perhaps the only thing you do, which is why the game can become quite repetitive. It's like this-you go into a room, catch all the ghosts to turn the light on, get the key, find the room and use the ... ...
-(Ending Comments)-
Luigi's Mansion could have been something really special, but instead it comes out as a novelty. It's over in practically 5-8 hours and there's nothing to draw you into another play through. Seeing as this was a launch title for the Gamecube, i would have recommended it to you back then as there's not much to choose from. But now there's many other things to pick, like Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime, Pokemon ... more
-(Game Information)- Name:Luigi's Mansion Published and Developed by Nintendo Genre:Fantasy Action Adventure Release Date:May 3, 2002 Age Rating:3+ Number Of Players:1 Developer Site:www.nintendo.com/home Memory Card Usage:3 Blocks
-(History)- Nintendo is one of the primary hardware and software providers. Nintendo's first party games include such franchises as Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Pokémon. Mario is one of the gaming history's main gaming characters and has had hundreds of games on Nintendo's consoles. Mario is one of the leading franchises since it began in the 80's and it continues to release high quality games like Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros. and many other games.
-(The Story)- Luigi has won a mansion. But strangely he can't even remember entering the competition. So he asked Mario to come with him to investigate. But Mario has disappeared and the mansion is full of ghosts. So now it's up to Luigi to save Mario. The plot is there, and that's really all it's good at. There's not many surprises or twists and it's pretty stupid.
-(The Controls)- The controls are pretty simple. You use the Left Analog stick to move Luigi and the C stick to direct your torch/poltergust 3000. The A button is used as an action button, which opens doors, shakes furniture and much more. The B turns your flashlight off when held down. The Z button brings up a menu which tells you how much money and other items you have collected. The X button is used to bring up a map. The R trigger is used to suck up things and the L trigger is used to fire elements. The controls are simple, responsive and easy to learn. They may seem awkward at first, but you'll be fine once you get use to them.
-(The Gameplay)- Now let's clear something up quickly, Luigi's Mansion is NOT a platformer. I mean you can't even jump, so i don't see how you can have platforming sections when you can't even jump. Anyway, Luigi's main mechanic is that you catch ghosts. Catching ghosts is perhaps the only thing you do, which is why the game can become quite repetitive. It's like this-you go into a room, catch all the ghosts to turn the light on, get the key, find the room and use the key, and do it all over again. Its as repetitive as it sounds, but it still is fun.
The main way to catch ghosts is to do this. You first flash your torch onto them, then suck them until all their health is gone and that's it. But not all ghosts are caught this way. The galley ghosts are caught when you expose their hearts, unlike the other ghosts in which you have to only flash the torch onto them. And other ghosts are caught by using elements onto them. You'll mostly encounter normal ghosts, but there's many times when you'll encounter gallery ghosts.
Gallery Ghosts are ghosts which are very different to your standard ghost. These ghosts are different looking, stronger, bigger ghosts that once you catch can be returned to the gallery. There are 22 ghosts in total, and some are quite challenging. There are also boss fights. Boss fights usually involve you figuring out what their weakness is, then attacking that over and over again. This does involve you sucking them up, and they usually have a bit more health than standard ghosts. Once you beat a boss ghost, you can move onto the next area. Boss fights are usually easy once you figure out what to do.
Elements are here as well. Elements are things that you can use instead of your Poltergust 3000. These are elements of life which Fire, Ice and Water. You first have to collect the element coins to use these powers, but you can use them as much as you want after you collect the coin. But you cant use these at free will. You first have to suck up these things that are flying around which power your element. Once you get that, you can use it, but only until your element runs out.
Speaking of items, there's lots of items to find throughout the mansion including coins, diamonds, cash and much more. There are four main items to collect that belong to Mario. These are his hat, one of his gloves, one of his shoes, his star and a letter written by him. Once you get one of these items, you can take it to a psychic ghost in the mansion who will help you find him. The items like Diamonds and cash just make you richer. You can find items like these in furniture or by defeating ghosts.
The mansion itself is huge, with 3 floors, a basement and a roof to explore on. But unfortunately, the rooms inside the mansion are mostly quite cramped thanks to it being small and having lots of furniture in them. But you can explore the house of your own free will, though it would be better if you light up the rooms first. The map is good for help, though it'll only name the room you're currently in and it won't let you see the name of other rooms, but it's not a problem. The mansion is so big that you'll probably want to explore all of it and find some items.
The overall difficulty is pretty easy, as ghosts don't put up much of a fight and exploring the house is simple. But there's one flaw that makes the game harder than it should be. Health is pretty sparse in the game, as you have to search quite a bit of furniture to get full health back, which is a real hassle. But if you die after beating a gallery ghost and you didn't save, you'll need to do the ghost all over again. But there's a lot of save points in the game so that's not a problem. But still, health is very sparse so it makes the game harder than it should be.
-(The Graphics)- Perhaps the best thing about the game is the graphics. The character models are great as well. Luigi looks fantastic, and his facial expressions looks great. You mostly see him scared though. The ghosts themselves look great as well. Most of them look like clay models shaped into ghosts, but the gallery ghosts look more detailed and look amazing at that. Another cool thing is the cool effects in Luigi, from the stretchiness of when you suck up things like curtains and clothes, to the amazing use of real time lighting. When you shine your flashlight onto an object, a shadow appears, which looks amazing. That's not to say the visuals are perfect, as they're not. As you come through the game, you'll see a few ugly textures which look awful as most of the textures are amazing. Also, though the frame rate is 100% smooth most of the time, in one of the rooms (i think it was the Armory) where there were so many detailed objects, when i started to suck up a ghost, the frame rate took a beating. But still, it didn't effect the gameplay itself and it's mostly 100% smooth.
-(The Sound)- The game has some great sound. There's a chunk of dialogue in the game, but none of it is spoken. Now i remember saying this when i was reviewing Phoenix Wright, but that was ok because it was a handheld, but on a console, this isn't particularly good. But hey, the dialogue is well written and it gets the job done. The music however is excellent. It's quite atmospheric. A bit of the time there's no music and all you can hear is Luigi whistling this song, bu when a ghost appears the music starts to get loud. And when you try to catch a ghost, the music gets really fast. This type of music is great and really helps the game. The effects are good as well, as you'll mostly hear footsteps and the poltergust 3000 sucking up. The ghost cries are good as well. The music overall is great, despite no spoken dialogue.
-(Replay Value)- This game is only 5-8 hours long on your first time and there's not much point in replaying it. This isn't the kind of game you want to play over and over again, as it can get repetitive on your first time through. You unlock this hidden mansion, but it's pretty similar to the one you played in at the beginning so that's annoying. Also, there's much longer games out there, like Metroid Prime, which makes it look even worse. Sad to say, this is one of the most lowest valued games I've played.
-(Score)- Controls=10-Simple Gameplay=8-A little repetitive, but addictive Graphics=9-Amazing lighting, but a couple of ugly textures Sound=8-No speech whatsoever, but decent music. Replay Value=2-Hmm Overall Score=7.4=Good
-(Ending Comments)- Luigi's Mansion could have been something really special, but instead it comes out as a novelty. It's over in practically 5-8 hours and there's nothing to draw you into another play through. Seeing as this was a launch title for the Gamecube, i would have recommended it to you back then as there's not much to choose from. But now there's many other things to pick, like Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime, Pokemon Colosseum among others. But still, this is a fun game with terrific graphics. it's just harder to recommend with more games on the market.
-(If You Like This I'd Suggest)- Legend Of Zelda Harry Potter Scooby Doo:Night Of 100 Frights
-(Where You Can Buy It)- Amazon, used and new from £9.99 I paid £14.97 from a local GAME shop (pre-owned)
Advantages: Great fun, addictive, colourful and imaginative Disadvantages: Too short, formulaic and not challenging enough
As a couple of members will have noticed in their guest books (I keep asking for help!) I have recently invested in a Nintendo Game Cube. I’ve always enjoyed Nintendo games, and before this I had the SNES and the N 64. When I saw adverts for the Game Cube – and more importantly Luigi’s Mansion – I just knew I had to have one.
Luigi’s Mansion is a relatively strange entry in the Nintendo Mario marriage, as it is one ... ...Luigi as the main character, as opposed to Mario himself. In reality, it might just as well have been Mario, but it’s still nice to see all the favourite Mario characters – Toady, Bowser and Boo to name just a few. Luigi’s Mansion was a relatively novel experience for me – I haven’t played these games for a while, and I also had to adapt to the new Game Cube controller – but these are my thoughts on the game.
...
LostWitness 17.06.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)
Advantages: Great graphics | Fun to play Disadvantages: Repitive | Short
With every new Nintendo console launch there’s a new Mario game. Except this one. While gamers wait eagerly for the release of Super Mario Sunshine Nintendo have decided to let the lankier, greener Luigi have his very own game to star in. Luigi’s Mansion lets you control Luigi as he goes searching for his brother Mario inside a haunted house that he mysteriously won for no apparent reason. You start the game armed with only a flashlight as Luigi ... ...explored a bit you see a orange glow which drops a key. Picking up the key and using it you enter a room where a ghost suddenly appears and a strange little man with little hair and little teeth appears armed with a vacuum cleaner to try and suck the ghost up, failing to you follow him to his little workplace.
This fellow, Professor E. Gadd (there’s a joke in there), explains to you that the mansion is overrun with ghosts and its up to Luigi to ...
3rdRockSatan 05.05.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)
Advantages: Lovely graphics Disadvantages: A bit short and can get repetitive
Ghosts seem to be a major feature of Nintendo games, and specifically ones featuring the Mario Brothers. Luigi’s mansion doesn’t buck this trend, instead it bases its whole game around the transparent terrors. The Plot
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Luigi, Mario’s younger brother, takes the spotlight for a change in one of Nintendo’s own launch titles, as he tries to find his brother in a haunted house that he has seemingly won in a competition ... ...more than he bargained for as the ghosts pop out of the woodwork, quite literally. Luckily, help is on hand in the shape of a professor and his ghost vacuum invention. Taking more than a passing resemblance to Ghostbusters, Luigi’s Mansion involves hoovering up the ghosts to clear the room of the fiends before gaining a key for the next room. Sometimes you’ll find that a ghost needs to be surprised before it can be collected and working ...
pbyron 21.05.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)
Advantages: Fantastic Fun, Great Graphics and Gameplay Disadvantages: Too Short!
...beggining in 1985.
Until now. Luigi's Mansion will be overlooked by some gamers(and the public in general) as being a kiddies game, but nothing could be further from the truth. Luigi's Mansion is an amazingly fun game to play(hence the title) and doesn't deserve to be overlooked by any gamer.
Story
Not sure if this passes as a story, but anyway. Luigi has won a mansion, and Mario decides to leave Luigi behind and go to the mansion himself. Mario ... ...first few times you play Luigi's Mansion things are quite confusing. You're befriended by Professor Gadd, who explains that he has been studying the mansion for years, and knows that it is full of ghosts. He arms Luigi with the Poltergust 3000(a vacuum cleaner that sucks up ghosts) and Luigi goes on a Ghostbusters style adventure through the Mansion.
Controls and Technique
Really easy to get to grips with, Luigi's Mansion's controls are pretty ...
Volvagia 06.11.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)
Advantages: NICE GRAPHICS, GOOD MUSIC AND GOOD CONTROL AS WELL. Disadvantages: SOME HOW UNINTERSTING STORY
I will have to put it this way; Nintendo concentrates more on Mario games. This is preferably the first time Nintendo is making luigi a character of its own but in doing so, they made it some how, not in graphics that is very good not in music not even in control but in the story. To me the story is not well detailed unlike in the case of Mario that has nice and interesting story line.
This game tells the story of liugi who won a mansion and asked ... ...was kidnapped by bowser god now the responsibility now lies on luigi to rescue Mario. Well still fun but there are not much surprises attached to it.
In the case of history, Nintendo has been one of the first video game developers and Nintendo had their first party game with Mario, wario, pokemon and Zelda. But Mario not one of, but the leading franchise in party games.
In terms of the game settings including graphics, sound and game play, I will ...
apatra 03.06.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)
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Advantages: Sequels to some of the greatest games ever and im sure Nintendo will come up eith a few more classics too Disadvantages: looks like a poorly designed childrens toy and the controller dont look to hot either
believe it holds host to the best 4 games in the world with the 2 Zelda games Goldeneye and its semi-sequel Perfect Dark and yet the N64 had been adjudge a failure despite selling 30 million up against the power that is the 70+million selling playstation. So how can i be anything but excited with the knowledge that we will be getting something several times better than my N64.
What more ive seen the previews of the GameCube games and all i can say is that they look stunning. My particular favourite is that of metreod sequel which was one of my favourite games on the SNES but was sadly missing on the N64. A game staring Luigi, Marios green clothes wearing and largely ignored brother, also seems and exxcellent idea and comes in the form of luigismansion. And what true Nintendo fan can wait for PD2???
There is ,however, 1 thing that ...
Advantages: Light, Small, Nice games Disadvantages: None
-Luigi’s Mansion
-Donkey Kong Racing
-Eternal Darkness
Only mentioning a few.
---When can I get this console then?---
The console will probably be released in Europe in 2002. Rumours has that it will cost only £200 - not bad considering PlayStation 2 went on sale for £300.
---More info---
To find out more info go to http://cube.ign.com, www.nintendo.com/gamecube or go to
my very own website at www.gamekube.co.uk
Out of the three: PlayStation 2, X-box and the GameCube I think GameCube will be the most successful as although it doesn’t have the best specification it has the best games lined up. It also has history behind it in the console market, unlike Microsoft.
I hope the games turn out as good as they promise. :) ...
codename47 20.02.2001 (08.10.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Nintendo Gamecube
Advantages: Bright, vibrant game play with lots of puzzles Disadvantages: To many obstacle courss - not enough bosses
When I chose my Nintendo GameCube, one of the key drivers for me was the fact that certain games and characters are exclusive to the Nintendo franchise. Two of my favourite games ever were Donkey Kong Country on the SNES and Super Mario on the N64. It therefore seemed logical to get me a GameCube, as this was the only way I would get to play any new DK or Mario games when released.
Super Mario Sunshine was released in the autumn of 2002, and was heralded as the greatest Mario game yet. Following the phenomenally successful Luigi's
Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine was the first platform encounter that Mario had starred in for the GameCube, and I was quite looking forward to playing
it. Having played the game fairly frequently for the best part of three months, I have now virtually completed it, so have plenty of observations to ...
