Luigi wins a mansion, but it isn't a very good one. It's fake, it's infested with ghosts, and his brother is trapped inside. The local nutty professor arms him with a flashlight, a vacuum cleaner, and a Gameboy, and sends him on his first real adventure in the Mario series.
Graphics: 45
This is GameCube! Everything is beautifully
drawn. Luigi even wears a creeped-out expression, where in earlier games
Mario just stared around like an idiot. He animates very well, except that
maybe his vacuum
tube shouldn't flop around quite so
much. The camera view is fixed, and things become transparent as Luigi
moves behind them, though that sometimes makes it difficult to explore
from different angles. Also, points off for the gallery. The portraits
are your reward for good captures, but the styles are inconsistent and
some of them look really horrible.
Sound: 42
Befitting to this sort of game, the
music is mostly dark and scary, but changes as Luigi moves from dark areas
to corridors he has cleared of ghosts. Unfortunately, some of that involves
changing to no music
at all. It's fun to hear Luigi whistle
merrily, hum nervously, or yell for his brother.
Control: 40
Overall, Luigi handles very well, obediently running around corners and through doors. Cheers to the game designers for including standard and sidestep modes, allowing players to choose how Luigi steers himself. On the down-side, the C stick is hard to get the hang of. Up is down, down is up, and right and left are from Luigi's point of view. And we finally learn why Luigi can't handle the kind of adventures Mario always gets: he refuses to attack, jump, or climb over even a small pile of dust.
Environments: 50
Who'd have thought anyone could need so many rooms in one house? Yet they all make sense when you get there, and every one is beautifully detailed. Some are very creative and puzzle-oriented. All include many searchable objects. And when the lights come on, the mansion really looks like a nice place to live... if only Luigi could get rid of all that dust.
Items: 25
Boo. Most of the items in the game only
boost your money total, which doesn't do anything except give you a different
ending. And then there are Mushrooms, which shrink Luigi and make him unable
to use his vacuum. Hearts and big hearts are good, of course, as are Luigi's
three main items. He wouldn't get anywhere without his trusty flashlight,
since he's afraid of the dark and ghosts are afraid of the light. The Gameboy
Horror is sometimes useful for finding your way around and searching rooms
for clues, though the
item screen is fairly useless. The
Poltergust 3000, of course, is indispensable. The element medals are good
fun, as are Mario's lost items.
Characters: 25
It's just Luigi and Professor E. Gadd, with a lot of Boos, portrait ghosts, and nameless scary things. Mario plays the plumber in distress. The game would get even less points in this category if Nintendo had given Mario the starring role. Luigi really deserved this.
Replay Value: 35
When you finish, there's the hidden mansion to contend with. The fun parts more or less balance out the frustrating bits. I'll probably play again to get better pictures frames and a grade A mansion. But it is an adventure game, and they're never quite as good when you know what to do.
Fun Factor!: 47
I enjoyed this game a lot. Points off for the really difficult parts (*cough* final boss *cough*), and for the game being kind of short. But points re-added because I'm not really a good gamer, and the hidden mansion should add a bit of play time, when I decide to go there.
Recommendation:
It's a Mario series adventure! Miss
it, and you'll be even more in the dark than Luigi at the beginning of
the game. Yes, it's expensive, but a true Mario fan (and you probably are
if you're here) will get it and play like the obsessive maniac they truly
are.