Looking Back On Luigi’s Mansion
By Shaun Hatton - September 16th, 2009
Luigi’s Mansion was a launch title for Nintendo’s previous home console, the GameCube. It was also one of the first GameCube games I owned. True to form, I had selected my next console based on which one had the coolest-looking Star Wars title. Back when the Nintendo 64 was released, I had purchased Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire weeks before actually being able to get a hold of the system (as an unemployed high school student with no reliable means of transportation, this was harder than you would think).
But of course with the Nintendo 64, there was also the promise of the arcade hits Killer Instinct and Cruisin’ USA making their home debut, and although these titles haven’t aged well, they were pretty freaking groundbreaking at the time. Nintendo 64 served me well through college, where I was much too busy to game. I only had five games for it, and for me it was my Star Wars system (SOTE and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron would take turns being the go-to game).
When the GameCube was released, I initially sought after it as a successor to my Star Wars-playing console. After all, Star Wars: Rogue Leader looked amazing. I actually bought that game before even owning a GameCube. I didn’t know it at the time of its release, but the GameCube would ultimately become the console that brought me back into gaming after a casual absence. To think: it was actually just part of my ever-growing Star Wars collection at the time.
It was not long after getting the system that I sought out new games. Batman Vengeance looked amazing, and being a big fan of the Caped Crusader, I had to have it. That Christmas, my parents gave me Luigi’s Mansion, and I soon had another favourite game, if only for a little while. In hindsight, launching a console without a proper Mario game was an odd move for Nintendo. Despite being relegated to the support role in most games, Luigi had been my favourite of the two Mario brothers ever since seeing that he could jump farther in Super Mario Bros. 2. So a game starring him was definitely interesting to me.
I should note here that at this point in time I lived in an effective media blackout when it game to the world of gaming. I really only knew about new titles and consoles because my friends who worked at retail would know about them, or because other people would mention them. I didn’t have Internet access, and I hadn’t purchased a game magazine since Game Players was covering SNES games.
Other than putting Luigi in the spotlight, Luigi’s Mansion was a considerably different kind of game than any previous Mario games, and in fact it’s different from Mario games that have come after it. The story was simple: Luigi’s won a mansion in a contest. Unfortunately for him, the mansion is haunted. Not only that, but he didn’t even enter a contest. So, it’s a little weird, to say the least. He decides to visit the mansion to check it out and to look for Mario, who had gone ahead to the mansion already but hadn’t returned.
Upon getting to the mansion and realizing something is a little off with it, Luigi runs into Professor E. Gadd, who bestows upon him a ghost vacuum called the Poltergust 3000. Armed with this and a flashlight, Luigi goes off in search of his brother into the creepy, sprawling mansion.
Now what was really cool about the game was the way Nintendo utilized its new hardward to show off just what it was capable of. While the GameCube controller is no good for a lot of genres that have expected controller configurations (six-button fighting games come to mind) it was extremely comfortable and useful for playing games designed with it in mind. Luigi’s Mansion used the controller amazingly and, considering that it was many peoples’ introduction to the system, did an excellent job at teaching players the ins and outs of the new setup.
You’d walk around the mansion with your flashlight off, using it only to shine into the faces of ghosts, startling them. For ghosts other than bosses, this was how to get their attention. Once they were startled, you could use the Poltergust 3000 to vacuum them up. They’d fight back. But using the dual analogue sticks, you could wrestle them out of escape and capture them. What’s really neat here is that this was before the Wii and its motion controls brought players into games in a more physical sense. Yes, the Wii’s simplistic controls made it easier for more people to accept control of games, but the GameCube controller really made it feel like you were pushing and pulling these ghosts around and it was a really workout on the thumbs at times.
Being in a haunted mansion would be terrifying, and Luigi fills the role of the uncertain hero perfectly. When he enters doors, the close-ups of his cartoon, gloved hand show him shaking uncontrollably. Every button on the controller is used – one is even assigned the useless task of having Luigi call out for Mario. His calls would go from scared to concerned to downright annoyance that Mario is not responding: his abrupt shouting of “Mario!” in this case is less of a “Where are you, Mario?” than it is a case of, “Dammit, Mario, this isn’t funny! Get out here!”
Nintendo has always known how to develop for its consoles, and Luigi’s Mansion was a great example of what was possible on the GameCube despite it being such an early game (and yes, newer games definitely got better as the system aged). At the time it wasn’t the next Mario game that many Nintendo fans were looking for, but this shouldn’t be taken to mean that it is not a good game, and it’s definitely not something to hold against it. We were given a completely different style of game than what we had come to expect, and this is something that gamers get really excited about these days.
Luigi’s Mansion is a pretty short game by modern game standards. I was glued to the television for the time that I played it, and I have no idea how many hours I put into it. If you’ve never played Luigi’s Mansion but have access to either a GameCube or a Wii, you should definitely check it out. But if you have already played it, I’m curious to hear what your thoughts on it are, and whether you agree that it was as awesome as I think it is.
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Luigi’s Mansion was my first GameCube game (aside from WaveRace, I think?), and even after being burned by the N64, I was willing to give the GameCube a chance for redemption.
I remember playing through Luigi’s Mansion a second time for some reason or another – either it was a challenge mode, or trying to collect the most money, or I was going for a personal record of capturing the ghosts without losing them (i.e. I guess it may have been a speedrun at the time). Looking at my GameCube games today, I still have more fond memories with Luigi’s Mansion (I loved that shaking hand, too).
Though – way back in the day, when the game was being demoed to a press group, I distinctly remember Luigi being scared by a ghost and skittering backwards on his butt, which resulted in some incredible laughter from the audience. That was the only thing I wished that they kept in the game, because it was a great source of humour.
I still liked how Luigi nervously hummed the main theme sometimes.
Luigi’s Mansion was one of the later games I got my cube. I think I got it when the Wii was just popping up. I did enjoy it almost as much as I’d always pictured it. It was a fun game my only gripe with it was the speed. Luigi was incredibly slow. Even for a launch game I feel it was agonizing at times to run from one end of the house to the other. That is probably the only reason I won’t go thru and play it again for the full completion. Graphically I love it. It was a beautiful game. It was clean it has nice effects.
Personally I loved the gamecube controller it’s Number 2 on my all time behind the SNES. I agree it worked best when it was designed for. I agree that not enough games designed for it. but I tentatively disagree about the Head-to-head fighters. I feel Soul Calibur II was best controlled on the asymmetrical cube controller. I used to be moderate-good at that game. I think if I could have gotten anyone to play against I might have been tournament worthy. I still did good on the xbox controller when everyone else wanted to play but I maintain the cube was the best.
I know this is about Luigi’s Mansion but I have to add that I think it’s criminal how unloved the cube controller was. The idea of having buttons asymmetrical to give priority is bloody brilliant. I think it’s more so than the motion controls. Not as successful but twice as brilliant. Outside of the six button fighting games 90% of the games we play could stand button priority.
I love this game. Nintendo, I demand a sequel!
My memory of Luigi’s Mansion is trying out the GameCube for the first time at our local Electronics Boutique (the precursor to EB Games). The store rotated between that and Star Wars: Rogue Leader, which pretty much sold me on that generation of consoles. I could never beat that first ghost boss, though… maybe I should make use of Wii’s backwards compatability and give Luigi another shot.
Having always been a bigger fan of Luigi than Mario as well, I was ridiculously excited for this game, almost as much as I was about Smash Bros. So when I got a GameCube at launch for my 12th birthday, it was this and Rogue Leader that I got with it, and two of my friends and I spent hours upon hours playing both, despite the fact that we had gotten no sleep and there was school the next day.
It’s funny though, because even though I liked Luigi’s Mansion a lot at first, I was definitely slightly disappointed both by its length and the fact that it wasn’t a platformer, and after beating it two times in quick succession I didn’t touch it again until the very start of this summer when a friend and I sat down and played through the whole thing in one sitting. And honestly, with the wisdom of age and a deeper appreciation of games in general now, I enjoyed the game much, much more than I did when it first came out. It’s not like it’s the greatest game ever by a long shot, but as a fun little diversion it has some really clever ideas when it comes to the environment based puzzles. I would love, if not a sequel, than at least a New Play Control version of it on the Wii.