Luigi's Mansion Nintendo Game Cube Review

Introduction
Released as a launch title for the GameCube, Luigi's Mansion was the first "Mario" game to feature on Nintendo's Purple Box, and it was also the second game to have Luigi take on the leading role (The first being Mario is Missing).

Single Player
The game revolves around Mario's brother Luigi who has just been told that he has won a mansion in a contest that he never entered. Deciding that it didn't sound at all suspicious Luigi decides to meet up with Mario at his new three story home.
Sadly through Luigi's new home is not all that is seems to be, Mario has gone missing and to make matters worse the mansion is full of ghosts.
Fortunately Luigi has a run in with a scientist/ghost hunter called professor E.Gladd, Gladd decides that he is too old to catch ghosts so it is up to Luigi to take up his burden and save Mario.

Gameplay
Luigi's mansion is one of a kind; it doesn't fit into any genre at all.
The aim of the game is to capture ghosts but sucking them up with a vacuum cleaner.
The game has two control methods to choose from, you have the standard controls where Luigi faces which ever way you point the control stick and you have the sidestep controls where you move with the control stick while using the C-stick to aim, kind of like an FPS then.
The A button acts as the games action button, you can use it to open doors and move nearby objects, you can also shout Mario's name by pressing the A button.
Pressing Y will bring up the games map/stats screen and Pressing X will bring up the first person view.
These actions are done by using one of E.Gladds inventions, the Game Boy Horror; the Game Boy Horror is more or less the Game Boy Color which is a nice novelty.
Pressing the B button turns off Luigi's flashlight, this can be helpful at times.
On to the main gameplay now, to capture ghosts in this game you have to do 2 things, one make sure the ghost is near other wise it will just disappear when you flash your light at it. Two When you flash your light at a ghost its heart will appear when you do this press and hold down the R button its time to capture that ghost.
The ghosts have a health meter, get it to zero and you will suck them up, the best way to do this is to press the control stick in the direction that is opposite to that which the ghost is facing, you capture them quicker this way.
The game has a large Varity of ghosts each with their own abilities, there are even boss ghosts.
In Luigi's mansion there are 23 boss ghosts to capture, these ghosts were once trapped in paintings owned by Professor E.Gladd, make sure that you try to capture all of them, these ghosts aren't so easy to catch you have to find and expose they week spots to be able to catch them, if you are stuck you can scan them for clues using the first person view on the Game Boy Horror.
The last type of ghosts in the game are Boo's, Boo's are not like the other ghosts they don't get pulled towards the vacuum when you try to suck them up, they just lose health and become slower instead. Boo's are a pain because they can only be found in light rooms so it can mess things up if they escape into a dark room or a room that you don't have the key to yet, trust me Boo's can become really annoying especially when they constantly change rooms. Boo's like to hide so you have to find them using the Game Boy Horror's Boo radar.
In all there are 50 Boo's, make sure that you catch all of them.
In the game there are hidden emblems that you can find in certain rooms, obtain these emblems and you will be able to do elemental attacks. There are 3 elements, Fire, Ice and Water, you can suck up elemental ghosts to use as weapons, so if you suck up a fire ghost you will be able to burn ghosts, some ghosts can only be hurt by these elements, to use the elemental attacks press and hold down the L button while the Fire/Ice/Water gauge is full.
Scattered around the mansion arte several of princess peaches Toads, the Toads were sent to the mansion to find Mario, talking to the toads will let you save your game.
The games levels are divided up into areas; each area is opened by obtaining a special key.
To get these keys you have to defeat the boss ghosts at the end of each area.
Luigi's Mansion is quite good in terms of exploration, the mansion is full of secrets like hidden rooms and tricks.
The game also has a few interesting twists that stop the game from getting repetitive for example there are parts of the game where you have to fight invisible ghosts that grab you, to see them you normally have to look in a mirror or create shadows.
One you have completed the game you can replay it from the very beginning, but there isn't really that much point in doing so there only differences is that the game is at a higher difficulty. The only thing that makes the game worth playing the second time is the "Hidden Mansion" that you unlock after completing the game.
The Hidden Mansion is just basically Mirror Mode.
Luigi's Mansion isn't really a very long game and can be completed in a few hours, but it does gain points for trying to have replay value but being fair, it is one of those games that are no longer than they should be, like Portal.

Graphics and Sound
Out of all the game that came out on the GameCube's release this comes in second for best graphics (1st being Rogue Squadron 2), Luigi's Mansion has aged well it is graphically superior to most Wii games (That is a good and bad thing).
The games soundtrack is great it sets the haunted house tone really well and to make things better Luigi hums and whistles it, the game also features the Super Mario Bros 3 theme.

Conclusion
It's only been seven years but this game still feels relatively new, one of a kind! Shame about the length though...

+ Works really well
+ Amazing Graphics
+ Moody Soundtrack
+ Is creative

- Short
- Boo's can be frustrating

9/10