It’s a me… Luigi!! It’s time for Luigi to step out from the shadow of his big brother and into the spotlight for the premiere title on Nintendo’s next-generation home console, Nintendo GameCube.
This creepy game was produced internally at NCL, Kyoto, Japan under the supervision of legendary games producer, Shigeru Miyamoto, and it certainly has all the ingredients to become another Miyamoto classic. The adventure revolves around Mario’s often-ignored brother, Luigi, and his quest to solve the mysteries of a haunted mansion and find Mario, who is missing somewhere within.
Luigi has to progress through the mansion, from room to room, solving puzzles as he goes. Pretty soon Luigi runs into some of the ghostly inhabitants of the mansion. The ghosts come in all shapes and sizes and have personality in abundance. Fortunately, Luigi is rescued by the quirky Professor E. Gad, who explains all about the mysterious mansion. The Professor becomes Luigi’s counsel throughout the game, offering him help where he can via the Game Boy “Horror”, a modified Game Boy used for looking at the game map, items collected, etc. Gad introduces Luigi to his special vacuum cleaner, the Poltergust 3000, which forms a major part of the core gameplay. Luigi’s flashlight is used to stun ghosts and then the vacuum cleaner sucks them up.
The ghosts however, don’t give up without a fight and will struggle to break free. Luigi must pull away from the ghost, which will reel them in like a fish on a hook. The game contains a comprehensive training mode that gives you ample opportunity to go through the motions of catching ghosts. The controls soon become second nature and the game as a whole serves as an excellent introduction the GCN controller and its multiple uses. If you manage to reach the end of this game, you will surely be a master of the Nintendo GameCube controller.
Later on in the game, there is the opportunity to upgrade the vacuum cleaner. It has the ability to suck up and then blow out water, fire and ice, which becomes essential to solving certain puzzles in the game.
With over 55 different rooms to explore, loads of different ghosts to capture and cameo appearances from some of your favourite Mario Bros. characters, this game is destined to be a hit.
