Luigi's Mansion

, released in 2001, was a launch title for the Nintendo GameCube system; it was also the first official Mario-series title for the system. Originally designed to show off the graphical capabilities of the Gamecube after its introduction in 2001, Luigi's Mansion was also the second Mario title to feature only Luigi with a cameo of Mario after Mario Is Missing!, as opposed to most earlier Mario titles that featured the Mario character only or both Mario and Luigi. The video game features a unique set of goals and ways to attain those goals, involving stunning ghosts with a flashlight and promptly sucking them into a vacuum cleaner, which is aptly named "Poltergust 3000" (a portmanteau of "poltergeist" and "gust"). While loosely tied in with other survival horror games (such as the Resident Evil series), the game is also a mild homage to Ghostbusters. Luigi's Mansion is a Player's Choice title.

Storyline

One day, Luigi received an unexpected message: You've won a huge mansion! Naturally, he got very excited and called his brother, Mario. "Mario? It's me, Luigi. I won myself a big mansion! Meet me there and we'll celebrate, what do you say?" In his excitement, however, Luigi doesn't realize that he never actually entered a contest with a mansion as the prize.

Luigi tried to follow the map to his new mansion, but the night was dark, and he became hopelessly lost in an eerie forest along the way. Finally, he came upon a gloomy mansion on the edge of the woods. According to the map, this mansion seemed to be the one Luigi was looking for. As soon as Luigi set foot in the mansion, he started to feel nervous. Mario, who should have arrived first, was nowhere to be seen. Not only that, but there were ghosts in the mansion!

Suddenly, a ghost lunged at Luigi! That's when a strange old man with a vacuum cleaner on his back appeared out of nowhere! This strange fellow managed to rescue Luigi from the ghosts, then the two of them escaped...

It just so happened that the old man, Professor Elvin Gadd, who lived near the house, was researching his favorite subject, ghosts. Luigi told Professor E. Gadd that his brother Mario was missing, so the Professor decided to give Luigi two inventions that would help him search for his brother.

Fighting the ghosts

To combat the ghosts, Professor E. Gadd arms Luigi with two of his inventions: a Poltergust 3000 and a Game Boy Horror. The Poltergust 3000 is a high powered vacuum cleaner designed for capturing ghosts and ghouls. When ghosts approach Luigi, he first must shine his flashlight on them. This stuns them, causing them to show their heart in fright. Luigi then has a chance to capture the ghosts by pointing his vacuum at the ghosts and sucking at them until their health (starting from 0-500) reaches 0. However, the ghosts will put up a good fight to not be sucked up. They try to flee from the vacuum's vortex, dragging Luigi around. But if the player tilts the control stick away from the rebelling ghosts, Luigi will stand his ground and pull the ghost closer to the vortex, thereby making their health decrease faster. The ghosts are held inside the vacuum until Luigi returns to Professor E. Gadd's hut where the ghosts are then turned into and stored as paintings. Later in the game Luigi locates three mystical medallions which allows him to expel fire, water, or ice from the Poltergust 3000 after first capturing an Elemental Ghost, which are only found near their elements (leaky taps for Water, candles and fireplaces for Fire, and the refrigerator and champagne cooler for Ice). The Game Boy Horror is a portable device that allows Luigi to search items in the mansion to find out what they are or to find out if a Boo or Portrait Ghost is nearby and if so how to defeat it; The Game Boy Horror also contains a map of the mansion and lets Luigi contact Professor E. Gadd.

Main ghosts and bosses

Contained in the 58 rooms there are 22 Main ghosts, 50 boos, and the King Boo main boss.

35 of the Boos have names; the other fifteen of them combine to create the third boss, Boolossus, and are all captured at the same time. The names of all Boos are plays on various names and objects, such as Booigi (Luigi), GameBoo (Game Boy), LimBooger (limburger), ShamBoo (shampoo) and GameBoo Advance (Game Boy Advance)

The mansion

The mansion consists of five floors including the basement and the roof; on these five floors are rooms. When Luigi clears a room of all ghosts, the lights come on and a chest appears. In these chests there are keys, money, gold, or gems. When Luigi finds a key, his Game Boy Horror automatically tells him which room it will unlock (rather than forcing the player to search for the room the key matches). All rooms with mirrors, except for the Mirror Room, give the opportunity to be transported back to the Foyer in the first floor. By using the Gameboy Horror's focus/check feature on a mirror, Luigi will be transported back to the Foyer. When Luigi enters a room for the first time, it will usually be dark; within it will be one or more ghosts. Luigi must work out how to defeat them. Some ghosts are not stunned by Luigi’s flashlight, so to combat them, he may have to expel fire, water, or ice from the Poltergust 3000 to stun them. Once King Boo is defeated, the player is rated on the amount of treasure he has found, and a second version of the mansion becomes playable. Depending on the version, the position of everything in the house may be reversed (including portrait ghosts), Luigi may take double damage, and the Poltergust 3000 may be more powerful.

Ghosts and new characters

Professor E. Gadd: Elvin Gadd has been researching ghosts since he was a young man. He invented the Poltergust 3000 to catch ghosts and the Portrificationizer to press them into portraits. He also creates FLUDD in Super Mario Sunshine. When the house suddenly appears one night, Gadd sees Mario going in but never comes out. He goes in to investigate and encounters Luigi, who was being assaulted by a Golden Ghost. After a failed attempt to catch it, he introduces himself to Luigi. He's getting too old, so he passes the mantle of ghost hunter to Luigi along with his inventions, the Poltergust 3000 and the GameBoy Horror.
The Boos: The main antagonists of the game. Angry at E. Gadd's imprisonment of ghosts in paintings, they took revenge on him by restoring all the portraits. The Boos sleep locked away inside the mansion until Luigi accidentally releases all fifty of them, as well as their leader, the dreaded King Boo.
Neville, The Bookish Father: The first of the portrait ghosts to be encountered. He spends all his time in the Study, reading the books he never finished in life. Upon entering his room, a gently rocking chair can be seen, though Neville only becomes visible when he lets his guard down and yawns.
Lydia, The Mirror-Gazing Mother: She constantly brushes her hair in the mansion's Master Bedroom. She only ever gets up to draw the curtains over a smashed window through which windy drafts often blow, ruining her hair. Luigi must use this moment of distraction to his advantage.
Chauncey, The Spoiled Baby: The Boss Ghost of Area 1 in the mansion. He lies napping in the Nursery until his rocking horse is touched. He then persuades Luigi to 'play' with him and starts throwing toy bears at the terrified plumber. The key to defeating Chauncey is to hit him with a ball lying on the floor. Furious at being hurt, he magically shrinks Luigi and places him into his crib, where he attacks using flying rocking horses, as well as the toy balls from before...
The Floating Whirlindas, The Dancing Couple: Even though it consists of two ghosts, they are captured as one. They appear as an odd golden mist when Luigi turns away, but when they are at their most content (when they sigh) they reveal their weak point. They resemble Lucy and Ricky from "I Love Lucy".
Shivers, The Wandering Butler: A fire-fearing ghost, he wanders around with an unlit candle searching for his master's will. When he recovers from fire-fright he reveals his weak point.
Melody Pianissima, The Beautiful Pianist: A piano player and video game enthusiast, she has a conservatory full of instruments that play a VERY familiar theme tune. She challenges Luigi with her video-game quiz and haunted music sheets, but after that she will have no music to play. That is when she reveals her weak point.
Madame Clairvoya, The Freaky Fortune-Teller: A fortune teller who assists Luigi in his search for Mario. She is a seer of dropped items and examines five that belong to Mario, but it extinguishes her powers in the process. She then allows Luigi to suck her up with almost no resistance.
Mr. Luggs, The Glutton: A perpetually hungry ghost, he is almost always scoffing at a bowl of food. However, he gets a bit upset when there is no food left, and resorts to belching fire.
Spooky, The Hungry Guard Dog: A four-year old bulldog who loves bones above everything else edible, he attempts to eat Luigi. However, when an old skeleton ghost appears, the bulldog is very interested in him...
Bogmire, The Cemetery Shadow: The Boss Ghost of Area 2 in the mansion. A by-product of the mansion's despair and fear, he is a purple blob who has the power of lightning and can clone himself. Luigi must use the clones to his advantage.
Biff Atlas, The Bodybuilder: A narcissistic body-builder, he has a rather short temper. Luigi must use his punchingbags to knock him out.
Miss Petunia, The Bathing Beauty: The so-called "Bathing Beauty" actually resembles a pig in a shower cap. She hates cold water.
Nana, The Scarf-Knitting Granny: A batty old lady who still knits her 871-foot long scarf. She cannot knit without yarn.
Slim Bankshot, The Lonely Poolshark: A professional pool player, he has really never played against mortals. Luigi must fire his pool balls back at him.
Henry and Orville, The Twin Brothers: A bratty pair of twins who love playing hide and seek. Luigi must use his Poltergust 3000 to find them, only to have them attack in planes and karts. Named after Henry Ford, and Orville Wright.
Boolossus, Jumbo Ghost: The Boss Ghost of Area 3 in the mansion. A monstrous Boo made up of fifteen individual Boos, he slams, pounds and jeers. He can be punctured by sharp objects, and mini-Boos can actually be frozen...
Uncle Grimmly, Hermit of the Darkness: He loves darkness, and appears during the mansion's blackout. He likes mirrors to practice his "scary poses" on, but his "scary poses" always reveal his weak point.
Clockwork Soldiers, The Toy Platoon: A team of three wind-up tin toy soldiers (how can they be ghosts if they were mechanical?) that menace Luigi with cork guns. Their keys are their weak points.
Sue Pea, The Dozing Girl: A perpetually sleeping girl, she inexplicably likes being upside-down. She made a promise not to wet the bed.
Jarvis, The Jar Collector: A jar collector who loved his jars so much, he stuffed himself in one. Anyone who wants to look must win a game with him.
Sir Weston, The Chilly Climber: An eskimo who detests heat and is almost always frozen in a lump of ice.
Vincent Van Gore, The Starving Artist: The creator of the mansion's ghosts, he loves his work and does not know what he will do without it.
King Boo: The leader of the Boos and the final boss. He plays dress up in Bowser's re-animated corpse (or a robotic suit that resembles Bowser), and uses it to attack with slashes, body slams, mines and icy and flaming breath.

Chronology

Due to the fact that, in the game, Madame Clairvoya claims that Bowser has been 'soundly defeated' by Mario, many believe that Luigi's Mansion is set after all the other Mario games, even those yet to be released; whether or not this is true has not been confirmed. However, even death cannot stop the Koopa King. In the New Super Mario Bros., Bowser dies (falls in lava and loses his skin in the process) and becomes an undead monster, only to be revived later in the game. If Bowser really did die before Luigi's Mansion, he may have been revived after the game, but many people deny this and say that after King Boo is defeated, Bowser will gain control over his body again. Either way, this means Luigi's Mansion is not necesarilly the last game chronologically, as Bowser can just be revived over and over again.

Another reason for people believing that Luigi's Mansion is set after other Mario games is that King Boo says, "perhaps it is merely because I remember how much trouble you've caused me in the past...", when this is the first game King Boo has appeared in order of release. However, King Boo may have been referring to all the trouble Mario and Luigi have caused to his species; some also choose to believe that this is proof that King Boo and Big Boo are the same being. Luigi was also King Boo's captive in Super Mario 64 DS (which may be the events of the Nintendo 64 game as they 'really' happened).

The PAL version

The PAL version of Luigi's Mansion has bonus extras in the Hidden Mansion part of the game. The Hidden Mansion is "mirrored" and Boss fights are very different. These features were added because people complained about a lack of extras in the NTSC version.

Sequel?

A flashlight demo for Nintendo's next console, the Wii, incited rumors that a new Luigi's Mansion game would be released for the system, though it should be taken as a rumor as no official announcement has been made.

Missing Ghosts

Luigi's Mansion featured in its E3 '01 version different ghosts than the final. The 3 main ghosts (Orange, Pink, and Blue) were very different looking than their present day forms. The Orange ghost used to be a pink colored ghost featuring smaller eyes and mouth. The tall and then pink ghost was once a orange lanky ghost with a huge nose. The blue ghost was originally a purplish colored ghost with smaller eyes and mouth.

A website deticated to the E3/Beta version of Luigi's Mansion, studying everything that was different, is located at Luigi's Bigger Mansion.

External links

2001 computer and video games | GameCube-only games | Mario Bros. games | Computer and video game spin-offs

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