A new Nintendo console = A new Mario game - or does it? This time Luigi steps into the hero boots, as the great Gamecube launch game lineup gets underway. Luigi's Mansion is set in a dark and spooky haunted house, in which Luigi's heroic plumber brother Mario has been kidnapped by the ghosts! Controlling Luigi, you must clean out all the ghosts, find Mario, and restore the mansion to a boo-free zone.

The game is very simple. Enter a room, hoover up all the ghosts that lurk inside, and collect the key as a reward - the key being your entry to another room, in which you repeat the steps again. Of course it is a bit more complicated than that - in many rooms a task must be completed before a ghost can be sucked up - for example candles must be lit or musical instruments played. But essentially this pattern of steps will take you through the entire game.

              Graphic-wise, the game is a real looker - it manages to look cartoony and scary at the same time - although sometimes what is meant to be a scary scene can have you in fits of laughter. With the use of his PolterGust 3000, Luigi can interact with almost everything in the mansion, from paintings to vases. Upon hoovering a vase, it will wobble and shake all over - it's little things like this that give the game it's whole feel.

                 The sounds and music made by the game are amazing. As Luigi tip-toes around his mansion, he whistles and hums the theme music for the game - but as his energy decreases, his music-making becomes shaky, as Luigi becomes more and more terrified. Giving the A button a tap whilst walking up a corridor or through a dark room will cause Luigi to call out 'Mario!', but again this will become distorted as his energy is brought down by the vicious ghosts and ghouls. Nintendo have managed to yet again create a them tune that sticks in your head for the next couple of days - how do they do it?

                    Many other sources have commented on how little of Luigi's Mansion there is - can there only be 4 hours of real gameplay in that tiny disc? Well I totally disagree. I myself would rank myself as an expert gamer, and it took he just over 8 hours to complete. This is do to with the fact that many hours are spent just roaming around the mansion, admiring it and making your way to the next room. And once completed, another mode is opened up (Hidden Mansion, which is the normal mansion mirrored, and harder) and the chance to get a better grade is given to the gamer. 4 hours is way off the mark in my opinion.

             I highly recommend Luigi's Mansion, although I would suggest that if you have your eye on other games to get with your Gamecube, maybe give this one a rent - it should give you enough time to complete it.

 

By Mike Rose