Luigi's Mansion

The Good
This game's graphics were quite nice, and the music was cool and creepy(that's to be expected in games like this). I also had a huge laugh at some of Luigi's lines. The rest of my family had quite a laugh and loved to occasionally quote Luigi's lines. I also liked the bosses as well as the challenge they gave me. The storyline also suits this game quite well, but it might have been better if Luigi had to save Peach instead of Mario.

The Bad
I was annoyed by the camera, and a lot of the puzzles are just too easy to solve, it would probably only take people about 5 minutes to figure them out. I was also irritated that the game was 4 to 5 hours long.

The Bottom Line
Luigi's Mansion is cool. To me, it's Nintendo's way of apologizing that Mario was hogging the spotlight for years. On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a nice way of bringing Luigi back to the Mario series.

The Good
The graphics and sound were absolutely stunning when it came out. Very colorful, very whimsical, very, well, Mario-ish. The gameplay is fun (you control Luigi while he walks through a haunted house and suck up ghosts with your vacuum, just like in Ghostbusters). All the different rooms and ghosts are different, with different graphics, and somewhat different strategies used to proceed. The sound is just as good, everything's technically very neat and tidy.

The Bad
The controls took a while to get used to (you use one set of controls on your joypad to control Luigi and another one to control your vacuum). Took me a while to get used to it but a more experienced action gamer might feel differently. But if the game is designed for young kids (it's Mario, after all), then it might be a tad too difficult.

There's zero replay value. Seriously, nothing to unlock really so the second game is essentially the same as the first.

Also, the game feels too short. Even though the graphics are stunning and every room of the house is different, it's still the same house and it doesn't have the same feel as most Mario games, where you discover entire worlds.

The Bottom Line
This is NOT a typical Mario brothers game. Keep that in mind.

Remember the original Mario for the NES? It came with the system (along with Duck Hunt), just to showcase the system. They should have done the same with this game and the GameCube. Hey, this is a short, not too demanding game that'll show you exactly what your new system can do. But as a seperate purchase it's still nice to own and more than adequate, but I can't shake the feeling that it would have been a better rep if it came bundled with the GameCube. Still, it's been republished under the "Player's Choice" budget games, and for that price it's a nice pickup if you like the whimsical colorful Mario stuff (and really, who doesn't?)

Of course, the problem with games that make you "Ooh" and "Aah" when you first get it because of their technical standards have one major problem: you won't "Ooh" and "Aah" any when you get the game for the first time years after it's release and more impressive stuff is on the market when you first see it. But so far, time's been kind to it - I can still fire it up and consider it a beautiful game. Ten years from now my opinion might be different.

The Good
For everyone who ever thought that Luigi ought to have his own game, this is the one. Luigi's first chance at solo stardom. That alone is enough to make me like the game, but even more, it's pretty fun in a Ghostbusters kind of way. The game controls are easy to master, and the graphics are beautiful, particularly the various rooms of the mansion.

The Bad
For starters, the game is just too short. Most people will get through it in about six hours, and after that, if you really want to, you can play through the "Secret Mansion" really the same mansion with extra traps, but most people won't have the patience to do that, particularly in light of the game's other two major flaws: clueless AI and terrible camera angles. Admittedly, the clueless AI really isn't that bad. However, the bosses and tougher ghosts have exactly one method of getting Luigi; the follow him relentlessly. That's it, nothing more complex than that. As for the other problem, the camera is likely the most irritating thing in the entire game. It is essentially fixed in a flat 3rd-person view, on level with Luigi. While it occasionally moves, the inability to view an entire room without resorting to the "Gameboy Horror" is incredibly irritating.

The Bottom Line
Despite it's flaws, Luigi's Mansion is a pretty fun game. By this time, you should be able to pick it up in the used section for a reasonable amount of money, and it's worth having in your library. For everyone who wanted Luigi to have his own adventure, this is a must have. Let's just hope that next time Luigi will get his own princess to rescue, instead of having to save his brother the glory hound.