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REVIEWS - Luigi's Mansion ::
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| This game sucks. Get it? Haha, oh man, I'm priceless. |
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| Game Info. |
Genre
Adventure |
Publisher/Developer
Nintendo/Nintendo |
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Peripherals
(none) |
Release
11/18/01 |
Luigi's Mansion
A startlingly entertaining romp kicks off the next chapter in Nintendo history.
Reviewed by Sam - November 21st, 2001
Without any recollection of his entering in one, Luigi has won a mansion in a contest. His jealous brother moves in to check it out first, but upon Luigi's arrival, Mario is nowhere to be found. Your goal, of course, is to find the red-capped one in a mansion filled with mystery, and more than a slightly unsettled band of spirits.
In the mansion, you soon encounter the mischevious ghosts, all seemingly "out to get you". With a vacuum cleaner and a flashlight in hand, you go off searching the mansion for your brother, for ghosts, and for some answers. As the story unravels, you meet little Toad, the mushroom-headed servant of Princess Peach's castle, and Proffessor E. Gadd, the vacuum-weilding hunter of ghosts and ghouls, both of which will help you along your way. Right from the introduction, the style of the game becomes familiar to Mario Bros. fans, and even with all the quirky ghost-hunting and vacuuming about, the game remains true as a golden Mario Bros. adventure.
Gameplay
The way the game is laid out is wonderful. Every new room has something spectacular to it, whether it be a new way to use your vacuum or an entirely new physics engine. Reviewers who say the game goes by too quickly probably haven't tried to imagine it if it were any longer; to tell the truth, it would probably just get boring. Even at the end of the game, a few things like capturing Boos can get on your nerves, so I'm very satisfied with where it's ended. Difficulty and challenge are also an important thing to keep track of in a game, and in Luigi's Mansion, both are weighed out fairly enough. Overall, Nintendo's done a great job of making a game for Luigi that plays like no Mario game ever has or ever could. Props to Shigeru-san, yo. Represent.
8/10
Control
As the "leading" launch title for the GCN, Luigi's Mansion is prejudicially expected to make full use of every feature on the system's controller, and I have to say that, with a few very minor exceptions, it delivers. The control scheme is tight and intuitional - it's easy to tell they spent a lot of time carefully devoloping the layout of the functions. Analog, which has been Nintendo's big "thing" in the past, works very well in all senses - from the soft vaccuming flutter of a tablecloth to the absolute sheering of it - from the careful tiptoes of Luigi's softshoes to a frantic gallop. Even the Z button's function is a great use of what seems like a useless button to begin with, as it opens up a side function that isn't needed in the heat of action. The well-designed process for catching ghosts makes the need for hand-eye coordination even MORE a necessity than in games before; YOU try using both of your hands to operate a vacuum. Wow, good stuff.
9/10
Graphics
This is perhaps the first Nintendo game that has gone far and beyond in trying to make things look pretty. The shadows, perhaps, show us best what the GameCube can create instantaneously without load time, as each is cast perfectly, changing position and intensity with the dazzling array of complicated lighting effects played out in each room. The volumetric effects are very impressive, in basic things like fog and dust, scattering about the room with every movement of every object around. You can even see Luigi's hot breath in the cold depths of the basement. Other less noticeable but equally impressive features are the transparencies of the ghosts and "4th walls" (the walls that would normally cover what the audience sees). Even basic things like the shrinking and stretching of the cartoony characters is done with incredible care and is lightweeks ahead of what we've seen previously on the N64.
9/10
Sound
Music truly gives video games their feel, and in this game, even with a limited variety in the soundtrack, Nintendo gives us plenty of tunes to look forward to becoming classics in the future. In darkened hallways, the chorus comes in and hauntingly plays the Luigi's Mansion theme, while in lit-up rooms there's no music other than the whistling of our brave little Luigi. It's a great juxtaposition. The music even changes depending on the health points of the player, getting slower as your life starts to wind down.
The sound effects will also surprise you at times. The voice acting isn't all that extensive, but what it delivers is enjoyable. I don't think I'll ever get tired of Professor E. Gadd's crazy jabbering. "Suku-suku, yabo-yabo, kwakwakwakwa".
8/10
Replay Value
A majority of the reviews I've read of this game argue that the game lacks any replay value whatsoever, but that's just untrue. This game, like all Mario games, is successful in pulling you into its world, captivating your imagination if even for a short ammount of time. Emphasis on the last 4 words, however. Yes, it's true, the game IS too short for an adventure game. Not long enough to satisfy most players, but just long enough so as not to make you never wanna' play it again. The Hidden Mansion at the end of the game sounds promising, but so far doesn't seem any different from the first Mansion at all. But I'm sure I'll come back to this game far into the future. I mean, what else am I gonna' do on Christmas? Seriously, I'm Jewish. It gets so lonely around here...
7/10
Overall
Luigi's Mansion is extremely fun to play, but hard to review. I mean, yes, it IS short, but it's definitely worthy of the Mario license, and certainly different from anything we've seen before. Mario adventures are made to open up a certain envelope, push the limits a little. And while it's not a traditional Mario adventure, it is among the most daring, showing us what can and has yet to be done with software development. I applaud Nintendo's constant decision to be a "different" gaming company. But on that same token, let's hope Mario Sunshine goes back to some old gaming roots...
FINAL SCORE: 9/10
=Amazing=
Send feedback to: sam@ngeb.net
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