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"Luigi's Mansion"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Luigi's Mansion'.
Mon 30/03/09 at 00:30
Regular
"Ghosts Can't Die!"
Posts: 774
Ebay is such a wonderful site. Sure it’s a great place to get rid of some of the junk you have cluttering up your loft, but it’s also excellent for finding some of those classic games that you may have never had the chance to play first time around or simply lost or broke. Luigi’s Mansion for me is the latter after an accident left me with my disc in two pieces. So after a quick scan on the web and the exchange of a few British pounds, I was then in possession of a working copy.

Luigi’s Mansion was the first game I experienced on the Wii and I still have fond memories of wondering the halls of a giant eerie mansion searching for Mario. Having not played it for well over five years, I wondered if the game had lost any of its charm since then, however after finishing the game this evening I can safely say it’s as charismatic and fun as it was all those years back.

Story wise it’s what you’d expect. Find and save someone. It’s nothing new and not going to win any awards. But when was the last time you played a Mario Bros game for the story?

This isn’t your typical Mario title. No jumping from platform to platform or grabbing power-ups and venturing the Mushroom Kingdom. What you have instead is a haunted mansion in which you explore room by room gathering keys to access further while sucking up ghosts with a vacuum cleaner strapped to your back Ghostbusters style. It’s unlike any game out there and even though it isn’t a “typical Mario” title that doesn’t even matter. You move Luigi with the right analogue stick and aim the vacuum’s nozzle with the other. Holding the right trigger button will suck and the left will shoot out air or water or whatever upgrade you’ve obtained. Pressing the A button allows you to perform basic tasks like tapping objects for clues too. That’s really all there is to the controls. It feels comfortable and while it may seem overly simple it’s the manipulation of the environment and enemies around you with these controls where the game truly shines.

As you can imagine battling ghosts plays a big part in this game and you’ll encounter a whole host of them throughout the game. Some can be sucked up in a few seconds after being stunned with the flashlight, some try and attack you with bombs and other annoyances and special ones known as Portrait Ghosts require you to figure out a special way to make them vulnerable. These range from opening a window to give a ghost a chill, lighting candles on a dinner table or shooting a billiard ball right at them to daze them. The actual vacuuming is a lot like fishing in the game and very satisfying to do. When you “lock on” a health amount will appear on them. Pulling the analogue away from the ghost will often take off health as they battle away dragging you around the room. It’s a matter of finding the sweet spot which can be both extremely fun but also fairly challenging. Give them too much leeway and they’ll get away, fight too hard and they’ll move so frantically it’s near impossible to keep up. There are even a few boss battles in the game that mix things up somewhat (it wouldn’t be a Mario game without boss battles would it?)

Visually the game holds up well. Luigi is excellently animated and the ghosts themselves look and feel like they each have their own personality and actions. The mansion is full of dusty furniture, cobwebs and each room feels and looks different from the last. The flashlight too reacts realistically as you scan rooms searching for items. The game really only has one true music piece that is given many variations throughout the game, but like most Mario tunes it’s difficult to get out of your head. You’ll find Luigi often whistling the games main theme (which I still hum to this day) as he wanders the halls. A neat (if small) addition is when his health is running low you’ll notice his voice and whistling becoming more and more nervous and jolty. It’s often amusing to hear the green plumbers scream his brother’s name in sheer panic.

While I’ll admit this is definitely a short game (first time through it’ll likely only take you five odd hours) it’s probably for the best as by the end it definitely feels like it’s reached its limit in terms of new ideas. I’d rather have an excellent five hour title than one padded out to last an extra three more. Replay value comes in the form of a harder version with an upgraded Poltergust and also the option to top past scores by finding all the hidden treasures which is fun but nothing you haven’t come to expect from a single player game these days.

With mature games like Resident Evil 5, Gears of War, MadWorld and more swarming next-gen consoles at the moment it’s a refreshing change to get the chance to play through a wacky game like Luigi’s Mansion again. It still holds up well to this day and while the experience may be a little brief its one you surely won’t forget quickly. With Nintendo releasing its past Gamecube titles for the Wii it seems crazy for them to skip this as the controls seem a perfect fit. And this may be me expecting a little too much but could we maybe see a sequel on the Wii? There’s definitely potential here to expand on the ideas used in the game.

Here’s hoping.
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Mon 30/03/09 at 00:30
Regular
"Ghosts Can't Die!"
Posts: 774
Ebay is such a wonderful site. Sure it’s a great place to get rid of some of the junk you have cluttering up your loft, but it’s also excellent for finding some of those classic games that you may have never had the chance to play first time around or simply lost or broke. Luigi’s Mansion for me is the latter after an accident left me with my disc in two pieces. So after a quick scan on the web and the exchange of a few British pounds, I was then in possession of a working copy.

Luigi’s Mansion was the first game I experienced on the Wii and I still have fond memories of wondering the halls of a giant eerie mansion searching for Mario. Having not played it for well over five years, I wondered if the game had lost any of its charm since then, however after finishing the game this evening I can safely say it’s as charismatic and fun as it was all those years back.

Story wise it’s what you’d expect. Find and save someone. It’s nothing new and not going to win any awards. But when was the last time you played a Mario Bros game for the story?

This isn’t your typical Mario title. No jumping from platform to platform or grabbing power-ups and venturing the Mushroom Kingdom. What you have instead is a haunted mansion in which you explore room by room gathering keys to access further while sucking up ghosts with a vacuum cleaner strapped to your back Ghostbusters style. It’s unlike any game out there and even though it isn’t a “typical Mario” title that doesn’t even matter. You move Luigi with the right analogue stick and aim the vacuum’s nozzle with the other. Holding the right trigger button will suck and the left will shoot out air or water or whatever upgrade you’ve obtained. Pressing the A button allows you to perform basic tasks like tapping objects for clues too. That’s really all there is to the controls. It feels comfortable and while it may seem overly simple it’s the manipulation of the environment and enemies around you with these controls where the game truly shines.

As you can imagine battling ghosts plays a big part in this game and you’ll encounter a whole host of them throughout the game. Some can be sucked up in a few seconds after being stunned with the flashlight, some try and attack you with bombs and other annoyances and special ones known as Portrait Ghosts require you to figure out a special way to make them vulnerable. These range from opening a window to give a ghost a chill, lighting candles on a dinner table or shooting a billiard ball right at them to daze them. The actual vacuuming is a lot like fishing in the game and very satisfying to do. When you “lock on” a health amount will appear on them. Pulling the analogue away from the ghost will often take off health as they battle away dragging you around the room. It’s a matter of finding the sweet spot which can be both extremely fun but also fairly challenging. Give them too much leeway and they’ll get away, fight too hard and they’ll move so frantically it’s near impossible to keep up. There are even a few boss battles in the game that mix things up somewhat (it wouldn’t be a Mario game without boss battles would it?)

Visually the game holds up well. Luigi is excellently animated and the ghosts themselves look and feel like they each have their own personality and actions. The mansion is full of dusty furniture, cobwebs and each room feels and looks different from the last. The flashlight too reacts realistically as you scan rooms searching for items. The game really only has one true music piece that is given many variations throughout the game, but like most Mario tunes it’s difficult to get out of your head. You’ll find Luigi often whistling the games main theme (which I still hum to this day) as he wanders the halls. A neat (if small) addition is when his health is running low you’ll notice his voice and whistling becoming more and more nervous and jolty. It’s often amusing to hear the green plumbers scream his brother’s name in sheer panic.

While I’ll admit this is definitely a short game (first time through it’ll likely only take you five odd hours) it’s probably for the best as by the end it definitely feels like it’s reached its limit in terms of new ideas. I’d rather have an excellent five hour title than one padded out to last an extra three more. Replay value comes in the form of a harder version with an upgraded Poltergust and also the option to top past scores by finding all the hidden treasures which is fun but nothing you haven’t come to expect from a single player game these days.

With mature games like Resident Evil 5, Gears of War, MadWorld and more swarming next-gen consoles at the moment it’s a refreshing change to get the chance to play through a wacky game like Luigi’s Mansion again. It still holds up well to this day and while the experience may be a little brief its one you surely won’t forget quickly. With Nintendo releasing its past Gamecube titles for the Wii it seems crazy for them to skip this as the controls seem a perfect fit. And this may be me expecting a little too much but could we maybe see a sequel on the Wii? There’s definitely potential here to expand on the ideas used in the game.

Here’s hoping.

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