Luigi’s Mansion (1)

Luigi's Mansion (1)
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: GameCube
System Played On: 3DS
Rating: 5 stars 

On January 15, 2022, I defeated King Boo and rescued Mario, thus finishing Luigi's Mansion, originally on the Nintendo GameCube (I played the 3DS port)! In my play, not only did I defeat King Boo, I captured 21/22 ghosts (I think I glitched the game because I failed to capture 1 ghost, the lights turned on, and I could not find the ghost again), I captured 46/50 boos (that's over 90%!), I collected over 4 1/2 million G (the in-game currency), and I accomplished all beginner and easy achievements. All this, however, only got me a Rank E. And I did it all in 9 1/10 gameplay hours over a span of 2 weeks/half month (more like 3 weekends because I only played it on the weekends).

Overall, the gameplay was a new and fun concept. I've heard Luigi's Mansion called "baby's first horror game" because it has all the horror tropes (haunted house, ghosts, etc.) without the game feeling too scary. Well, as an adult, I did not feel too scared. I have friends, who played this game as a child, and they said it did scare them at points, so I guess the game ultimately succeeded at being a horror game for kids. In all seriousness, though, in a way, it succeeds as a horror game in general, even if it does not scare adults. At some points, Luigi's Mansion did give me some Silent Hill vibes. Like Silent Hill, the mansion had plenty of locked doors, which needed unlocking. Like Silent Hill, to unlock those doors, the gamer has to explore the unlocked rooms to find keys. Like Silent Hill, the player sometimes has to defeat the horrors in the room to get to the keys (with Luigi's Mansion, that's sucking them up with the Poltergust, unlike Silent Hill, which is attacking them with a weapon). Also, because Luigi's weapon is the Poltergust, the game gives off some serious Ghostbuster vibes. I imagine that was done on purpose.

I don't want to complain too much about the controls since I played on the 3DS, not the GameCube. I imagine the GameCube controllers are much more intuitive with the 2 joysticks. Nintendo did try to remedy this. They gave gamers 2 possible options, one of which Luigi always points the Poltergust in the direction the joystick moves and the other has Luigi move while facing the same direction. Players will have their own preference, but both still fail in comparison to 2 joysticks. The best way to play is to get the 2nd circle pad extension or play on a New 3DS that came with a second circle pad built into it. Without it, you'll have to learn to strafe by holding down the B button or use that D-pad to readjust the aim, but the game was originally made with 2 joysticks in mind, so the game isn't intending the gamer to take his hand off the circle pad (movement) to put it on the D-pad (aim). It expects players to move and aim at the same time, and the 3DS port doesn't calculate it. This is my biggest complaint, and possibly, my only complaint.

The game also felt a little short. Truth be told, it wasn't short. 9 1/10 hour is just slightly below average from what I expect for game (I expect on average 10 hours to finish the main story). It just felt short. It could be the Metroidvania-like aspect that there is only 1 area, which gamers unlock as play progresses. It could also be the fact that the players knows the end goal from the start, and the game does not to really add to it. Locked doors merely keep the player from marching down to the final boss and defeating it.

[SPOILER ALERT!] Speaking of final boss, the game had me a bit worried there. At first, when I heard of a King Boo, I actually didn't mind. Yeah, it's Nintendo typical "make common enemy bigger to make him a boss," but at least it wasn't Nintendo's typical Bowser as the final boss. Then I started hearing the name Bowser thrown around, and I thought Nintendo did make Bowser the final boss! To my relief, it was a faked out fake out. King Boo was indeed the final boss, even if he did wear a Bowser costume. Oh, and speaking of the final boss battle, I found my surprised that I missed Nintendo's typical 3 phases of the final boss. Once I figured out how to defeat King Boo, all I had to do was do it, and I was done. A little anticlimactic [/END SPOILERS]

In the end, I appreciate how Nintendo figured out a way to enter the horror genre and keep it family friendly. I also like that they did not simply make it another Mario game (in the sense that Mario is a main character), but rather, they handed it off to another character. It worked out well, too, as now Mario needed rescuing, not Princess Peach.