It doesn't beat Mario Sunshine, but it does act as a great "true" debut for the ever nervous Luigi.
Overview: Luigi's Mansion starts out simple enough, Luigi "wins" a free mansion and an invitation to visit it in the mail, while he's ecstatic with excitement, Mario runs ahead cause he-a smells something-a fishy going on. Soon, Luigi grows impatient waiting for his brother to return and sets out to see his prize. However, as soon as he gets there he finds it a teeny bit on the haunted side. Not only that but he later finds out that local poltergeist King Boo has pulled Mario to the other side, and is now trapped in a painting (possibly payback for what Mario did to him in Super Mario 64). Scared silly, Luigi seeks refuge with Professor E. Gadd, a crazy old inventor who has been spying on the ghosts from an outhouse equipped with an underground lab, where he studies the house's deep ancestry (no wonder the spooks are irritated). There he assigns Luigi to do what only the Ghostbusters have done before.
Game play: In the game, you move from room to room sucking in all the ghosts, solving puzzles, restoring power, and finding the key to the next room. You will often come across the mansions ghost family as well as the lands more unreal spirits, which plays out as a mini-boss battle, it all leads to a grand boss battle when you finish one of the mansions four stages.
The game itself is not very long, but much of the games actual focus is getting a high score, for example, in the gallery, the picture of a boss ghost that you caught and its frame change depending on how well you managed to capture it, there's also a lot of hidden rooms and treasure to be found. Also, to ensure extra depth, you will eventuly collect Element Medals (Ice, Water and Fire). There's also a side mission in hunting down hidden boos as well as finding Mario's lost items.
Still, its a bit of a shame that there isn't a multiplayer mode. For replay value, beating the game unlocks a "Hidden Mansion", but its exactly the same except more difficult, but not by much.
Controls: The R button is for the vaccum suction and the L button to use an elemental power, Y button toggles the map, X button has you search around in first person, B turns the flashlight on/off, and finally the A button has Luigi interact with things as well as call out Mario's name. Since the camera views the mansion in a doll house style, there is no need for manual cam control, so the C stick aims the vaccum nozzle and flashlight instead.
Graphics/FX: The graphics are nothing to shout about but it still holds up, the FX are well done however, particularly light, dust and flame effects. The ghosts don't look bad either, the art direction is also quite intricate, setting a nice balance between scary and cute. I found no errors of graphical sort.
Music/Sound: The music is another strong asset for the game, the main theme is catchy, even Luigi hums it. The mansion creaks and groans, Luigi screams in fright, the Boo's laugh creepily. It's all good. The cinematics dont have a lot of oomph either but they are enjoyable anyways.
End Note: Luigi's first adventure as first player proves to be a thrilling if quiet success. The game doesn't take long to beat, but the challenge of getting all the cash and exploring the mansions secrets will keep you coming back. I hope that this game, and it's green clad character (also the debut of E.Gadd) get more credit over time.