Luigi's Mansion's unique gameplay mechanics are hindered by its short length, but still more than worthwhile
GRAPHICS:
As a GameCube game, it is really good looking. It has nice lightning effects, colors and animations for the characters. And to this day the game still looks nice, definitely apealing to the eye. 5/5
SOUND:
The music is minimal, to keep up with the atmosphere, but the main theme is pretty good, if not overused it the entire game. Sound effects of characters are mostly well done and at times comical, but you with it had more variety in this departament. It fits the game, but rather disapointing nonetheless. 3.5/5
GAMEPLAY:
The game is an action-adventure game. You play the game as Luigi, the renegated Mario Bro, on a quest to save his brother, who has been kidnapped by King Boo on a mansion that Luigi won. Of course the story is simple and really doesn't matter, though if one was to analyze this game has a lot of plot holes in general, but I digress.
What matters is the gameplay, and Luigi's Mansion definitely delivers it. You have to explore the mansion and suck up ghosts to traverse though it (Ghostbuster?). You do that with a vacuum cleaner made by Professor E. Gadd, which was specificaly made for that. Not only is the concept pretty cool, but is also unique and is something that had never been done before is a Mario game, and hasn't been done since.
When you see a ghost, you have to shine a light on it to reveal its heart and then start sucking it. When you are sucking it, you have to move the control stick on the oposite direction of the ghost, so it can go into your vacuum. It is simple and responsive, and quite a lot of fun to do. The only down side is that, despite the addition of elements in the game, there really isn't a lot of variety in the game, and you do basicaly the same thing over and over.
One other positive note about the game is that it is filled with bosses. They are the Portrait Ghost, with have 100 HP and have something specific you have to do before you can suck them. The are more than 20 of those, with 4 of them being the area bosses. The area bosses are tougher and take longer to defeat.
Besides going around the rooms catching ghosts, there are also a lot of money to be grabed in this game, which will determine your ranking at the end, so it is mostly something for people who like higher scores, but it is nice to get a lot of money nonetheless.
Besides the normal ghost, you also can get Boos in this game. There are 50 in total, and you have to get at least 40 to beat the game, so it is another thing to colect and go around searching.
Now, while the gameplay is not varied but still very solid, it is plaged by a very big problem, which is its length. The game lasts about 4 to 6 hours, and some people can finish it even faster. It really is a shame, and the worst part is that replay value is low, since you only unlock a more dificult version of the game after beating it once. One could say that the game is short so it doesn't get too repetitive, but still should be bigger, since the gameplay is fun.
4.5/5
OVERALL:
Luigi's Mansion is a solid game which offers some refreshing ideas, but really only made the way for bigger and better stuff to come to the GameCube. It is definitely worth taking a look for its unique premise, but know that the experience won't last too long.
The good:
-Unique gameplay, which is a lot of fun
-Terific graphics and art style
-Constantly funny
-Many boss battles which are fun
The bad:
-Sound is minimalistic
-Very short with little replay value