Looking back at Nintendo hardware, dates often get separated from reality. We tend to develop a picture of a Mario platformer serving as an ever-present anchor, one hardware launch after another. That’s not always the case, though. Super Mario World arrived alongside the Super Nintendo in 1991, and Super Mario 64 was the star of the Nintendo 64 in 1996, but more recent hardware has frequently launched without that safeguard.
The GameCube started the trend. Super Mario Sunshine, the follow-up to Super Mario 64, didn’t arrive until July 19, 2002, almost an entire year after the console launched on Sept. 14, 2001. Instead, the biggest launch title was arguably Luigi’s Mansion, a game that placed the portly plumber in an unusual role: abductee.
Luigi’s Mansion is a different sort of game than Nintendo typically delivers, built in a familiar universe to highlight a unique experience. In that respect, it’s a bit like Donkey Kong Bananza, which arrived in the Switch 2’s launch window with the hard-hitting gorilla in the starring role. Players control Luigi as he explores a spooky mansion in search of his missing brother, which requires him to face off against a variety of malevolent ghosts. It’s a big deal for the taller of the two brothers, who doesn’t care for spectral sorts at all. But his brother is in danger, and you do what you must for your loved ones.
Fortunately, Luigi doesn’t have to go it alone. He has a contraption along for company, the Poltergust 3000, which was developed by the eccentric Professor E. Gadd. It resembles a vacuum cleaner. Using the tool, Luigi can suck up ghosts in a jiff, rather like the Ghostbusters. He just has to find them first, and on favorable terms.
When I first played Luigi’s Mansion, I divided my time between that game and Silent Hill 2, which offered a more horrifying take on the supernatural. The two titles felt surprisingly similar to me. As I traveled through a derelict apartment building in Silent Hill 2, I dreaded entering each new room. Sure, it might contain nothing but cluttered closets and a bed, but it also might hide a shocking creature with a pyramid-shaped head and a butcher knife.
Luigi’s Mansion resembles the opening moments in that other game. You advance by exploring one room after another. But the whole affair is decidedly more family-friendly, while retaining the tension and mystery that made Konami’s survival horror experience so compelling. The ghosts you encounter are considerably more colorful and their attacks feel less personal. They’re more like Slimer from Ghostbusters. Facing off against them when you’re not prepared ends just as badly, but failure in Luigi’s Mansion is not so disturbing. Another attempt after a defeat feels manageable, like another trip through the carnival fun house after a creepy first run.
As Luigi progresses, he’ll naturally stumble across more powerful ghosts. Some of them inhabit portraits, while others wander the corridors. Luigi must shine a light on them to stun them, before he can try sucking them up with his vacuum. The more powerful ghouls require a great deal of preparation, and they’ll fight harder to avoid capture. Fortunately, Luigi’s power grows as he endures. Hallways go from dark to well-lit, and he finds gems and other goodies as he continues his exploration.
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Luigi’s Mansion was an early showpiece for the GameCube hardware. The concept at its core is not super advanced, and might even have worked fine on the Nintendo 64, but the shadows and light really sell it in ways older devices could not. Luigi is timid but brave, oozing personality in ways characters in prior Nintendo games didn’t. His daring adventure was sufficiently endearing that the game has since received two expanded sequels, along with a port of the original to the 3DS.
If you want to play Luigi’s Mansion today, you can do so easily enough. Nintendo released it on Switch Online + Expansion Pack, so you can play it right now on the Switch 2 with that membership. If you’re looking for the perfect way to cap off a month-long Halloween celebration, you could do much worse.