Episode 107: Luigi's Mansion

Luigi’s Mansion was the cornerstone of the Nintendo Gamecube’s launch in 2001. It sold more copies than any other launch title, received positive critical acclaim, and occupied prime place in every promo gaming machine in gaming and electronic shops everywhere. The game promised a charming take on a haunted mansion, quite unlike Resident Evil that had come before it.

You take control of Luigi, searching for Mario after he goes missing when he supposedly wins a free mansion. You don’t have much to help you in your quest to find Mario in this haunted mansion - a flashlight and a vacuum cleaner and what little wits you can gather are all Luigi has to arm himself against the many ghosts that occupy its walls. It's a tried and true blend of action, adventure, and puzzle solving, but wrapped up in a very unique way.

But is Luigi’s Mansion still a compelling title to play all these years later? Does the simplicity of the formulae grow stale even with its short run time? And can we really do a G-rated take on ghosts and still find it interesting?

On this episode, we discuss:

Controls.

• Luigi’s mansion has a fixed camera in the tradition of survival horror games, but gives us a weird blend of regular and tank controls. Does this control scheme work in a game where the action can be far more frantic than slowly shooting zombies in the head?

Puzzles.

• Luigi’s Mansion’s ghosts are not willing to be compressed into paintings without putting up a bit of resistance first. How enjoyable is it to solve the puzzle of what these gallery ghosts require?

Atmosphere.

• Is Luigi’s Mansion, by its refusal to engage with the more horrifying elements of ghosts, shooting itself in the foot? Was there a lack of narrative punch to the identities and personalities of the ghosts because of the G rated theme?

We answer these questions and many more on the 107th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Luigi’s Mansion OST: Kazumi Totaka

Do the later Luigi’s Mansion games build on the gameplay of the first to produce a deeper and more compelling experience? Did you enjoy catching the 50 Boos more than we did? Is there an R rated take on this genre, and if so, where can we play it?
Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

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