Luigi’s Mansion

Luigi’s Mansion is a 2001 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo. The game was a launch title for the GameCube and was the first game in the Mario franchise to be released for the console; it was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the third video game in which Luigi is the main character instead of Mario, after Mario Is Missing! and Luigi’s Hammer Toss.

Players control him as he explores a haunted mansion, searches for Mario and deals with ghosts by capturing them through a vacuum cleaner supplied by Professor E. Gadd. The game was followed by two sequels – Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, and Luigi’s Mansion 3, which was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2019. A remake of Luigi’s Mansion for the 3DS, co-developed by Nintendo and Grezzo, was released in 2018.

Luigi has been notified about winning a mansion in a contest he did not enter. He informs Mario and they agree to meet up outside the mansion that evening. Luigi follows a map to the mansion, located in a dark forest, and finds it more sinister-looking than the supplied photo. With Mario nowhere to be found, Luigi enters the mansion alone. He encounters a ghost, which attacks him, but is unexpectedly saved by a scientist who unsuccessfully tries to suck up the ghost with a vacuum cleaner. They escape as more ghosts appear, and the scientist introduces himself as Professor Elvin Gadd, or E. Gadd for short.

He explains the mansion is supernatural in origin and only appeared a few days prior. E. Gadd tells Luigi that he saw Mario heading towards the mansion, but has not seen him since. Upon learning that Mario is Luigi’s brother, E. Gadd entrusts Luigi with his ghost-hunting equipment, including the Poltergust 3000 vacuum cleaner and Game Boy Horror communication device, and Luigi re-enters the mansion to look for Mario. Luigi’s Mansion’s story takes place over four “areas”, or sets of explorable rooms between boss fights.

Players may also access a training room and a gallery at Professor E. Gadd’s laboratory between areas or upon starting the game. In each area, players control Luigi to explore the mansion’s rooms and hunt down the ghosts within them, acquiring keys to get through locked doors and eventually fighting a boss ghost at the end of the area. To assist him in his task, Luigi uses a flashlight and two inventions supplied by E. Gadd – the Poltergust 3000, a specially modified, high-powered vacuum cleaner; and the Game Boy Horror, a play on Nintendo’s Game Boy Color.