Luigi's Mansion

Luigi's Mansion is a action adventure game that was a Nintendo GameCube launch title. It was released in North America on November 17, 2001. This is the second game that stars Luigi as the main protagonist (the first being Mario is Missing!). Luigi's Mansion is a Player's Choice title. The game was followed by a sequel, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, in 2013, and a second sequel is scheduled for release in 2019.

A port of the game was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2018, which added new features as well as a multiplayer mode.

Plot
Luigi receives a notice in the mail that he has won a contest; a contest that he didn't even enter. His reward: a mansion. Excited, he tells Mario about it, and the two agree to meet there. When Luigi arrives at the mansion, it is far more eerie than the one promised in the notice, and Mario is nowhere to be found. As Luigi ventures inside, he is attacked by ghosts, but he is saved by Professor E. Gadd, an elderly paranormal scientist, who retreats with Luigi to his lab nearby.

E. Gadd explains to Luigi that the mansion is a paranormal illusion created by the ghosts. Realizing that he saw Mario entering the mansion prior to Luigi's arrival, E. Gadd warns Luigi that his brother is grave danger. As E. Gadd is too old to hunt ghosts anymore, he teaches Luigi to use his Poltergust 3000 (a modified vaccuum cleaner designed to capture ghosts), so that he may venture into the mansion and search for Mario. Now ready to defend himself, Luigi returns to the mansion.

Luigi fights through numerous ghosts, puzzles, and Boos, until he finally confronts King Boo, who has Mario trapped inside of a painting and hung in a secret altar in the basement. Planning to capture Luigi as well, King Boo sucks the two of them into the painting, and enters a mechanical Bowser to fight. Luigi manages to defeat King Boo and capture him inside the Poltergust 3000, and he returns with the painting to E. Gadd's lab. King Boo and the other ghosts are turned into portraits using E. Gadd's Ghost Portrificationizer, which is also used to restore Mario to normal.

The haunted mansion disappears without a trace, so E. Gadd builds Luigi a new mansion in exchange for his help. The size of the new mansion is dependent on the amount of treasure Luigi collected throughout the mansion, ranging from a luxurious mansion to a shabby tent.

Gameplay
From the beginning of the game, Luigi has the ability to use the flashlight to light his path and stun ghosts. This can be used in conjunction with he Poltergust 3000 to effectively capture ghosts. Each ghost has a life meter which decreases when being sucked up by the Poltergust 3000. Later in the game, Luigi can discover elements that can be expelled from the Poltergust 3000: ice, water, and fire. Luigi can interact with furniture, such as opening dressers and drawers.

Luigi travels from room to room, capturing all the ghosts in the room which will result in the light turning on and, in most cases, a treasure chest appearing somewhere in the room that either contains riches or keys.

While a majority of the ghosts are easy to capture, some of the ghosts, appropriately named "portrait ghosts", require special circumstances to capture, which involves them exposing their weak spot: the heart. They release pearls when pursued, and the longer Luigi can hold on to them, the bigger the pearls.

The game is broken up into different "Areas" which more of the mansion becomes accessible the more areas the player clears. At the end of an Area, a boss battle ensues, and if the player is victor, they will return to Professor E. Gadd's lab to tally up the loot and ghosts caught. Depending on how fast Luigi sucks up the portrait ghosts affect the quality of their portrait: bronze, silver, and gold.