Luigi's Mansion

People may not know this, but Luigi's Mansion was the first game Nintendo ever released for the Gamecube. It was packaged with the console in the release bundle and was often advertised in marketing campaigns for the system. In my opinion, this was an incredibly bold decision by Nintendo, as Luigi, the obvious sidekick to Mario, and a character, who, up to this point had a total of 0 successful solo games to his name, had to essentially represent the gamecube console, Nintendo as a Brand, and an entire new generation of gaming around the WORLD. Therefore, if the game flopped, it could have potentially tainted the perception of the Gamecube going forward, costing Nintendo thousands if not millions of dollars. I mean think about it - the smart thing to do would have been to just replicate a past success, like Mario 64 on the N64, or even Mario Kart, a game that had sold well on the previous THREE consoles. But instead they decided to risk it ALL for a game with no previous blueprint or guarantee for success; and that game was Luigi's Mansion. For one, I greatly respect this move in addition to the innovation from Nintendo during this time period, which I believe was the beginning of the golden age of the company and a period where it still had integrity. I won't get into details, but in the last decade, Nintendo has often lost the mark with what I believe made them great (like raising the base price of all video games to $80; fucking bastards...). Anyway, even if Nintendo had more integrity back then, they were still a business, and still needed to make money, so the fact they decided to make such a decision with little underlining faculty concludes two things: someone in the company was a gambling addict or LUIGI'S MANSION WAS ACTUALLY THAT GOOD. I think it's both. Luigi Mansion is indeed a goated game. In summary, Luigi enters a mansion in a quest to find Mario, and eventually find outs the place is littered with ghosts of every kind. Within the first 10 mins of starting the game, he meets with E-GAD, an old and short mad scientist guy, and quickly receives the Poltergust 3000 - the vacuum he uses to suck up ghosts, and is essentially Luigi's equivalent to Mario's flood from Super Mario Sunshine, but without a face or the ability to talk - and attempts to progress through the mansion. The gameplay mechanics are super satisfying yet a little hard to pick up at first. In order to capture a ghost, you must first enter a dark room and wait for one to appear. You then must quickly stun the ghost with your flashlight, and immediately pull out your vacuum to begin sucking it in. If you aren't quick enough with the vacuum, the ghost will get stunned and fade away. However, I think the biggest learning curve is how to defeat the ghost once it's being sucked. You basically have to "tug" on the joystick backward and sort of combine this with the ghost's movement to successful drain it's life force, which is designated by a number. It seems easy in concept, but it's definitely a bit difficult to get the hang of, especially for newer players. In general though, the way Nintendo thought about the movement mechanics is genius, and there's a genuine satisfaction to defeating each ghost. We don't see this type of learning curve in the new luigis mansions. It sucks because it takes the reward and joy out of it. In terms of characters, the game provides a range of "normal ghosts" like the blue and pink ghosts on the game's cover, as well as human "ghosts that have a backstory and lore". Additionally, Boo's get released throughout the mansion at one point too, which becomes part of the objective - not going to spoil it but King Boo is a boss in the game...well I guess I just did. Some notable human ghosts I loved growing up were the ghost baby, who grows into to the size of a gigantamax pokemon after you suck up it's mom and dad in a nearby rooms, this one FAT ASS ghost whose cause of death was due to eating himself to death, and this one Art ghost who appears toward the end of the game that essentially paints normie ghosts to attack you. The engaging part though is figuring out how to stun human ghosts to make them appear. For instance, one might have to vacuum a window, move or shoot an object, and a plethora of other unique scenarios for the ghost to become vulnerable, or show its heart, which means you can stun it and begin killing it. Also, once you defeat these ghosts, they get pressed into paintings and then stored in a gallery. You then get to unlock their HILARIOUS lore. The art design of the sprites is also super unique and creates a particular feeling exclusive to this game. When I say NO other Luigi's mansions compete, I truly mean it. From the movement all the way to the graphics, and the BANGER of a soundtrack, it just feels right. The only setback is the camera can get very wonky upon particular movements in rooms, and the mechanics can sometimes feel glitchy. Other than that, it's an A+ game.