Mario Club Weekly Newsletter
Luigi's Mansion was a launch title for the Nintendo GameCube, released in November of 2001. It also marks the second time where Luigi is the main character, with Mario playing a supporting role. Professor E. Gadd and King Boo are also introduced in this game.
Storyline
Luigi had always been accustomed to Mario being in the spotlight for a long time. That's why he's surprised when he wins a free mansion in a contest he didn't even enter. Letting Mario enter first to check it out, Luigi follows behind and enters to find a dark, creepy foyer. Soon an orange spirit drops a key. Upon entering the parlor, Luigi finds E. Gadd and three ghosts. Gadd explains that the house appeared just a few days ago and Mario must have been captured by the spirits. With Gadd's Poltergust 3000, Luigi must now take center stage to save his brother.
[edit] Controls
Luigi's Mansion has some interesting controls that shaped the Nintendo GameCube controller (according to interviews in the Nintendo Players' Guide) The Poltergust 3000 is controlled by pressing and holding the R button. When the ghost(s) are being sucked, the player must tug the control stick in the opposite direction of the nozzle to take away HP. The player can move only the Poltergust but not Luigi with the C stick, most helpful in capturing the sneaky Boos.
The A button examines objects or makes Luigi call out for Mario (how he says it depends on Luigi's health). The B button controls Luigi's flashlight in dark areas. Ghosts are naturally afraid of the light, and will freeze for a short time when Luigi points the flashlight at them. The trick to capturing ghosts is holding the B button to turn off the flashlight, then let the ghosts come close, then release B. The ghosts stop right in front of the Poltergust, where the player can now suck them up with R. Finally, the L button emits an element once you get an Elemental Medal: Fire, Water or Ice.
There is also an option to move Sidestep. In this mode, Luigi won't face in the direction he's moving. To change what he's facing, the player will have to use the C stick.
The X button brings up the Game Boy Horror.
[edit] The Ghosts
[edit] Portrait Ghosts
In Luigi's exploits, Luigi captures up to twenty-three gallery ghosts (five are optional). These ghosts have 100 HP, but their hearts are not automatically shown like other ghosts: Luigi must find each ghost's weakness before he can suck them up. The following are listed in order of appearance appear in the game:
[edit] Area One
Neville, The Bookish Father
Lydia, The Mirror-Gazing Mother
Chauncey, The Spoiled Baby (First Boss)
[edit] Area Two
The Floating Whirlindas, The Dancing Couple
Shivers, The Wandering Butler
Melody Pianissima, The Beautiful Pianist
Mr. Luggs, The Glutton (Optional)
Spooky, The Hungry Guard Dog
Bogmire, The Cemetery Shadow (Second Boss)
[edit] Area Three
Biff Atlas, The Bodybuilder (Optional)
Miss Petunia, The Bathing Beauty
Nana, The Scarf Knitting Nanny
Slim Bankshot, The Lonely Pool Shark (Optional)
Henry and Orville, The Twin Brothers
Madame Clairvoya, The Freaky Fortune Teller*
Boolossus, Jumbo Ghost (Third Boss)
[edit] Area Four
Uncle Grimmly, Hermit of the Darkness
Clockwork Soldiers, The Toy Platoon
Sue Pea, The Dozing Girl (Optional)
Jarvis, The Jar Collector (Optional)
Sir Weston, The Chilly Climber
Vincent Van Gore, The Starving Artist
King Boo (Final Boss: 500 HP)
*Note: Although Madame Clairvoya technically first appears in Area 2, she cannot be captured until Area 3.
[edit] The Boos
Main article: Luigi's Mansion Boos
There are fifty Boos that hide in the various rooms of the mansion. Thirty-five of these are named to differentiate between them, and the remaining fifteen make up the third Boss of the game, Boolossus. Twenty Boos need to be captured before Luigi can fight Boolossus, and forty need to be captured before the green-clad ghost hunter can challenge King Boo. If Luigi catches all fifty Boos, he will be rewarded will the extremely valuable Gold Diamond.

Luigi discovers PeekaBoo in the Butler's Room.
[edit] Common Ghosts
Bat
Blue Blaze
Blue Mouse
Blue Twirler
Bowling Ghost
Ceiling Surprise
Flash
Flying Fish
Garbage Can Ghost
Grabbing Ghost
Gold Ghost
Gold Mouse
Mr. Bones
Purple Bomber
Purple Puncher
Shy Guy
Spark
Speedy Spirit
Temper Terror
Waiter
[edit] Other Spooks
Bogmire Shadow
Fire Elemental Ghost
Ice Elemental Ghost
Trapdoor
Water Elemental Ghost
[edit] The Money
Gold Coin - 5,000G
Bill - 20,000 G
Gold Bar - 100,000G
Blue Jewel - 500,000G
Green Jewel - 800,000G
Red Jewel - 1,000,000G
Blue Diamond - 2,000,000G
Gold Diamond - 20,000,000G
Red Diamond - 5,000G
Small Pearl - 50,000G
Medium Pearl - 100,000G
Big Pearl - 1,000,000G
[edit] Gallery
Professor E. Gadd had trapped the Portrait Ghosts into paintings during his past ghost adventures and put them for display in his personal gallery--until King Boo released each of them! As Luigi recaptures gallery ghosts, they will be framed in three colors: bronze, silver, or gold. The color depends on how much HP (out of 100 for each non-boss gallery ghost) Luigi sucks in one try, which produce pearls:
Bronze. Only small pearls, which Luigi earns one for every 10 HP sucked at once. The portrait ghost itself is poor in quality.
Silver. At least one medium pearl, which the ghost gives up for every 50 HP sucked and every 10 after. So for 60, 70, and 80 HP at once, Luigi earns another medium pearl. The portrait ghost is shown in better quality. 90 is reserved for...
Gold. The only big pearl possible is given up if Luigi can suck 90 HP in one turn. The quality of the portrait ghost is most often just what it looked like when Luigi captured it.
If Luigi sucks all 100 HP at once, no extra pearl is awarded, but he made capturing a Portrait Ghost a lot easier. The max amount of money to be gained per Portrait Ghost is 1,600,000G: 4 small pearls, 4 medium pearls and 1 big pearl.
Boss gallery ghosts' (Chauncey, Bogmire, Boolossus, and King Boo) frames and quality are determined by how high Luigi's health is after capturing the ghost. Luigi must enter the battle at full health (100) if he wishes to have a chance to receive a gold frame, it won't do if he doesn't take damage but started out at 50 HP (that's a bronze frame.).
[edit] Luigi's NEW Mansion
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
All the money Luigi collects in his adventure is used to build a new mansion on top of the old one. The more money he collects from treasure rooms, watering plants, catching Portrait Ghosts and examining furniture, the better the mansion will be (it will be a large / small house in the lower ranks). The house will become a painting at the front of the Gallery, with Luigi's total money on the bottom-left corner. The message will be "Welcome to Luigi's NEW Mansion!" unless Luigi achieved Rank A or H:
Rank A: Finish the game with 100,000,001G + Message: Congratulations! Your mansion is complete!
Rank B: Finish the game with 70,000,001 to 100,000,000G.
Rank C: Finish the game with 60,000,001 to 70,000,000G.
Rank D: Finish the game with 50,000,001 to 60,000,000G.
Rank E: Finish the game with 40,000,001 to 50,000,000G.
Rank F: Finish the game with 20,000,001 to 40,000,000G.
Rank G: Finish the game with 5,000,001 to 20,000,000G.
Rank H: Finish the game with 5,000 to 5,000,000G. + Message: And the Mansion disappeared without a trace...
Oddly enough, it is more difficult to achieve Rank H than Rank A, as to get rank H, you practically need to go through the whole game without collecting money.
It should be noted that the Rank A Mansion appears at the side of Luigi Circuit in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.
Spoilers end here.
[edit] Hidden Mansion
Once the player beats the game once, the quest can be tried over again in the normal mansion or the "Hidden Mansion". It is the same gameplay, except for two things: a) Ghosts (including Boos) give double the damage to Luigi, but b) The Poltergust 3000 has 1.5 times more power. This can help get more pearls, which means more money and nicer frames.
[edit] PAL Differences
The PAL version of Luigi's Mansion (Europe and Australia) increased the number of changes for the Hidden Mansion than the NTSC (Japan and US, the first countries to get the game) version:
The PAL Hidden Mansion is mirrored from the Normal Mansion. The NTSC version keeps the layout the same.
There are more normal ghosts around the mansion. Bosses are harder, having different attacks (Chauncey's rocking horses, for example, are much bigger, and swerve left to right instead of going straight). A major change in the Boolossus battle is that you ride around on your vacuum cleaner while trying to pop Boolossus, making movement more slippery.
Rooms are much darker in the PAL version.
Boos have more HP in the PAL version.
Fewer hearts. Locations that always had hearts in the Normal Mansion no longer have them. Hearts that heal 50 HP no longer exist.
Rank A is achieved at 150,000,000G in the PAL version, an ultimate challenge.
Speedy Spirits and Gold Mice always give up a Blue Diamond when caught.
Possibly (not confirmed) up to five times more power for the Poltergust in the PAL version.
These changes were made after American and Japanese gamers complained that the Hidden Mansion offered virtually no changes. Shigeru Miyamoto himself thought up some things to add to the PAL version's Hidden Mansion.
[edit] Trivia
The minimum amount is 5,000G. Getting so little money can only be achieved by only collecting King Boo's crown, which is rewarded to Luigi automatically.
The cover of Luigi's Mansion is similar to the cover of the movie Home Alone.
Some rooms of this game have cheese in them; this cheese is used to summon Gold Mice. Strangely, the concept of "mysterious cheese hidden in rooms" was previously used in Rare, Ltd.'s Perfect Dark, which had pointless cheese hidden in all of its rooms as an easter egg.
The game was once considered to be released on the Nintendo 64.
Each of the Boos' names are parodies of something.
Character of the week
Army hammer bro.
The Army Hammer Bro. is a major character and miniboss fought before the final showdown with Bowser in Super Princess Peach. The Army Hammer Bro leads the percent of the Koopa Troop made up of the Hammer Bros., although (according to the Glossary) it is unknown if he's actually any stronger at all.
Army Hammer Bro., who looks like a horned Hammer Bro clad in black armor, is first seen in the game's opening, where Bowser sends him out to cause chaos in the Mushroom Kingdom. Taking several of his Hammer Bros. along, as well as a rather vital Goomba, the Army Hammer Bro. set off to fulfill his orders. In the end, he and his troops managed to due just what they were told to: not only did they kidnap several Toads, they also managed to take both Mario and Luigi themselves off to Bowser's Villa.
The Army Hammer Bro was not seen until much later in the game. (The final stage, to be exact). As Princess Peach walked up to Bowser, she saw him in front of his king. He sarcastically ranted about Peach's courage, angering the princess. Then, Bowser, using the Vibe Scepter, powered him up with Rage. The princess and he then fought.
The battle with him isn't that hard. Although he can summon his Hammer Bro. underlings to assist him, all that Peach must do is whack him with Perry a few times. Then, she will move on to fighting King Bowser himself.
He is noticably the only Hammer Bro. with horns on his helmet.

Mario kart track of the week
Diamond city
Diamond City is a course in Mario Kart Arcade GP.
E. Gadd's logo can strangely be seen in the background of the course, which appears to house Gadd Science, Inc.. It may also be worth noting that several Magic Paintbrushes are also on display on this course.