Luigi's Mansion Retrospective

Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals/Liam and enter promo code Liam for an 83% discount and 3 extra months for free! Thanks for watching! This video has been on the back of my mind for about two years now, and with Luigi's Mansion 3 coming out I finally managed to pin down a cohesive script. Hope you all enjoy your Halloween safely in any way you can!

Liam: ...And the sound design Luigi: OHYEAOHYEAOHYEAOHYEAOHYEAOHY-

I love discovering videogame "retrospective" channels. They make for great binge-worthy content and they have an infectious sense of charm, especially when talking about Nintendo.

I think saying Luigi is a coward is a gross mischaracterization of him. In fact Luigi is extremely courageous and brave, facing terrifying and deadly ghosts all to save his brother. Bravery is not the absence of fear it’s facing those fears head on which is exactly what Luigi does. Plus let’s not act like it’s unreasonable to be afraid of literal ghosts.

Fun story: the first time I ever played Luigi's Mansion my friend let me borrow his gamecube but didn't bring a memory card. I finished the entire game and captured all the boos, then died against bowser

Every time you said “While Luigis Mansion” I interpreted it as “Waluigis Mansion”

"I'm too shy, besides I'm making spaghetti and meatballs" 🥺

"I can't help but miss what the first game accomplished." Exactly! Me too. Between the first game, developed by Nintendo, and the second and third games, developed by Canadian designers, there's a vast difference in atmosphere and design. I just really love the look and feel of the original game, even to this day. I like Dark Moon and 3, but the atmosphere, tone, mood, and visuals are very different.

10:43 waluigis mansion. sorry, i just had to

"Like plant-watering" yes, the true epitome of game design.

You forgot to mention the best part of Luigi’s Mansion 2: Luigi! Luigi just radiates personality in the game and I think he’s even better in this one than the original.

The Luigi's Mansion franchise was always more satisfying than games with Mario as the main star IMO. Mario's fault is that he hasn't any. Luigi, on the other hand, is cowardly and unsure of himself. You root for him and want to succeed, and as the player, you can help him. He's terrified and fighting for his life, but when he finds a key, beats a boss or finds one of his friends, he's genuinely happy and proud of himself. The endings to all three games are actually happy. They feel rewarding and have this "You did it!" vibe. The second and third games show this strongly. Dark Moon has Mario congratulate Luigi and call him "Number one!" which makes me understand exactly why they released the game to coincide with the Year of Luigi. Then, the third game one-ups that by not only showing the brothers hugging each other, but Peach hugs them as well. Nintendo has done a huge 180 in recent years with Luigi. Throughout the 2000s, he was a cowardly idiot, not as good as Mario and we were encouraged to point and laugh at him. As of 2013, he's a hero in his own right and believes in himself.

Bring back the horror elements of Luigi's Mansion! I was disappointed that the rooms just stay at a consistent lighting no matter your progress. I loved the pure darkness of the original and the relief of the light when you succeeded. That missing in 3 is the biggest disappointment.

Me: "Ah yes, this guy seems to know what he's talking about. A reputable review of Luigi's Mansion, indeed." finds out that he captured Morty Me: So you have chosen death.

When I played LM 3 I enjoyed collecting cash until the very end, not because I was chasing the rank at the end, but just because I enjoy playing games like these thoroughly. There's something really satisfying about squeezing every last coin out of a room by interacting with everything and finding all the hidden cash staches. Heck, I even enjoyed sucking up every single little prop that you could suck up, just for the heck of it.

The first Luigi’s Mansion game is so much my favorite game, I even made my own Theory of King Boo being Bowser’s original soul.

Holy shit I love the idea of an A rank getting you an actual explorable mansion. I'd even be okay if it were literally just a reskinned version of the normal mansion that you could just walk through and appreciate.

10:29 I believe Van Gore is responsible solely for the non-portrait ghosts, while the other portrait ghosts were once alive like himself judging from the portraits hung around the house (in the Parlor there are portraits of Neville, Nana, Mr. Whirlwinda and Van Gore himself being the central figure) so I don't think Van Gore painted them, but are indeed likely to be his relatives. (Chauncey is a tricky one, he's supposed to have been "born a ghost", which implies either being a miscarriage, a stillborn or Neville and Lydia somehow had him while already ghosts... yet in the nursery he has a portrait depicting him while alive, a plot hole I guess?)

The reason it's broken up into missions is that it's a portable title. Nintendo has said this. They wanted the game to let you pick it up, play for a few minutes, and feel like you've accomplished something. It's a core part of their mobile design.

Great discussion of the Luigi’s Mansion series, but I’m surprised you didn’t at least mention the 3DS remake of the original. It completely reworked the ghost gallery, added achievements, let you use Dark Moon's strobulb, and even included multiplayer with Gooigi (even if it didn't work that well).