LUIGI'S MANSION
After a long and arduous detour, we finally finish up the major spinoff series connected to the Mario franchise and return to the main series once again. This round, we're going to be covering all the major side-character spinoffs, games starring secondary characters of the Mario series itself. This will include all three Luigi's Mansion games, Super Princess Peach, and Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Let's begin!
So, we'll start off with Luigi's Mansion, a quaint little horror game featuring Luigi exploring a haunted house and sucking up ghosts with a high tech vacuum called the Poltergust 3000. The story involves him mysteriously winning a mansion that turns out to be haunted, resulting in Mario's capture. Luigi befriends a scientist studying the mansion named Elvin Gadd, who supplies him with the Poltergust to be able to traverse the house.
Obviously, this game is quite unique, with an entirely unique moveset for Luigi meaning it will probably take up its own spot on the roster, but I imagine you all figured that already. His moves are all mostly focused around his vacuum, being able to suck up ghosts and other items with it, as well use it to blow fire, spray water, and shoot ice based on different elemental abilities. He also carries around a flashlight with which he can stun ghosts, though it doesn't come with the flashing ability seen in later games. He also has a Game Boy Horror that detects when ghosts are near and bring up information on various items.
Our main supporting characters are E. Gadd, Toad, and Mario. Toad is basically just your save option, and Mario is the damsel-in-distress character of sorts. Professor E. Gadd created all of your tech and teaches you how to use them. Logic then dictates that E. Gadd probably can do everything Vacuum Luigi can do, meaning he's a good echo fighter possibility there.
The villain of the game is King Boo, who created the mansion as a ruse to lure in the Mario brothers. As it is his first true appearance in the series, he hadn't quite come into his own as a boss the way he has in later games, and his boss fight is really just a Bowser battle, as he possessed a giant Bowser body that will stomp around, breathe fire, throw spike balls, and charge. King Boo does seem to have the ability to trap people in paintings and warp reality though. Boos, as a species are scattered throughout the game, generally hiding in already lit-up rooms with Luigi having to look for them. Apparently they can create bouncy balls and bombs as decoys as well.
Another major aspect of the game is the portrait ghosts, a series of ghostly individuals who appear to be the inhabitants of the mansion, either the main family living there or various house guests or extended relatives. This includes Neville and Lydia, the parents, and their three children, twins Henry and Orville and baby Chauncey; their butler Shivers and elderly grandmother Nana; a reclusive uncle Uncle Grimmly; their dog Spooky; the Floating Whirlindas, Melody Pianissima, Biff Atlas, Miss Petunia, Slim Bankshot, Madame Clairvoya, Sir Weston, and Vincent Van Gore, world-famous dancers, pianist, bodybuilder, beauty, billiards player, fortune-teller, explorer, and artist respectively; Mr. Luggs, who I assume is that one house guest who just shows up and eats all your food; Sue Pea, a girl sleeping in the guest room; Jarvis, some weird creature living in a bunch of pottery; a trio of living clockwork soldiers; and Bogmire and Boolossus, a living shadow inhabiting their graveyard and a group of Boos merged together into a giant one. Most of these have one attack tops related to what they are (for instance Sir Weston sends out ice shards and Mr. Luggs breathes fire), but in general are fairly basic. Chauncey, Bogmire, and Boolossus all act as major bosses, with Chauncey sending bouncy balls and rocking horses after you, and Bogmire spawning smaller shadows and occasionally striking with lightning.
Finally, we have a number of ghost types that act as the basic enemies of the game. We have: Gold Ghosts, the basic type that jump out at you and try to punch you; Blue Twirlers, blue versions that are more rare; Purple Punchers, larger pinkish ones that really try to punch you; Garbage Can Ghosts that eat bananas and drop the peels; Grabbing Ghosts that grapple you and hold on tight; Ghost Guys, basically ghost Shy Guys; Mr. Bones, skeletons in the graveyard (as well as two locked in trunks up in the playroom who I'm fairly certain are the bodies of Henry and Orville, but hey, that's just a theory); Waiters serving food to Mr. Luggs; Ceiling Surprises and Purple Bombers who hang from the cieling and drop bombs; Bowling Ghosts who roll bowling balls at you; and random bats, mice, and fish.
There's really only one major location to this game, being the mansion itself. The mansion has three stories with various rooms iconic to large spooky mansions, like bedrooms, a kitchen, a ballroom, a billiards room, a music room, and a cemetery in the back. This mansion is already a stage in Smash, so obviously. There is also E. Gadd's lab, which could have possibilities I suppose.
Items mostly include treasure, lots and lots of treasure, all over the place. A major part of the game is collecting it all. Other than that, we do have Mario's hat, glove, shoe, letter, and star, as well as the medallions that let you use the three elements of the game.
Now, let's see what we've got:
Characters:
Luigi: vacuum, suck up, flashlight, fire, water, ice, Game Boy Horror, examine
E. Gadd: made all the stuff
Mario
Toad
King Boo: paintings, warp reality, control Bowser
Bowser: stomp, breathe fire, ice, throw spike balls, charge, floating head
Boo: float, hide, bombs
Ghosts (general): jumpscare, punch, grapple, banana peels, ground pound, drop bombs, roll bowling balls, skeletons, serve food.
Bosses:
Chauncey
Bogmire
Boolossus
King Boo
Stages:
Luigi's Mansion
Professor E. Gadd's lab
Items:
Treasure
Medallions
Mario's Things
Thanks for reading! Next up, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon!
