Luigi's Mansion, released in 2001, is not only one of the first video game titles for the Nintendo GameCube system; it is also the first official Super Mario-series title for the system. Luigi's Mansion is also the second Super Mario title to feature only Luigi, as opposed to most earlier Super Mario titles that featured the Mario character only or both Mario and Luigi. The video game features a unique set of goals and ways to attain those goals, involving stunning ghosts with a virtual flashlight and promptly sucking them into a vacuum cleaner, which is aptly named "Poltergeist 3000."

Storyline

Luigi's Mansion is also one of the few Super Mario video games that has an actual storyline other than simply "save the princess."

Luigi is informed that he has won a mansion in a contest -- a contest he didn't even enter. He tells his brother, Mario, to meet him at the mansion. After alerting his brother, Luigi sets off to the mansion himself. When he gets there, he finds that the mansion is haunted by ghosts, and Mario is nowhere to be found. With the help of Professor Elvin Gadd (a researcher of ghosts who lived in a shack near the haunted mansion) and his Poltergeist 3000, Luigi sets off to rescue Mario.