Prerelease:Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)
This page details pre-release information and/or media for Luigi's Mansion (GameCube).
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Luigi's Mansion had a rather interesting development cycle, originally starting development on the Nintendo 64 as a title completely unrelated to the Mario franchise. It is also notorious for having some of the most ludicrous rumors floating around the "beta" revision of the game such as the Safari Ghost, Zombie Luigi, Mario's demise, having a higher age rating, you name it.
Contents
Development Timeline
Pre-2000
- Luigi's Mansion begins its life as a concept for a video game based on exploring a big house or apartment complex.
- The team decides to settle on the architectural style of European mansions.
- Previous ideas included a Japan-style / "Ninja"-style as well as a style more akin to previous Mario games where there would be levels instead of a single house (Grassland, Desert, etc.).
- The team decides to transition development of the game to the GameCube. The game is developed alongside the hardware.
- The team settles on basing the game's camera on a doll house.
- The team decides to make the mansion have a lighting scheme with a lot of darkness and shadows. The mansion is made to be haunted in order to reflect the lighting.
- After the team decides to make the house haunted, they transition from featuring Mario as the main character to Luigi, due to being scared not fitting Mario's personality.
- The mansion is decided to have 3 stories along with a basement.
2000
- August 23 - The game appears as an FMV tech demo at Spaceworld.
2001
- May 17 - The game is shown off in a playable state at E3. A trailer is revealed, along with a playable demo on the show floor.
- August 24 - The game is shown off again at Spaceworld.
- September 14 - Luigi Mansion is released in Japan.
- November 18 - Luigi's Mansion is released in North America.
2002
- May 3 - Luigi's Mansion is released in Europe.
Initial Concepts
Development originally started out on the Nintendo 64 having absolutely no affiliation with the Mario series and was later segued to the GameCube with it having better hardware. The conceptual stages of the game are a bit foggy; the two main ideas that were thrown around consist of a ninja house, European-inspired buildings, and a dollhouse. The developers eventually went with the European style, which can share a likeness with older mansions in North America.
2000
August
Spaceworld 2000
Luigi's Mansion officially appeared on the sizzle reel for Spaceworld 2000, a compilation of games consisting of high-quality FMVs boasting how much of a powerhouse the GameCube was said to be.
There is also an extended FMV of Luigi entering the mansion, walking in the dark, looking at the fourth wall, and then looking back to see an undefined ghost appear right in front of him. The ghost shows off its set of teeth, which scares Luigi out of his mind. Two other ghosts had likely seen the antics and decided to join in on the fun. Then there are ghosts playing a game of poker. Interestingly, the second screen is actually used as the pause menu image in the final game. (Some of the FMV was recycled in the E3 2001 trailer, hence the E3 marks on some of the images.)
Footage
The initial footage that was released publicly online was taken from a sizzle reel showing footage of multiple tech demos. The section containing Luigi's Mansion content is only about 7 seconds long. A high-quality version of the sizzle reel was posted to YouTube by Hard4Games on January 25, 2024.
However, this wasn't the only Luigi's Mansion footage shown at SpaceWorld 2000, as there was a 45-second FMV dedicated to the game at the show. A recording of the full FMV was posted on November 24, 2021 by Adam Doree, creator of GamerWeb.
GameCube Controller Demo
Also from Spaceworld 2000, a ghost from Luigi's Mansion was used in a GameCube controller demonstration. However, it is unknown if the behavior of the ghost shown off in the game was once considered for the game. The ghost could skew vertically and horizontally, laugh maniacally, and burp with a projectile that would spread on the floor. The beginning of the clip also shows off the original Foyer at the beginning which was created for the FMV shown at the same event. This event was also only closed to the press.
Gallery
From Nintendo Official Magazine Issue 99 (December 2000) Page 89
2001
Spring
The Nintendo Difference Build
In Nintendo's "The Nintendo Difference" sizzle reel, Luigi's Mansion is one of the games shown off. However, it does not show off the build seen at E3. In fact, it is an even older build.
- The HUD has a high-resolution icon of Luigi's dialogue box icon.
- It's theorized that this icon could have shown different facial expressions to respond to current situation in gameplay.
- The HUD does not yet have the coin counter from the E3 build.
- The overheat meter was placed in the middle and counts down from 10 instead of starting from zero.
- The game has brighter lighting compared to E3.
- Several ghost models look slightly different from the E3 build.
- A green border covers the screen during normal gameplay.
- The paintings in the Parlor (Living Room) are all the same texture of a pink ghost holding a pipe and sporting a top hat.
- The model for this painting is featured in the Luigi's Mansion microgame in WarioWare: Get It Together!
- Ghosts use similar color schemes compared to what was seen in the E3 demo.
- The "Scare Ghost" could be any type of ghost, but the main hallway variant is pink.
- This behavior is partially left over in the retail build of the game, as luige.szp and bmario.szp (both found in root\model) still have the animations associated with the Nintendo Difference fear state.
- Additionally, most of the main ghosts have a set of "EnFrighten" / scare animations left over in the retail build of the game.
- An orange puncher can be seen next to the entrance to the bathroom using the "EnFrighten" / scare fail animation, implying that all ghosts can use the scare attack, which can be partially restored using appear type 1.
May
E3 2001
Luigi's Mansion made an appearance at E3 2001, which was held on May 17-19. The game was shown off during Nintendo's press conference and it seemed to appeal to the crowd! The game has many differences compared to its final counterpart. The gameplay remained constant aside from the Poltergust 3000 having the ability to overheat and Luigi's max health could be downed to 50HP if he was scared by a specific hallway ghost. Other content such as the music was arranged differently, sounding more eerie and synthesized as opposed to the final theme. This can be the more confusing portion of the article to understand. There are a few rumors that flounder around the E3 build: Some say that Luigi has 24 hours to save Mario; if he didn't, Mario would disappear and Luigi would turn into a zombie. Not true, definitely not; for example, the only ways the demo could be ended were via a Game Over, which happened to be identical to the retail build's, and reaching 1:30 AM on the Game Boy Horror timer, which would result in E. Gadd calling Luigi and sending the player back to the title screen.
The E3 2001 trailer shows off two builds throughout the trailer. Mainly just simple texture changes like the portraits in the Parlor. This particular trailer also does not show off the coin counter as part of the HUD. However, the coin counter ended up making it into the floor demo.
Trailer
- The ball ghosts bouncing around in some of the rooms were replaced by Boos in the E3 build.
- There is no appearance of a coin meter in this trailer.
- The textures for the portraits in the Parlor/Living room change from the Victorian Ghost to the Mozart-esque Ghost.
- The "Mozart-esque" ghost can be seen on a poster in the Observatory in the retail build of the game.
- The trailer utilizes footage from the Spaceworld 2000 FMV in multiple areas.
- Area 3 is shown off in the trailer, and the doors have different textures. This particular area isn't seen in the demo, only in screenshots from Nintendo.
- The music in the trailer sounds slightly different compared to the E3 demo counterpart, most likely due to the E3 demo using sequenced audio.
- When Luigi enters the mansion at 0:52, he does not have a flashlight.
- This could have been the original plan for the intro of the game, but was scrapped for one reason or another.
- The short cutscene for bringing up the GBH (which was originally a Game Boy Color) is different and much slower, could have been a pause menu at some point in time.
- Additionally, the health meter stays on screen during this transition, which doesn't happen in the final game.
- Most of the audio is different from the final game, which can be narrowed down to a couple theories:
- The person in charge of doing the audio mixing for the trailer decided to add in or change some sounds in order to spice up the trailer.
- This footage is from a build somewhere between the "Nintendo Difference" build and the E3 2001 demo build.
- In the ending of the trailer, it zooms out of the mansion gates and features Luigi with a long, depressed face as he shuffles back up, with lightning striking just as it shows this.
- Despite people across the internet believing this to be the game over sequence, this scene is not present in the any known build of the game, it is simply and FMW sequence taken from the Spaceworld 2000 tech demo.
| E3 2001 | Final |
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Intro Differences
The intro to the demo is very similar to that of the final game, save for a couple of changes. The very beginning has the camera emerging from the forest into a wide shot of the mansion, while Luigi is walking up the steps to the door. It's more similar to the scene in which Luigi is leaving E. Gadd's lab than to the final intro scene.
- The HP meter on the HUD displays as a fraction rather than a whole number.
- This was likely present due to the fact that the "scare ghost" could change Luigi's maximum health.
- The font used for Luigi's HP is different than in the final game, and uses the same font used for dialog text.
- The HUD has a spinning coin graphic along with text counting how many coins the player has collected.
- The door to the Area 2 hallway is in the same style as the one to the Parlor, rather than having a heart design on it to match the key obtained from Chauncey's Nursery.
- Additionally, there are no vines covering the doors. The door could be unlocked like a standard door instead.
- There is a shorter delay between Luigi trying to open the door to the Parlor and the ghostly giggling sound in the demo.
- The music for when Luigi encounters the ghost carrying the key to the Parlor is different.
- Luigi is completely static when it pans out to him in the ghost key scene.
- Picking up the key to the Parlor doesn't trigger the "Got a Key!" animation and accompanying fanfare.
- This is consistent throughout the demo, so it was either added later or disabled for demo purposes.
- This functionality can be replicated in the final game with an AR code.
- When Luigi enters the Parlor, the cutscene's music is completely different, and his cutscene model has different eye textures.
- The cutscene in the Parlor has more text than in the final. Luigi screams "Aaahhhh!" when the ghost appears, the ghost says "... Ugh!" when E. Gadd starts to suck it up, and the trio of ghosts says "BOOOOOOOOO!!!" when they appear.
- The images from the Parlor cutscene released at E3 do not match the actual cutscene.
- It's possible that the images were from an earlier version of the cutscene, or they were created separately.
- E. Gadd's speech is completely different from the final NOA translation. He refers to himself as Dr. Elvin Gad (with one "d" instead of two) and says that he's been living in what he thought was a vacant house. He says that the mansion is famous for being haunted; this isn't the case in the final, as in the final the mansion is actually an illusion created by the Boos.
Demo
Audio Differences
- The title screen audio is completely different from the final.
- The sound that plays is present and unused in the final game. It can be restored using an Action Replay code.
- E. Gadd's Lab has different music.
- The dark rooms theme had a completely different composition with more synthesized electronic sound to it.
- Some of the instruments used in this theme can be found in the final game.
- Lit rooms have a completely unused variant of the main theme performed with bell-like instruments, instead of Luigi's whistling.
- Luigi's footstep sound is different.
- The sound is leftover in the final game and can be re-enabled with an Action Replay code.
- The pitch of the Poltergust's vacuuming sound is different.
- This can be re-enabled with the use of an Action Replay code.
Graphical Differences
- Dialogue boxes are opaque and have different colorations.
- Gadd's menu only has two options as opposed to three in the final game, gallery excluded.
- These options are "Go to the Mansion" and "Practice".
- The mansion's lighting is considerably darker than in the final game.
- This lighting is used in the PAL Hidden Mansion mode.
- Additionally, it can be used in the US version's Hidden Mansion using an Action Replay code.
- Almost anything that had a cloth over it is completely absent in the demo.
- The Poltergust 3000 has a very different design.
- Ghosts have a more diverse set of colors.
- The vacuum tube swells when you suck up objects.
- Vases in the hallways are blue with horizontal stripes, as opposed to the red and gold design used in the final game.
- The model for the vase used in the E3 demo would later appear in the Luigi's Mansion stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl--.
- The water particle is different.
Gameplay Differences
- After pressing Start on the title screen, two options were presented instead of taking you to the file select screen. Either "FROM THE BEGINNING" or "SKIP INTRO".
- Selecting "SKIP INTRO" would, you guessed it, skip the intro.
- The texture for the "FROM THE BEGINNING" text is leftover in the final game.
- The cutscene that plays when entering the mansion is quite different. It starts in the woods coming to a wide shot of the mansion.
- The Game Boy Horror had a timer / radar functionality instead of displaying your treasures.
- The radar function on the display does not react to nearby ghosts as it did in the trailer.
- The timer would tick up by one minute every ~6 real-world seconds.
- Once the timer reached 1:30 AM (exactly 9 minutes real-time), E. Gadd would interrupt the player and let them know the demo was over. The player would then be sent to the main menu.
- This functionality can be restored using an Action Replay code.
- Normal ghosts could also appear in the hallway. The two that have been seen are the White Puncher, and the "basher", which seems to vary in color.
- The Poltergust 3000 could overheat if you vacuumed for too long.
- A meter is shown while vacuuming to represent this feature.
- If the meter reached 10, the vacuum would "explode", damaging Luigi.
- A meter is shown while vacuuming to represent this feature.
- There was a special ghost that would appear behind Luigi in the 1F hallway. A mist would form, warning the player that it was about to appear.
- Once the ghost appeared, a graphic would appear next to it that displays "BAHHHHH".
- If Luigi was too close to the ghost when it appeared, he would go into a "crawling state".
- When in this state, Luigi would have his health set to 50, and his max health would be drained to 50 for a short time and he is also unable to use the Poltergust.
- The ghost would continue appear afterward until it had been captured by Luigi.
- The presentation demo has the exclusive feature of testing the elementals out. The water element was the only one to be shown, accompanied by its own nozzle that was even color-coded!
Room Differences
- Many doors are boarded off, presumably due to the fact that they were not ready to be shown at this point in development.
- The door to the Anteroom is blocked off.
- The Dining Room had doors leading to the Billiards' Room and the Projection Room, although they are once again blocked off. There was also a door that was across from the Foyer door.
- The door to the Ball Room is blocked off.
- The Kitchen was connected to the Laundry Room, although the door is, once again, blocked off.
- The door to the Billiards Room is blocked off.
- The door to the Laundry Room is blocked off.
- The Conservatory door was directly across from the 1F Bathroom; it too is blocked off.
- Miniature Boos can be seen floating around the Study.
- There is only one cabinet in the Dining Room. The final game occupies the areas in which the blocked-off doors are apparent.
- A Grandfather clock can be seen at the right end of the Dining Room.
- The Refrigerator is already open in the Kitchen.
- The Area 3 door is missing entirely. Overall, the 1F Bathroom/Washroom hallway was identical to that of the 2nd floor.
- Luigi's reflection in the mirror is almost pitch black. Luigi's model in the reflection lacks shaders; so while he appears as pitch dark, he is actually albedo.
- Ms. Petunia's silhouette appears in the 1F Bathroom. However, Petunia herself isn't behind the shower curtain.
Control Differences
While the controls are more or less similar, there are some notable differences:
- The analog and C-stick are switched, meaning the C-stick is for movement and the analog is for direction.
- The player could squat using the Z button.
- The player could not turn off the flashlight using the B button.
- The player could not call for Mario using the A button.
IGN Footage
The footage IGN captured was quite sub-par in terms of quality.
Gamers Anonymous Footage
Footage uploaded on August 13, 2019 by Gamers Anonymous shows a tour of the E3 2001 Nintendo booth, including gameplay of the Luigi's Mansion demo. This footage has a small portion of training room gameplay, but most notably it features an early pause menu, with the text "<Pause>" at the top, which was replaced by a Boo in the final game. Additionally, the two control styles were called "Type A" and "Type B", rather than "Standard" and "Sidestep". This is noteworthy, as the textures for this text are named e_ptx_typea_a.bti and e_ptx_typeb_a.bti in the final game.
E3 Screens
Pre-Spaceworld 2001
- The title screen still appears the same as in the E3 2001 build.
- The element meter was once a ghost counter that counted all the ghosts Luigi sucked up and maxed out at ten (it doesn't count Boos, mice, bats, etc.). This functionality still exists in the final game.
- The Game Boy Horror would sink 3/4ths below the screen.
- This feature can be restored while vacuuming using an Action Replay code.
- The Game Boy Horror once could act as a first-person camera (this still exists in the final game's code).
- This functionality can be replicated using an Action Replay code.
- The cutscene where Luigi gets scared by the Gold Ghost still uses the music from the E3 2001 build.
- Luigi was given a singular speech bubble for being scared in the same scene. The text remains unused in the final game.
- The Boo counter was represented by a whole number instead of a fraction.
- This can be replicated using an Action Replay code.
- King Boo either had no crown when he and the rest of the Boos are unleashed from the grate, or he initially didn't show up at that specific part of the cutscene.
- Door textures would vary.
- The doors to Area 2 do not have the heart-shaped engraving. Instead, the textures from the Parlor's entrance were re-used.
- The Twins and Chauncey had their own unique door textures (which both still exist unused in the final game, and can be re-enabled using an Action Replay code.
- Luigi's animation in the Chauncey boss sequence is different.
- No jingle would play when Luigi picked up a key. However, this could have been in the promotional footage only.
- The ice elemental icon was different.
- The icon for said elemental is currently the only one seen in this build, so there's only speculation as to if the other two also had different icons or not.
- A money chest originally appeared in the Wardrobe room once lit. It may have been removed to avoid a potential clash with the key chest that later appears when defeating Uncle Grimmly.
August
Spaceworld 2001
Luigi's Mansion would have its final appearance at Spaceworld 2001, held on August 24-26. The game's aesthetics are the same for the most part, except for most of the ghost designs. Although, other elements such as the music and HUD were changed as well. The game by this point is complete and identical to the Japanese retail release.
- The Heat Meter is "removed". It appears to be grayed out and the Poltergust 3000 no longer overheats.
- The Game Boy Horror no longer has a clock function. Instead, it keeps track of any collectibles you have come across.
- Music has been changed to a more realistic-like organ.
- Door layouts and ghost locations have been modified.
- Aesthetic changes:
- Normal ghosts gained a makeover. (colors, facial features, animations, etc.)
- Luigi now only holds the flashlight with two hands when his health is low.
GameCube Manual
The Nintendo GameCube instruction manual contains screenshots featuring what appears to be an early banner for the game. The banner image features icons for Luigi, E. Gadd, and an early Gold Ghost.
| Mockup | Final |
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| First Game Play Screen | Second Game Play Screen |
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| Short | Long |
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Luigi's Mansion Nintendo Co., Ltd. |
Luigi's Mansion 2001 Nintendo Co., Ltd. This is the new title in the Mario series. |
Near-Final Press Screenshots
Similar to the final, but with some minor differences.
- The Game Boy Horror icons looked more cartoony, e.g. the coin icon resembled the Super Mario World's.
Exiting the Lab
| Kiosk Demo | Final |
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- The camera is at a different angle and is zoomed in a bit.
Study
| Kiosk Demo | Final |
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- There are no spiderwebs on the bookcases.
- The portrait on the wall is missing.
- The Boo counter shows 1, which is impossible in the final game during Area 1, as you can't enter 1F Hallway.
Armory
| Kiosk Demo | Final |
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- The shield is placed above the right chest, instead of the left chest in the final.
- Either mirror isn't present in the Armory yet, or it swapped places with the shield, as it isn't seen in the pre-release screenshot.
