Luigi's Mansion (ルイージマンション Ruīji Manshon?, "Luigi Mansion") is an action-adventure game published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It was the first game in the Mario franchise to be released for Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in Europe on May 3, 2002. The game was a launch title for the GameCube, and the second title in the Mario franchise where Luigi is the main character, instead of Mario, the first and third being Mario is Missing! and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, respectively.
The game takes place in a haunted mansion when Luigi wins a contest that he never entered. He told his brother to investigate. Luigi is searching for his brother, Mario, who came to the mansion earlier, but went missing. To help Luigi on his quest, an old scientist named Elvin Gadd or E. Gadd has equipped him with the "Poltergust 3000", a vacuum cleaner used for capturing ghosts, and a "Game Boy Horror", a device used for communicating with E. Gadd. He also uses it as a map and to examine ghosts.
Luigi's Mansion was relatively well received by reviewers, despite being criticized for its length. The game has sold over 2.5 million copies, and is the fifth best-selling Nintendo GameCube game in the United States. It was one of the first games to be re-released as a Player's Choice title on the system. The game was later followed by a sequel entitled Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013.
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