Players control him as he explores a haunted mansion to rescue Mario and battles ghosts by capturing them through a vacuum cleaner supplied by Professor E. Gadd.

Luigi's Mansion's story takes place over four "areas", or sets of explorable rooms between boss fights.

Using the Game Boy Horror, players can access a map of the mansion, seeing which rooms they have visited, what doors are open, and which remain locked.

The treasures are typically hidden inside objects as well as chests that appear when rooms are cleared, though they can also be found from vacuuming ghosts.

[5] Boos are trickier to catch, as they can plant decoys and traps within objects they can hide in that can fool the GB Horror and will escape into other rooms if they can.

Once the final boss is defeated, the player is given a rank (A to H) after the end credits based on the amount of treasure Luigi has found.

Working his way through each of the darkened floors, halls and locked rooms, Luigi recaptures the escaped ghosts and discovers that Mario has been trapped inside of a painting by King Boo and held captive in a secret ritualistic altar in the mansion's basement.

Using his illusionary powers within a pocket dimension inside it, King Boo creates a suit-like replica of Bowser to combat Luigi.

Returned to the real world in the aftermath, Luigi finds Mario unconscious but still trapped within the painting, which he triumphantly carries out of the mansion.

[12] Returning to E. Gadd's laboratory in the morning, he informs Luigi that the mansion has ceased to exist as they turn King Boo into a painting along with the last of the recaptured ghosts.

The game was revealed at Nintendo Space World 2000 as a technological demo designed to show off the graphical capabilities of the GameCube.

As the lighting scheme was developed, darkness and shadows became key areas of focus, and an older American-styled haunted house was ultimately chosen as the setting.

Older concepts, such as a role-playing game-like system which made real-time changes to rooms, as well as a cave area located under the mansion, were scrapped due to the inclusion of the new ideas.

[21] The main theme of Luigi's Mansion was orchestrated and arranged by Shogo Sakai for Super Smash Bros.

[58] According to Nintendo, the game was a large driving force behind the GameCube's launch sales and sold more copies in its opening week than Super Mario 64 had managed to sell.

[66] Critically, Luigi's Mansion was positively received, with reviewers praising the game's graphics, design, and gameplay.

[36] The audio was praised by IGN, who considered Luigi's voice acting as "cute, humorous and satisfying",[44] and GameSpy, who declared that the soundtrack remains "subtle, amusing and totally suitable throughout the game".

GameSpot said that Luigi's Mansion "fails to match the classic status of Mario's adventures" and that the "short amount of time it takes to complete it makes it a hard recommendation".

[67] Allgame declared that Luigi's Mansion "ultimately fails to deliver a cohesive gameplay experience over the long-term".

The game uses the same plot as Dark Moon, but goes for a first-person, on-rails gameplay style, and utilizes a special vacuum-based controller.

The game is mostly found in Japanese arcades, although some cabinets have been localized and released at select Dave & Buster's locations in the United States.

The remake has amiibo functionality and supports gyroscopic controls, the Circle Pad Pro accessory, the C-Stick on New Nintendo 3DS models, and stereoscopic 3D.

[82] Four other new features were added as new content: local cooperative play in which a second player takes on the role of a doppelgänger named "Gooigi", a new control option that allows the use of the Strobulb flashlight from Dark Moon, an achievement list, and a boss rush mode where up to two players can attempt to clear boss fights as fast as possible.

[83] Critical reception to the remake was generally positive; reviewers appreciated the effort put into the revamped visuals and many believe the core experience to largely hold up 17 years after the original release.

Outlets also spoke positively about the implementation of stereoscopic 3D and the two screens as well as the new content such as the boss rush mode and the PAL Hidden Mansion.