The RetroBeat: Luigi’s Mansion gave Mario’s brother his own identity

Luigi’s Mansion 3 comes out on October 31, and it’ll be Nintendo’s biggest Switch release for the rest of the year (that doesn’t include the word Pokémon in the title). But before the Halloween launch, I’m looking back and appreciating the original Luigi’s Mansion for GameCube, a game that helped define a console and a little brother.

Because before Luigi’s Mansion came out in 2001, Luigi was stuck in Mario’s shadow. Luigi started life as a green-colored palette-swap for Mario in the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros., and that was his role going forward for a long time. If a Mario game had two players, Luigi would be called into action.