What a great game.
Gameplay 8/10
Well, what can I say? It's sucking up ghosts with a vacuum named the "Poltergust 3000". It's pretty simple. Most of the time. But sometimes it's more than sucking up ghosts; sometimes, it's sucking up other things and shooting it AT a ghost.....then sucking the ghost up. But, wait. I'm going ahead of myself here.
Alright, here's how it goes. You go from room to room, catching either a room of normal ghosts (the orange, purple, blue ect. ghosts.) or a room with a Portrait ghost(s). Every time you get rid of every ghost in a room, the room's lights all turn on. Then, (after releasing the Boos) you use your Gameboy Horror to find where the Boo is hidden in the room, and after you find it, you have to suck it up. Now, most people I've heard think that catching Boo's (heh, catching Boo's.) is one of the most annoying things you have to do in the game. Mainly because of how they move from room to another, and that can get exhausting. But I disagree. I think it makes it more fun.
So, anyway, after you get all of the Portrait ghosts in the area, you go an fight the boss ghost. After you beat the boss ghost, you get a a special key that gets you into the next area. You can money from a variety of things.
But anyway, on to the next part of this mediocre review.
Controls 7/10
The controls are OK. I'm not going to go into detail or anything, but sometimes, the controls get a little screwy. Especially when trying to suck up ghosts.
Graphics 9/10
For one of the first Game Cube games ever to come out, the graphics are amazing. Like, the only gripes I could possibly have are how Luigi's mouth kinda looks weird at times, and how the red carpets in the hallways look a bit pixelated. But aside from that, the graphics are very stylish, and original. There are a few rooms in the game that are just plain eye candy. Of course, I'm talking about the two sparkling golden rooms full of chests. Also, the jewels that you collect look amusingly shiny, especially the one on King Boo's crown. oooo, shiny. :o
Music 10/10
Freaking awesome. Koji Kondo, you've done it again.
Yeah, the music in this game is orsum. Really. Every tune is melodic, and well done. The best tunes in the game is the boss music BY FAR. I mean, they're so good, that the three bosses before the final boss feel like final bosses themselves, mainly because of the music.
It just further proves that if something is composed by Kondo, it will always turn out good.
Replay Value:
Well, there is a bit of replay value in the game. After you defeat the final boss, you get to start over again, and get to go into the hidden mansion. (but the only thing I find different is the little star at the bottom of the screen.) But basically, the main reason why you have replay the game over and over again is to get golden frames for every portrait ghost, and get the highest possible rank for your new mansion by collecting a lot of money. That's it. But, even after I got the rank A (or was it S?) mansion, I continued to replay the game just because I flat out love it. (and because not all of the frames were golden.)
Bad things about this game:
Well, there aren't any real bad things about the game, but there are a few. One, it's too short. I mean REALLY short. Once you've beaten the final boss once, you'll find yourself fighting the final boss AGAIN very shortly after you started over. I mean there's only 4 freaking areas! There could of been more! Maybe they could've expanded the size of the mansion a little to add a couple more rooms or floors. Second, ghosts disappear to freaking quickly after you shine your flash light on them. Geez. Also, your Poltergust 3000 can be really inattentive when it comes to picking up the spike balls that the final boss throws at you. Third, you can get pushed over by a ROLLING BALL OF YARN. WTF?
Rent or Buy?
Why do I even ask this question anymore? Buy!