Having futzed around with my new GameCube for a couple weeks now, I thought I'd post a review or two. I picked up Luigi's Mansion as a rental last week -- it was the flagship offering when the GameCube was released last year. The game is a perfect distraction that effectively shows off the graphics of the GameCube. Though the sound is weak (there's little music, and characters talk in the gibberish-style popularized by Gobliiins a decade ago), the visuals and animations are extremely well-done. The game is essentially a side-scrolling puzzle game which involves being a ghostbuster in a haunted mansion. By fixing the camera to a specific perspective, the game manages to avoid the horrible camera problems that plagued Mario 64. Controlling Luigi takes some getting used to, but it's fun enough while it lasts. Just when the game starts to get repetitive and annoying, you've reached the final boss and the game is over.

The game's biggest weakness is definitely its length (I finished it in under two days), and since it's still selling for $50 retail, this would be a good choice for rental. Puzzles are either completely arbitrary or solvable through trial-and-error, but there's absolutely no replay value to the game. Right now, I'm inching towards the end of Metroid Prime, which could easily be the best console game I've played since the Super NES days.

Microsoft continues to do stupid things
Vacuums > Crabs (don't watch this if you flinch a lot)