The Bookshelf

The Bookshelf
Main screen with instructions
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Browser
Release date	2001
Genre	Action
Rating(s)	N/A
Mode(s)	Single player
Format	HTML
Input	Mouse

“Roll over a book to learn its title. You may find interesting information... or will you? Creepy.”

—Description on the main screen

The Bookshelf was an activity that was part of the Lab Flash game on the Luigi's Mansion microsite on Nintendo's North American website. The game provides basic information of Luigi's Mansion, instructions on how to catch ghosts and the history of Luigi up to that point. The game also gifts the player with Luigi's Mansion-themed content such as a wallpaper and a screensaver.

Gameplay

The player has to click on the row to open one book. After that, they can read never-before-seen details about Luigi, including his participation in previous and most recent games at the time. The player can also explore basic information about the plot of the game. The series of eight books on the upper shelf, Ghost Extermination in Eight Volumes, contains methods to exterminate ghosts. However, the player cannot open these books, and the text implies someone is holding them shut. The eight books on the lower shelf make up Encyclopedia Bootanica, which seem to greatly detail another book known as A Room with a Boo while having little information on how to actually catch ghosts. These, too, cannot be opened. Each book provides free downloadable content such as a wallpaper of Luigi's history and even a screensaver.

• History of Luigi, by J.R.R. Spookien: "Like Gilligan to the Skipper, Alfred to Bruce Wayne and Milhouse to Bart Simpson, Luigi is the quintessential second banana, always the second choice to his spotlight-hogging brother. Despite Luigi's clearly superior leaping ability, Mario is always your default choice in classic platformers like Super Mario Advance. He fares even worse in epics like Paper Mario, getting the big-brother brush-off. Talk about sibling rivalry!. Since self-cloning is one of the few abilities Mario hasn't mastered, Luigi gets his most screen time in multiplayer Paks like Mario Tennis and Mario Kart 64. Serving aces and taking the checkered flag has given him the self-confidence to sally alone into a haunted house at midnight. Who knows what a perennial second-banana is capable of when he finds his courage?"
  • Mario Bros, NES: "Video games would be very different today if Luigi's debut had been called "Luigi Bros." instead of you-know-who Bros."
  • Super Mario Bros, NES: "Busy game designers didn't have time to give Luigi his characteristic long and lean look in Super Mario Bros., another early hit on the Nintendo Entertainment System."
  • Mario Tennis, VB & GB: "Cutting-edge monochrome graphics meant that Luigi had to wear Marioesque red in Mario Tennis^[sic] and Mario Clash, his games on the forgettable Virtual Boy system. Thankfully for all involved, his green-garbed appearances in Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color and N64 are much better known today."
  • Mario Kart 64: "Whether the game is golf, tennis or Kart racing, Luigi is always a solid choice. Not quite as quick and nimble as Peach and Yoshi, perhaps, and lacking the brute strength of Donkey Kong, he's always a decent performer. Heck, in Mario Kart 64, he even gets his own race track!"
  • Paper Mario: "Luigi has thrust himself forward by sheer grit, appearing in more than a dozen games since 1999. Being relegated to the sidelines yet again in Paper Mario has apparently only steeled Luigi's determination. Maybe it's a feeling of "I'll show him!" that propels Luigi up those creaky steps and into his newly won mansion."
  • Super Mario Advance: "Luigi gets to grow big and fling fruit in Super Mario Advance, the best-selling update of Super Mario Bros. 2. Nice work if you can get it."

• Basic Game Info, by C.S. Booois, a guide to the great mystery of the mansion: "In his first-ever starring role, Luigi steps out of the shadow of his big brother and into the very spooky shadows of a humongous haunted house. Luigi is astounded to learn that he's won a mansion, especially since he had never heard of the contest in which it was top prize! Luigi shows up one dark and stormy midnight, expecting to meet Mario and claim his prize. But his brother is nowhere to be found! summoning his courage, Luigi creeps up the steps and into the dim and seemingly abandoned house. Suddenly, a glimmering form floats toward him. Could it be a gh-gh-gh-ghost? Even more suddenly, the ghosts shrieks and starts slipping away - into an odd-looking vacuum cleaner wielded by a^[sic] odder-looking old man. With a mighty heave, the ghost breaks free, and terrified Luigi and professor Elvin Gadd scram faster than you can say "Poltergeist!" Prof. Gadd, paranormal researcher extraordinaire, tells Luigi a strange story about Mario entering the mansion - but not returning! He provides Luigi with a specially modified vacuum cleaner, but perhaps knowing something Luigi doesn't - watches from a distance as Luigi tremblingly re-enters the mansion. Does Luigi have what it takes to become a hero?"

Gallery

• 

  History of Luigi

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

  Basic Game Info

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

  A Gold Ghost flies across the screen after 20 seconds of inactivity.

• 

  A pair of eyes appears in both letter O's.

Notes

• This section of the lab acknowledges the failure of the Virtual Boy, regarding it as a "forgettable system," as written on one page of the book History of Luigi.
• The Mario Tennis section of History of Luigi uses the acronym "GB", referring to the original Game Boy, rather than "GBC", the acronym for the Game Boy Color.
• In the appendix of History of Luigi, the list of games is sorted in chronological error, with the exception of both versions of Yoshi's Cookie, which are incorrectly placed between NES Open Tournament Golf and Super Mario Kart, rather than Super Mario Kart and Super Mario All-Stars.
  • Additionally, Luigi does not actually appear in either version; it is possible that Yoshi's Cookie was confused for Yoshi, another Yoshi-themed puzzle game that featured Luigi in its multiplayer mode, and whose NES and Game Boy versions were both released between NES Open Tournament Golf and Super Mario Kart (albeit in 1992 rather than 1993).
• The book Basic Game Info also mentions Luigi's Mansion as Luigi's "first-ever starring role," ignoring Luigi's Hammer Toss and Mario is Missing!
• "J.R.R. Spookien" is a pun on "J. R. R. Tolkien," while "C.S. Booois" is a pun on "C. S. Lewis."