Luigi’s Mansion is highly regarded by many as one of the more classic titles to come for the GameCube. Despite not selling well in Japan, Luigi’s Mansion managed to rank itself at #5 of the best-selling GameCube games of all time.

The game follows Luigi shortly after he wins a mansion. As it turns out, the Boo’s have helped enlist several ghosts (known as “portrait ghosts”) to create a fake mansion. Inside the mansion Mario is held captive, and Luigi must rescue him.

Luigi’s Mansion takes a twist on the classic Mario adventure type games. Rather then smashing Goombas and riding Yoshi, you take on the role of Luigi and must navigate your way around a sometimes confusing mansion.

To assist you in the capture of ghosts is Professor Elvin Gadd, a scientist who has designed a vacuum that can suck ghosts up and transfer them to paintings (hence the name “portrait ghosts”). With enough hard work, you can turn all of these ghosts bosses back into their portrait forms!

Although every fight is certainly unique in Luigi’s Mansion, here are the top 3 ghost fights from the original Mansion.

#3 Vincent Van Gore

Found in the final area, Vincent Van Gore will be one of the last portrait ghosts Luigi will fight and capture before facing Bowser and King Boo.

Because of this, you’d assume that the game has run out of ideas to make the fights unique. Not quite! To capture Vincent Van Gore you must defeat a series of mini-fights, all created by the painter himself. When Vincent paints, his creations come to life; giving him an army of ghosts to defend and fight for him.

You’ve come to know these ghosts in your adventures throughout the mansion, and now it’s time to put that knowledge to the test! Fighting off waves of Vincent Van Gore’s miniature army, you’ll figure out if you really have what it takes to beat the game during this fight.

Vincent Van Gore took something that seemed so irrelevant, common ghosts, and turned them into the main mechanic for the fight. He is easily one of the more unique fights in Luigi’s Mansion.

#2 Clockwork Soldiers

The Clockwork Soldiers, like Vincent Van Gore, also appear in the final area of the game. The setting for fighting the Clockwork Soldiers couldn’t be any more perfect, with the room looking like it’s been decorated for a mall display.

Like most games, Luigi’s Mansion attempts to scale the difficulty at a reasonable pace as you play through the game. This becomes a bit more difficult when your game can beaten in a few hours, but Nintendo manages to pull it off with fights like Clockwork Soldiers.

You’ve fought two ghosts at once before, but they weren’t a simple fight like Clockwork Soldiers. By sucking out the small keys in the soldiers backs, you can shine a light on their heart and begin fighting them.

However, while working on fighting one of the Clockwork Soldiers, you are more then likely to knock into another at least once. The limited space during the fight doesn’t give you much room for error, and you’ll have to come up with a tactic for finishing off this fight as soon as possible.

#1 Mr. Luggs

One of the optional portrait fights in the game, Mr. Luggs is the seventh fight out of twenty three total boss fights.

Luigi’s Mansion really shines in putting as many interesting bosses together in one game. Although some would argue that the only ‘true’ bosses are the area bosses, each fight with a portrait ghost feels like a unique and challenging experience.

Mr. Luggs manages to take the number one spot on the list for his unique mechanics. Being one of the most memorable ghosts in the game, I was quite surprised to figure out that Mr. Luggs is optional (being a portrait fight I never passed up).

Mr. Luggs is also an important moment in the game, teaching players to rip off things like table cloths for money, and lighting candles on fire. If you don’t light the candles up, you aren’t going to be able to beat this ghost with a mean appetite.

Don’t let this fat cat fool you, though; eating is about the only thing he cares about. You’ll have to deprive him of his dinner to suck him up, and that can be quite challenging with multiple servants moving in and out throughout the event.

On top of being an awesome fight, Mr. Luggs makes an excellent statement on the food obsession in America and its gut-wrenching obesity epidemic. But I won’t get into that one.

Did we miss your favorite ghost? Let us know in the comments below!