List of Luigi's Mansion pre-release and unused content

This is a list of beta elements for the game Luigi's Mansion.

Early ideas
Different kinds of houses were proposed for the game, including an apartment complex, a dollhouse, a 'ninja mansion', a Japanese-style house, and a prarie and desert level using a Mario theme. The game was originally conceptualized to resemble the Mario series more closely, but strayed when the haunted western mansion concept took priority.

Luigi's Mansion was originally built with the intention of being in stereoscopic 3D. The GameCube was built with 3D components which could be activated by an unreleased add-on. This add-on was never released as its price would have been far greater than the console. Another unreleased add-on would have allowed the Game Boy Advance to be used as an external controller in conjunction with the game. It seems the Gameboy Advance wasn't far enough in development for this idea to be utilized.

Early iterations
Concepts for Luigi's Mansion, such as character designs, were being planned during the Nintendo 64's lifetime.

The game was first revealed at Nintendo Space World in 2000 as a Tech Demo, designed to show off the graphical capabilities of the Nintendo GameCube.

Nintendo then decided to make Luigi's Mansion into a full-fledged game, and was later showcased at E3 in 2001, with notable changes to the design of the disc.

Early builds
Old issues of Nintendo Power (pictured below) contain details of early elements in screenshots and descriptions.

Poltergust
In earlier builds, the Poltergust 3000 originally featured a pressure meter ranging from one to ten, was slightly bigger, and supposedly heavier. If the pressure meter reached ten, the vacuum would burst out flames, causing Luigi to fall over and lose health, his HP eventually raises back up slightly after a while. Earlier versions of the game allowed Luigi to spray water infinitely. The Poltergust 3000 also had different nozzles depending on what element was being used.

GUI changes
The ghost meter was originally much more similar in design to the elemental meter, showing how many ghosts the player has captured instead. The Boo meter was shown as a whole number and the amount of health remaining was shown as a fraction and then written inside of the heart. Interestingly, coins had their own meter that was removed in later stages of the game's development.

Originally, the Game Boy Horror had an LCD border, which would function as a red flashing radar to show Luigi the locations of both ghosts and Boos within a room, and had a clock function. One clip shows that once the clock reached 1:30 on the E3 Nintendo Booth version, E. Gadd would contact Luigi and send him back to the Title Screen. Minor changes include the design of the menu icons (earlier designs depicted icons that were cartoon-like) and that the Boo Radar's signal emitted a different sound. Early game play images reveal that instead of showing Luigi his current gold total, the Game Boy Horror would always display the first-person view, giving the player two perspectives in a room at once. It was also stated that to summon Madame Clairvoya, Luigi had to check the crystal ball with the Game Boy Horror, instead of his flashlight. The Game Boy Horror was originally a plain Game Boy Color.

Model changes
There are three renders of Luigi left in the code for the ending, each with a varying degree of happiness. The renders are a depressed Luigi holding a flower (worst), a pleased Luigi with a peace sign (good), and another pleased Luigi with two peace signs (best). An unused model for Mario, named "B_Mario", is stretched to Luigi's proportions and given the backstraps for his Poltergust 3000.

Cyan and blue-colored Shy Guy Ghosts are also in the game's coding.

In the game's coding is also the unused Poltergust 3000, along with two unused nozzles; one is labeled "wpwater" and appeared when Luigi used the water element, and one is labeled "wpair".

One unused model is the elh. It is a twisting creature that has no textures or any UV maps that would support textures, and, according to its entries, it was compiled a month after Luigi's Mansion was featured at E3 2001. It has six animations for various states (attacking, taking damage, two idles, alert, and developing), and has four particle effects associated with the Elements Luigi uses.

Early ghosts

 * There were ghosts in earlier versions that were similar in appearance to Gold Ghosts. They would attack Luigi from behind by going "BAAHHHHH!", causing Luigi to scream, crawl backwards uncontrollably, and lose half his HP. Luigi's HP raises back up after a while and his heart would beat fast on his health gauge.
 * The issue also makes note of an unused Hunter Portrait Ghost who would have wanted to add Luigi's head to his collection of other heads . This Portrait Ghost would have appeared in the Safari Room.
 * In earlier versions of the Kitchen, a ghost resembling a chef would have appeared while holding a tomato.

Other

 * The game had a different main menu, saying "Skip Intro From The Beginning" . E. Gadd also had different dialogue.
 * The cutscene showing Luigi walking to and opening the door to the mansion was slightly different . The door was also designed differently.
 * Originally, the mansion had an RPG-type quality which included real-time changes of rooms and also an underground cave-like basement.
 * There was an 8-bit techno-like tune while walking in the hallway.
 * Luigi had more of a chubbier, big headed, big blue-eyed look during cut scenes, a different scream, facial expressions, and held his flashlight with two hands. Luigi had a different flashlight and vacuum. Luigi also had a bright green hat and shirt and grey-blue overalls.
 * If idle, Luigi would sometimes crouch down, as if he was scared.
 * There is an unused cut-scene with Luigi being surrounded in circles by blue ghost in the Parlor, similar to how Boolossus' minions did.
 * When Luigi gets a key from the treasure chest, he doesn't do his normal peace sign routine.
 * If Luigi's HP is low, the normal hallway tone is played with a deeper tone than when he has more health.
 * Ghosts had a different sound effect when appearing upon from behind the player, instead of the final scary, loud scream from behind in the final. Ghosts also didn't startle Luigi upon appearing.
 * The game was said to be rated T for Teen during development, but was avoided and made E for Everyone to appeal more to younger audiences.
 * There were two unused early ghost designs :
 * A blue ghost (thought to be an early Gold Ghost)
 * A green ghost (thought to be an early Purple Puncher)
 * There were four unused dialogue icons :
 * Bowser
 * Green Toad
 * Gold Ghost
 * Mario
 * During development the game was designed with a time limit until morning. If the game wasn't completed in time then the mansion would vanish with Mario and a depressed or possessed Luigi would be seen in the ending screen.

Trivia

 * The Japanese version of the game kept Luigi's beta hurt sound, while US and European versions didn't.
 * The Game Boy Horror's timer and first person view is still in the game's code and has been found and made into AR codes.
 * The PAL version of the game contains the most left over beta elements.