Vincent Van Gore, the Starving Artist (Japanese: セニョールプジイ Señor Pujī) is a painter who has the ability to bring his paintings to life first appear in Luigi's Mansion.
History
Vincent Van Gore is responsible for creating the minor ghosts that flooded the rooms and halls of Luigi's Mansion. After being released by King Boo, Vincent Van Gore locked himself in The Artist's Studio, giving the key to his room to Sir Weston in the Cold Storage, and bringing his ghastly works of art to life. These ghosts filled the mansion, providing the backbone of King Boo's forces. As such, Van Gore was a fundamental player in King Boo's quest to capture both Mario and Luigi. Without the constant supply of ghosts, Luigi would have had a much easier time defeating King Boo and the portrait ghosts.
Story
After battling past almost all of the mansion's ghosts, Luigi ultimately discovered Vincent Van Gore, the source of the troublesome ghouls, in The Artist's Studio on the third floor of the mansion. However, instead of fighting Luigi directly, Van Gore brought his latest works of art to life to attack the green-clad plumber. As such, Luigi had to exterminate seven sets of minor ghosts (with three ghosts per set) before he could face off against the artist himself.
After Luigi eliminated all twenty-one ghost creations, Vincent Van Gore became deeply saddened by the loss of his artwork. In this state of depression, Van Gore's heart was exposed and Luigi easily sucked up the spirit with his Poltergust 3000. The ghost artist barely put up a fight, weakly pulling as he was being sucked in. After Van Gore was defeated, Luigi acquired the Secret Altar key needed to open the door to the Secret Altar.
Van Gore's ghosts
In battle, Van Gore used sets of ghosts to attack Luigi; each group consisted of three of the same kind of species (five in the PAL Hidden Mansion). In order, the seven following types of ghosts were:
- Gold Ghost
- Purple Puncher
- Blue Twirler
- Red Grabbing Ghost
- Red Shy Guy Ghost
- Garbage Can Ghost
- Purple Bomber
Frames
Trivia
- Vincent Van Gore is the only ghost that isn't an area boss to house a "special key".
- A normal key makes a triumphant sound when picked up and is a gold-bronze, while special keys each have a card suit on them and make a deep, organ-played musical fanfare of the games main theme (in a major key) when received
- Vincent Van Gore's name is a pun on Vincent Van Gogh, who was an artist.
- Vincent Van Gore's accent suggests that he might be French, although Vincent Van Gogh was Dutch.
- His age is 59 years old, despite the fact that Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide at age 37.
- He is the only Portrait Ghost known to be in his 50s.
- His biography reveals that he has been an artist for at least 30 years, but has not managed to sell a single painting during that time.
- Unlike Van Gore,Vincent Van Gogh actually sold paintings,due to his low amount of money (in real life).
- The word "gore" means something that is in mature content (it is actually the meaning of blood).
- He is the only known ghost to be able to take ghosts out of paintings without the use of machinery.
- Several theories state that Vincent Van Gore,actually created all the portrait ghosts,in order to create himself a "family". It could possibly be a reference to the real life Van Gogh,who lived in loneliness. But this theory remains unknown.