Luigi’s Mansion 3 Review

When Luigi’s Mansion was released as a GameCube launch title in 2001, it was an interesting little oddity in the Mario franchise. A small excursion starring the lesser Mario brother taking on a house full of spooks and specters in Ghostbusters-like fashion. It was fun and unique, but short-lived. And for over a decade it seemed that Luigi’s Mansion was to remain a one and done affair. It was surprising then, that a sequel was released on the Nintendo 3DS almost twelve years later. Though it lacked the atmosphere of the GameCube original, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon proved that the concept of Luigi doing his best Peter Venkmen impression still had a lot to offer. It may have taken the timeframe between an original Pixar movie and its sequel, but Dark Moon turned the once isolated Luigi’s Mansion experience into a viable franchise of its own (it even spawned an arcade spin-off).

Developed by Canadian studio Next Level Games (who also made Dark Moon, as well as the Mario Strikers games and the Wii installment of Punch-Out!!), the bluntly titled Luigi’s Mansion 3 was released on the Nintendo Switch on Halloween of 2019. Taking the best bits of the GameCube original and the 3DS sequel, Luigi’s Mansion 3 proved to be the best entry in the series yet by some margin.

Though the game still houses the word “mansion” in the title, the action this time around actually takes place inside of a hotel. This high-rise hotel, The Last Resort, is the vacation spot for not only Luigi, but also Mario, Princess Peach, and a group of Toads. Because Mario and the gang are never allowed a proper vacation, the whole thing ends up being a rouse. During the first night of their supposed vacation, Luigi awakes in the middle of the night to find that Mario, Peach and the Toads have gone missing, and the seemingly luxurious hotel has transformed into a dilapidated, nightmarish tower filled with ghouls. It turns out the hotel’s owner, Hellen Gravely, is actually a ghost, working under Luigi’s recurring foe, King Boo. King Boo has successfully captured Mario, Peach and the Toads and trapped them in portraits, and almost does the same to Luigi, before the younger Mario brother makes an escape (perhaps King Boo should try capturing Luigi first next time… and maybe he and Bowser should work together, because King Boo seems pretty adept at capturing Mario, so together they could get a lot done).

Luigi soon finds that his mentor in ghost-catching, Professor E. Gadd, has also been captured by King Boo, and is in the hotel. Luigi finds an extra ghost-catching device left by Gadd, and soon uses it to rescue the mad scientist. From then on, Gadd takes refuge in his ‘ghost-proof’ bunker, and provides Luigi with different gadgets and abilities along the way (including “Gooigi” Luigi’s gelatinous doppelgänger) in the quest to save Mario, Peach, the Toads, and to put an end to King Boo and Hellen Gravely’s plans.

Being a Mario game that isn’t one of its RPGs of yesteryear, the plot of Luigi’s Mansion 3 is of course simple stuff. But the action becomes something truly memorable by how much personality and character shines through. Luigi’s Mansion 3 is one of the most vibrantly-animated video games ever made. The game is bursting at the seams with charm and humor, particularly physical comedy, with Luigi’s Mansion 3 being on a level of its own in that category.

Not only has Luigi’s anxious, trepidatiously-heroic personality never been more on display, but other characters, and even enemies, are filled with exaggerated movements and expressions (Next Level Games, perhaps realizing that Professor E. Gadd had never previously been seen walking more than a few feet, gave him a decidedly hilarious running animation). While Mario games have often had fluid character animations, they’ve never been so innately humorous as they are here, with Luigi’s Mansion 3 evoking Loony Tunes at times.

The gameplay is an utter delight. The basics are still the same as they’ve always been for the series: stun ghosts with a flashlight, catch them in your vacuum, dwindle down their hit points until they finally get sucked up. The Dark Light from the second game returns, and is used to find/solidify invisible and spectral objects, as well as release your friends (and coins) from portraits. But there have been a few fun little quirks added to the proceedings: the Poltergust vacuum can now let out a burst to keep large groups of enemies at bay, should Luigi find himself overwhelmed. Luigi can now slam ghosts that are caught in the vortex of the vacuum, which depletes larger chunks of their health with each slam. The Poltergeist can now also fire a plunger, which sticks to objects for Luigi to pull and drag them.

The biggest gameplay addition is the inclusion of Gooigi, who works as a second playable character. Once Gooigi is obtained, the player can switch between Luigi and his gooey clone by the press of a button (or a second player can join in to take on the role of Gooigi for some fun co-op). Gooigi mostly controls identical to Luigi, but has some pros and cons unique to him. Being the slime-like creature he is, Gooigi can sink into drains, squeeze into narrow spaces, walk passed spikes, and pass through cages like Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean. On the downside, Gooigi cannot move in bodies of water or come into contact with fire, or else he dissolves and retreats back into Luigi’s Poltergust.

Although on their own, these additions may seem small, when you put them all together, they really add a lot to the classic Luigi’s Mansion gameplay. In particular, the puzzles that require both Luigi and Gooigi to step into action really bring out the game’s creativity.

One of my complaints with Dark Moon was its mission-based structure. The first Luigi’s Mansion had a unique atmosphere and sense of place for a game set in the Mario universe. It may not have been truly frightening, but the titular mansion of the original game felt like like a set place and, relative to the series, was appropriately eerie. Dark Moon removed that atmosphere in favor of a mission-based structure, which made the experience feel fragmented and episodic. The first game felt like you were scouring a haunted mansion. The second game simply felt like levels in a video game.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 finds a nice compromise between the two. The Last Resort houses 17 floors, each with a different theme or motif. Because things no longer begin and end with a set mission, you have more freedom to explore and go at your own pace, like the first game. But with every floor featuring a different theme, Luigi’s Mansion 3 has a stronger sense of variety, closer to the second game.

“Boy, doesn’t this just personify Luigi’s placement compared to Mario? Mario’s key collectibles include stars, suns and moons. Luigi collects… elevator buttons.”

Each floor houses its own collection of special treasures to find, as well as Boos to catch. The game is progressed by defeating a floor’s boss and acquiring the elevator button they’re holding, which then allows you to go to the matching floor of that button (though they aren’t always in sequential order, which is a nice little touch).

The boss fights are a lot of fun. While the first two Luigi’s Mansion games could admittedly get a bit repetitious, the boss fights alone in Luigi’s Mansion 3 bring out so many fun ideas out of the series’ gameplay that you’ll always be wondering what’s around the next corner. And while the boss ghosts may not capture the same (relative) scariness of the Portrait Ghosts from the first game (thus resulting in not quite the same unique atmosphere of the GameCube title), they are a definite step-up from Dark Moon, which had no Portrait Ghost equivalent.

Players who just want to complete the story can do just that, but for completionists, you can always backtrack and hunt down every last treasure from every last floor of the hotel. And if that’s not enough, Luigi’s Mansion 3 even features multiplayer!

Luigi’s Mansion 3 not only houses a series of local multiplayer mini-game modes, but also builds on the “Scarescraper” online mode introduced in Dark Moon. This cooperative online mode sees up to eight players (four as different colored Luigis, and four as their corresponding Gooigis) brave the Scarecraper by completing one randomly-generated floor to move on to the next (up to ten floors). Most floors will ask players to exercise them of all their ghosts, while others will task players with collecting a certain amount of treasure, having everyone gather in a specific room, or finding lost Toads and escorting them to a teleporter. When all floors are completed, the Luigi-centric team then comes face-to-face with a boss fight in the form of Boolossus.

Scarescraper is a simple multiplayer mode in concept, but insanely addictive in execution. As the clock keeps ticking and you desperately try to find the last ghost/Toad/lump of cash, it becomes a hectic scramble that requires real teamwork to overcome. And while Nintendo’s lack of voice chat is usually a hindrance, this is one instance where the feature isn’t exactly missed. If a player gets caught in a trap and requires another player to rescue them (as getting yourself out of a trap takes considerably longer and exhausts the time limit), they press a few buttons to alert the other players of their whereabouts, hoping their team can get rescue them in time. Again, a lack of voice chat is normally a big problem with Nintendo multiplayer games, but here, it may have made things too easy. It’s difficult to describe, but the Scarescraper is somehow more fun by forcing teams to work together while giving them minimal tools to do so.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 isn’t perfect: the controls can take a little getting used to (especially if you’re not playing with the classic controller), I feel like there could have been some additional incentives for completionists other than a few (often easy to find) treasures and Boos, and there are a few annoying puzzles here and there (sadly, the movie-themed floor, perhaps my favorite in the game, possibly contains the most cryptic puzzles). And while the idea of a multiplayer-exclusive boss fight in the Scarescraper is really cool, it’s kind of a bummer that it’s always the same boss fight (just a couple more would have added a lot).

All things considered, however, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is an extremely fun experience that is always at the ready to throw something unexpected at the player. There’s something new seemingly around every corner, some of which might truly catch you by surprise (which is why I haven’t gone into too much detail on what the different floors of the hotel have in store). And it does so with some of the most exuberant and hilarious animation in the history of video games.

Video Game Awards 2020: Best Handheld Game

Handheld gaming has come a long way. Once a simple means to get a quick fix of gaming on the go, that convenience came at the expense of quality. But over the years, as gaming evolved, so to did handheld gaming, with the GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS notably taking it to new heights and success.

Now, handheld games are largely indistinguishable from console and PC titles (aside from graphics). And most notably, the Nintendo Switch has completely bridged the gap between home console and handheld. By merging the two concepts together, Nintendo has created a hybrid console that stands as one of the best of all time.

Because handheld gaming has changed so drastically in recent years, I’d like to once again stress that, as long as traditional handheld platforms are still (somewhat) prominent, I am only including games released on said traditional handhelds and Switch exclusives. If a game is released on Switch, but also available on other, non-handheld hybrid consoles, it seems a bit unfair to refer to them as “handheld games.” So even though the Switch is a home console, its duel status as a handheld makes its exclusive titles eligible for this award. Ya dig?

Winner: Luigi’s Mansion 3

Yeah, I know Pokemon Sword and Shield was Nintendo’s big seller and most anticipated Switch title of 2019. But I don’t know, am I the only one who found them to be way too padded out? And to be honest, Pokemon – ironically enough – is the Nintendo series that seems to refuse to evolve.

That wasn’t the case with Luigi’s Mansion 3, however. Taking the atmosphere of the GameCube original and combining it with the more level-based structure of the 3DS sequel, Luigi’s Mansion 3 surpassed both of its predecessors with a game that’s consistently fun and inventive.

The Ghostbusters-inspired action of the series has never been so deep as it is here, and with the game absolutely exploding with personality, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is one of the unsung heroes of the Nintendo Switch.

Runner-up: Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr’s Journey

Past Winners

2014: Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

2015: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D

2016: Kirby Planet Robobot

2017: Super Mario Odyssey*

2018: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

*Retroactively awarded after deciding Switch exclusives should qualify for this award.

Luigi’s Mansion Review

Nintendo was in an interesting place in 2001. Though the Nintendo 64 helped revolutionize gaming (namely due to Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), its sales numbers paled in comparison to the Sony Playstation. And with the Playstation 2 releasing in 2000, it’s safe to say that the GameCube was in a hurry to get out the door as soon as possible. As such, this meant that the GameCube’s signature Mario game, Super Mario Sunshine, would miss the console’s launch, marking the first time Mario wasn’t present to cut the ribbon on the dawning of a new Nintendo console.

To fill that void, however, Nintendo had a separate game set within the Mario universe to make the GameCube’s launch. But it ended up being quite different from any other game set in the world of the Mushroom Kingdom. The game in question was Luigi’s Mansion, a kind of spoof on the survival-horror genre that marked the first official game in which Luigi received the starring role (wiseacres are quick to point out the existence of Mario is Missing from years earlier, but that title was an edutainment game that wasn’t developed by Nintendo, so it doesn’t count). Although Luigi’s Mansion never boasted the depth of Mario’s adventures, Luigi’s first proper solo outing nonetheless provided enough unique ideas and personality that it retains a charm of its own.

The initial concept for what would later become Luigi’s Mansion at first starred the more famous Mario brother, with the idea being to place Mario in a singular indoor setting. Originally conceived as a Japanese-style castle, the setting eventually became an American-style haunted house. With the change in setting, Nintendo decided to promote Luigi to be the star of the game for one very simple reason: Mario was known for being brave and adventurous, but now was the time to showcase Luigi’s personality, whose constance presence in his brother’s shadow made him easy fodder for a ‘reluctant hero’ character.

Though audiences saw glimpses of distinct personalities between the Mario Bros. through their television series and books, there was never any official, concrete characterizations between Mario and Luigi by Nintendo themselves in the formative years for the video game series. If Mario was the brave hero who would leap into action at the first chance, then it just made sense that Luigi would be the series’ ‘Cowardly Lion,’ as he shares a similar heroic spirit as his brother, but it’s buried far, far deeper. So it was a natural fit to have Luigi be the one to traverse a haunted mansion, facing his many fears as he tries to rescue Mario.

Luigi’s Mansion might be the first Nintendo game to be centered around one of their character’s personalities, and it remains one of their most successful attempts (the less said of Metroid: Other M, the better). Nintendo’s critics often deride the developer for a supposed “lack of character,” but that’s a gross misconception. While it’s true Nintendo rarely prioritizes actual storytelling and their characters tend to not have complex backstories (probably for the better. I again refer you to Other M), many of their characters are bursting with personality in a similar vein to classic cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and Popeye the Sailor Man. Luigi’s Mansion is a fine example of this. Between Luigi’s constantly chattering teeth (which kind of makes him look like Wallace from Wallace and Gromit), shaky knees, and nervous humming of the game’s catchy theme tune, Luigi’s Mansion showcases its lead character’s personality – while simple and exaggerated – to be thoroughly entertaining.

It simply wouldn’t have been as good if it were Mario braving the haunted halls of its mansion. The game and its lead character both benefit one another in such a way that you wish more of the story-focused games of today would attempt to replicate that connection, as to avoid the common pitfall of gameplay conflicting with narratives and character motivation.

Even with Luigi’s personality leading the charge, gameplay is still at the forefront of Nintendo’s designs. And although it shows its age in certain areas, for the most part, Luigi’s Mansion remains a uniquely fun and charming game even today.

As mentioned, the game is all about Luigi trying to save Mario, who has gone missing in the new mansion Luigi supposedly won in a contest he never even entered (red flag there, Luigi). The mansion is, of course, littered with ghosts. Luckily for Luigi, Professor E. Gadd – a lifetime researcher of ghosts – has been studying the mansion, and gives Luigi his ghost-catching vacuum, the Poltergust 3000.

Yes, the gameplay is more reminiscent of the 1984 Ghostbusters film than it is any of its Mario series predecessors (Luigi can’t even jump in the game). Equipped with only the Poltergust and a flashlight, Luigi traverses the mansion fighting ghosts. The flashlight will stun ghosts, exposing their heart, which allows Luigi to suck them up into the Poltergust.

One of the most fun things about Luigi’s Mansion is the act of catching ghosts itself. The player of course moves Luigi with the standard joystick. But Luigi aims the Poltergust and flashlight with the GameCube controller’s ‘C-stick.’ If a ghost caught in the Poltergust’s whirlwind changes direction, the player will have to accommodate and pull the direction opposite to that which the ghost is heading, occasionally cutting some slack so Luigi can avoid a potential hazard in his way as the ghost pulls him along the ground. Essentially, it’s like an elaborate fishing game used as a combat mechanic.

It’s simple fun with the standard enemies, but the real treat comes in the form of the “Portrait Ghosts;” unique mini-boss-like specters whom the mansion’s many chambers are built around. Each Portrait Ghost has different tells and weaknesses, and can provide real tests of endurance for the player.

The Portrait Ghosts are memorable not just for how each one provides their own little puzzle for the player to solve, but also in their personalities and design. Most of the Portrait Ghosts are more humanoid than what we usually see in the Mario universe (keep in mind this was sixteen years before Odyssey brought realistic-looking humans into the fold), and although it would be difficult to call the game truly scary, the Portrait Ghosts’ appearances do make the game feel appropriately spooky and (relatively) darker than the usual Mario title. The mansion itself could be considered a character in its own right, given its strong sense of place.

It may not match the combination of cartoony characters with a dark and dreary atmosphere of Donkey Kong Country 2, but Luigi’s Mansion is probably the only other game I can think of that warrants a comparison in that regard. Luigi’s Mansion’s eventual 3DS sequel, though arguably an improvement in certain respects, lacks the original’s sense of atmosphere and character.

Luigi’s Mansion could be described as a “Diet Metroidvania,” with Luigi gaining access to more chambers of the mansion as he continues to capture Portrait Ghosts. Though perhaps one of the game’s drawbacks is that it could have taken an extra page from the Metroidvania sub-genre and had Luigi (or the Poltergust, as it were) gain new abilities to access more of the mansion, instead of it merely being a case of defeating sub-bosses for keys. The Poltergust does gain the ability to emit fire, water and ice, but they unfortunately never get utilized in any substantial way.

Another fun aspect of Luigi’s Mansion is finding the many treasures hidden throughout the titular abode. While Mario is always grabbing coins, here, Luigi is on a quest for coins, pearls, dollar bills, gemstones and diamonds. Though gaining these riches does little more than effect your score at the end of the game, it still proves to be a fun diversion to see how much treasure you can collect.

The biggest complaint most people seem to have with Luigi’s Mansion is its short length. If you know what you’re doing, the game can be completed in about the time it takes to watch a movie. Luigi’s Mansion could have done with just a couple more hours of gameplay, as some of its ideas don’t meet their full potential with the little time they’re allowed to have. On the plus side, I suppose the game’s brief time makes it one of the few titles in the medium that can be seen as a holiday tradition with annual playthroughs (Halloween in this instance, obviously).

Luigi’s Mansion was one of the earlier Nintendo titles to feature a New Game Plus mode after completing the campaign. Unfortunately in both its Japanese and US release, the differences between the main game and New Game Plus are little more than some stronger enemies and a weaker Luigi. The PAL version of the game (released well after the other versions) rectified this somewhat by making the post-game version of the mansion mirrored and changing the locations of certain treasures, but even that only goes so far. So unless you missed out on some treasures, or just really want to beat your high score, there’s not a whole lot of reason to play through the “Hidden Mansion” mode.

The short running time of the campaign is unfortunate, but it’s not the game’s biggest issue. Though the GameCube has aged better than the Nintendo 64 on the whole, it’s earlier titles still suffer a bit from the same kind of technical hiccups that plagued its 64-bit predecessor. And Luigi’s Mansion is no exception.

Some of the controls feel a little clunky, particularly in regards to handling the flashlight in conjunction with everything else. The flashlight is turned on by default, and pressing the B button turns it off. You turn Luigi around and aim the Poltergust with the C-stick, and you suck up ghosts with a press of the R button. And while the flashlight stuns the ghosts, you have to stun them at the opportune time, or else they’ll disappear. It can feel a bit awkward to turn Luigi around and aim the Poltergust while holding the B button to keep the light off and then release it to turn the light on when the time is right, especially in rooms with multiple ghosts.

Along with the standard enemies and the Portrait Ghosts, the Mario series’ classic ‘Boo’ enemies show up as the primary baddies. While seeing these secondary foes get a promotion in the same vein as Luigi is nice, there are some issues with the Boos’ presence in Luigi’s Mansion. The game features fifty Boos hidden throughout the mansion. But unlike the other ghosts in the game, Boos ignore the aforementioned “fishing” aspects of the catching process, with Luigi simply focusing the vortex of the Poltergust on Boos to drain their hit points.

That may not sound too bad, and at first it isn’t when the Boos have less hit points. But once you you realize Boos can travel from room to room, and they start getting more hit points, thus giving them more opportunities to do so, it gets a bit tedious chasing a Boo from one room to another, and downright frustrating when they exit a room to go into the hallway and back again repeatedly. It’s also a bit disappointing that, despite the game claiming there are 50 Boos in the mansion to be captured, there are technically only 35, since 15 of them are automatically captured as part of a single boss fight.

Another note Luigi’s Mansion should have taken from Metroidvanias is the implementation of fast-traveling. The game can only be saved by talking to Toads (who are perhaps a bit too far spread out from one another), or after catching a Boo. While the Toads save your game, they don’t act as checkpoints. Every time you reload your game, or defeat a boss, or die, you start back at the foyer of the mansion. Although you can return to the foyer by scanning mirrors, there’s no means to fast-travel anywhere else in the mansion. As you might imagine, backtracking to different sections of the mansion can quickly feel arduous.

Though these aspect do show that the game has aged a bit, the core gameplay, along with its undeniable sense of character, have helped Luigi’s Mansion remain a fun and delightful experience nearly two decades later. It is perhaps the perfect launch game the GameCube could have hoped for (if maybe not the one it sorely needed), as Luigi’s Mansion echoes the console itself in many ways. The GameCube may not have been the success story Nintendo was hoping for in the Playstation dominated market of the time, nor is it one of Nintendo’s more iconic or innovative consoles. But it has a unique appeal of its own, a small-scale charm that’s aberrant among Nintendo systems.

Just the same, Luigi’s Mansion – though far, far away from being one of the best games set in the Super Mario universe – remains a unique and appealing offshoot of Nintendo’s flagship franchise. We may not have realized it in 2001, but in hindsight, Luigi’s Mansion seems to have encompassed the GameCube’s place in Nintendo’s history right out of the gate.

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Luigi’s Mansion Arcade Review

In 2015, Nintendo released an arcade iteration of their Luigi’s Mansion franchise to arcades in Japan, courtesy of developer Capcom. The game has since made its way to select arcades stateside, as something of a test run to see how well it fares outside of its native Japan. Hopefully this test run turns into something more, as Luigi’s Mansion Arcade is the best of the recent arcade transitions of Nintendo franchises.

The first highlight of Luigi’s Mansion Arcade is the setup itself. The game is featured in an enclosed cabinet, giving it a darker, more isolated feeling that fits the game’s haunted house theme. The cabinet features a seat for two players, each of which use a controller modeled after Luigi’s Poltergust 5000 vacuum.

Unlike the GameCube original or the 3DS sequel, Luigi’s Mansion Arcade is presented in a first-person view, meaning that players see everything from Luigi’s viewpoint. The players can select from a small set of mansions, each of which are played in a linear, on-rails style, with players progressing to the next room of every mansion once they clear out every ghost in a given chamber.

The game utilizes motion-controls, with players aiming their vacuum controllers at the ghosts, holding and releasing a button at its top to shine a flash at the ghosts to stun them, and then pulling a trigger on the controller to begin vacuuming the ghosts up. It actually controls pretty well, and it may leave you wondering why Nintendo didn’t make a game like this on the Wii.

Admittedly, one awkward piece of controls is present in the form of the Flash Bomb, a limited ability that more easily stuns every ghost on-screen. The Flash Bomb is used by pressing a button in the middle of the cabinet itself, as opposed to being featured on the gun. This can become a bit cumbersome in some of the more hectic sections, and can kind of break the flow of the game’s control scheme.

Additional fun is added to the game by the way the levels feature branching paths. Although the levels are played in fixed paths, certain rooms can lead to alternate paths (either by finding a hidden item or shining your light to reveal a secret pathway). This adds a little more variety to the experience, and also gives players the chance to earn extra coins, which means a higher score after the mansion is complete.

Luigi’s Mansion Arcade adopts the visual style (and even the mansions) from the 3DS game. This means that the game has a nice, cartoony look to it that’s visually appealing, but also means that it lacks the gloomy atmosphere of the GameCube original.

Although Luigi’s Mansion Arcade simplifies the series’ formula to fit the “quick fun” nature of arcades, it makes for a worthy place to spend your arcade points. Luigi’s Mansion Arcade is simple but addictive fun that provides a good deal of enjoyment for two players.

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Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon Review

It may have took twelve years, but Luigi’s Mansion did eventually receive a sequel. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon served as Luigi’s return to the spotlight, in the sequel to the game that removed the green-clad plumber from Mario’s shadow. This time Luigi tackled the 3DS, giving the handheld another highlight in its impressive library.

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon follows the same fundamentals as its predecessor. Luigi traverses haunted mansions, and uses a vacuum cleaner to rid the houses of the many ghosts that inhabit them. Luigi’s flashlight now has a strobe ability, an mechanic performed by holding the action button down before releasing, with the resulting strobe light stunning ghosts. This ‘stun’ is required before Luigi can capture the game’s many spooks. The flashlight also includes a new “Darklight” device, which reveals hidden objects and exposes invisible foes.

The biggest difference between the original game and this sequel isn’t in any particular gameplay feature, but the structure of the game itself. The GameCube original had Luigi searching through his own mansion to rid it of ghosts while in search of a missing Mario. It was a short, explorative experience. In Dark Moon, a returning Professor E. Gadd sends Luigi to five different mansions, each of which are split into various missions.

The new structure of the game allows for a greater sense of variety in level design, with the different mansions having their own little motif (greenhouse, clock factory, and so forth), and each mission housing a variety of puzzles that require more robust thinking on the many uses of Luigi’s Poltergust 5000 vacuum. Some puzzles can get a little head-scratching, but that only means they provide a bigger sense of accomplishment when completed.

The new structure ensures that Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is considerably lengthier than its predecessor, but at the same time, it also creates one of the game’s drawbacks. The first Luigi’s Mansion had a great sense of exploration, you wanted to search every nook and cranny of the mansion in the original (and you could, if you so chose). But within Dark Moon’s missions is a set objective, with many of the rooms in any given mansion being sealed off, lest the current objective requires them. There are hidden treasures that require some thorough inspecting to find, but it’s a small little sidequest that can’t quite bring back the freedom of exploration the original game had. Despite popular belief to the contrary, a game having a more linear structure isn’t an innate problem, but the fact that Luigi is whisked out of a mansion every time you complete your current mission does create a longing for the original game’s pacing.

Fans of the GameCube original will also miss said game’s atmosphere. The portrait ghosts of Luigi’s Mansion were always on the cartoony side, yet they helped build a personality and presence to the original game that gave the titular mansion a strong sense of place. The portrait ghosts of old (or any other of the original game’s spectres, other than Boos) are nowhere to be found. While many of the enemies, sub-bosses, and big bosses of Dark Moon certainly do provide their own puzzles and challenges to overcome, they fail to capture that same sense of personality and atmosphere that the original game was abundant in.

With all this said, these are quibbles in an otherwise well-constructed title. Dark Moon takes many elements that made the original Luigi’s Mansion memorable, makes the quest lengthier, and creates a new layer of depth to the gameplay. To add a cherry on top, Dark Moon even includes a multiplayer option.

The “Scarescraper” serves as Dark Moon’s cooperative multiplayer mode, which can be played online and includes three different modes of play: Hunter mode sees each player (all of whom play as variously-colored Luigi’s) ascend further up the mansion by clearing each individual floor of all its ghosts. Rush mode gives the Luigi’s a limited amount of time to find each floor’s exit, with clocks strewn about – or rewarded for taking out ghosts – to give the team a little more time. Lastly, Polterpup has players scurrying about the mansion to find the titular ghostly dogs by using the Darklight.

Although the number of multiplayer modes are limited, the challenge and replayability they provide are among the game’s strongest assets. Long after you finish the story mode, you’ll be coming back to the Scarescraper to see just how far you can get.

Developed by Next Level games (Mario Strikers, Wii’s Punch-Out!!), Nintendo permitted this long-awaited sequel to very capable hands. The end result is both fun and nostalgic, with tight gameplay, solid structure and pacing, and a surprisingly engaging multiplayer option. It may not evoke the same experience as the GameCube original, but Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon remains a wonderful piece of game design nonetheless.

There may have been a twelve-year gap between the original Luigi’s Mansion and Dark Moon, but time hasn’t slowed Luigi down one bit when it comes to pure fun.

Tag: Luigi’s Mansion