As I’ve mentioned before on the Pure Nintendo Podcast, I’m a bigger fan of Luigi’s games than of Mario’s. Maybe that’s because Luigi’s Mansion is the first game I played on the first Nintendo System I owned. Maybe it’s because I’d rather explore haunted mansions than jump on the heads of various animals and vegetables. Or, maybe I just prefer Luigi’s color scheme. Whatever the reason, I was really looking forward to re-exploring Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, and it didn’t disappoint.
Originally released in 2013 for the 3DS, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (as it was then known) finds our hero forced to explore five separate mansions in Evershade Valley.
They apparently have a ghost problem there, but they were at least happy ghosts. With the shattering of the Dark Moon, however, the ghosts have become violent…or at least mischievous. Professor E. Gadd once again solicits Luigi’s help in braving the horrors within to retrieve the Dark Moon fragments and set things to right.
More accurately, Gadd kind of bullies Luigi into it. Unlike Mario, Luigi is a reluctant hero, obviously terrified throughout the game. But Gadd at least equips Luigi with the right tool for the job: the Poltergust 5000. Not only can this vacuum be used to suck up and trap the spirits, but it can also startle them with a strobe light and be used to reveal hidden objects.
Luigi must master all three components to safely make his way through the haunted hallways, and doing so is tremendous fun…albeit with plenty of frustration.
The gameplay starts off simple enough. The intro level ghosts are easy to locate and capture. But I guess the five years between Luigi’s Mansion 3 and 2 HD caused me to forget just how difficult these games can be. They’re not unbeatable by any means, but don’t think this game’s cute, comedic approach means you won’t be facing a stiff challenge. The “combat” quickly ramps up to have you facing multiple ghosts at once. While you’re trying to capture one with the Poltergust—a prolonged process of trying to suck it in as it flies around the room—other ghosts can attack and break your suction stream. Get hit too many times by them or the rats, bats, knights, or numerous other hazards, and it’s back to the start for you. You can acquire dog bones that will allow you to pick up where you left off, but not enough to get you past some of the game’s more complicated bosses.
Those bosses, however, are wonderful. Just figuring out how to beat them can be tricky enough, and then actually doing so requires a combination of patience, timing, and execution. They’re the kind of bosses where you don’t seem to make a dent the first time you face them, but then easily capture them the second time when you’re more methodical in your approach.
Getting to them is a blast, too, as the maze of rooms gives you plenty to unlock and discover. Initial exploration never grows tiresome, although getting kicked back to the beginning does make things repetitious. And if you miss any collectibles along the way, or you’re not happy with your ranking after completing a level, you’ll end up attempting them more than once.
Will you want to? I didn’t, as my biggest complaints about the Luigi’s Mansion series remain: the stutter-step of gameplay. Far too often, Professor Gadd pulls you back to his laboratory to talk way too long about things that are obvious. These scenes are sometimes funny, but mostly they’re just in the way of the fun. Then, when you want to go back, there’s no way to do so. You can’t save or replenish your health before a boss fight, for example, so you’ll often enter into those knowing there’s little chance for success. Queue the frustration during the fight, then again when you’ve got to make the long trek back to the boss’s location for round 2.
A new issue is that the elements that were obviously designed for the 3DS effect are still there, and they just feel weird—like when you see a 3D movie in 2D and you’re wondering why so many things are flying into the audience’s face. It’s a sad reminder of how cool things were on the 3DS when done properly.
But Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD brings a lot of new elements that are worth the second ride through the funhouse. The HD, for starters, looks fantastic, and the ability to search these darkened rooms on a large TV really enhances the experience. There’s unfortunately no two-player co-op like in Luigi’s Mansion 3, but exploration and boss battles both benefit from a second pair of eyeballs on the screen.
The lack of co-op is somewhat compensated for by a series of multiplayer options that turn Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD into a party game for prolonged life. There’s a Hunter mode where up to four players can work together to clear ghosts from the tower. In Polterpup, players face a time limit in which they must locate and catch all the ghost dogs. Finally, Rush tasks players with escaping the mansion within the time limit. Defeating ghosts and finding hidden objects gives you more time, but you could end up wasting it if you don’t defeat them quickly enough.
The multiplayer games are all pretty fun, but the real joy here is in the single-player experience. It’s a good time whether you burn through it quickly or try for 100% completion. And there are so many fun elements along the way. I never grew tired of hearing Luigi nervously hum along with the game’s music, for example. And I’d forgotten how much I loved that staircase level after first climbing it on the 3DS. The developers really know how to turn frustration into laughter.
All that said, I can’t recommend Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD to everyone. It’s as expensive as Luigi’s Mansion 3, for starters, and 3 is the better game. Everything here is a step backward. That doesn’t mean it’s a step you shouldn’t take if you haven’t before, but those looking to double dip may as well do so in the original 3DS mansions if they still have a way in.
