Title: Luigi’s Mansion 3
Developer: Next Level Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Category: Action, Adventure
Release Date: October 31, 2019
How we got the game: I received a physical copy for my birthday
It’s finally here! Luigi’s Mansion 3 finally exists! And boy, oh boy, it didn’t disappoint!
Luigi’s Mansion 3 begins with Toad driving a bus. Why they chose Toad to drive is beyond me. However, Red Toad is driving while Blue Toad, Yellow Toad, Princess Peach, Mario, and Luigi d their own things in the back. The opening cutscene with them on their way to some sort of destination with their suitcases packed is hardcore adorable and stepped up ten notches from any other game.
Luigi is sound asleep in the back next to his single suitcase when Polterpup wakes him up reminding him (or giving us, the player, information about what’s going on) of an invitation he received. Luigi and friends have been invited to a fabulous stay at the Last Resort Hotel. None of them find this odd. However, it’s a good thing for us otherwise there would be no game.
When they arrive at the hotel they seem to be the only guests there. Helen Gravelly, the owner, gives them a warm welcome and shows them to their room. The hotel itself and the rooms are huge and looks as though it’s all too good to be true. The gang says goodnight, heads to their own rooms, and Luigi falls straight to sleep.
He awakes in the middle of the night to screaming. He investigates to find the entire hotel has changed. It’s no longer gold and sparkly, but dark and dusty instead. The Toads, Mario, and Peach have all disappeared.
Luigi runs into Helen Gravelly, revealing her master plan to please the one and only King Boo, who she had saved from E. Gadd’s gallery. Luigi escapes a fate of being stuck in a portrait and thus the game begins.
The opening sequence took me about 15 minutes to get through. It’s a mixture of cutscenes and a tad bit of exploration, which I did a fair amount. There’s a lot to explore in this game and when you get the Poltergust G-00, the exploration gets so much better.
You, of course, play as Luigi as you explore through the entire hotel in an attempt to find all the portraits of your friends and save them. There are 15 floors to the Last Resort, which I thought was fabulous. Luigi’s Mansion for the Gamecube was a fabulous game, but it was short and sweet. Dark Moon had a larger mansion, but it was still on the quick side. Luigi’s Mansion 3 has so much content in and out of the main story. The main story, however, will keep you busy long enough though. And yet, I still wish there were more.
But I’m getting off-topic. There are 15 floors and there seems to be only one elevator in the entire hotel and no stairs. So, when the ghosts steal all the elevator buttons, Luigi needs to go on the hunt for the buttons so he can explore different floors of the hotel in hopes to find his family. These buttons, of course, are held by boss ghosts.
Each floor contains a boss ghost holding onto a button. Most of these bosses are sort of like mini-bosses and some floors are fairly quick and easy because they’re a big boss. Meaning, they not only have an elevator button but they’re also guarding a portrait as well. The boss ghosts were all fun, each one harder than the previous boss. Most bosses had a puzzle to them in figuring out their attack style and also how to stun them long enough for you to suck them with the Poltergust G-00. The mini-bosses were easier, but there was always a puzzle of some sort that needed to be figured out so you could make it to the boss.
The floors all have different themes to them as well, which was pretty cool. Floor five was the room suites, for example. However, there was a fitness floor, a shopping floor, a pirate-theme floor, and so many other cool ones. My favorite? The dance floor. (I won’t say why due to spoilers, but if you play the game, I’m sure you’ll easily guess why that floor in my favorite.) Ghosts hide throughout all the areas in hallways and the rooms. However, they were few and far between.
In the first two Luigi’s Mansion games, you’d enter a room and be bombarded with ghosts. You’d have to catch them all to clear the room before being able to explore the room. In Luigi’s Mansion 3, it’s sort of the opposite. There are some rooms where there are ghosts right off the bat, but for the most part, you got to explore the room, did what you needed to, and then ghosts would appear after you did a certain something or tried to leave the room. Sometimes, no ghosts would appear at all until you went back to that room later. But here’s the thing – there’s never any real reason for you to go back to those rooms again later.
Especially at the beginning of the game, it seemed as though there were little to no ghosts in the hotel at all. This made the game a little too easy at first. Polterpup (and even E. Gadd) are there hand-holding once in a while as well. Even as the game picked up in difficulty, I missed walking into a room and being pestered by ghosts.
The Poltergust G-00 can do a lot. There is money all over the hotel and you can suck up anything. By anything, I mean couch cushions, plants, anything, and everything. I believed I vacuumed more of what I “shouldn’t” rather than ghosts.
In terms of what the Poltergust G-00 can do… well, it’s powerful. It can suck up things and it can also blow air out. Your flashlight is attached and you get the Strobulb, which was a mechanic introduced in Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon. In fact, that’s the tool you use to save your friends from their framed fates.
It can do way more as well. E. Gadd added a Suction Shot where a plunger shoots out of the vacuum with a rope at the end. Luigi can suck up the rope and slam whatever object it’s stuck to. This helps him open certain things as well as move stuff that’s blocking his way. The Poltergust G-00 also has a Burst in which the vacuum shoots out a blast of air from the bottom almost like a rocket. It can blast enemies away from him and act as a jump mechanic for Luigi since he can’t jump otherwise in the Luigi’s Mansion series. In addition to all that, sucking up ghosts is easier as well.
In the previous games, you’d stun the ghosts and vacuum them by tilting the analog stick in the opposite direction the ghost was trying to pull away from. It works the same in Luigi’s Mansion 3 except a meter will appear above Luigi. If he holds on long enough, you’ll have the chance to hit the A-button. Keep doing so and Luigi will slam the ghost repeatedly into the ground knocking some of their health away each time. Plus, you can slam them into other ghosts that happen to get too close. They’ll flatten on the ground and also lose a bit of health and will automatically be stunned until they’re able to pick themselves back up.
There are two more mechanics the Poltergust G-00 can do. One was the Super Suction (I honestly can’t remember the name of it). It was only used twice in the entire game. You didn’t even get the mechanic until about halfway through. You got it, used it once. Then use it one more time at the end of the game – and no, not even for the final boss battle. It was a cool mechanic. The suction was powerful to the point that Luigi needed the vacuum to be plugged in order to do it and it ripped the walls right off. I didn’t see too much of a point to it. I would have rathered found a key for the door like the other floors instead of ripping the door, frame, and wall down to get where I needed to go. Especially since the mechanic was barely used at all.
The final mechanic was, of course, Gooigi. Gooigi can do a lot of things. He can do anything Luigi can (using the vacuum as normal) and can squeeze through grates, fences, and the like. However, he’s weak to water. That’s his only downfall. You can switch between Gooigi and Luigi. In fact, this gameplay is crucial in at least two boss battles. If you want to get to a certain place to get one of the collectible gems, for example (there are six gems on every floor to be collected), Gooigi will most likely be able to get to it. There are also some puzzles that require Luigi to be in two places at once.
This is also meant to be a co-op game where player two is Gooigi. You’re supposed to communicate and work together. I’m glad the game is playable with Gooigi by yourself though. It actually made certain parts of the game more challenging when I had to keep track of both of them.
I never got the chance to test out the co-op side of the game. I never even tried out the other two modes of the game – ScareScraper and Scream Park. Though I’ve seen others do it and they look like great modes.
Honestly, I can talk about this game for the next week. I have so much to say about it, I loved it that much. The ghosts and puzzles were just challenging enough. The dialogue, voice acting, and cutscenes were perfect. The final boss was awesome. The Boo hunting was back and it was much better than the first game, though there weren’t many – there was just one Boo per floor. There was so much money to find and gems to collect. I explored (and vacuumed) every nook and cranny of that hotel.
My only complaint? Once you beat the game, you go back to your last save point. There’s an ending sequence, but your file is still there and it doesn’t show as though you’ve beaten the game. It shows your final save point, which is right before the final boss battle. You can’t even go backward at that point either so you’re kind of stuck in this limbo. In other words, there’s nothing when you beat this game. In the original Luigi’s Mansion, your file was wiped and you restarted the game in Hard Mode. I so wish Luigi’s Mansion 3 did that. I would have loved to play a hard mode version of this game.
Overall, Luigi’s Mansion 3 didn’t disappoint. I still wish there were more ghosts to be caught initially rather than going back to look for them later, but it was fun and challenging nonetheless. The new mechanics fit well and it didn’t seem like a lot of extra “stuff” that needed to be learned. It meshed together well. I already want more and can’t wait for Luigi’s Mansion 4. (It better happen!) And yet, I’m not sure how Nintendo can top Luigi’s Mansion 3.
What can I say about the graphics? You can see the stitching on Luigi’s hat. These graphics are top-notch. The colors were crisp and bright, despite the dark setting. The ghosts were clear and had a nice aura around them. The backgrounds, individual rooms, and floors were unique and fun. Even the various boss ghosts had awesome designs. Again, everything about this game as a whole is fabulous.
The music is something else you can’t go wrong with. I’ve always loved E. Gadd’s theme from his laboratory in the original Luigi’s Mansion. I hum it to myself quite often on a regular basis (just ask Kris). This game so many different variants of that song, it was glorious (another reason the dance floor is my favorite). The sound effects were satisfying – sucking up ghosts, money, collecting gems, Luigi walking on carpet versus tiles – all of it was great.
The voice acting? I can’t get enough of it. Luigi speaks. Mario speaks. Peach and the Toads speak. They have conversations with one another. It was all great. (E. Gadd still talks like a Sim, but that’s charming in its own right.)
I will most definitely play this game again. I need to go back and collect all the gems and all the Boos. This game is too much fun to play only once. While it was pretty easy in the beginning and there weren’t as many ghosts as I would have liked, this game is too good. It’s charming and it’s a must-play for all – especially if you adore the Luigi’s Manion series. You won’t be disappointed.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 gets…
4 out of 5 lives.
Happy Tuesday!
