Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon Review

Nintendo might have settled into a rather predictable rhythm with its releases over the past few years , but it has traditionally always been expert at innovating within its franchises. Nonetheless, it’s surprising that this particular sequel is the most inventive game Nintendo has made in years. It might not be as original as the first Luigi’s Mansion, but it’s so much bigger and more adventurous that it makes its inspiration look like an extended demo. It’s one of the best games on the 3DS, a loveably comedic, surprisingly varied adventure that wins over your heart with its playful characterisation and your mind with its intelligent, challenging nature.

Known as Luigi’s Mansion 2 outside of the US, Dark Moon swirls explorative puzzling together with ghost-hunting in sprawling, spooky manors stuffed to the crumbling rafters with spectres, secrets and hidden cash. Each mansion has its own visual signature, from dust-covered clocktower to overgrown garden, and over the course of all five, puzzles are almost never re-used – in twelve or so hours of single-player gameplay the concept is never stretched too thin.

You might remember the creepily childlike Professor E Gadd from the original Luigi’s Mansion; he’s spent the last twelve years as a paranormal researcher, inventing things that harness the ghosts’ supernatural energy. But his subjects go a bit mental when the Dark Moon is shattered, and Gadd calls upon his old friend Luigi to restore order.

Hapless, burbling, reluctantly heroic Luigi is the perfect star for this slapstick, spooky adventure. It’s the small details that bring him to life: his bumbling run, his perpetual cowering, the way he hums nervously along with the theme music and talks to himself. The ghosts exude personality too in their movement, their quirky behaviour and their reactions to Luigi’s presence. Peering through windows and cracks in the walls, you can spy on them them cackling gleefully as they run amok, playing catch with dismembered suits of armour and disappearing through walls, usually with something Luigi desperately needs in spectral hand. There is amazing animation talent on display. I wouldn’t be the first person to draw parallels between Nintendo and Pixar, but it’s especially justified here.

Luigi has just two tools: a flashlight with a Dark-Light attachment that reveals illusions and hidden objects, and the Poltergust 5000 vacuum. The amount that Luigi’s Mansion 2 manages to do with these two things is astonishing; they are continually applied in new contexts. The Poltergust is both a puzzle-solving tool and a weapon that draws frantically air-paddling ghosts into its vortex, and the flashlight too has its applications in ghost-hunting. The game is full of things you can’t see – invisible objects and doorways, tricksy Boos that are fond of illusions – and the Dark-Light attachment brings them into relief when turned upon a suspiciously empty corner or bare wall.

The multiplayer showcases ghost-hunting rather than exploration. Each of the three modes sends you into a randomised mansion in a group of two to four players, taking you with clearing it out floor by floor, tracking down invisible ghost-dogs or racing to find a hatch to the next level. You can play through up to 25 floors, but with a boss fight every five levels it takes luck as well as skill to make it through to the top with much health left. It’s very good fun, but always balanced for four players, so playing with fewer is a stiff challenge.

There’s an enjoyable physicality to stunning ghosts with the flashlight before hauling them into the vacuum like a carp on the end of a line. New ghosts appear regularly to change things up and each mansion ends in a boss fight that usually combines ghostbusting with puzzling. It’s outwith combat that the game is most interesting; Luigi’s Mansion is the closest Nintendo has ever come to creating a point-and-click adventure game. Wandering around the mansions turning the Poltergust’s nozzle on anything and everything that stands out in the hopes of finding something secret also eases the frustration when you’re stuck or lost – and I got stuck a good few times. Luigi’s Mansion 2’s challenging, intelligent nature is a very pleasant surprise.

It also has some of the most fiendish hidden collectibles I have ever come across. Even combing every inch of the mansions for gems, hidden rooms and secret ghosts, I barely found half of them first time through.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 is faultlessly presented, with exceptional attention to detail. The mansions are like living dioramas, with tiny anomalous details drawing your eye to potential secrets. They are capacious, mysterious and eerie, stuffed with secrets, trap-doors and illusions. Safes, vents and strange contraptions release spiralling cascades of green notes and sparkling coins to suck into Luigi’s vacuum. Like Super Mario 3D Land, it’s one of the few 3DS games that’s really been designed for the 3D effect, and pushing the slider up drew me deeper into its miniature world.

The only thing that drew me out of the game from time to time was the mission structure, which feels forced and unnecessary. Instead of leaving you to explore the mansions at leisure, Luigi’s Mansion 2 divides them up into levels, with Luigi transported in and out by E Gadd’s Pixelshifter inbetween. It allows for one-off twists to familiar mansions, but it also disturbs the immersion when you’re dragged back to the bunker on the cusp of a new discovery. Gadd also calls up every five minutes like an anxious boyfriend to offer guidance, especially in the first two mansions– there’s nothing like a cheesy ringtone to puncture the spooky ambience.

Though Luigi’s Mansion is impressively inventive most of the time, there are one or two gimmicks that are overused. The first time a cute little Polterpup steals something from you and leads you on a chase through an entire mansion, it’s unexpected and entertaining. The third time, not so much. Some parts of the game also rely heavily on the 3DS’ motion-sensing gyroscope, so good luck playing that on a train.