Luigi's Mansion 2 HD - Review

The Luigi’s Mansion series is a special one for me, as I have never beaten the first two games on their original platform. For the first game, a lack of memory card kept me from saving and dying on the end boss meant I was done, so the 3DS release was where I finally beat the game. However Luigi’s Mansion 2 on 3DS was never completed, as I was unable to hold the 3DS in a comfortable way, with all the extra inputs the game offered. So for the HD release on Switch, I was quite happy to give the game another go, if only to finally beat it. The question, was the long wait worth it?

Due to my lack of completion originally, I didn’t have the strongest connection to the story, so most of this was new for me. The game begins with Professor E. Gadd researching away with the help of a number of ghostly assistants. However when King Boo shatters the Dark Moon that hangs in the sky above them, it makes the ghosts go crazy and forces the Professor to seek refuge in a bunker. Undeterred by this set back, the Professor once again calls on Luigi to aid him in capturing the ghosts and discovering what exactly is going on in Evershade Valley. As Luigi and the Professor start to reclaim the pieces, they discover that the Toad assistants have been stuck in paintings, but they are not the only ones. While the game is now 11 years old, I won’t spoil the story, just in case this is your first time coming in. I will say that it’s a very nice and safe Nintendo story, nothing to worry about, which is perfect for younger gamers.

Unlike the first game, where it was a single mansion and you were in it for the long haul, this time there are multiple mansions and you go into them to clear a specific objective and then return out. For the Nintendo 3DS release, this bite sized ghostbusting did make sense, as most gamers were not doing marathon sessions on the handheld, but on the Switch it feels off. Some of the later visits to the mansions can be quite lengthy, but the earlier ones, the first mansion especially feel like you barely get into the game, before you are taken back out. The same can be said when the Professor calls you on your DS, the Dual Scream, sometimes its immediately after a block gets in your way, sometimes its just because. Again, all this was present on the 3DS release, but there the micro-sessions felt ok, here it feels out of place. Because of this structure, you can always replay a mission, but that means that you have to deal with the odd pacing again.

A new change this time around is that Luigi has multiple lights to use and use he will, as unlike the first game you can’t just shine your light at a ghost. This time when you use the regular flashlight, you need to charge it up and hit the ghost with a burst of light, this stuns them and then allows you to capture them. As you progress into the game, the ghosts will start wearing sunglasses, even inside and other items like pots on their heads, in order to avoid being hit by the light. So in order to capture them, you must first take away their protection, then you can proceed to add them to your ghostly collection. The wholly new bulb is the Dark Light, which when shined on the missing item, will bring it back, but only partially as you then need to capture the spirit orbs that are still keeping it away. Most of the time you will use this to bring back doors, pull things out of paintings or expose Boo’s that are hidden around the place. Unlike the traditional light, this one has a usage meter and it gives you a few seconds to use it, before it overheats.

The main reason that I couldn’t complete the game on the 3DS was due to the controls and the lack of space for my hands to contort around the system, so I was keen to see how they did things here. For the most part its much like the 3DS release, each of the bulbs are attached to a different face button, the functions of the Poltergust 5000 are tied to the triggers, all that makes sense. However I was forever getting stuck on the right stick for turning, I would move the stick to the left, thinking I would point towards the left, but no, Luigi just turns left. Now that is not an issue if you are wanting to move to the left and face the same direction, but left means left of the screen, not left of the character. So if you are facing down screen and try to turn left, Luigi turns to the right, as that is where left points and because of this, I really struggled to adapt. I did check the settings to see if there was another option and there wasn’t, so I just did the best I could, I just wish it was more user friendly.

As far as the presentation goes, things look decent, with a lot of the game looking far better than you might think a 3DS game upscaled would. I did boot up the 3DS release to see just how different things looked and honestly, apart from things looking cleaner, it was mostly the same. There were times when I thought things looked a little stretched, usually on the Professor, but they were nothing that would impact the game itself. Of course, playing the game originally in 3D meant that this was going to be different, but I think the larger image quality made up for it, even when playing in handheld. The game doesn’t do anything different; the locations look the same, Luigi still has a lot of expression in his face and even the mission end screens are the same, it just looks cleaner. Sound wise it is mostly the same, the games music is still great, Luigi is still delightful and whenever he hums along to the music is smile inducing.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD doesn’t do anything to break what came before, it just looks nicer. While the core gameplay loop is fine, the bite sized missions that worked well on the 3DS feel a little out of place on the Switch. In addition the controls, while functional, may not be the best around and a few more options wouldn’t go astray. I did enjoy my time with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and being able to finally beat the game was great, I just wish it wasn’t so scared of making some bigger updates, beyond going HD.

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by Nintendo

The Pros

Game looks great, all the personality of Luigi and the ghosts remain

Gameplay feels as solid now as it was in the original release…

The Cons

… however I still have issues with the controls on offer

The bite sized missions feel a little out of place on the home console release