Perhaps one of Nintendo’s main characters that has gotten quite a resurgence of love over the past few years is Luigi, ever since he got his own game back on the Gamecube, things have been looking up for the green brother, but after a shaky outing in Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, another entry was looking less than likely, but we were surprised and now having completed Luigi’s latest ghost busting adventure, it is a welcome one.

The story is simple, Mario, Peach, Luigi and some Toads have all been invited to stay in an all new and exclusive hotel, and what a hotel it is, grandeur and opulence are the biggest things you will note as the gang arrives. But as this is a Luigi’s Mansion game, things don’t go according to plan and soon after they all retire to their rooms for the night, something goes bump and upon investigating, Luigi discovers that King Boo has been set free and once again seeks to capture Luigi and the rest in paintings. Making a quick getaway, via the laundry shoot, Luigi discovers that E. Gadd is also there and equips a new Poltergust and begins to search the hotel.

In the first game, the mansion played home to a variety of rooms, with specific themes contained within them and this is much the same., though rather than rooms it is entire floors. Most of the hotel consists of the same things you would find in a regular, upscale hotel, a gym, a pool, restaurant, but of course here there are some ghoulishly twists applied to them. As you start out, most of the time it is a matter of just exploring to see what is going on, as you can’t progress to far, without getting back the elevator buttons and as soon as you rescue E. Gadd, who was also around for a similar reason, you can get going proper, as you get some extra tools at this point.

The same basic mechanics are at play here, you can suck up ghosts or blow things away, you can stun them using the light bulb, or discover hidden things with the dark light. In addition though, you now have access to some more advanced moves, one of which you will use almost as frequently as the previous ones and that is slam, once you have a ghost in your sights, you will get a prompt on the screen to mash the A button. Doing this will actually flip the ghost up into the air and down into either a random direction, or one you aim in and you will want to aim, as doing so will let you destroy objects, but more importantly, bash other ghosts. It is a smart way to take down many foes, given that you can take down quite a number of them with the bash, if your ghost that you are using to bash others is defeated, you will also have a small moment of time in which you can rush and begin to suck up one of the other ghosts, letting you keep the action going.

A lot of the game though, is not just capturing ghosts, there are many puzzles to enjoy and one singular room that I have found to be pure evil, but more on that in a bit. There are only a few locations that are themed to a hotel, and you encounter them very early on, however the others are so different and offer up some seriously exciting puzzles, that you will not want to revisit the early floors. One floor in particular that stood out to me, was the Egypt inspired one, complete with sand dunes and a pyramid, now the realist in me, wondered how they could get a pyramid inside of a hotel, but then the little kid in me decided not to care and just enjoy the space. The first thing I did, was start to vacuum up all the sand in the level, which took ages, but I just had fun doing it and turns out it was good practice for a later floor. As each floor has its own theme, patterns or skills you might have learnt and adapted to earlier, might not work here, which helps the game keep things fresh and moving forward.

One area that does not move forward well is down in the lowest level of the hotel, the boiler-room, not only due to a very annoying puzzle, but also getting around, requires you to use the Poltergust in a very unique way. The puzzle in question is one that should have been simple, but it did not have the tell-tale sign that others had, which made me spend almost an hour exploring the room and other floors, thinking I had missed something. The game does offer an internal help line, should you need it, but for this time E. Gadd merely just suggested I try all the functions out, but no matter what I tried, I could not progress, eventually with some help from another reviewer, I did move on, but the frustration at that point was sky high.

Another odd thing I discovered is that Luigi has issues moving near walls and other objects, as in he can clip them easily enough and this stops him walking forward. When things like this happened, it was usually while I was attempting to get through narrow paths, or paths that were obstructed by some furniture or such. While not a game breaker, it was quite annoying to be attempting to walk towards the camera, only for Luigi to get stuck on something that was not there, the same issues appeared in the multiplayer modes as well, though as they are more time driven, rushing is the normal way of things. The most annoying problem is that the game will snap to items when you are busting, which is handy when you are attempting to pull on a switch or such, but not so when you are trying to get something else that is near a key item. Again, I get that it was meant to help players out, especially the younger ones, but there was no way to stop it from doing it, which means that a lot of the time, I would aim for some coins, or even a gem and the game would snap Luigi back to another point.

Back on the multiplayer though, the game offers up two modes, ScreamPark, which is comprised of minigames and the ScareScraper, which is for those seeking a team-based ghost hunts. ScreamPark is fun, but needs at least two people, where as the ScareScraper can be done solo, but is much better with other people. As both modes allow for up to 8 players, you will spend a lot of time with Gooigi’s on screen, so get used to that, as the character model is odd, not in a bad way, just basic. Gooigi also stars in the story, which is surprising as he was very much a minor addition to the 3DS remake of Luigi’s Mansion, but his prominence here, is a welcome one, as some of the puzzles require a little more thought to complete, the first time I used him proper, is when Luigi got stuck and I could not think how to escape, until I was near defeated, using Gooigi though, I was able to proceed again. Should the game prove to be a challenge for you, you are able to visit E. Gadd and spend some of the money you collect and gets some bones, which will call in the Polterpup, to revive you, which is a nice touch. Other items can help you find the missing gem from a floor, or the boo’s that move in once you have cleared a floor out from the main stuff, both are optional though, so you don’t need to use them if you choose not to.

One area of the game that I honestly thought was done really well, was in the visuals, the game shines, both in its art direction and overall level of polish, it is nearly flawless in this regard. The thing that stands out the most though is that Luigi and the gang, all have personality, the expressions that Luigi throws up through out the adventure are amazing. It matters not if Luigi is scared or happy, this is the most expressive you will see anyone from the Mushroom Kingdom and honestly sets a new bar for all future games, even Mario has more personality here than he has in the past. The floors, as I mentioned before are all wonderful, while the room with the Pyramid stands out, there is also the garden floor, the movie floor and more, each one has a reason to shine. Even with floors that contain many rooms and not one larger cohesive one, they still have a lot to offer, though there was a change that I was not a fan of. In the original game, when you cleared a room, the lights would come on, which gave you more visibility in which to explore, however for some reason, the game does not do that, they do light up, but then fade back to normal, it is just a touch I feel they lost.

On the audio side, each floor also contains their own melodies that fit with the motif that is being presented in the visuals, even while complimenting the overall score. For example, in my nemesis room that lives in the bowels of the hotel, the ghost in charge is inspired by those of the southern states in the USA, so the music has a more country feel, whereas when you hit the medieval floor, it is more brass instruments. Luigi will also occasionally hum along, like he has done in the past and now you can use the d-pad to have a choice of Mario call outs, something that was previously assigned to a single button. On top of that Luigi is also now very talkative, still not in full sentences, but more words that the Mushroom Kingdom residence have spoken before, that being said, most of the rest still speak in the gibberish language that they have always done, even the ghosts, which are more vocal than ever, use the same.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a real return to form after Dark Moon, the pacing of the game is really well done, there is a single moment where it can slow down quite a bit, but if you want to power through the game, you can do that and not feel like things are being stretched out. Taking time to explore the hotel to discover gems, boos and other things is worth your time as well, plus you can always grab a friend and take on some games and ghosts with multiplayer, or co-op in the story mode. While there are some collision issues, the game is almost entirely free of issues, making it not only one of the most polished games to release lately, but one that is fun from start to end, so you might say that it is ghoulishly good.

Review code provided by Nintendo