gamesandtings

A delight – a real delight that deserves so much more recognition and celebration than it’s already received.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 brilliantly combines the games that came before it (as well as the the additions found in the release of the original on 3DS) and produces a game full of invention.

The mansion/s are replaced by an invitation to a hotel. The game follows a familiar loop, each floor with its own devoted theme where Luigi explores and solves puzzles until a boss battle takes place. The reward for besting the boss is a button that is used to activate the next floor in the hotel.

Whilst sounding basic and rote, we find a game bursting with invention and imagination – each nook and cranny potentially holding a secret gem or a bunch of cash. Each floor folded and enveloped, with collectibles intelligently hidden and obscured. Each theme, ranging from a movie studio to an Ancient Egyptian museum, is wonderfully presented with effortless charm and genuine magic. It maintains the momentum of offering new themes to discover which provides an organic feeling of pulling the player along – I wanted to carry on playing so that I was able to see what the next floor could be.

I say this with a lot of Nintendo games and it still holds true for this game. Searching for each collectible is huge part of the what makes the game so enjoyable. Each trinket is purposefully placed – deliberately done so rather than an afterthought thrown in at the last minute.

I have to take a moment to talk about Gooigi. Introduced in the re-release of Luigi’s Mansion on 3DS, Gooigi there served as a straight co-op partner (presumably to get over lore issues of having multiple Luigis). Here, Gooigi serves as a trusty companion, able to access areas that Luigi’s cakes block him from doing so. Gooigi is also able to serve alongside Luigi, tackling obstacles and enemies together. It has similarities to Pikmin 3 – having to independently manage each, flipping from one to another to ensure progression through the floor – B2 is the best example of this.

The addition of Gooigi and the mechanics that govern his involvement are what allows so many of the levels to be as inventive as they are.

There are issues – most notably, it felt like the game was easy to get through, especially with the boss battles. I did die – I won’t pretend that I finished it by playing flawlessly. However, all my deaths felt like it was due to my own carelessness rather than a challenge really being offered. Boss fights also felt too accommodating, ending sooner than expected with plenty of health on offer. I personally wanted more difficulty; the simultaneous use of Gooigi like an elaborate plate-spinning mechanic would have been welcomed to elevate the difficulty up by one notch.

The difference in vacuuming the ghosts was also tweaked for the game – with the ability to slam ghosts, knocking health points more readily. It could also be used to chain into other ghosts, slamming a ghost into another causes them to become stunned. This allows Luigi to vacuum from one ghost to another, chaining ghosts until a room is cleared. I’m not fully on board with this new twist; there was a very physical feeling of struggling to control your vacuum as the ghost fought to get away, that definitely feels like it is missing from LM3. Even if it were to be kept, it felt like it needed something similar to Luigi’s Mansion 2, a tiered slamming mechanic, successfully vacuuming a ghost that could build into a massive slam rewarded by more money being dropped. It again needed one more notch, stepping up from what we could actually do in this game.

A final note of slight disappointment – the multiplayer, especially online feels bare bones compared to what was offered for Luigi’s Mansion 2. And to compound the sadness, the recently announced DLC doesn’t really offer anything meaningful for the online multiplayer bar cosmetic/vanity items. Whilst I’d want my Luigi to be best dressed, a new mode or two would have gone a long way in making the online component more attractive for new players.

If these issues appear to make me question the quality of the game, then I haven’t done enough to praise the game. This is a brilliantly inventive game with some of the best collectible placement in gaming. Through the battles with ghosts, exploration of levels and slow puzzle solving (when they pop up) – Luigi’s Mansion 3 turns out to be the best game in the series. One that I felt genuinely upset after I completed it.

9 gems out of 10.