Luigi's Mansion 3 brings the titular character back to a haunting adventure, as he tries to fight ghosts to save his friends. A direct sequel to the 3DS game Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, the third installment in the series is set in Last Resort, a high-rise luxury hotel.
Invited by the hotel's owner as a VIP guest, Luigi, Mario, Princess Peach, the ghost dog Polterpup, and a couple of colorful Toads check in, not knowing that the hotel was in fact haunted. Everyone except Luigi gets captured by their ghastly host. And so, it falls upon Luigi's shoulders to find his friends and unravel the mystery surrounding the peculiar building.
High-Rise Mansion
Luigi's Mansion 3 sticks true to the series' core mechanics while adding bite-sized improvements.
Just like in previous installments, Luigi fights ghosts with his Ghostbusers-inspired Poltergust. With many ghosts abound, Luigi has to skillfully evade attacks while sucking them into the Poltergust, which then traps them within. His Poltergust has been upgraded with a gun that fires a plunger to things, helping him drag objects around or pull ghosts closer to him.
Exploring the hotel is somewhat open ended, departing from the mission-based approach that Dark Moon had. You're free to explore each floor as you unlock them, going up and down at your whim. This gives players control over the pace of the game, which would allow you to backtrack your steps to try to find secrets that you might have missed.
Thankfully, Luigi doesn't have to explore alone. Gooigi, a slimy doppelganger of Luigi, returns from Dark Moon. Acting like a second character that players could control, Gooigi can be called up by Luigi from a secret compartment in the Poltergust. Gooigi lets players traverse through tight spaces and spiky surfaces that Luigi won't be able to access.
Many of the game's puzzles revolve around swapping between Luigi and Gooigi. However, most of the puzzles in the early stages are no-brainers. It won't be until the later stages where things get challenging and require players to really think pieces through.
The puzzles would require Luigi to make use of one or more of the tools at his disposal—the Poltergust's vacuum, the fireable plunger, and his dark light—using them to interact with different objects in clever ways. Successfully solving the puzzles is always enjoyable and rewarding.
Residing in the hotel are more formidable ghosts that Luigi and Gooigi have to battle to get to the next floor. These ghosts provide the game's boss battles, with each one having their own gimmick that makes smart use of the game's mechanics.
The ghosts themselves are an inspired design, with interesting personalities and motivations. Going through each one of them is memorable, as they are challenging.
Atmosphere
Moving around the hotel is a seamless experience. Going from one room to another doesn't lead to loading screens, and going around places isn't so hard. Going up and down different floors also doesn't cause a lot of waiting, which helps you keep immersed in the game.
Exploring the hotel is amazing. The audio is atmospheric—spooky but in a cartoony, not so scary way. It highlights how Luigi is actually scared of ghosts, and hearing him react to them is enjoyable. The music is nothing to write home about, but it suits the game pretty well.
Each floor of the hotel features its own theme, keeping the game fresh. Although there aren't a lot of ghost types, their interactions with the objects found in each floor changes, adding more flavor to the experience.
The fancy hotel wouldn't be fully appreciated without the game's 1080p graphics. The game's designs stand out thanks to its magnificent use of lighting. Some parts of the game will make you stand in awe at how beautiful the environment is, and how the light interacts with some objects in the game.
Its 30fps framerate isn't much of a bummer, as the game doesn't really need high marks in that regard. However, there are times when the game would slow down, especially when there are a lot of ghosts around.
More meat than goo
Going through Luigi's Mansion 3 would take about 15 to 20 hours to complete. However, various collectibles help improve the game's shelf life.
For each floor, there is one Boo that would play hide and seek with Luigi. They could be found in different haunting objects, which you'll have to break or destroy. Once the object is gone, the Boo will hide invisible to you, so you'll have to use the dark light to reveal them. Once you've found them, you'll have to suck them up to the Poltergust to add them to your collection.
You could also collect literally hidden gems, six on every floor. Some of the gems are hidden in plain sight and could be collected once found. However, some gems are locked behind a puzzle. Squeezing your brains to figure out how to get them is sometimes thrilling—being able to see where they are but not being able to get them.
There are also tons of coins to collect, which you could use to buy upgrades to Luigi's tools from Professor E. Gadd, who also got tricked into visiting the hotel.
The collectibles add about another six hours to the total game time and would unlock cool rewards for Luigi to use. They're completely optional, but they add to the fun nonetheless.
Sharing is caring
Luigi's Mansion 3 also offers a wide array of multiplayer features that lets you share the fun with a friend. With two controllers, the whole story mode could be played by two players. The second player controls Gooigi, which lends for an almost symmetric experience. The two players would help each other in solving puzzles and defeating enemies.
Returning from previous titles are other multiplayer modes that support up to eight players online.
In the game mode ScareScraper, up to four Luigis and Gooigis have to clear twenty-five randomly generated floors of the hotel. They do this by finding the hidden ghost in each one of the floors, with each one being tougher than the one preceding them.
The other game mode pits four Luigis and four Gooigis against each other, called "Screampark". They compete against each other in three different matches. One sees the teams collecting coins on floats in a pool; the other sees them frantically beating more ghosts than the other team, while the other sees everyone collecting cannonballs to fire at targets.
All of the multiplayer game modes test the players' knowledge and skills they learned from the game. They're all fun, creative distractions you could pick up and play with your friends who have their own copies of the game.
Where to get Luigi's Mansion 3
Luigi doesn't always get to lead a game, and it's been four years since we last saw Mario's lanky brother get the spotlight. But it's a delight that every time he does, it always ends up with a fun, immersive experience.
Luigi's Mansion 3 was released on Oct. 31 on the Nintendo Switch for $59.99. You could find the game on Nintendo's e-shop, or find it here on the Nintendo website.
