Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a Middle Ground Between Its Predecessors

 Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with:
Dec 232019
 

After playing Nier, I also went on to finish Luigi’s Mansion 3

When Luigi’s Mansion 3 was announced, I had one major hope: that it would be more like the original than like Dark Moon.

After that, I saw a lot of things that convinced me it would be, and so Luigi’s Mansion 3 became a game I was truly looking forward to. Now that I’ve completed it, I can say I definitely enjoyed it… but it still didn’t quite reach the heights of the first game for me.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 begins with Luigi, Mario, Peach, and a few Toads traveling to a luxury hotel for a vacation. Once there, they’re trapped by ghosts, and it’s up to Luigi to stop the ghosts and free them all.

First of all, the mission system is gone! The mission-based structure was one of my least favorite parts of Dark Moon, and it thankfully was removed for the next game. You’re free to go back and forth in the hotel as you please, and there’s an auto-save feature instead of only saving at the end of each level.

It is still somewhat segmented, since each floor effectively acts as a distinct level, and I was disappointed that there are not puzzles that make use of multiple floors like an interview had said.

(In fact, since only the first few floors really feel like a standard hotel, being a hotel doesn’t really have much to do with the layout or puzzle structure.)

Nevertheless, it was enough of a compromise that I enjoyed it much more. The hotel felt like an important location I got to know as I progressed through the game, and I enjoyed my time with it.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 also has boss ghosts with personalities again, helping them to stand out more from the generic ghosts you fight around the hotel. Some of them were great, with one ghost in particular being my favorite both for his personality and for having one of the best floors.

The atmosphere leans more toward comedy than spookiness again, but while it isn’t as atmospheric as the original, it’s a lot of fun to play.

So many things in the hotel can be vacuumed up, and there are secrets to discover and puzzles to solve all over the place. The cutscenes are also great, and there is a decent amount of optional stuff you can do if you want, with Boos to catch and hidden gems to collect.

While Luigi’s Mansion 3 didn’t surpass the original for me, it’s still a fun game I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend. And maybe I ought to pick up the 3DS remake of the original to see if it really is as excellent as I remember…

Luigi’s Mansion 3 Gets a Halloween Release Date

 Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jul 172019
 

Luigi’s Mansion 3 was one of the highlights of E3 for me, especially the Nintendo Treehouse gameplay segments, but the one disappointment was that it didn’t have a release date yet.

But now it does!

Luigi’s Mansion 3 will be out on October 31, a fitting date for a spooky game.

When the game was first announced, I was excited and hopeful that it would feel more like the original than Dark Moon.

Everything I’ve seen since then has just made me more excited, from their comments during Nintendo Treehouse about how they adjusted the style and structure after looking at feedback from Dark Moon, to the confirmation that you can explore the hotel once you’ve unlocked a given floor and that puzzles will make use of multiple floors.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is one of my most-anticipated games of the year, and I’m excited we’ll be able to play it on Halloween.

Are you planning to get Luigi’s Mansion 3?

Luigi’s Mansion 3 Announced for the Switch!

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with:
Sep 142018
 

Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct had several exciting announcements, and the one I was the happiest to see came first: Luigi’s Mansion 3 is in development for the Switch.

We discussed the possibility last month, when Simon Belmont’s Super Smash Bros. trailer included Luigi wielding a new Poltergust.

As you probably know by now, I enjoyed the original Luigi’s Mansion much more than Dark Moon. If Luigi’s Mansion 3 follows the original’s style, I’ll be thrilled. If it’s more like Dark Moon, I’ll be disappointed.

Which will it be?

We’ve only seen a short teaser for Luigi’s Mansion 3 so far, and it’s still hard to say. There are elements in the trailer that could point toward either direction. Let’s take a look.

The art at the end shows what appears to be a huge mansion (or possibly a hotel, judging from the rooms we see), which gives me hope that it will take place in a single location like the original. However, there is a cartoonish look to the ghosts that suggests a lighter tone similar to that in Dark Moon.

I went back and watched the original announcement for Dark Moon to compare them, and the Dark Moon announcement had much more of a comedic/slapstick tone. Based on that comparison, Luigi’s Mansion 3 already feels more atmospheric to me.

(They also said right away that Dark Moon would have multiple mansions, although something like that is hard to judge from Luigi’s Mansion 3’s short teaser.)

So what about the structure? The large mansion seems like a good sign, but we can’t rule out the possibility that you still explore it in segmented missions. For all we know, each floor could act like a different mansion.

But the teaser looks good and I’m hopeful that this will be a return to form for Luigi’s Mansion, with a new building to explore in a style closer to the first game. What do you think?

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