Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD review – the ghost of the 3DS-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD – bustin’ makes him feel good (Nintendo)

Nintendo has taken to remastering old 3DS games for the Switch but while Luigi’s ghostly adventure is a lot of fun the asking price is high.

Until the recent Nintendo Direct this looked like it could end up being the final first party release for the Nintendo Switch. Since the Direct though, an unexpectedly large host of new games have been announced, for this year and next, which leaves Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD seeming like more an anomaly, considering it’s a remaster of an 11-year-old 3DS game.

For years, Nintendo has filled in many of the quieter corners of their release schedules with ports of Wii U games but it’s only now, in the twilight months of the Switch, that they’ve thought to remaster anything from their final, dedicated portable. But, other than the fact that it’s a good game, we’re not sure why they picked Luigi’s Mansion 2, or whether it’s a one-off or the vanguard of a new wave of remasters.

There are certainly many excellent 3DS games they could bring over – Kid Icarus: Uprising, in particular, is crying out for a remaster with better controls – but there is one very obvious problem and that’s that Nintendo is charging full price for the game, which means it costs significantly more than the 3DS original did. It’s still a great game but it’s a shame all anyone’s really going to be talking about here is the price.

Luigi’s Mansion is a sorely underappreciated franchise in general, that has done wonders to expand on Luigi’s character and give him an entirely different style of gameplay, where there’s no jump button involved. The franchise’s relative obscurity is probably because the first game was a launch title for the GameCube and was little more than a tech demo. It was fun, as a sort of family friendly parody of Resident Evil, but also very short and shallow.

It wasn’t until Luigi’s Mansion 2 that the series got into gear, with a significantly more substantial adventure by American studio Next Level Games – whose work was impressive enough for Nintendo to go to the rare step of buying them up, following their involvement with 2019’s equally good Luigi’s Mansion 3.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is easily one of the best-looking games on the Switch, with some excellent cartoon graphics and a surprisingly complex physics system. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is, as the name suggests, not a remake like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and so it can only work with the original graphics to improve them, rather than replacing them entirely. It’s a credit to the original visuals that this works as well as it does and while it never looks as good as Luigi’s Mansion 3 it comes extremely close.

The remaster also features a rejigged user interface, which easily compensates for the fact that you haven’t got the second 3DS screen to display the map. Obviously, there’s no 3D effect anymore and, while there seem to be new animations and details, there’s no substantial new content, but clearly this is the definitive version of the game.

It’s a shame the controls are still slightly fiddly though, as while they’re better than they used to be on 3DS they still make turning Luigi round, and pointing him in the right direction, too difficult. That was one of the few flaws in Luigi’s Mansion 3 though, so it’s not a great surprise to find it hasn’t been addressed here. It’s a shame but you get used to it soon enough.

Describing exactly what kind of game Luigi’s Mansion is, is difficult as it doesn’t fit neatly into any particular genre. It involves Luigi busting ghosts by using a specially customised vacuum cleaner, where you first have to startle a ghost with your torch, before you can try sucking them up.

Things quickly get more complicated from there, as ghosts start hiding in furniture, wearing armour or sunglasses, or throwing physical objects at you. The ghostbusting is a fun bit of combat, but the Luigi’s Mansion games are primarily puzzle and exploration titles, as you creep around each of the many mansions, solving logic puzzles that even in 2013 were unusually complex for a modern video game, with relatively little signposting or hints (although there are now more now than there used to be).

Many of the puzzles involve using a special torch that shows up invisible objects, but there’s also a lot of physical puzzles, such as pulling inflammable objects towards flaming torches or getting clockwork machinery to work. It’s far more involved than you’d expect and shows up many action adventures supposedly aimed only at adults – especially something like God Of War Ragnarök, a few of whose puzzles are nominally similar.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 is a great game, with some fantastic boss battles, and yet in summary all we can do is return to the question of the price, especially as there’s no obvious answer for what it should be. The game is very good, it lasts 12 hours or more, and there’s even an online multiplayer mode where you’re competing with others to clear a multi-storey house.

Ultimately, a game is worth whatever you’re willing to pay for it and all we can say is whether it’s worth your time or not. There’s nothing here, except improved visuals, for those that have already played the original game but for those that haven’t this is one of Nintendo’s best hidden gems and a delight from beginning to end. We also hope it’s a sign that they intended to continue the series, when their new console finally manifests itself.

Formats: Nintendo Switch
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Next Level Games
Release Date: 27th June 2024
Age Rating: 7

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD – hopefully this means Luigi’s Mansion 3 is happening (Nintendo)

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