Ghostdusters.
Considering the popularity of the Nintendo Switch, it’s safe to say Luigi’s Mansion 3 might just be a lot of players first foray into the ghost busting series. You’ll follow Luigi through a multi-themed hotel in search of his friends as he attempts to suck up ghosts in his specialized Poltergust G-00 vacuum. Each themed floor adds to the charm of a title already bursting at the seams with it, and despite some controls that can often get in the way of the fun, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a must-buy for Switch owners and another memorable release for Nintendo.
The game begins with Luigi, Mario, Peach, and a few of the Toads heading out into the countryside for a well-deserved vacation. It’s then a short while into their stay where Luigi discovers that his friends have suddenly gone missing and is joined alongside by his faithful ghost dog, Polterpup, a canine friend from Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon. Luigi is then assisted by Professor E. Gadd, a paranormal scientist that debuted in the original game. Together, the trio will use the Poltergust vacuum to suck up ghosts and track down clues to the location of Luigi’s missing friends, that are trapped in a series of spectral portraits.
One of the main gimmicks this time around is the inclusion of Gooigi, a green-slimed copy of our fellow plumber brother that can push through grates and drains in order to traverse areas of the hotel that Luigi himself cannot reach. This allows a solid portion of the game to be played in co-op, allowing another player to jump into the gooey shoes of Luigi’s slimy counterpart for some tag-team hijinks. I’ll note that it does take a little while to reach this part of the game, so those looking to play co-op right from the very start will be briefly disappointed. If the co-op isn’t your thing, you can swap back and forth between Luigi and Gooigi as some puzzles and boss encounters require the use of both of them. The second to last encounter, for example. is solely designed around having both characters active and can make for a very tense single-player experience, whereas in co-op, it’s considerably more functional.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 has a very similar appeal to that of the Lego games, where you can cause untold devastation to the environments and gather up items that burst from that chaos. The Poltergust G-00 vacuum is crazy powerful and you can use it to suck up money from cushions, rip clothing off their racks, or pull apart entire collections of shelves and cabinets. By sucking up these items, you can often collect money that can be used to purchase additional lives and other items that aid in tracking down collectibles. You’ll use the vacuum and Gooigi to discover secret paths, solve puzzles and various activities that will shower you with cash, gold bars, and enough coins to possibly buy your own hotel. As Professor E. Gadd assists you, he will create a bunker that will allow you to spend that money, and you can instantly return to him at any time, making trips to him extremely quick. It’s also fun to note that the Professor will communicate to you through a Virtual Boy style aesthetic, complete with an icon of the iconic headset bouncing around whenever he calls you. It’s a nice little touch that got quite the chuckle out of me.
Luigi and his gooey companion have a variety of moves at their disposal. You’ll use the vacuum to suck or blow objects around you, as well as sucking up ghosts to slam them up and down until you finally trap them in your containment pack, an attack that never gets old despite how often you are doing it. You can throw out a plunger to let you pull objects around, or a specialized light that can detect paranormal spots in the environment. You can also release your cannister’s contents to bounce Luigi into the air, letting you jump over incoming attacks, or used as somewhat of a melee attack to enemies. The number of options that you have available to you can often be used in some interesting ways and makes the game rather enjoyable, I just wish the controls were a bit more intuitive.
See, moving Luigi or Gooigi’s focus around is not as simple as moving the stick in the direction of the enemy. Since you will need to aim high and low to track down some ghosts and objects, you spin clockwise or counter-clockwise around as opposed to the game performing like a twin-stick shooter. Now, you can select the controls to work like that, but they remove the ability to aim up and down in the process. This spinning around can make for some frustration and you’ll often miss stun attacks and objects that you’re trying to suck up during a boss battle, adding to that frustration. Now, you’ll eventually get the hang of it, but the awkwardness of how this works doesn’t really go away fully and is really the only big complaint of my time with the game, that and the hide and seek encounters with a certain spectral cat that felt more like filler to pad that game’s roughly 10-12 hour length.
Pushing through the themed floors of the hotel is incredibly fun and allows each floor to feel almost like its own game entirely. There are floors covered in plants and vegetation, staged like a tv studio, a gym, a dance hall, to an Egyptian themed floor containing a massive pyramid, surrounded by manipulative sand that can be used to reveal lost treasures, or pushed around to create pathways to traverse. Most floors have somewhat of a gameplay mechanic, whereas some levels are oddly short, such as the pirate theme floor that is only a few short rooms until you access the boss encounter.
Boss encounters are rather fun, but there are a few that are a bit lacking. Amadeus Wolfgeist, a ghostly pianist is one of the more enjoyable fights, as is Serpci the Egyptian Queen and Captain Fishhook, a haunting shark that will embody his pirate ship for some attacks. Other encounters such as the pool swimmer Johnny Deepend, DJ Phantasmagloria, and the Kaiju battle, were simply not fun in any regard, especially the angle you have during the latter, causing the spinning controls to make the battle more challenging than it needed to be. One battle you have in the basement is with a ghost named Clem, that plays more like a mini-game as you float around in a pool, attempting to dodge depth charges and the spikes that outline said pool.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 comes with a few mini-games to play with friends, such as a pool battle that plays like Clem’s fight, a ghost-busting mini-game, as well as one where you’ll load cannonballs into a cannon to fire at targets, all while competing against the other team for points. These games are fun, but I wish there were more, given how enjoyable they are. There is also another mode where you’ll compete against other players in a race to suck up more ghosts that is fun but failed to be as engaging as the three mini-games in the other mode.
Visually, Luigi’s Mansion offers up all the charm and polish you expect from a first-party Nintendo release. Luigi himself has fun and engaging animations, and the personalities given to each of the ghosts really give them a lot of character. I feel that even despite how well the characters animate, it is the themed floors that truly add to the enjoyment of the game, constantly giving you something new around every corner.
Apart from the spinning nature of targeting ghosts and objects with your Poltergust, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is an extremely enjoyable game that is made better in co-op as many encounters and puzzles are multi-player in nature. The variety built around the hotel is vast and nearly every room features some form of puzzle or collectible to discover. Luigi may not yet have his own grand adventure ala Mario Odyssey, but Luigi’s Mansion 3 is proof that this timid and fearful plumber can still entertain us in his own unique way.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 was purchased by the reviewer and played on a Nintendo Switch.
All screenshots were taken on a Nintendo Switch.