[EVENT] The Sonic Stadium 52 Game Challenge 2024! - New Prizes every week! Current Prize: Sonic Chronicles + Sonic and the Black Knight profile gifts - Check my newest post for updates! (2024)

I only got one game finished this week, a pretty easy one at that. I'm gonna try to pick up the pace a bit here soon, and hopefully get Jak 2 and Sly Cooper done in the coming weeks.

GAME #36 - Luigi's Mansion 2 HD - Finished

Luigi's Mansion is one of my favorite series ever, even though there's only three entries and two remasters making up the series so far. The original was one of my first Nintendo console games that I've ever played, and I've always had a fondness for it, even over it's successors. I still believe the original Luigi's Mansion to be the very best, there's just something so nice about how it's designed, the art style unlike anything the series has ever had since, and it's fun trying to get better and better at it. It's not scary, but it does feel pretty scary in terms of what it is in the Mario universe which the sequels really never captured again, but 3 did get closer than 2. Let's talk about 2 now though, I don't want to spend all this time gushing about the original when I have to talk about this game.

I remember being super excited seeing this game announced at E3, it was entirely unexpected. At that point in time I had honestly given up hope on a Luigi's Mansion sequel, figuring it'd just be a one-off title Nintendo never went back to outside of references in the sports games and other spin-offs. Thankfully, I was proven wrong, and Next Level Games were the new developers behind the project. I wasn't too familiar with their work, as I hadn't played much Mario Strikers, but I'm a pretty big fan of them now.

Luigi's Mansion 2, or Dark Moon as it was titled in the States for some reason, is probably my least favorite game in the series. Is it bad? Far from it. I think it's really good, the characterization of Luigi is fun, and I love the voicework and animations here. It's just a genuinely pleasant title, even if inferior in a lot of ways to the original. For starters, the same handful of ghosts are recycled throughout the entire game. There are no portrait ghosts here, which was a big part of the appeal to me in the original. It was cool reading up on them and their status in the mansion, looking in their environments to get a look into what they enjoyed doing. The ghosts here are mostly just silly goofs, barring Polterpup and these three sisters that are randomly in the gardening level and never show up again. It really puts a damper things right out of the gate with this reuse, and the same boss is used repeatedly as the final boss of each area throughout the game. Sure, the way you fight them often differs, but I miss the personality that was present in the original with the ghost designs. I'm sure I'm not alone in this line of thinking, as I've heard this being the weakest part of the game besides one other thing.

The mission structure is often pointed out as a pretty bad thing. While yes, this game doesn't flow as well as the original in terms of pacing because of the mission break-ups, I don't really mind it and sometimes it is nice having a set endpoint to a stage so you can put the game down and come back later to it. I definitely prefer the way the original and third games do it, with the exploration being more important rather than pulling you out and restricting where you can go in a level because of the mission structure like the second. I don't hate it though, and tolerate it perfectly fine.

What I think this game does get right is the controls though, even if I still prefer the original in terms of how the vacuuming up ghosts is done. The strobe bulb (I think it's called?) was a pretty great addition. I like not having to hold the button down to take off the flashlight to aim it at the ghosts, it's far easier to charge it and flash the ghosts like that. I also like the energy draining thing, where once you pull on the ghosts long enough, you can do a more damaging pull and it weakens them greatly in one go. Very fun gameplay mechanics, and I personally prefer that massive energy drain the A button than the button slam in 3. I think 3 made it a little too easy and repetitive with the slam mechanic personally, but 2 was a good upgrade to the original's system to make it a bit different.

Now to go onto the controls, there are some frustrations. The 3DS didn't have a second circlepad, so they had to make due with motion controls and facebuttons. There was also a run button included. I didn't mind it too much back then, but on the Switch version I do have some criticisms. The second circle stick is used for the camera now, which is great, but the run button is still there. It confuses me a bit, but I guess they figured it'd make chase sequences too easy or something? I have no idea. It's just really bad to me because to aim at the ghosts, you either have to use the motion control of the controller, or let go of the run button to aim at the ghosts. It's a bit hard to use the camera and press the run button at the same time, which is a pretty weird overlook and would've been far easier if they just allowed you to run when you fully push in the main control stick. I got used to it, but it was jarring to me, and it was far easier to manage on 3DS I felt than on Switch.

Now what does this version of the game add? Nothing. It adds nothing different outside of new controls and better visuals. The models are updated I guess, but there's no new content anywhere to be had here. No extra missions, extra mansion, new game plus, etc. I wouldn't mind, but this game is the twenty dollars more expensive than the original at launch. The original was even permanently discounted to $20, which obviously, now is not the case because the eShop is shut down, but it's a little bit of a rip-off. I don't know why this game is $20 more than Metroid Prime Remastered for example, outside of the fact it's a Mario title. I don't really think it's worth the price unless you're a really big Luigi's Mansion fan, or are someone that has never played 2. I still liked this game quite a bit, but yeah, I don't know if it's worth the money. I'm glad they at least kept the online multiplayer mode attached, which is a thing missing from a lot of remasters of other games.

But those are my thoughts on Luigi's Mansion 2. The visuals and lack of creativity in terms of the ghosts is inferior to the original, but mechanically and animation wise, I really like this game. The ghost busting is as fun as ever, and I just love all the characterizations here. It's my least favorite of the series thus far, but it's still a good game and I enjoyed this second runthrough on it like ten years later just as much as I did back then.

This is a pretty long post, and sorry if it was a little meandering at points, but yeah. Thank you for reading and I hope to have another game to share for next week's check-in.

Edited July 7 by Winston