[Review] Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD

Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading.

In this explanatory review, we’re covering Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD by developer Tantalus:

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (The Explanation)

The reluctant ghostbusting hero Luigi returns to the Nintendo Switch with his 3DS outing Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon getting a HD overhaul thanks to game porting geniuses Tantalus. The game first released on the dual screen handheld console back in 2013 as part of Nintendo’s Year of Luigi celebrations.

The game was developed for Nintendo by Next Level Games with the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto overseeing the project as a supervisor. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was generally well received with many critics taking a shine to the fearful and expressive Luigi who has come out of the shadow of his brother Mario to set aside his fears in order to save the day.

Now, over 11 years since it’s 3DS debut, Luigi’s Dark Moon outing has been given the high definition treatment by the folks over at Tantalus and has a new title to boot; Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. If you think the name Tantalus is familiar, they are an Australian Development team who have worked on a number of Nintendo ports over the years, including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, but have also worked on games like Sonic Mania, RiME, Cities: Skylines – Nintendo Switch Edition, and Lego 2K Drive.

Well, enough about who made the game, it’s time to talk about the game, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD follows the adventures of Luigi as he reluctantly goes around busting ghosts after being pressured to do so by Professor E. Gadd. During his investigations into the paranormal, E. Gadd was conducting his research in a haunted mansion in Evershade Valley. The ghosts there were quite benevolent and even helped E. Gadd with his research. Well, that was until the dark and sinister King Boo used the power of the jewel in his crown to shatter the dark moon that hung in the sky above Evershade Valley. With the moon shattered, the ghosts became disruptive and started behaving boisterously. E. Gadd fled the mansion and holed up in the safety of his bunker while he thought about what he was to do next.

Cue Luigi, who was blissfully snoozing away in his rocking chair when all of a sudden, the TV turned on and E. Gadd appeared on the screen. He told Luigi what has happened and that he needed his help. Luigi wanted nothing to do with ghosts after his previous experience but E. Gadd ignored Luigi’s refusal and proceeded to transport him through the TV using his pixelator device. Poor Luigi is then coerced into braving scary mansions and sucking up mischievious ghosties as he tries to piece the Dark Moon together again and bring peace back to the valley once again.

For those of you who may have played previous installments in the Luigi’s Mansion series or even the 3DS original, you will already be familiar with the gameplay of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. For those of you who are not familiar, players take control of Luigi and have to navigate their way around a series of corridors and rooms inside a variety of mansions. Luigi is armed with a ghost capturing unit called the Poltergust 5000. It is essentially a vacuum cleaner that has been specially adapted to suck up ghosts and anything else that should have the misfortune of meeting its business end.

The Poltergust 5000 also has a strobulb and dark-light attachments that are used to shine ghosts to blind them temporarily, giving you an opening to suck them up, and to uncover hidden objects that have been turned invisible. There is also a blowing function on the Poltergust 5000 than can be useful to blow things away should the occasion call for it. As for how to actually use the Poltergust 5000. The ZR button activates suction and ZL activates the blower function. The Strobulb and the dark-light are used by pressing and holding down the A or Y buttons. Alternatively, you can also use the L and R shoulder buttons to also operate the dark-light and strobulb, which I will personally recommend using as they are far easier to use when playing this game as it frees up your thumb so you can press the B button to run should you need to get out of the way quickly.

The main goal of the game is to find the Dark Moon pieces that have been scattered across Evershade Valley in five different properties. Luigi has to visit each property and clear out any not so benevolent ghoulies in order to find a Dark Moon piece. There are many tricks and traps that await Luigi with invisible doors that need to be unveiled, holes in the floor that have been covered over by a rug, missing machine parts that have been stolen by ghosts and you need to recover them, and of course, locked doors that require a key to open them.

Due to the original design of the game for the Nintendo 3DS, the exploration of each mansion in Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is broken up into five missions that contain a couple of objectives that players have to achieve in order to beat them. The missions can take around 6-15 minutes to clear each one and when Luigi completes a mission, he is transported back to E. Gadd’s bunker where he is then assessed on how well he did. Luigi’s progress on each mission is ranked using a number of factors like how long it took to complete the mission, how many ghosts were capture, how much damage was recieved, and how much money Luigi managed to scrounge up.

Once everything is tallied, Luigi will then be ranked with either a bronze, silver, or gold medal for that mission. Players can then decide to replay the mission and try for a better score, or move on to the next mission. The final mission mainly consists of facing off against a boss ghost who will drop the Dark Moon piece they were carrying. You can also find mini-boss ghosts on other missions but defeating them usually gives you access to a smaller key item like a key or a stolen part, etc.

One thing I haven’t talked about yet are collectibles. There are several kinds of collectibles that can be found in each of the mansions. Coins, notes, and gold bars can be found hidden in certain places or dropped after sucking up ghosts. These are used to acquire upgrades that you will instantly unlock once you have reached the required amount of money need to unlock them. Upgrades include improved strobulb, increased dark-light, and faster sucking action for the Poltergust 5000. These upgrades do make ghostbusting that much easier so do try to suck up every coin you can in order to get these upgrades as quickly as possible.

Other collectibles include gems, of which there are about 13 hidden around each mansion. Some can be found regardless of what mission you are currently on but there are others that can only be found on certain missions, normally because the room they are in is only accesible during that mission. Collecting all the gems will unlock a small statue, which can be viewed in the bunker’s vault (the vault functions as a gallery). Ghosts are also a type of collectible, funnily enough, and each type of ghost that you find can be viewed inside the bunker’s vault as well.

As for some of the game’s other features, on every one of the game’s main missions, a Boo is hidden away, typically within an invisible object or even in an object you may have walked past multiple times during other missions. Finding all of these Boos throughout a mansion will open up a bonus mission where Luigi will need to investigate the whole mansion and clear it out of ghosts.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD also has a multiplayer mode in the form of ScareScraper. Up to four players via local wireless or online can work together to clear a tower floor by floor. There are three different ScareScraper types; Hunter, Rush, and Polterpup. In Hunter, you need to go room to room to find and capture all the ghosts. In Rush, you have to make your way to the exit before the timer tuns out. As for Polterpup, it is similar to that of Hunter but you have to go around capturing the energetic and playful Polterpup. Once you have chosen a ScareScraper type, you can then choose how many floors you would like to tackle (between 5, 10, and 25 floors). You can also choose the difficulty between Normal, Hard, and Expert to suit your preference.

Wrapping up, I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD on Nintendo Switch. The gameplay is a lot of fun and the humor, oh the humor, is so on point. Luigi’s reluctance and his wide range of emotions just make this game such an experience. The way he seems to fumble his way through everything and jumps out of his skin at any opportunity just adds to the hilarity of this game. It is clear that a lot of inspiration from Mr. Bean was incorporated into Luigi’s character and it is all the better for it as you can’t help but laugh and love Luigi all the more as the hapless hero who has to put his fears to one side as his takes on those mischievous ghosties.

If you haven’t played Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon on the 3DS but enjoyed Luigi’s Mansion 3, then you will definitely enjoy Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. If you already have played the 3DS game, then you don’t need me to try and convince you to play it again on Nintendo Switch. You already know the answer yourself.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (The Gameplay)

Game Specifications:

Developer: Tantalus / Next Level Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Action, Adventure
No. of Players: 1 (Single System) 1-4 (Local Wireless, Online)
Release Date: June 27, 2024
Price: $59.99
File Size: 3 GB
Nintendo.com Listing