Walking through the Nintendo booths at E3, I primarily wanted to playPokémon Sword/Shieldbecause it is the first game in the series in a long time that has me genuinely excited. Being at the show with my Fiancee, she decided to get in line forLuigi’s Mansion 3on a whim. I was fine with it. I enjoyed the originalLuigi’s Mansionback on the original Nintendo GameCube, but I never played the follow-up,Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon,on the Nintendo 3DS because it didn’t seem like a true follow up the original deserved. I felt that it should have been a bigger, more vast experience.
I never considered myself a major fan of theLuigi’s Mansionseries, though I thought it deserved to be turned into a major franchise for Nintendo because it was fun and unique. After getting my hands onLuigi’s Mansion 3for an approximately fifteen-minute demo I was quickly addicted and didn’t want to stop.
From what I could get from my time with the demo,Luigi’s Mansion 3has levels but they are a bit more open to be freely explored. At the end of each level, there is a boss to defeat. Additionally, there is a number of collectibles to collect. Luigi and the rest of the Mario crew are staying at a luxurious hotel. Later, things become awry and it is up to Luigi to save the day, or should I say night with his handy dandy Poltergust G-00.
[pullquote]“The whole experience [of capturing ghosts] was pretty exhilarating."[/pullquote]
While playing through the demo, I only encountered three different ghost enemies. One was the general blue ghost you see throughout the series. The second is was the same ghost but it was carrying a shield. This required the newly added “suction shot” to defeat the dastardly ghoul. By shooting my suction shot Luigi shot out a plunger with a rope attached to the end. By sucking on the rope with the Poltergust, I was able to yank the shield from the ghost. You will also use the suction shot to solve puzzles and find hidden areas in the game.
Each normal ghost begins with the number 100 on the top of them. Think of it as their health. There was a portion of the demo where I found a secret room. In it was the third ghost type. It looked like the normal blue ghost, but it was instead gold and had 250 above its head instead of the normal 100. It moved a lot quicker so it was harder to catch and keep restrained when trying to suck it up. The whole experience was pretty exhilarating. When defeating ghosts you earn money and defeating the gold ghost netted me a lot more than usual.
Once you catch a ghost with your Poltergust, the goal is to pull them in by moving your left analog stick away from the direction the ghost is trying to escape from. But first, you have to paralyze the ghost by flashing your flashlight at them. Once you begin to capture a ghost the number above them begins to decrease. When trying to consume the ghost a small circle outline will begin to fill up.
Once full, Luigi will be able to slam the ghosts by pressing the A button. This will detract a lot of the ghost’s health. Each circle will allow you to slam a ghost three or four times. Every time I slammed a ghost it felt so satisfying. Every. Single. Time. All I wanted to do was fling them around like rag dolls. And of course, you can try to suck up numerous ghosts at the same time making it all the better. Luigi had the health of 100 in the demo and the amount that you lose if you get hit varies naturally. You will, however, be able to find heart pickups in the game that will increase Luigi’s health by 20.
Throughout the game, you will solve puzzles with the help of your unlikely ally Gooigi, who is basically a clone of our hero. He is able to go through objects that normal Luigi is not able to do like spike traps and metal bars. Not only that, but Luigi can use the Poltergust to suck up objects like a drape to reveal hidden items or doors. While in single player, if you switch to Gooigi Luigi is completely useless. It very fun being able to switch between each character in a snap to solve puzzles, and the puzzles are actually challenging.
[pullquote]"[Luigi’s Mansion 3] has shot up from the depths to one of my most anticipated titles for the year. [/pullquote]
WhileLuigi’s Mansion 3generally guides the player in the right direction, there were a few times where I legitimately had to stop and think for a second to figure out what I had to do to progress. Maybe it is because it has been so long since I played the originalLuigi’s Mansion,but I forgot how legitimately great the series is. Since the original,Luigi’s Mansionhas always felt like a series that wants to take risks with the traditionalMario Bros.formula. If this game is great upon launch, I could easily see it becoming one of my favoriteMario Bros.franchises. While that series of games has seemingly stagnated outside ofSuper Mario Odyssey,Luigi’s Mansion 3feels like it is doing something pretty fun and unique.
The best game to me are ones that shouldn’t work but do so spectacularly. When I first sawMario + Rabbids Kingdom BattleI thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen in video games, and I ended up thinking it was one of the best games to come out in 2017. TheLuigi’s Mansionseries as a whole works in the same way. Before playing this demo, I did not have even the slightest thought of purchasingLuigi’s Mansion 3day one. After a petite appetizer taste with the title, it has shot up from the depths to one of my most anticipated titles of the year.Luigi’s Mansion 3feels like a true sequel from the original, will satisfy those loyal to the franchise, and will give new players a new found love for Mario’s quirky brother Luigi.
