Luigi’s Mansion

Genre: Puzzle / Action

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Wireless)

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Review:

After the Nintendo 3DS got its own entry in the Luigi’s Mansion franchise in the form of 2013’s Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Nintendo’s handheld would once again be graced by the franchise in 2018 with an updated port of the first game in the series, originally released on GameCube in 2001. As in that original release, this is a family-friendly game that combines both Puzzle and Action elements in a way that’s unique to this franchise. Players take the role of Mario’s cowardly green-clad brother as they explore a series of haunted rooms, searching for various items they need to progress, while also fending off hostile ghosts with the vacuum-like Poltergust device.

Despite the game being 17 years old at the time of its re-release on Nintendo 3DS, it still looks fantastic. While some elements of the GameCube game have naturally been scaled back a little to work on Nintendo 3DS, this game overall retains the great visual style and excellent animation of that game, with phenomenal lighting and shadows. The first Luigi’s Mansion generally regarded as the darkest and least-cartoony game in the series, but it still has the delightful cartoony charm that would be one of the series’ hallmarks, with excellent use of sound to build atmosphere, including of course Luigi’s shaky vocalizations as he nervously proceeds through the mansion. On balance, I don’t think this game looks quite as good as Dark Moon, but it’s still extremely impressive that the GameCube game has been shrunk down to the 3DS largely intact.

For the gameplay, players alternate between searching the environment for clues and fighting ghosts when you encounter them. I have to say that after playing the delightfully visceral battles of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Luigi’s Mansion 3, I found myself feeling somewhat frustrated with the ghost-wrangling in the original Luigi’s Mansion, which not only lacks that great visceral feel, but is also surprisingly touchy in the timing required to properly stun and trap a ghost. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a wonderful, unique, family-friendly game, but it’s just not as instantly accessible as the later games in the series.

A part of the issue here comes down to the controls. To this game’s credit, it tries to offer players with multiple different control options here, including optional gyroscopic motion controls and even the support for the Circle Pad Pro/New Nintendo 3DS’s second analog input that I felt was sorely lacking in the original Luigi’s Mansion. What’s more, the game even allows you to play with elements of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon’s control scheme, such as the “strobulb” flashlight. Unfortunately, the button layout doesn’t quite work so well with these controls no matter which control setup you use. The game is still fun to play, but it definitely feels like it would work better with a different control setup.

One other thing this release adds is local co-op play, with the second player taking control of “Gooigi”. While this is more than what was in the original game, which did not have multiplayer support, it’s not quite up to par with the 4-player co-op of Dark Moon or the 8-player gameplay of Luigi’s Mansion 3, nor does it have the online play of either of those games – it’s only via local wireless. Finally, there’s no download play here like there was in Dark Moon. It’s still nice that multiplayer was added here at all, but it’s still noticeably lacking compared to other entries in the series.

All things considered, Luigi’s Mansion on the Nintendo 3DS is a surprising port that does some things extraordinarily well. The graphics, sound, and overall presentation are still fantastic, the game still feels fresh and original, and there’s a lot of fun to be had here. But despite trying to work in elements of Dark Moon in this release, the original Luigi’s Mansion isn’t quite as accessible as the later games in the series, and the controls are more awkward than they should be. It’s still a great game, but I think it definitely feels like a step backward overall after playing later games in the series.

tl;dr – Luigi’s Mansion is a port of the GameCube game to Nintendo 3DS that does a great job squeezing the game onto Nintendo’s handheld. It’s still an excellent and unique game that’s fun to play even by today’s standards, but it’s not as accessible as its sequels, in part due to frustrating controls. If you’re a fan of the series this is definitely a must-have, but otherwise I’d say to skip straight to Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, or Luigi’s Mansion 3 on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: B+

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