REVIEW: Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD scares up fun with spooky secrets

Before the universally acclaimed Luigi’s Mansion 3, we got to experience a fantastic adventure in Dark Moon on the 3DS: a game that used to its fullest the 3D effect to create an immersive environment. Now, with a fresh coat of HD paint, the title remains as fun to explore as ever, together with a very expressive Luigi.

The peace of Evershade Valley has been disturbed due to King Boo breaking the Dark Moon into five pieces. Professor E. Gadd contacts Luigi to once again get his help in capturing ghosts while restoring normality to the valley. Luigi, albeit scared, shows his bravery by going to five different locations and recovering the missing pieces.

Each location is highly detailed and exploring each one is extremely enjoyable. In fact, I would claim that the exploration and Luigi’s expressions while doing so are the highlights of the game. The attention to detail when Luigi is freezing or the lighting effects when visiting a dark area give so much richness to the title and make every mission more fun.

The game is divided into small missions, a gameplay design due to the 3DS’ portable nature, giving you objectives to fulfill in a specific area. Each mission lasts around 20 to 30 minutes, making this game perfect for short bursts. Besides the main goals, you can extend you game time by looking for the secret Boo (with an amazing punny name) in every mission or the many secret gems hidden in each mansion.

In fact, there are so many secrets in almost every screen that you can completely disregard the main goal and just have fun tinkering around with the multiple elements in each room. What if I open that drawer? Can I water that sprout? How am I supposed to get behind that wall? Where do I find fire to melt that ice?

The smile on your face when you noticed a little glittering spot that turned out to be a huge number of coins can only be matched by the happiness you feel every time Luigi does something funny, which is very often. From humming the title’s theme song to making fun of Professor E. Gadd while he’s talking, Luigi is a real star. The original 3DS adventure was the game that kicked off the Year of Luigi celebration, commemorating the 30 years since his debut, and the game truly shows the love poured into it by the developers.

Boss battles are another strength in this title. There is so much creativity in their design. I will not spoil them, but the second boss in particular is my favorite and no other game has had such a random but enjoyable boss like that one.

There were two elements that I didn’t like in this game, the first being Toad. Sorry, but I didn’t like those missions at all. They could have reworked them a little bit to made them more enjoyable but they didn’t. The second was the lack of co-op, which is present in Luigi’s Mansion 3. I understand that missions were designed with single player in mind, but so were Luigi’s Mansion’s and yet that game also got co-op as an extra when remade. It feels like a missing opportunity, especially because playing with a friend makes a fun adventure like this so much more enjoyable. [Random, personal fact: a comment I made about how I bonded a lot with my sister while playing Luigi’s Mansion 3 was featured in a Nintendo Power Podcast. I was so blessed to have been mentioned by them!]

Luigi’s Mansion has given the spotlight to Luigi over the years, showing that he can overcome his fears and be as brave as his brother, with gameplay that rivals the best adventure games in the genre. This HD remake is a must play game for anyone looking to smile while exploring highly detailed haunted mansions, whether you’re a first time player or a returning fan after enjoying this ghostly ride over ten years ago on the 3DS.