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I bought Switch for this game
Luigi’s Mansion 3 was the reason I waited to by Nintendo Switch. Also, after hearing about the upcoming new model, I realized this was the time to by the console. I don’t know what is it in Luigi, but I like him much more than Super Mario and the games. It might be the reason of how coward Luigi is, always afraid of ghosts, but at least he got some character. Every since the first Luigi’s Mansion released on GameCube 2001, I was in love with the concept. I re-played it after it was released for 3DS. The second installment released also 3DS and the third on Switch. Of course the idea might start to feel repetitive, but the growth from 1 to 3 has been good, adding new things on every release.
Comparing the size of the first game to Luigi’s Mansion 3, it feels miniscule. This time Luigi isn’t in a small mansion, but in a humangous hotel, that has countless of rooms and at least 15 floors. Immediately, when the game started I felt the same joy as before. The story, though, was boring. Like Mario games usually are the very same story-wise, so is Luigi’s Mansion 3. Yet again, Mario and Princess Peach go missing after they all go to Last Resort hotel. Luigi founds out the hotel is hunted by ghosts and what a coincidense, that the Professor E. Gadd is there, too! With his help Luigi gets all the right gears and tools to hunt ghosts and find Mario.
The weird controls, but beautiful visuals
The basic moves are pretty much the same as in previous games, with little differences to better. One new addition is Gooigi; a slime copy of Luigi, who can be controlled by second player or additionally it works in single player, as well. Only thing is that single players can controls one of the two characters at a time, which might get tricky. Throughout all Luigi’s Mansion games, the controls are plain weird. I don’t know how to explain them, but as uncomfortable as those tank controls in early Resident Evil games. It takes lots of playing until they feel somewhat OK. It’s very difficult to aim the vacuum cleaner/flashlight/blacklight/darts. Especially the darts were painful. Luigi’s Mansion 3 does offer some settings for controls, but I didn’t personally found any of the changes helpful.
In the hotel, every floor has its own theme and they varies from medieval castle to movie studio and from sewers to ancient Egypt to disco. I mean 15 floors is a lot of themes and the variant of them was interesting and that kept everything kinda fresh. All surroundings were smooth and detailed. The shadow and light effects was just amazing, making visually one of the best looking Switch games.
Even though towards the end the same thing happened again; I got bored. In the beginning I couldn’t enter the floor I wanted to, but go for (almost?) linear path from place to place and get an elevator button that allowed me to enter another floor. Every floor had the main boss that had to be beat with the most unique ways. Collectables also seemd to be hidden in every corner. That was the most fun for me, collecting and searching hidden switches and pathways.
Who dis? Gooigi
Professor E. Gadd always helped if in trouble by giving hints or updating Luigi’s equipments. The Gooigi was interesting new thing and it opened countless new ways to do things as it could enter places where Luigi couldn’t. The Gooigi could go through gates and bars, but was destroyed if touched water. Well, we all have our weaknesses. The Polterpup (a friendly ghost dog) also came to aid time to time, but it was not playable character.
This is for sure the most biggest and most variant Luigi’s Mansion game to date and I love how they didn’t just kept one style in it. Meaning, visually and with gameplay. All the ghost characters were funny, but it became kinda annoying when I wanted to progress swiftly, but Luigi just got scared even the littlest sound, making him fall and scream. It comes annoyingly frustrating how overused the idea was.
Thank you for coming—hopefully visit our resort again
I think I played this about 20 hours, until finishing the game. I didn’t collect every single item, but I also didn’t rushed it through. I like to search interesting places and find secrets. With Luigi’s Mansion 3 secrets are endless. So are themes, ideas, ghosts, bosses, keys… yes, a lot to see and do.
For final words if you haven’t played any Luigi’s Mansion games this is probably the time to jump in. The first games might be too simple for nowadays standards. I still say, be warned of the horrible controls. Even so, I don’t remember anything radical happening because of them, more of frustration. I also played this completely with docked-mode and technically everything performed well. I also have the newes model of the Switch console and official Switch Pro controller. If this game was the reson why I initially bought Switch, I’m not even mad.
4/5
“15 floors is a lot of themes and the variant of them was interesting”
RELEASE DATE: Oct 31, 2019
GENRE: Action-Adventure
DEVELOPER: Next Level Games
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
PLATFORMS: Nintendo Switch
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One More Level 