Ghost-Busting
We've had to wait over a decade for a sequel to GameCube action adventure game Luigi's Mansion, the only launch title in the Mario series to feature the portly plumber's brother as the main protagonist, but Luigi is almost ready to step out of his sibling's shadow and back into the spotlight once again.While Dark Moon's gameplay shares similarities with the original, the structure is different. Nintendo has promised more of a puzzle element, and instead of traipsing through a single location in search Mario, this time you're sent to multiple mansions with short zany missions to complete in each one, usually involving defeating ghosts.
Your best friends in the game are your torch and the Poltergust 5000, a vacuum cleaner Luigi uses to suck up supernatural enemies and a whole lot more. In the original game you merely needed to point your torch at a phantom to stun it before hoovering it up, but this time round the trusty items you carry feature different abilities and new upgrades.
You're now required to charge up and fire a strobe shot to daze enemies, and larger ghosts often require some serious grappling before they finally surrender, leaving you to tap the A button at the right time to finish them off. The new Poltergust also has a wider nozzle, allowing you to suck up multiple weaker ghosts at the same time.
Haunted House
While the Poltergust's primary function is ghost-busting, it has plenty of other uses too. Sheets ripple convincingly before vanishing up the tube, ceiling fans spin and chandeliers rock as you target them, and candles blow out in the man-made breeze. You can even suck up a tablecloth in an instant, leaving all the crockery intact.Interacting with your surroundings isn't just fun but rewarding too, as a bit of investigative hoovering uncovers a variety of secrets and collectibles. Wallpaper can be ripped away to reveal hidden areas, rugs pulled back to uncover switches, and on at least one occasion you'll need to suck up hot chunks of coal from a roaring fire before using the Poltergust's blow function to fire them back out and melt frozen doors.
The original game was praised for its superb lighting and fantastic animation, and the sequel will be too. The 3D effect is absolutely stunning at times, managing to display what look like endless corridors stretching into the distance, while the torch creates impressive lens flare effects and Luigi's movements and facial expressions are never less than a joy to behold.
We loved Luigi's Mansion and we're not sure why a sequel has taken this long to make, but we're glad to see that Nintendo is putting real effort into building on the original rather than simply rehashing a ten-year-old game. As long as it addresses the longevity the original was sorely missing, this could be one of the most impressive 3DS titles yet.
Published: 23/08/2012
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