Previews

It's a-me, Luigi...?

He still hums along with the music. If you're coming to Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon with fond memories of the original GameCube classic, chances are good that's one of the first things you'll want to know. Just over a decade ago, Mario's cowardly brother stepped into a haunted house and his own starring role in a video game, and his nervous whistling and muttering meant he quickly earned a place in gamer's hearts. Finally, he's getting a sequel. Should you be excited?

Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon is made by Next Level, the studio that did some blinding work on the Wii's brilliant Punch-Out!! arcade rumbler. It looks like the team's every bit as at home with ghosts as they were with boxers, thankfully: from what we've played, Dark Moon looks like it will live up to the weird genius of the original Luigi's Mansion, and may even provide a few new tricks of its own.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

Tricks like stereoscopic 3D, of course. Dark Moon's a 3DS game, and that illusion of depth gives your spooky explorations a real sense of immersion. As Luigi pushes his way through cobwebs, as he rattles locked doors and sucks the drapes off their hangers in his search for loot, everything feels chunky and weighty and really satisfying to interact with. This promises to be another of those games that really showcases Nintendo's hardware, pushing it to its limits, and drawing you deeper and deeper into the game.

That's not the only change. This sequel also sees the plumber exploring a series of haunted mansions rather than the lone stately pile of the original. The story has him tracking down pieces of the mysterious Dark Moon, which is the only thing that can banish a nasty purple fog that allows goblins and ghouls to seep into our world. Along with the help of good old Professor E. Gadd, Luigi's going to have to work his way through a whole neighbourhood of creepy houses, solving puzzles and busting ghosts.

Luckily, he won't be powerless. He's got his trusty Poltergust vacuum cleaner for sucking in spirits, and it works brilliantly despite the single-stick set-up of the 3DS. In Dark Moon you now need to shock ghosts with a blast of the strobe bulb on your flash-light before you can start to capture them, but as soon as that's done, you use the circle pad to tug the ghost into your snare, wearing down its health as you're dragged back and forth across the environment. You can now dodge incoming attacks from ghosts you've tethered too, and you'll also have to face large groups of the nasty little monsters from time to time. Target prioritisation becomes a big part of the fun as you choose who poses the most threat to you, and then take down the spectres in the right sequence.

Ghouls And Ghosts

On top of that, it looks like you can expect fairly regular gadget upgrades, with Luigi quickly receiving a new Dark Light addition to his flashbulb within the first hour of the game, allowing him to find invisible objects scattered around the mansions he explores. Then there are regular puzzles that break up the flow of combat, and bosses that promise to really get under your skin.

Beyond that, though, the real pleasure of Dark Moon promises to come from rattling around these huge, beautifully crafted mansions, searching for secrets, opening every drawer, peeling back every strip of wallpaper, and hunting for the bank notes and chunky gold coins that are scattered about the place. Each level you play through tracks how much loot you've snagged along the way, and it may prove worryingly compulsive to suck as much cash out of the game as possible.

That's replay value sorted, then, and with loads of little nods for fans of the classic Nintendo characters and licenses - Luigi's means of talking to E. Gadd, for example, is an old DS console renamed the Dual Scream - this could be a great reason to keep your 3DS all powered up and ready to go. After all, there are plenty of ghosts, ghouls, spectres and spooks out there - and Luigi's going to need all of the help catching them that he can get.