Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire may have been an outright flop at the box office, but thankfully there’s another adventure following the spectrum to enjoy this year – albeit a very familiar one. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD – a remaster of the 2013 Nintendo 3DS original that was also known as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon in the US – has arrived on Nintendo Switch looking better than ever, but almost entirely unchanged in terms of of his merry ghost-busting game. worried. It’s therefore the best way to experience Luigi’s second attempt to capture the cheeky Caspers, but it’s no longer the best entry in the series as this Dark Moon-based adventure has since been eclipsed by Mansion 3’s Luigi’s in 2019.
Here’s what our reviewer had to say in her review of the 2013 original:
That sentiment remains, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD remains a fun ride that’s as thrilling as it is silly, its dual-screen setup seamlessly woven into a single panel and honed to a visual standard that’s just short of of Luigi’s Mansion 3. The Tantalus developer team, which was also responsible for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD in 2021, has not only increased the resolution for this remaster, but also added significantly more detailed textures, down to the glow reflective of suits of armor and threads in Luigi’s dungeons. What’s more, the drastically improved lighting means that the haunting dioramas of this Switch version are given enough depth that I didn’t really mourn the lack of the original’s stereoscopic 3D. (Though to be fair, I’m not sure I even used stereoscopic 3D in the first place.)
It’s unlikely to win any awards for best visual design in 2024, but compared to the 2013 original the difference is night and day. I remember Luigi’s Mansion 2 having a charismatic cast of characters and fun spooky settings to explore, but it was a shock to revisit the 3DS original 11 years after it launched, only to have my eyeballs attacked by the sharp edges of enough to grate the cheese. However, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD has been polished to a level that allows the vivid nature of its ghostly threats and its many magnificently crafted corridors to really shine on the screen.
However, those enemies and environments are effectively the same as they were a decade ago. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD does not contain additional ghosts, levels to search or bosses to drive your Poltergust 5000. None of Luigi’s moves from Luigi’s Mansion 3, such as his plumber suction shot or his ability to summon Gooigi as Gummi Bear, have been adapted into this adventure, which makes for a creepy-crawly-hunting experience. and puzzle-solving that retains the level-headed design of the 3DS original, but one that noticeably lacks the expanded variety of interactions that the third installment in the series enjoyed.
However, it features dual-stick controls similar to the third game. For whatever reason the original didn’t support the use of the Circle Pad Pro, the large Nintendo 3DS peripheral that added a second stick to the system, while also making it much more likely to break a seam in your pants pocket. This meant that in Luigi’s Mansion 2 on the 3DS, the taller Mario brother was stuck facing in one direction whenever you needed him to point the flashlight or wipe out a startled soul. That’s no longer the case in this remaster, which lets you rotate Luigi’s target with the right stick. This definitely feels a lot more flexible and intuitive, and although the difficulty curve here remains quite gentle – the goofy ghostly enemies are more grim spirits than dark – I was relieved to find that the control system never let me down like it did in the original .
However, I wish more had been done for Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s multiplayer. Unlike Luigi’s Mansion 3, which allowed two people to play on the same system, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is strictly a player for any console, whether you’re playing online or locally on a LAN. The multi-level multiplayer mode, Scarescraper (known as Thrill Tower in the original version), is still a lot of crazy and spooky fun, but it’s the kind of fun I’d like to share with my kids without having to buy a lot Additional keys and copies of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD to enjoy. Sadly, there’s no split-screen support here.
That said, I certainly had a very good time with ghosts in the dozen or so hours I spent with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. While I prefer the large, single structure of the third game’s hotel environment, I appreciate that the more separated levels of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s five distinct environments make it easier to narrow down your search for any lost collectibles upon completion of the main story. Plus, there are some pretty cool moments I’d forgotten about in the decade since I first played it, from the awesome first boss fight with a giant spider, to falling down a long haunted staircase later that looks similar to a more G-rated version of the climactic sequence from John Wick: Chapter 4.