Watching our 2013 review of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon on 3DS was a timely reminder of why we love this game so much, but haven’t been able to get back to it beyond our original playthrough back in the day – an odd thing, considering we’re pretty partial to uncovering every last secret we can find in most of the games we love.
It was the controls, you see. They were odd in the first Luigi’s Mansion, and in the second game, the lack of an extra finger on the 3DS made for an experience that felt a bit marred by the shortcomings of the system it was delivered on. It wasn’t a big deal – this writer still strongly agrees with the 9/10 score given by this site at the time – it was always just one of those things with this series. A great idea, clever gameplay, great puzzles and a lot of atmosphere, all held back a bit. A franchise that felt like it needed to be released on a new platform.
This issue was then fully addressed with Luigi’s Mansion 3. The Switch’s big and wonderful take that showed just how amazing this spooky sub-series could be if it got the right kind of treatment and didn’t was restrained in the control department. It’s our favorite game in the franchise, an experience that surpasses the scope and scale found in the first two games, and the model that Next Level Games has been working towards with this HD remake of the first sequel.
We’ve already discussed, in our preview of the HD version, how this glossy remaster sticks firmly to what’s in the original package from a content perspective. There’s no ‘Deluxe’ or any such name in the title, signaling that a bump in resolution and some extra animations is all we’re getting. And so it is, for the most part. It will be a tough spot for some, but Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is exactly the same game which many of you will no doubt have played 11 years ago – it just looks so much nicer.
And we really think so much nicer. Yes, a lot of the work is on the resolution bump – there was always a ton of detail and craftsmanship to see in Luigi’s Mansion. The lighting and environmental effects have been improved, the animations have been improved, cleaned up and added – Luigi and his enemies are much more exciting than we remember – and the whole thing feels much more readable and effective as these fine details get a chance to shine. in both lock and hand modes. This is a very nice version of a very good game.
And then we get to the real high point, at least from a personal perspective, in that the controls with a second stick are simply a lot better. Your mileage will vary with this, depending on how annoying you found driving the Poltergust 5000 at certain points in the original, but for us it removes a real mess we had back in the day. This now feels almost on par with 2019’s Luigi’s Adventure in how it plays, and it makes a decade old game that hasn’t lost the ability to be fun at all.
If you’ve never played it before, Luigi’s Mansion 2 ditches the creepy claustrophobia of the first game in favor of a bigger, brighter adventure that gives the hapless Mario brother several places to explore, instead of a separate residences. It’s a surprisingly large game, somewhere around 30 hours if you dig and explore for secrets, and every location is designed with a careful ingenuity that really makes it feel like a genuine product made by Nintendo, rather than work of an external party (Canadian studio Next Level Games, now owned by Nintendo).
Rumble has been effectively added to fight sequences on the Switch, which feel much better now that ghouls grappling and aiming is smoother. Motion controls are used to adjust and steer the camera to certain parts, and these touches, along with the refreshed look, create a revamp that looks and feels very modern indeed.
The five distinct areas in which Luigi and company must fight to collect parts of the Dark Moon have lost none of their ability to draw you in, with each new mission balancing just the right amount of mellow combat with puzzles that use fully. of your cute environment – this is one of those games that makes you feel rummaging through bins and drawers big. Treasure, hearts, and secrets fly out of things in the right way, locking us into the quest to find every last hidden Boo and gem. We’ve never spent much time with ScareScaper, the game’s local and online multiplayer, which to be honest isn’t really our bag, but it also makes the cut here for those who like that stuff.
So with so many good things to say about them all, how come (review spoilers!) we’ve gone with a lower score this time? Well, because we think this HD package is a little too safe and everyday considering the premium price it’s being flogged for. Make no mistake, this is a great game and it’s never been played better than it is here. But, to leave the few legacy issues aside… it just doesn’t hold up well given the price point.
We really wonder why there isn’t a revamped save system – you have to restart a mission from the beginning if you die, and that hasn’t changed here. Load times haven’t seen the kind of reduction we’d expect either, so there’s no benefit in terms of being able to drop in and out of levels faster than in the original. We also noticed a moment during an early scene where the framerate stutters a bit, which is just a little surprising. It doesn’t affect the gameplay at all, but it fits the overall vibe of “All very well, but a little push could have made it amazing, guys.”
Talking to other people who have played this in the past, there is always a bit of a reaction to how slow these games can make the time between missions feel. Luigi’s Mansion 2 suffers from this kind of slow pacing in its menus and how often it feels like the professor is pulling you out of levels instead of letting you tear through a little longer. It would be nice to see some of these things tweaked to make everything a little faster, we think. A little faster in the way it moves us. However, this is for the luxury models, not the HD ports of this world.
For the price, it would be nice to have these things fixed, to see more options for saving/pausing progress, or for some new assisted modes for players like we see in those wonderful deluxe re-releases. However, apart from these hiccups and apart from the fact that they haven’t made climbing that big bloody ladder to the Hollow Tree any easier, what we have here is a very straightforward – but also very bright and beautiful – renovation. HD of one of the best 3DS games. Looks great, feels better than ever to play, yes only enough to warrant review. All these are true.
CONCLUSION
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is Luigi’s Mansion 2 with a fancy HD skin. Surprise! It looks great, and the new models, animations, and revamped visuals make for a game that’s close to the glorious Luigi’s Mansion 3 in how modern and beautiful everything is. It also controls much better thanks to the second stick on the Switch. It’s just a shame we don’t have any extras then, any new mid-mission saving tools, added content or bonuses. This is 100% the best way to play the game since 2024, no doubt about it, but it would be nice to get something a little more, especially given the price point. Maybe one day we will have a Deluxe edition.