REVIEW: ‘Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’ Is The Same Game With A New Look (Switch)

Luigi’s Mansion 2, or Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, first launched in 2013 as the sequel to Luigi’s Mansion. Now in 2024, Nintendo and Next Level Games have released Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD for the Nintendo Switch, allowing new players to enjoy the Gamecube classic. While the remaster features the original’s charm with better controls and improved graphics, there really isn’t much about the experience that makes it exceptional.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD puts players in the shoes of Mario’s timid brother, Luigi, yet again, as he takes on the role of a reluctant ghost hunter. The game’s narrative starts with the shattering of the Dark Moon, an object that keeps the ghosts of Evershade Valley calm and friendly. With the Dark Moon broken, the ghosts have now become hostile. It’s up to Luigi, armed with the upgraded Poltergust 5000 and a little help from Professor E. Gadd, to restore the peace. To do this, he must retrieve the missing pieces of the Dark Moon from five haunted mansions, each with its unique theme, challenges, and obstacles.

The game’s narrative is quite simple and almost non-existent. Players head to a mansion to gather items that will help them in their ghost-hunting quests, fight several types of ghosts blocking their paths, and find ways to navigate the intricately designed parts of the mansion. There isn’t any overarching narrative outside of Luigi’s goal, but the characters and ghosts all bring a unique type of unrivaled humor and charm to the game.

In terms of gameplay, the game improves upon its predecessor with refined gameplay mechanics and a stronger emphasis on puzzle-solving. The core gameplay revolves around using the Poltergust 5000, a vacuum-like device that captures ghosts, collects treasures, and solves environmental puzzles. Luigi can also use the Strobulb attachment to stun ghosts and the Dark-Light Device to reveal hidden objects and secrets.

The best part of the game is almost objectively the game’s intricate design, which boasts several unique and detailed elements. This ranges from Luigi singing along with the music in a shaky voice when he’s idle to precise animations for opening doors, falling on the floor if you push too many buttons at the same time while opening a door, and gripping the flashlight while Luigi is scared.

The mansions also exhibit the same intricacies. Each mansion is meticulously crafted and features hidden rooms and clever puzzles that require skill and ingenuity. They’re also intricately layered with several areas that lead to other rooms, hidden corners and items hiding secrets, ghostly apparitions hiding doors, obstacles like spider webs that need to be burned to progress, and many more fun environmental elements.

Players encounter several types of ghosts that serve as enemies, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. These include ghosts that throw objects at you, ghosts that need to be disarmed before capturing, ghosts that have hit hard but are easily captured, and more. The enemy variety succeeds in keeping combat fresh and challenging.

However, while the gradual introduction of new mechanics keeps the gameplay from becoming too repetitive, unfortunately, it doesn’t help with the tedious backtracking players need to do frequently to progress. What’s more, the game isn’t all that challenging, at least in terms of combat. This is because the only hardship players will likely face is trying to figure out where to go and how to defeat some of the bosses that require many steps to defeat.

Besides that, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD notably introduces a multiplayer mode called the ScareScraper, where up to four players can play together locally or online to tackle various ghost-hunting challenges. This mode adds significant replay value, offering cooperative gameplay that requires teamwork and strategy. The multiplayer experience is well-implemented, providing a fun and engaging diversion from the single-player campaign.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD visually enhances the experience with new remastered HD visuals. This includes crisper visuals, more vibrant colors, and more intricate animations. The remaster also features better controls and engaging vibration and motion functions. While the framerate is still only 30FPS, the remaster runs well on Nintendo Switch with no glitches or framerate dips, both docked and undocked.

Overall, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is a highly entertaining game in the series, and the remaster enhances the experience with more approachable controls and modern visuals. As such, despite some of its flaws, both new players and returning fans can still enjoy the new package and all its improvements.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is available now available on Nintendo Switch.