Having played the GameCube version of Luigi's Mansion years ago, I had the 3DS port sitting on my menu screen for years & figured I had time to kill. I won't touch on the story in this review and leave that for when I review the GameCube version, but I was pretty surprised with how quick this game can be to complete.

For a remake developed by Grezzo, graphically it's a downgrade & this game should've been a port for the Switch instead. Running the game at a lower resolution was the first mistake with this port, and I found some scenes to actually lag in this port compared to the GameCube version (ex. the doorknob scenes, entering new floors of the mansion). The upgraded character models were to be expected and they looked as good as they can for a late 3DS entry, so there isn't much to write home about on that level. Like Grezzo's Ocarina of Time remake before Link fights Ganon, Luigi's Mansion 3DS lost some of it's original dark and gloomy lighting in this port by making scenes in the mansion brighter than the atmosphere originally intended to be. Those graphical flaws aside, I did appreciate the upgraded Gallery area in E. Gadd's lab, and the option to re-vacuum ghosts for timed records. Also, adding an achievement list was a fun incentive to me to thoroughly scope the mansion for any hidden gems and get the highest rank possible.

For my play through I opted for the Dark Moon flashlight and gyro controls to vacuum ghosts, and split in the middle with how I feel about these changes. The biggest change with this play style was how much easier it was to get the blue money ghosts, whereas in the original version it was more challenging to get the flashlight to stun lock them. The added charge of the flashlight also made it easier for me to suck up multiple ghosts at a time, which gave me much needed hearts. That said, the gyro controls were a hit or miss for me for the majority of my play through. Not sure if it's an issue on my end or what, but it was as if the gyro controls were lagging with my actual point of direction when I was vacuuming ghosts. More often than not, I had to use the D-pad to level Luigi's vacuum back down since the gyro controls kept forcing the vacuum to face upwards, despite me holding the 3DS in a normal position.

With the above control scheme mentioned, my biggest gripe with the 3DS Luigi's Mansion is the control scheme ˆwithoutˆ the Circle Pad Pro. The c-stick on the GameCube controller was designed to have Luigi do 360º turns when he moves, and this is most useful when he's vacuuming up ghosts from different corners of the room. I played the 3DS version without the Circle Pad Pro with my 3DS XL, and found it more tedious to have to angle Luigi in the right position with the control pad before being able to suck up ghosts... which messed with my overall depth perception more than it should have.

On a side note, as a massive Gooigi enthusiast I unfortunately did NOT get an opportunity to play this game co-op style-- rendering that green freak of nature useless for my play through. I hope to see Gooigi as a reoccurring playable character in future entries in the Mario series, for he is a beloved iconic character that deserves much more screen time.

With these points in mind, I can't say I would recommend this version of Luigi's Mansion over the original. It's not awful by any means, but it's definitely the inferior way to play.

Después de años, finalmente pude jugar Luigi's Mansion. Siempre había escuchado cosas buenas, y desde que soy pequeño tengo memoria de querer jugarlo, sin embargo, por un motivo u otro no lo había hecho. Lo jugué en 3DS, donde, si bien los controles no son "óptimos" o los mejores, la verdad es que me cayó increíble por mi amor a los formatos portátiles.

Pasando al juego como tal, tiene una construcción muy interesante de género. Por un lado tiene mecánicas de acción/aventura con una aspiradora que debes maniobrar de la manera adecuada para succionar fantasmas, y combinarlo además con tres "power-ups" que sirven para ciertos tipos de criaturas, y por otro lado, tiene un acercamiento muy puzzle que mantiene el juego fresco a cada esquina. El loop es básicamente llegar a un cuarto, descifrar la acción concreta que debes realizar, y luego acabar con el fantasma en turno. Aunque creo que hay algunos conceptos que el juego pudo haber explotado un pelín más (específicamente las partes de piso que te dejan cambiar de gravedad), en general lo siento muy bien logrado, pues mantiene un ritmo constante en el que te arroja ideas de puzzles que no se sienten repetitivas, y aparte, en escenarios lo suficientemente variados donde se va construyendo una imagen de quiénes habitaron la mansión.

Luigi's Mansion no es que vaya por un enfoque narrativo, pero me agrada mucho encontrarme con un juego de Nintendo que maneja un tono ligeramente distinto y que se permite ser un poco más lento frente a otras propuestas de la compañía. La estructura de back-tracking / llaves es completamente la de un juego de aventura / horror, pero lo combinan con el típico carisma de la saga de Mario, y el resultado es un juego que tiene una estética muy particular que claramente toma mucho del horror, pero luego te mete chistes como "No digas mi nombre porque es Taboo" y termina generando una atmósfera que me he encontrado en pocos juegos.