This game oozes charm and is probably the best looking game on the switch. I like how Luigi interacts with things. He seems to have a lot of unique animations, which is really endearing.

Sadly the gameplay gets kinda dull after the first few hours. The game is hand holding you too much for my liking and the tug of war mechanics also feel kinda watered down. LM3 is definitely more enjoyable than Dark Moon, but it also can't capture the pure dread, atmosphere and heart of the original. I guess at this point no future installments will, which is a shame.

Overall it's a fun game, the animations are really fun to watch and almost everything having physics makes it addicting to suck everything up.

Although I still prefer the atmosphere of the original game with the more interconnected mansion. The gameplay here is revolved too much around mashing 'A' to suck in ghosts as the tug-of-war mechanic is dumbed down. Then the ghost variety is pretty lame as it's pretty much the same 4 ghosts.

I'd give this a recommendation, but more towards a $40 price.

One of the coolest coop games I’ve played so far on the Switch. Perfect to play through with the family. It’s gorgeous to look at (seriously, one of the best looking switch games to date), has a lot of beautifully designed levels and puzzling, great boss fights and that vacuum is super satisfying to use. Even though it’s just one device, it feels like it’s a lot more capable and varied than the different shapes Kirby for example can take in the forgotten lands. It almost feels like a classic Mario game in terms of polish, but the big differentiator and my main gripe with the game, are the controls. As much as I loved using the vacuum, I HATED doing sequences that required me to be precise. Other than that, I have nothing bad to say about our time in the hotel. <3

Last February, we were shocked and amazed to find that Luigi was on his way back! With the first game launching as a GameCube launch title back in 2001 to tentative critical acclaim and the sequel coming to 3DS in 2013 to less critical acclaim, many of us assumed this franchise was dead. Not so! Like the ghosts Luigi so diligently traps, Luigi’s Mansion is back from the dead. The first game is an absolute classic and I suggest you play it. The second game is good but nothing to write home about. The headliner for LM3 is that it takes all the best elements of both games, enhances them, and adds enough new content to make it my game of the year for 2019.

It seems downright impossible that you’d be unfamiliar with the Luigi’s Mansion theme by now, but regardless I encourage you to pop it on and get spooky. Still an absolute bop.

Luigi has of course always played backseat to his brother Mario, and the infamous “Year of Luigi” (2013) brought about the worst financial year in Nintendo’s history. But now, it’s his time to shine! If you’re not familiar with the basic plot of the first Luigi’s Mansion, Luigi gets a letter that he’s won a mansion in a contest he didn’t enter. He arrives to find that the whole thing was orchestrated by King Boo and that Mario’s soul has been locked away in the ghost world! Luigi must clear the mansion of all its ghostly inhabitants, solve some fun puzzles, and take down King Boo to rescue his brother. It’s an absolute blast, even though it’s only ~5 hours long.

This game has a similar premise — Luigi, Mario, Peach, and the Toads are invited to an all expenses paid resort in another contest they did not enter (yes, it’s been 18 years and he still hasn’t learned). The hotel manager welcomes them in and all seems well… until tragedy strikes! King Boo appears at the very beginning of the game and tries to consume your soul. Kind of a crazy start, but I’m in it right away. You’ll need to make your way up 17 distinct floors of the hotel, each with their own theme (varying from greenhouse to medieval castle to actual pirate ship), collect ca$h money, gems, and power-ups here and there, and reach the roof where you’ll finally have the big face off. You know what? King Boo > Bowser. King Boo is literally dragging Mario to hell to get revenge on Luigi.

Your friends are sealed away inside paintings (similar to how Luigi seals away ghosts) and King Boo swears his revenge on you. It’s kind of flattering, honestly. Finally, Luigi has a real, bona fide nemesis! A Bowser of his own. You then enlist the help of longtime Mario Bros. collaborator Professor E. Gadd (the scientist who made the original Poltergust as well as FLUDD from Super Mario Sunshine) as well as your ghost dog, Polterpup. Yes, you can pet the dog.

The great thing about LM3 is that it is just fun. Pure, uncut Colombian fun. This is one of those games where it’s immediately evident that the team absolutely loved what they were creating. The fully destructible environments are all gorgeous and so distinct from floor to floor you’ll barely be able to tell you’re playing the same game. The developers are clearly proud of their product, and their pride comes through in just how silly they’re willing to get in the pursuit of fun.

Luigi has lost his elemental abilities from before, but he’s been given new abilities to make up for it. Somehow, the devs managed to make each of these powers equally useful and had sections on every floor that required many uses of every ability in strange combinations. The Darklight (which for some reason I kept calling the Psychoscope) allows you to see invisible things or peer through ghostly illusions. The strobulb is the classic flashlight burst. The plunger can be shot and tugged by the Poltergust and used in an insane variety of ways. There’s a new burst attack for AOE stun when you’re surrounded or need to dodge attacks, and of course the big new mechanic of slamming ghosts to do damage, destroy the environments, and damage/stun other ghosts. It all comes together so seamlessly. But I would be remiss to not talk about the newest and most important mechanic — Gooigi.

Many, including myself, thought that Gooigi would just be a gimmick when first revealed, a way to shoehorn in co-op play. Absolutely not the case. Gooigi is essential for solving most of the puzzles in this 20 hour adventure, and is necessary for a good chunk of the boss fights as well. When you switch to controlling Gooigi, Luigi sort deactivates and will continue doing whatever you left him doing, and vice versa. This makes it possible to play the entire game either solo or co-op, and have roughly the same experience. No spoilers, but the penultimate boss fight required me to control both Luigi and Gooigi at the same time, switching between them every 2 seconds or so, and holy shit was it a blast. I am in awe of how cleverly designed each and every boss fight was.

Brilliant game design. Hats off. Anything that can possibly support co-op should nowadays, but you should be able to play games solo too. For the record, I played the bulk of this on my own but played co-op with my brother for about an hour. The game is probably more fun co-op, but if you don’t have a partner it can still be a 10/10 experience.

There is multiplayer as well, and it’s surprisingly … good? You can play online with friends or randos in the Scarescraper, a procedurally generated mansion that keeps on spookin’. There isn’t a ton of replayability to it, but the 2 or 3 hours you get out of it are actually a blast. I played with my friend online and we really got into it, coming up with strategies and ideas and coordinating with the randos we were paired with through emotes. Highly recommended, it doesn’t feel tacked on at all. I have heard that no single player DLC is coming for the game, but multiplayer DLC is on the way. It’s kind of just a nice icing on top of the cake of the campaign though.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 absolutely reeks of that Nintendo polish. I’d venture to say that it’s their best looking game yet, perhaps right up alongside Mario Odyssey. If you like having fun, you absolutely owe it to yourself to experience this firsthand, either with a friend or flyin’ solo. Every boss fight totally distinct and is a healthy mix of puzzles and combat, so you’re using all of your brain all the time. The ghosts have a real personality to them, so you’re not just sucking up endless mobs of blue dudes. The fully destructible environments are beautifully crafted and you can see the love and care put into them. This is my game of the year for 2019. If you have a Switch, this game is an essential right alongside Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda Breath of the Wild. Plus, the feeling of sucking up everything in the room into a tiny vacuum will never not be amazing.

Luigi’s mansion 3 is a game that made me take a good look at the modern industry as a whole. In an era where it seems developers in every region are all following the same 10-12 game play templates cause that’s what they think “good game design” is, or bloating the hell out of games with garbage filler content due to consumers constantly whining about “value for the dollar”, it’s beyond refreshing to play a game that is reasonably short enough to not overstay its welcome and is mostly brave enough to not bog down the experience with said garbage filler content. While being mechanically refreshing.

Since this is a post 2013 video game, there is some unfortunate heavy hand holding in the beginning. What starts as a funny, non intrusive tutorial on how to use the poltergust by showing how polterpup reacts to the breeze, turns into an annoying series of lectures and pop ups during game play to explain how mechanics work. I can somewhat forgive this given the games all ages appeal, but I can imagine younger players getting annoyed on subsequent playthroughs by this as well. The first game had the right approach by letting you play around in a training room until you got your bearings. That would be welcome here, as the game actually has some very visually appealing references in the menus in regards to the controls. It’s not as if the series has ever been mechanically complex either. These heavy handed tutorials aren’t worth anyone’s time.

And the combat certainly isn’t any better in that regard. It seems that Next level games is afraid to let the combat require a little dexterity to be fun, as the dumb super suction prompt from dark moon is back, but made even worse this time because it’s now a multi hit slam AOE that mogs other ghosts. I’m sure for a very young child this would be cool, but I greatly miss the slightly technical dexterity the original game required. It added a psychological edge to the combat. Luigi’s Mansion has never been a difficult series, I am not making any declaration of that here to be clear, but it really did not need this aspect watered down even more than it already was in the previous entry.

Enemy variety is also the absolute worst it has ever been in the series, with only 4 mook types you’ll be fighting over and over again (and one gimmick door ghost that shows up once in a blue moon), expect to fight the basic blue ghosts ad nauseum for almost the entire play through.

It’s not all bad on this front though. The stellar boss fights from Dark moon are back and mostly a great time. All of them have gorgeously over telegraphed attack animations and require you to use your brain to a reasonable degree to proceed. From the gardener needing you to cut his vines with a buzz saw, the pianist needing you to study his shadows and use the size of the massive arena to properly dodge his attacks, the pharaoh needing you to blow away her seat made of sand with wind as you would naturally expect, , and the eye on the prize mechanic that you deal with from three different bosses that somehow never gets old. Every boss is mostly smartly designed and a joy to fight.

I say mostly cause the final boss fight against King Boo is slightly frustrating in his final phase. You have the same eye on the prize mechanic (The game wants you to pay attention to which one tosses the correct bomb, instead follow my advice and focus on the one with four teeth, he’s the real one, you’ll thank me later if you do play this), but it’s hard to hit him if the real one is at either corner of the arena, due to the pillars at those corners causing the bombs you throw back at him to go flying elsewhere. I had to wait around until the RNG spawned the right one in the center to beat him. Other than that, he was just as well designed as the other bosses and another joy to fight.

For some reason boss fight cutscenes are unskippabble, but the game over cutscene is. So if you happen to die you’ll have to sit through a rather long pre fight scene again and this can get obnoxious fast.

There is unfortunately a broken safety net in place in the form of gold bones. They only cost one thousand coins and will spawn you right back where you died if you have any on hand. In a game that is already incredibly easy as is, this is completely pointless. The slam already does enough damage when dealing with each phase of a boss, and the game is very generous with health hearts later in the fights given how hard the bosses hit anyway. At most if you are struggling with a boss you’ll get them on your third try. Having this is dumb and is something I posit (that I also mentioned in my Dark Souls 3 review) is only in here to get people through the game as quickly as possible so they can post “highlights” on social media, when the design of the bosses should speak for themselves.

Lastly on the combat front, if you’re playing in co-op the combat will be busted wide open, as enemy AI is only designed to deal with one player at a time, and both Luigi and Googi’s slam AOEs stack and they completely break the pace of boss fights as a player who knows what they are doing can do borderline speed run tactics to take away any sense of psychological satisfaction from the puzzle aspects of the encounters.

On the level design front, the game is excellent.

You start to notice just how good it is early on, The new plunger adds a nice tactile feeling when getting objects out of the way with some weighty slams and pulls, using the plunger to pull switches or rip objects of a wall (and sometimes a weapon out of an enemies hand) is immensely satisfying. The burst jump makes for some fun novelty moments involving waves/lazers and other dangers coming at you when dealing with traps and stage hazards.


Floor 3 is a very good tutorial for how gooigi works, You have to constantly move him through specific store grates in a mall, one of them even requiring you to use both characters to open a door, making this a great primer for what most of the puzzles will consist of. The green house has a great sense of vertical scale as you slowly climb your way up the plant stalk, chipping away gradually through each densely packed plant heavy room. But far and away the best floor was the movie studio.

I really enjoyed helping Morty make his movie, from the rather clever puzzles requiring you to use your logical thinking skills to memorize portals to get a bucket of water from one set to a well in another (Which is a funny homage to the ring), then growing a plant on another set and then getting a torch lit on the next set, then finally getting his megaphone back on the final set. It all wonderfully culminates in you helping Morty make a kaiju movie. The kaiju suit the other ghost is wearing always glows differently depending on the attacks it throws, showing how well telegraphed and crafted it all is.
The puzzles are overall challenging enough to be satisfactory for all ages while not feeling brain dead easy. My favorite was the weighted scale puzzle on floor ten, where you need to use precise amounts of sand and weighted vases to solve a combination lock. It was one of the best examples of intergrating physics into game design I have seen in a long time, many games have physics engines just to have them, so this was incredible to see.

The game has generally good pacing, as you’ll have a series of shorter floors after one large one, but the game unfortunately shoots its self in the foot four times, once where you need to find a mouse who steals your button on floor 3, then two awful hunts for the polterkitty when she steals your elevator button, then you need to backtrack down a few previous floors (in a row) and when you find her, wait for her to slowly walk behind you before you flash her with your light and then slam her, before going on your way. And then there’s a macguffin hunt where you need to rescue a toad and get a poltergust upgrade part back (for a one time set-piece that feels tacked on), then take the long way around from a floor you already explored, constantly getting stopped by monster closets where you engage in the boring mook combat until you get back on track.

Said monster closets become a major issue on late game floors. As they are far shorter to finish with far fewer puzzles to help the game not feel bogged down, but as I just mentioned said monster closets do exactly that, it got so bad that I knew after solving a puzzle I would encounter another eye rolling, mindless combat section blatantly placed there to pad out the length in the next room or back in the hallways.

There isn’t any psychological edge to the level design, dark moon lacked it too and the original had it in spades. You just go through the motions each floor and while I did enjoy my time in most of them as I gave examples above, the hotel really doesn’t feel like a hotel at all, but instead a series of theme parks from a “world template checklist”. The constant back tracking in the first game through similar yet different enough rooms got you intimately familiar with the mansion, it made the game feel extremely cohesive and made the mansion feel like a warped outlier in the mario franchise, and while I understand the criticism of the boos being mandatory, that game gave you more than enough hints to go after them while back tracking and punished you heavily late game if you didn’t. These “I should have done that” or “I should have thought of that” moments are defining aspects of the medium that make it unique and compelling. This could have been mitigated some what if after a floor was cleared, it would look like an actual floor, but alas that doesn’t happen. Ghosts respwan when you revisit making your progression feel a bit moot and it doesn’t lead to a conclusive sense of satisfaction.

The game does feature online multiplayer modes, and just like dark moon they aren’t very good. Scare scrapper is interesting for about half an hour before you’re going through the same 4 bland objectives over and over again. Engaging in the boring combat and just sucking up money or pressing X to find toads in the same few bland rooms. Scream park fairs slightly better, as you have Luigis using the mechanics in creative ways like using Burst to put hockey pucks in a net, or collecting coins while working around the games impressive physics engine, but once you’ve played every mode, you’ve seen everything this tacked on feature has to offer. Multiplayer has always gimped single player focused games in some way, and it would be vastly preferable if developers used those resources for a more polished single player experience, a good game will have replay value simply on the virtue of being good. You don’t need bloat like multiplayer to encourage re-playability.

And on that note about bloat, the boo hunts return in single player , as well as the gems from dark moon. But they are pointless to go after as the rewards you get are very underwhelming cosmetics. Getting all boos (who don’t even feel unique this time, you capture them like any other ghost) gets you a boo themed flashlight, and a diamond nozzle for the poltergust. These tacked on fetch quests would be a bit more tolerable if the rewards meant anything, but they’re just your standard modern game “value for the dollar” bloated garbage that damn near every game is plagued with now.

The story is nothing to write home about, for what it’s worth the plot never ventures into being any sort of bad, at best and worst it’s an inoffensive kid friendly story. The cutscenes do a good job conveying that Mario charm and cuteness the franchise is known for, but as someone who adores the original Luigi’s mansion, I take heavy umbrage with the “Mario” part of that direction.

The original Luigi’s Mansion was unique among the vast Mario IP because it had almost no cutsey sillyness. Sure, the portrait ghosts did some goofy things here and there, but for the most part, it was a PG horror style atmosphere where the ghosts acted like actual monsters rather than the school yard bullies enemies in other mario games act as. Luigi’s fear felt real because he was out of his element, with his desire to save his brother pushing him forward in spite of the other worldly danger he had to face.
With 3, the unfortunately goofy ghosts are back and even more obnoxious at points. The first game feels like a genuine outlier tonally now, as the light horror has gone into full fisher price horror, the mook ghosts are constantly shown goofing off, breaking things they accidentally drop, making silly faces, and other such child friendly things to appeal to fans of the Mario IP. It makes sense for Luigi to be scared by actual monsters that act very animalistic and destructive, it makes less sense for him to be spooked by what equates to spectral preteens with attitude.

Even the most simple stories can be enjoyable with the correct atmosphere and visual story telling, and 3 is heavily lacking in this regard.

What it isn’t lacking in is visual prowess. The series has always been a technical showcase for the platform it’s on, and 3 is no exception. It’s a mostly gorgeous game. Real time reflections are near flawless, gorgeously detailed shadows are abundant, and textures show incredible depth like stitching in clothes to scratch marks in gold doors.

And while I do have an issue with how the “theme park template” leads to a less cohesive feeling world, I won’t deny that the art direction was incredible. Each floor’s visual aesthetic clearly has a ton of effort and care put in to try an immerse you in that floors theme, from swashbuckling pirate treasure coves and medieval dungeons filled with traps, to pristine and clean gyms and a claustrophobic pyramid. It’s highly likely you’ll have at least one floor you’ll love based on theme you like, as Next Level games did an admirable job in trying to appeal to a wide range of subjects. As an old man the lack of cohesion to me is disappointing. But if you have a young child they’ll probably have a few floors they’ll really love as there’s bound to be one with a subject that is line with an intense interest they have.

The physics are a joy to play around with. Objects react realistically to how far away the vacuum is and fly away or toward you accordingly, smaller soft objects will even warp inward when being sucked up and objects you shoot out from the vacuum will change how much they bounce of walls depending on how far away you are. I was so impressed with how the sand reacted when sucking it up on floor ten that I spent a good 45 minutes just playing around with the sand physics there. The engine never stopped impressing me.

Unfortunately there is some ugly as hell bloom at the start. When you first enter the hotel you are blasted with such a powerful blooming glow it’s genuinely laugh out loud worthy, even the blooming text early on has bloom and it looks god awful. Thankfully once the ghosts reveal themselves, this ceases to be a problem.

The UI is very nice looking and inspired, with the main menu being an actual virtual boy, so you get some deep warm reds and sharp blacks to give a very other wordly vibe. And while I do dislike the goofy tone that has taken over the series as I mentioned previously, I do always like that Nintendo never pretends that the virtual boy never existed despite being a massive failure and always gives funny self deprecating homages to their coolest failure every once in a while. These small jokey homages are perfectly fine so long as they are done sparingly and not made over the top. Which is the case here.

The switch is more than capable of making some beautiful games (every system is), so it’s nice to play a game as beautiful as this one with such a well crafted physics engine under neath.

Music is the weakest aspect of the game, and always has been for the entire series, I doubt you’ll find even the most ardent Luigi’s mansion mega fans able to name a track beyond the main theme. You have your spooky whistles and string sections as you’d expect, and fast paced horns for combat sections. Really the only track that stands out is E.gadd’s shop theme. As it sounds like something you’d hear in an anime licensed game from the 2000s, with its fast paced warm and welcoming midi instruments and comfy synths.

While it’s a heavily flawed game with the modern trappings of bloat and extreme easiness that contemporary games are plagued with, I enjoyed Luigi’s mansion 3. The level design is a satisfying series of strong puzzles and boss fights in spite of the boring combat, the visuals are outstanding and the music is unoffensive. The fisher price horror atmosphere carrying over from dark moon is disappointing, as well as the cheap tacked on multiplayer and pointless boo and gem hunts, topped off with some annoying blatantly padded macguffin hunts. Despite that, it’s refreshing to play a solidly made, fun game that isn’t following the same 10-12 “good game design” templates that every game of every budget seems to be doing now, even if it’s a new entry an established franchise.

I’m no fan of the series becoming more and more kid friendly with each entry, but at the same time if you have younger relatives like I do, a game like this would actually be very good for them. The puzzles require moderate amounts of logical thought, the floors will probably appeal to an interest they have, and the very simple combat is flashy enough to make them feel cool. A child could be playing something far worse and less appropriate for their age group, so at the very least, a parent would have a good option in this game for something that might challenge their child in a decent way.

7/10.

Ari's Review
A 5 Year Old's Review

I think it's cool because we were beating the game together. I think it's funny when the ghosts scare Luigi. Luigi has a funny face when he is scare, he looks like this (makes a scared face) and is shaking. I thought it was going to take a lot of time but I guess I am just really good. I like how we made it all the way to the top of the roof, that was super cool. The chef ghost is the hardest, he is a hardest chef poo poo head. I don't like King Boo and his disgusting big tongue.

I give this game twenty a hundred two thousand a million stars.

My Review
This is my first Luigi's Mansion game which is shocking to me as I am a bigger fan of Mario's awkward brother than of the blue overall wearing man himself. I'll choose Luigi over Mario in any game were that option exists. From Smash to Mario v Rabbids and everything in between, including going as far as dressing Mario in Luigi's clothes in Odyssey.

Luigi is the type of hero I like. The reluctant hero. The "I am scared shitless but I am literally the last person left" hero. And he holds that torch well in an overall fun and creative game.

I liked the puzzles, many of which had me surprisingly stumped which added a nice layer of challenge I wasn't initially expecting. The characters are charming, the levels are diverse, co-op is fantastic and most of the bosses are cleverly designed.

With that said, the controls in this game are beyond frustrating, I had sound issues with character voices, some puzzles were unnecessarily obtuse and polterkitty needs to burn in hell. The controls in this game are so bad, I would have given up on this game had I played it solo. Beating it with my 5 year old son was the highlight of the experience.

Next Level doesn’t understand what made the original game so memorable. Dark Moon may have been a step back, but at least it attempted to flesh out the combat with the Strobulb and power surge. The puzzle gimmicks were also spread across multiple, cohesive mansions. Even if they never touched the first game’s mansion, they were believable as places. When fans wished for a return to a single mansion after Dark Moon, I believe what they really wanted was a return to a cohesive setting.

Despite Luigi’s Mansion 3 taking place in one hotel mansion, it has no sense of cohesion. Expected setpieces like a shopping mall, exercise room, and sewer exist alongside a prehistoric museum, Egyptian tomb, pirate cove, and a magic show. The mansion is a series of unrelated levels taped together, an unsatisfying compromise of the first two games’ design philosophies. Top that off with extremely repetitive combat against the same few enemies, cat chases that exist to pad the runtime, a gimmick that doesn’t enhance the puzzles as much as you think (Gooigi), and a lack of worthwhile items to spend gold on, and you have the most overrated Switch exclusive. The only reasons I’m not giving this one star are because most of the boss fights were interesting and the film studio was both conceptually neat and starred a ghost who isn’t hostile.

Given the strong following Next Level has, I’m fully expecting them to develop Luigi’s Mansion 4. But given their track record with the series, I doubt it will feature the best elements from all three games. The atmosphere and cohesiveness of 1, the combat of 2, and the bosses of 3.

Adorably cute, fun and simple game.

This isn't a stressful over the top game since it gets to the point. It's nice spooky game for Luigi. Story is short but enjoyable. Also like the concept and uses for Gooigi. Gameplay is fun with secrets waiting to be found. And like I said before this game isn't over the top like that. I was able to 100% the game in less than 25 hours, game may not be that long but I feel it's perfect for people who don't have hundreds of hours to spend on video games. This game very chill and charming. I recommend it if you're look for a relaxing and interesting game to play.

Not a long time fan of this franchise but look forward to more in the future.

Played from – to: (2023-07-20 – 2023-08-02) – Nintendo Switch.
‣ 4/10 – Luigi is a muppet.
‣ Thoughts: I can’t believe how much I despised playing this game. On almost all levels this felt unbearable and I’m sure that’s all me and the type of games I enjoy. On a slightly positive note, each floor of the mansion that is not a mansion but a 15-floor hotel (why call the game Luigi’s mansion?) is unique. They all have their own themes and theme fitting boss fights and enemies. Sadly, the enemies don’t have any variety besides the clothes they wear and the boss fights gameplay wise are trash. I enjoyed the pianist fight, but everything afterwards became a mundane slog. This is because Luigi only has a few and very limiting responses when it comes to dealing with ghosts. He can suck, he can push, he can pull, and he can stun that is it. Every fight is figuring out the appropriate reaction to the boss and repeating it 4 to 5 times. This is absurd because some puzzle solutions are bizarre. Doctor twat glasses gives useless hints and when you do finally realize what has to be done the game forces you to do it multiple times with barely any variety. On top of that you must wait half a millennium for the boss ghost to stop flexing all its moves in the arsenal until you can attack again. I’m not saying the puzzles in this game are hard, but the way to solve them is just accidental at times, because of the god-awful controls. I could go on how the sewer level is one of the worst sections of any game I have ever played and how the perspective of the camera makes some items feel closer than they are making puzzles feel unsolvable without google and so on. However, I think it is pretty apparent I hate Luigi’s Mansion and I could give you hundreds of reasons why, but that does not mean the game is bad for some of you. To me this is a bloated, boring, and poorly put together melting shit pile that gives the player zero satisfaction upon completion and should not have been made.

Oh, mamma mia, if Luigi keeps getting mansions, how much time is left before he becomes a landlord?

Me and this series have a very curious relationship, I first discovered it when I got Dark Moon as a birthday present (tho here in Europe it's simply called Luigi's Mansion 2) and while I never got around playing the first one since I didn't had a Gamecube and back then emulation was a unknown topic for me, I still watched some gameplays of it and I was really mesmerized by its style and much creepier feeling... for a kid, I mean. I will probably do reviews for them both individually in the future, but for now I already let you know: I really liked these games from the moment I discovered it, as so many people do... but now with hindsight and much more experience playing much more games since then, it's clear their condition prevented them for being greater experiences; the first was a short experience meant to be as a showcase of the Gamecube's capabilities first and a full fledge game second, and Dark Moon was a sequel for a much less powerful console, and as such, many, MANY concessions had to be made for its designs to fit for the handheld, plus some stylistic changes that weren't welcomed by some. They both were great games on its owns, but they seemed to be made as technical showcase or adapted, and as such limited, for the consoles they were on, which is why seeing Luigi's Mansion 3 being such a well-designed experience feels like the culmination of this franchise, but at the same time it’s frustrating seeing it do some dumb mistakes.

Even if it isn't sold as a showing of the console's capabilities, make no mistake, Luigi's Mansion 3 is probably one of the best looking games on the Switch, and honestly one of my favorite Nintendo games visually wise. It feels like a playable Pixar movie, the animation just feels so... smooth; everything just feels so fluid, all the characters ooze personality simply because of the way they move and sound, Luigi specially is the star of the show, his expressions are so vivid and make see him run or scared is incredibly funny, tho NOTHING in the history of gaming will top E.Gadds' running cycle. The environments are the best in the series by far, the original Luigi's Mansion felt kinda samie after a point and Dark Moon, while varied, the rooms felt crammed and with some exceptions, the puzzles weren't exactly really inspired. 3 however, doesn't pull any stops, all set pieces and rooms look gorgeous, unique, and each floor has its own theme that fits perfectly with the idea of this being a haunted hotel. It all feels straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, but with its own creepier spin, which is what they were going for and they did it spectacularly.

The gameplay also didn't lack this clear attention to detail, not only does Luigi controls amazing, but it's moveset has seen an huge upgrade. Initially, the basis is lift from the previous entry, but from there, they add so many things that make both combat and puzzles just so much fun: the slam for crowd the control, the suction shot, and the best of the best, greener Mario Gooigi, a fantastic way of implementing co-op and a addition that makes sections more unique and fun; every time this guy was needed for something, I knew it was gonna be a fun puzzle. The boss fights are also the prime example of the best in the game; the main bosses are very distinct visually and personality wise, making encountering a new one an exciting prospect, and are all the fights have more thought put into it than entire sections in other games. Like, there's a fight against a T-Rex fossil, A FUCKING T-REX. How is this not gonna be a good game?.

Sadly, this is where the problems start to arise. While there are a lot of boss battles, there are surprisingly few normal ghost, and almost all of the ones there are just re-designs of ghosts from Dark Moon, and in personality they are the exact same, so the sensations of Deja-Vu were many very much presents. There are still some neat encounters with these and the normal blue ghost add a lot more spice with different mechanics and ways to defeat them, just like the green ones in the previous game, but this time less annoying.

Honestly, while the game mostly expanded upon Dark Moon in a good way, in some respects following the steps of that game ended up being detrimental. Structurally it's kinda dumb, it has a nice premise of unlocking new floors of the hotel as you beat the last one, but the problem with this is that, aside some exceptions at the beginning, you unlock them in numerical order, and when you beat a floor, you have little to no reason to go back, and when you HAVE to go back, with the exception of returning to the deepest floor, it just feels like padding, especially when you have to trail the damn cat, those sections are horrible, tiring, slow, repetitive and just not fun. Rather than feeling like an unique building, the hotel just feels like its divided in missions... just like in Dark Moon. It still shows that handheld design that honestly should have stayed behind, or at least they should have made something more akin to the first game's approach, 'cause the elements for doing something like that are here, but not to their full potential. There are mechanics that are barely used, combat can feel repetitive after long sessions... make no mistake, the game is not perfect, but god DAMN is it good.

It's still the best Luigi's Mansion, it's visually jaw-dropping, it's unique, it's fun, it's charming, it's flaws may be present, but they don't over-shadow the good elements at play here. It's sad that once again a game on the series doesn't reach its full potential, but this one comes extremely close.

My 5-year-old son asked me to play Smash Bros. Ultimate with him. He said he was going to be the "Scaredy Cat". I asked who that was, and he replied "Luigi!"

This led to an unnecessarily serious conversation.

We had just recently completed Luigi's Mansion 3 (A-Rank with $91k), and his impression of Luigi was that he was scared all the time, and that Mario was the brave one. I explained to him that Luigi is the bravest character in Smash BECAUSE he's always scared. Mario does whatever he feels like without hesitation, concern, or remorse. Luigi does what needs to be done DESPITE his crippling fears.

LM3 is the best-looking game on the Switch to date, no question. The environments are gorgeous, the lighting is properly dramatic, and the scale of larger rooms and challenges is enough to make you stop and just stare a while. But the key component of what makes the visuals so impressive is the detail in Luigi's face and his body language. There are varying degrees of fear that Luigi is constantly bouncing between, and his personality really shines through. Luigi's fearful determination and optimism is oddly inspiring.

The game handles very well, with all functions performable with shoulder buttons so you never have to take your thumbs off the sticks. It's also nice to feel HD rumble actually being used effectively, which is getting rarer and rarer.

I felt the game's length was perfect, not overly long, while not being disappointingly short. The cutscenes are delightful, and the whole experience was joyful.

Anyway.

No, son. Luigi is no scaredy cat.

Luigi's Mansion 3 is not the original Luigi's Mansion. More importantly, it is also not Luigi's Mansion 2.

As a statement on it's own, that couldn't be any less obvious. Like, come on, duh Spike, the brain brigade must have been working overtime on that one. As obvious as it may be, on an emotional level, it's a statement I didn't know I needed to acknowledge. It wasn't until I've finally played Luigi's Mansion 3 with my own two hands that the realization occurred.

For context, as hinted with in my Super Mario Bros: Wonder review, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was a game I felt immensely disappointed by. Gone was the arcade-y set up of the original, the breezy and focused gameplay now replaced by a mission based structure with content that felt as if it's sole purpose was to extend the game's length. The terrifying chills and larger-than-life character given to the ghouls within the titular mansion were replaced with copy-pasted enemy fodder with zero charm, with your run-of-the-mill spooks and specters serving as your boss battles. Even the music was butchered from it's ghostly synths and harmonic whomps setting the ambience of the mansion perfectly. From the haunting Mansion theme to the silly and off putting funk beat made to emphasize Dr. E. Gadd's zaniness, it fit the mood like a glove. With Dark Moon, all it's soundtrack provided was a vapid, boring, safe score that never instilled anything into you. Maybe light-hearted whimsy at the most, the opposite of how I felt I should be feeling.

This is how I felt at the time, and given that I haven't replayed Luigi's Mansion 2 since my teens, it's easy to see why I was so apathetic to Luigi's Mansion 3 when it was first announced. I felt no desire to give the game a try, not after the immense disappointment I had experienced. The series had left me behind and was attempting a style I didn't really care for, so I figured, why bother with this one?

Fast forward to now. 5 years have passed since Luigi's Mansion 3, and a decade since I touched Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The disappointment and bitterness from my teen years have been shedded away by years of self reflection and personal growth. I've reflected on a lot of my personal life and my gaming life as I've grown, and re-evaluating the Luigi's Mansion series has been on my to-do list. Gratefully, I received this game as a gift for my birthday, and playing the game now in 2023 has left me with a number of thoughts that needed to be revalued.

The very first thought that came across my mind was exactly the first sentence of this review: Luigi's Mansion 3 is not Luigi's Mansion.

Luigi's Mansion 3 feels tonally off from the original game. In the original Luigi's Mansion, the ghosts as a collective had their quirks, but they were offset by ones that were more unnerving. Something about Chauncey the baby makes me uncomfortable. This pampered child shrinks you down to a pea's size, places you into a portal dimension, and tries to make you his play thing as he throws a temper tantrum, screeching demonically at you for giving him an owie. Bogmire is another great example. He's faceless in a sea of colorful faces, and he behaves so differently from everything else in the game. He's unsettling and gives the game a strong sense of mystery just from his presence alone. In Luigi's Mansion 3, there's a distinct lack of edge.

Alongside the characters of the ghosts themselves, there are design decisions within Luigi's Mansion 3 that stick out from being lost in translation from converting the original game's gameplay sensibilities to their new format. In Luigi's Mansion, the game would let you wander into a room and discover for yourself that something wasn't right. There were exceptions, of course, but this was a constant. Typically, you'd walk into a darkened room, and an object would appear to move or float before you. You wouldn't see the ghost right away, which lead into a puzzle solving phase of finding the right way to expose it's heart. This is very subtle, but this structure added a layer of uncertainty to these paranormal encounters. They're unknown until they're seen. You watch their actions to determine what their personalities are like. You're within the process of discovery yourself. With Luigi's Mansion 3, these boss ghosts are set up with a cutscene, taking the time to introduce themselves up front and personal, which loses a lot of the mystic and agency given to the player.

These critiques are based on a purposely faulty premise, however. All of these criticisms would be valid of Luigi's Mansion 3 if the game was attempting to contain the same tone as the original.

But again, Luigi's Mansion 3 is not Luigi's Mansion.

Instead, Luigi's Mansion 3 goes for a more light hearted tone with it's horror. The kind of tone that might startle you, but will make you smile after it's done. Ghosts jump scare you from time to time, but they're usually doing something goofy to deflate your fear and convert it to a smile. There's only one really mean jump scare, and that would be on Floor 8, Paranormal Productions. The entire game has been lulling you in for a false sense of security up until a bear statue just decides to violently grab you. Even then, the designers felt so bad for this that they give you plenty of money as an apology. It's the perfect example of this game's MO.

Much like Resident Evil 4 was to the original Resident Evil, Luigi's Mansion 3 puts the focus on action rather than scares. The gameplay uses the same design keys of capturing ghosts and performing small puzzles to figure out how to capture said ghosts, but it's recontextualized into a more gameified feel. The tools at your disposal have expanded, your list of actions increasing from a mere suck and blow.

Don't, don't mind that phrasing—

Sucking up the environment is a strong part of the gameplay loop now. The added physics to every object within the hotel creates an addicting kleptomanic drive to vaccum out anything and everything valuable from this shady hotel. The game feel to this reminds me of Paper Mario: Origami King and it's ability to make the simple act of hitting things feel immensely satisfying. The noises, the chaotic clutter of objects flying about, it's simply joyful.

Unlike Origami King though, it's main gameplay loop is also satisfying. The hotel is structured with each floor acting as a level to explore, setting up gags, ghosts to gobble up, and ghoulish bosses to grapple with. Flinging ghosts by slamming their ectoplasmic bodies sharply to the ground makes combat feel crunchy, which is something I neglected when I played Dark Moon many years ago. There indeed IS substance to this gameplay style that appeals to me, it was just hidden through a distinct lack of soul given to the direction.

The hotel is structured similar to the mission like structure of Dark Moon, creating bite sized chunks with tasks set out for you to accomplish. Yet, Luigi's Mansion 3 is not Luigi's Mansion 2. The game doesn't cause you to go back in and out of E. Gadd's lab to complete an objective, and if it does, you can quickly teleport there and back to where you last left off. Each floor builds upon gimmicks culminating in a boss fight. These bosses typically use mechanics already established through the floor you've spend the last 30 minutes on, finding clever ways to plunger enemies and drag them down, using your pal Gooigi to double team them in elaborate methods, along with an assortment of other tricks up it's sleeve. It's all fairly enjoyable. I almost wish there were more tools to expand your equipment in more interesting ways, but with what they accomplished here felt like they had enough to work with.

There's more I could say about the bosses not quite meeting my expectations in terms of personalities, the music not quite hitting the highs of the original game's, the overall structure causing me to put the game down more than feeling a strong urge to keep trucking forward. But these are all aspects that come down to personal preference. The structure plays well to the game's strengths. There's more to do and explore from this concept. The bosses and music are bit too light-hearted, but again, the tone of the game is different by design. You can't capture the same magic if your goal was never to do so. What's there is still charming. My teenage self wouldn't have understood that.

I'm no longer the bitter sad sap I once was, and my reaction towards Luigi's Mansion 3 has been a reflection of that change to me. 5 years ago me and teenage me were wrong, both for different reasons. This gameplay style does suite me — it just took another entry with refinements to prove that it did. Just because it's not the same tonally from what I loved in the past doesn't mean I can't still enjoy the game.

Are there aspects lost from this direction? Sure. Do I prefer Luigi's Mansion over 3? Of course I do. It's my childhood favorite, it's hard not to. But this does not make Luigi's Mansion 3 any less valid in existing like I once so stubbornly believed. Luigi's Mansion 3 executes ideas pulled off within it so superbly well, it's hard not to love it. And that feels good to say.

One of the best Switch games on the market. I think if this game had gotten true DLC with some extra floors to explore it would’ve been perfect but as it stands it’s still a phenomenal experience. Definitely my hypest game of 2019. I distinctly remember shutting myself in on Halloween and grinding out this game and it was awesome. Still a bit cartoony for my liking but it’s SO SPECTACULARLY beautiful that I don’t mind. Like this game looks GOOD. It’s one of the highest quality games for Switch and I think Nintendo took note of that and the great sales and promptly bought Next Level Games which was a great decision. Clem is the best. I love Clem. Not enough Clem. Music slaps and the copious amount of secrets is impressive. There’s something so satisfying about collecting money in this series and this game in particular that is so completely unique to these games and I love it. Yah these games are just magnificent. Really hope this becomes a flagship series for Nintendo going forward.

Okay, the finally (For now) of Luigi's hell. This game is very good, having took everything from the past two games, cutting the fat, and cooking the meat to perfection. The graphical style being one of the first and most notable examples of this; by working with the funky style of Dark Moon, and using the power of anything but a 3DS or GameCube to make a gorgeous exemplar of how good games can look on the switch. Using such to allow for creative levels, and fun areas to explore all around. As well, another notable feature come in that of the poltergeist and the slamming mechanic, that while not really adding much in the way of complexity to the game, does feel really satisfying, especially compared to what was in place for Dark Moon. I do have to mention that the SUPER SUCK upgrade could have been used in more places, and would have been a fun edition to taring apart the levels in search of secrets. Overall a great game, and one that is definitely worth playing!

Is what I would say if I really wanted to end the review their, but I think its time to talk about a lot of the issues people had with this game. Because of lot of people seem to hate this game for three main reasons as far as I can tell; One money, and two level design. First, yes, some of the level design could be better, the cat sections being an example of this, yet I think the issue is blown way too far out of proportion compared to how good many of almost all of the other sections of the game are, the boss fights are creative and the environmental design supplements the floors and gameplay very well in my opinion.
Now onto the money. "It'S UsElESs," cries some people, but that is okay I say. Lets see why its "useless," One, cant buy anything with it, okay but what would you buy? upgrades? I mean sure, but why, the vacuum sucks, you slam the ghost around. A lot of the usability of the poltergust does not come from how powerful it is, but YOUR ability to control it while ghost fling you around the room. Its not like a gun, where a different bullet, or a bigger clip actually helps in shooting games. So what else could you use coins for? Lives? Well, lives do not really exist in modern day gaming, but the next closest thing is revives, and you can buy those. As well as items that show you the location of collectables, which is the next step, but other then those couple thing, there really is not anything more I would ask of the coins; besides being super duper fun to collect. I saw someone here compare them to Lego studs because of that fact, and I love that. So what's left for coins to do now, contribute to rank? Guess what... they do that, JUST LIKE IN THE FIRST GAME, and nobody said anything about them their???? In fact that is all they did in the first game... just being a lot of fun collectables! They even tried making coins more intrigue to the game in Dark Moon, where you had coin targets to unlock upgrades, and that truly felt pointless, because regardless of if you collected the target amounts or not, nothing would really changes through just playing the game normally, BECAUSE UPGRADES WOULD MEAN ZIT TO THIS GAME as I said above. Anyways, its a great game, Nintendo did their best with everything they had from this game series and truly made something amazing. A must play on the switch.

here i am trusting nintendo again, and here i am disappointed

Luigi's Mansion The First was an extremely unique experience on the gamecube that continued nintendo's current streak of fresh ideas produced with a level of polish that was unrivaled, making for a game drenched in atmosphere and full of fun puzzle bosses that to this day ceases to get old.

then they made a second one, so fuck everything i just said. pushing the focus towards environmental puzzles and being as uncreative as possible, LM3 continues the legacy of being completely inoffensive and pushing the focus more on gameplay and as far away from world building or - god forbid - atmospehre as possible.

lets get somethin' straight here. the gameplay of luigi's mansion on its own (or as some might say, in a vacuum) isnt that much to write home about. it was good, and extremely satisfying having to push and pull with the ghouls, but its not what keeps the game going. the atmosphere and the characters, on TOP of the gameplay, are what make it special. every portrait ghost had a quirk to them, but it wasnt completely over the top. every ghost feels like a real person with a goal in mind. hell, the first boss is just an old man that wants to read a book.

Luigi's Mansion 3 starts promising, the first two bosses being a luggage handler and a maid keeping in theme with the hotel. then you fight a fat police officer that likes donuts. then an irritable artist. then a knight. then a t-rex. then cleopatra, etc.

every level is a cliche, and the gameplay has little to no variety. go in a room, solve a puzzle, maybe suck up the same three ghosts and repeat. the real meat and potatoes of gameplay is in the boss fights, which while unoriginal are always fun to fight. and even then, it mostly revolves around waiting for them to attack and then flashing.

other than that its the usual nintendo fare: looks great, sounds great, smells great, everything on the presentation is excellent, outside of most of the ghosts looking really gross and generic (e.x. the angry ghost is a big red rectangular prism, this game has worse enemy design than the fucking jimmy neutron game)

on its own its just an ok puzzle game, but its not on its own because nintendo wont let it be. its Luigi's Mansion fucking 3 now, soiling any and all creative vision that went into creating the first game. congratulations nintendo, you found a new fucking cow to milk. im sure it was worth it

No amount of charm can make this game fun.
Luigi's Mansion 3 has frustrating level design, annoying encounters, slow movement speed and unskippable cutscenes. The joy up sucking up hidden money and coins soon wares off when you realise there is little purpose to collecting it.
I especially hate the cat enemy that maks you backtrack to previous floors and locks you out of progress until it is defeated multiple times.
This game does everything in it's power to waste your time and I would not recommend it. However I must say it does look gorgeous and it is nice to hear Luigi's whimpers of fear as you roam spooky hallways and corridors.