Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD Review – Light Horror

Another month, another game for Nintendo. Even in the eighth year of the Switch’s life cycle, the Japanese company isn’t finishing with regular releases, although the first half of this year has still mostly been remakes or remasters. And while we got a great remake of the excellent RPG Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in May, by June Nintendo has prepared a remaster of the slightly newer Luigi’s Mansion 2 (released in the US as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon) from 2013, originally intended for the Nintendo 3DS. But is the updated version worth it?

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publication date: 27.06.2024
• Developer: Next Level Games
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre: Action adventure game
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: Yes
• Data for download: 3 GB
• Play time: ~15 hours
• Price: 1349 CZK (Alsa)

Dark atmosphere, but full of humor

For those unfamiliar with the series, it should first be said that Luigi’s Mansion is certainly not a horror film. While it does take place in a dark and atmospheric setting, it generally takes any potentially scary situations with humor. Like many other Nintendo games, it’s perfectly fine for kids. Of course, that doesn’t mean adults won’t enjoy it.

The story is very simple: the titular “dark moon” is stolen and split into several pieces, causing the good spirits inhabiting the various mansions in Evershade Valley to become unusually aggressive. The Professor once again calls on Luigi to help, who sets off to save the shards of the dark moon.

Nice gameplay…

There are five settlements in total, and their diversity is one of the main strengths of the entire game. Whether it’s a clock factory, haunted towers, or a frozen complex, each location has something of its own and brings not only a unique atmosphere, but also several unique mechanics. Of course, the most interesting are always the first levels, where you discover different corners of the mansions, the environment, or even a mysterious dungeon. Unfortunately, the latter mostly consist of returning and quite obvious reworking of both the environment and content to increase the length of the game.

Each location is divided into several levels where you have to complete the tasks set by the professor and then return back. They are generally not very long, the shortest can last up to 10 minutes, the longest about 40, but there are not many of them. Much also depends on how much you risk exploring the side, additional rooms that can bring you various hidden rewards and, above all, money, for which you can get upgrades to your equipment.

Luigi encounters a number of ghosts on his travels, the variability of which isn’t too great, but it seemed just right to me. From the basic green types to the larger, more aggressive red ones to ancient Egyptian mummies. The Poltergust 5000 vacuum cleaner gets a lot of work, as does Luigi’s flashlight, which can not only illuminate and thus stun enemies, but also use a special light to “materialize” hidden objects.

A large part of the gameplay is not only “battles” with ghosts, but also puzzles. This is also, at least from my point of view, the more interesting part, because in addition to the already mentioned detection of hidden objects, you will usually use the environment to progress. For example, “suck” an object blocking an object, or let the ice melt with a lit torch. Often, your task is then to find a key to open a locked door. It is in these moments that the game resembles Survival Horror, although of course in a much lighter presentation. You will probably encounter some moments where you are not quite sure how to proceed, but there are not that many.

…which can ruin not only the controls

Anyway, the puzzles are the best part for another reason – the controls. And now we come to the fundamental negative. Although the camera is not static in the game, it moves, but it is not far from the old Resident Evils, for example. And because of this, it is very difficult to control the situation during tense moments of combat. I could not get used to aiming until the very end of the game, so I had problems hitting exactly what I wanted, which led to some unjustifiably frustrating moments.

What’s worse is that if you die, you have to repeat the entire level, there are no permanent saves. I think this is definitely something that should have been added in the remaster, because you can lose tens of minutes of progress. This also applies to boss fights, which consist of several stages, but on the other hand, I have to say that most of them have a very original design in terms of mechanics, and I liked these fights the most.

A good remaster, but don’t expect more.

In any case, the visual improvement that the remaster brings is not small. Sure, in some ways you can still say that this is a 3DS game, and the graphics are not up to the level of Luigi’s Mansion 3, but 2 in HD still looks very good. The environments, the models, the animations, the user interface, in short, everything has been improved. So the game will definitely not disappoint in terms of graphics, and you will enjoy it even more if you play it on an OLED Switch, which is perfect for such dark games.

The atmosphere is also enhanced by very good sound, be it sound effects or music. Although one motif is often repeated, its variations are very well executed and suit the given setting.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed playing Luigi’s Mansion 2, despite some disappointing moments. The remaster managed to improve the visuals significantly, and in terms of game design, the game is still mostly at a high level, even after 11 years. If you haven’t played the second part of the series, now is a great opportunity to do so. But if you have already played the game in the 3DS version, the remaster will not bring you anything except improved graphics. Also, you should consider the price, the same as the already mentioned full remake of Paper Maria, which still seems a bit exaggerated to me.