Review: Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD
For a series with only three games to its name, Luigi’s Mansion series feels like it has a lot of cultural weight as a core part of Nintendo’s identity. All three games in the series are good, but Luigi’s Mansion 3, which first released on the Switch in 2019, is easily the best – a visually stunning, exciting, varied adventure with lots of fun fights and terrific environments to explore. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is a remaster of the series’ 2013 outing on the 3DS, and it has arrived on Switch in good shape. Replaying the game now is an interesting experience – it is still a good game, and the remastered graphics are excellent. But it is haunted by how good the third game in the series is.
The plot of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD picks up from the first game (most recently re-released for the 3DS in 2018). King Boo, that game’s villain, has shattered the Dark Moon, the only thing that was keeping the ghosts at bay throughout the mansions of Evershade Valley. Professor E. Gadd once again enlists Luigi to deal with the issue – and throughout the rest of the game, he’ll continually check in to deliver exposition, occasionally grinding the game to a halt. There’s quite a bit of storytelling in the game, despite the plot not being particularly deep.
Whereas the first and third Luigi’s Mansion games are continuous adventures, Luigi’s Mansion 2 is mission-based – each time you enter one of the game’s five mansions there are different objectives, collectables, and accessible pathways available to you. It makes for a game that can feel a little stop-start, since you’ll be whisked back to the start of the mansion so often. The idea behind this structure was to make the game more palatable on a handheld, which is still true here – although I prefer the structure of the other two, I appreciated being able to complete a mission quickly on the go.
Like all the games in the series, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is, primarily, about finding ghosts, stunning them with Luigi’s flashlight abilities, and sucking them into a vacuum. Ghost fights are tactile affairs – usually you need to figure out the right conditions to stun them, and then when you’re on the attack you need to pull the stick back to charge up a shock attack to do more damage, all while being aware the other ghosts that may be trying to attack you and break your hold. It’s a fun system, no matter which Luigi’s Mansion it appears in. As the song says – (ghost)busting makes me feel good.
Different missions may ask you to discover a new path through the mansion, deal with a ghost infestation in a particular room, or solve some light puzzles. It’s not the most experimental game in the Nintendo catalog, but there are some very enjoyable boss encounters scattered throughout the experience, and heaps of Easter eggs and hidden collectables to uncover. Exploration and diligence is rewarded with money (which automatically unlocks upgrades for your kit) and high scores – it’s a shame there are no leaderboards to compare your performance against others, though.
Luigi’s Mansion 2 was already one of the best-looking games on the 3DS, and this remaster wisely maintains the art style of that version. It’s not an overhaul – put the two versions next to each other and the Switch version looks substantially better, but still of-a-piece with the original release. It’s absolutely the right approach: Luigi oozes with personality, as do the various ghosts you’ll be sucking up, and the mansions look great. There are a few areas where the game has received a little less polish or attention – the collectable money scattered all over the game lacks texture, for instance – but these are minor quibbles. It’s just not as good-looking as Luigi’s Mansion 3, which remains one of, if not the best-looking, Switch game.
It’s a shame that Nintendo has not included optional checkpoints in this remaster, too. Dying towards the end of a level and needing to do the whole thing over again can be dispiriting, especially when the levels are so based around exploration and discovery – the first time it happened to me I had to step away from the game for a bit before I felt like playing it again. Uncovering a secret the first time is fun, but when you need to recreate your steps a few times the feeling diminishes. The difficulty ramps up quite a bit in some ghost encounters, and the game’s structure means that if you hit a wall you simply can’t progress until you pass it – which may mean trying the same 15+ minute mission over and over.
The 3DS version’s multiplayer Scarescraper mode is here too, complete with online play. I did not find many players online when I went looking, and there’s no splitscreen option, so this mode is unlikely to get much play unless you approach it with a great deal of intentionality. It pales compared to Luigi’s Mansion 3‘s co-op mode – which is a repeated cry throughout this review only because it’s difficult not to think of that game while playing this one.
Taken on its own merits, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is an excellent remaster of a very good game, one that balances its odd structural decisions with a lot of charm and fun. If you’ve never played the third game, try this one first – it’s just a little hard to go back to.
James O’Connor has been writing about games since 2008.
