Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire might have been straight up busted on the field workplace, however fortunately there’s one other spectre-stalking journey to get pleasure from this 12 months – albeit a really acquainted one. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD – a remaster of the 2013 Nintendo 3DS unique that was also referred to as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon within the US – has arrived on the Nintendo Switch wanting higher than ever, however virtually fully unchanged so far as its gleeful ghostbusting gameplay is anxious. It is due to this fact one of the simplest ways to expertise Luigi’s second foray into catching cheeky Caspers, but it surely’s not the very best entry within the collection since this Dark Moon-based journey has subsequently been eclipsed by Luigi’s Mansion 3 in 2019.
Here’s what our reviewer mentioned in her assessment of the 2013 unique:
That sentiment nonetheless stands, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD stays an entertaining journey as spooky as it’s foolish, its dual-screen setup seamlessly smooshed right into a single panel and sharpened to a visible customary that solely simply falls in need of that of Luigi’s Mansion 3. The staff at developer Tantalus, which was additionally accountable for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD in 2021, hasn’t merely boosted the decision for this remaster, it’s additionally added noticeably extra detailed textures, proper all the way down to the reflective sheen on fits of armour and the threads on Luigi’s dungarees. In addition, drastically enhanced lighting means this Switch model’s haunted dioramas have been given sufficient depth that I didn’t actually mourn the absence of the unique’s stereoscopic 3D. (Although to be honest, I’m unsure I even used stereoscopic 3D within the first place.)
It’s not more likely to win any awards for greatest visible design in 2024, however in comparison with the 2013 unique the distinction is night time and day. I bear in mind Luigi’s Mansion 2 having a charismatic solid of characters and enjoyably spooky settings to discover, but it surely was a shock to revisit the 3DS unique 11 years after it launched solely to have my eyeballs assaulted by sufficient jagged edges to grate cheese with. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, nonetheless, has been polished as much as a stage that permits the playful nature of its phantom menaces and its many magnificently crafted corridors to actually shine on display.
Those enemies and environments are nonetheless successfully the identical as they had been a decade in the past, nonetheless. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD options no extra ghosts to bust, ranges to go looking, or bosses to level your Poltergust 5000 at. None of Luigi’s strikes from Luigi’s Mansion 3, like his plunger-powered suction shot or his means to summon the Gummi Bear-like Gooigi, have been retrofitted into this journey, which makes for a spook-hunting and puzzle-solving expertise that preserves the intelligent stage design of the 3DS unique, but one which noticeably lacks the expanded number of interactions that the collection’ third installment loved.
It does, nonetheless, function twin-stick controls much like that of the third sport. For no matter purpose the unique didn’t help the usage of the Circle Pad Pro, the cumbersome Nintendo 3DS peripheral that added a second follow the system whereas additionally making it more likely to bust a seam in your trouser pocket. This meant that in Luigi’s Mansion 2 on 3DS, the taller Mario brother was caught going through in a single path anytime you wanted him to purpose his flashlight or vacuum up a startled soul. That’s not the case on this remaster, which lets you swivel Luigi’s purpose round with the best stick. That undoubtedly feels rather more versatile and intuitive, and though the problem curve right here stays fairly light – the goofy ghost enemies are extra dork souls than darkish – I used to be relieved to search out that the management system by no means annoyed me prefer it did within the unique.
I do want extra had been executed to Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s multiplayer, nonetheless. Unlike Luigi’s Mansion 3, which allowed two folks to play on the identical system, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is strictly one participant per console, whether or not you’re taking part in on-line or regionally on a LAN. The multi-levelled multiplayer mode, Scarescraper (referred to as Thrill Tower within the unique launch), continues to be a variety of frantic, phantom-wrangling enjoyable, but it surely’s the form of enjoyable I want I may share with my youngsters with out having to purchase a number of extra Switches and copies of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD so as to get pleasure from. Sadly, there’s no split-screen help to be discovered right here.
That mentioned, I actually nonetheless had a ghostbusting-ly good time for the dozen or so hours I spent with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. While I desire the sprawling, single construction of the third sport’s resort setting, I admire that the extra compartmentalized ranges of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s 5 distinct environments make it simpler to slender your seek for any missed collectibles upon finishing the principle story. Plus, there are some fantastically phantasmic moments that I’d forgotten about within the decade since I first performed it, from the splendidly puzzle-heavy first boss struggle with a supersized spider, to tumbling down a prolonged haunted staircase afterward that feels akin to a extra G-rated model of the climactic sequence from John Wick: Chapter 4.
