Luigi's Mansion 3 Nintendo Switch Review

Luigi's Mansion 3 is a charming and often beautiful game. With varied environments, lots of boss fights, and so much money to collect this latest ghost-busting adventure is everything a fan could hope for. With small issues with the game's controls and a recycled narrative bringing this otherwise great installment. Luigi's Mansion 3 is much of the same players loved about this cult classic that will delight both long-time fans and newcomers alike.

Luigi's Mansion 3' has Luigi, his pet Polterpup, Mario, Peach, and a group of Toads heading to a hotel where Luigi apparently won an all-expense vacation. The hotel called Last Resort is actually a trap orchestrated by King Boo and his new ally Hellen Gravely. Luigi escapes but his friends and family aren't so lucky, once again trapped in paintings. Luigi rescues his friend Professor E. Gadd early on in the adventure and the 2 joins together for another adventure to stop King Boo and save everyone.

The story is pretty bare and much of the game is recycled from Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon. Which is fine but a little vexing seeing the developers just copy and paste the previous story with just a new character and setting.

Luigi's Mansion 3 plays similar to Dark Moon with some quality of life improvements. For example, the UV light no longer has a charging meter. Another new tactic is that Luigi can now power slam ghosts when his meter is full instead of just pulling aggressively. This allows you to use this slam attack to cause damage to surrounding ghosts as causing serious damage to the primary target. It definitely makes the game easier though, with Luigi able to drain a target's health very quickly with this new tactic.

The biggest addition is Gooigi. This doppelganger of Luigi is composed of a green goo that is completely immortal. Able to move through spikes with ease and when killed can be easily summoned once again. Gooigi is weak against water and will dissolve instantly when contact is made. This secondary Luigi is used throughout the game effectively for puzzles and combat. If you have a second player the other player can take control of Gooigi.

The Last Resort is a 16-floor hotel with various different levels. Each one has a specific theme such as pirate, fitness, Egyptian, and more with a floor boss that reflects the theme. Sometimes Luigi will have to backtrack throughout the hotel when searching for stolen elevator buttons but these are rare. When it does happen just going down 1 floor is needed and you don't have to search the entire hotel. If you need some extra help E. Gadd will offer some advice but they're often cryptic and unhelpful tips. However, the use of the Virtual Boy as the communication device instead of a Gameboy system was genius. Even the layout has that red and black interface the system was notorious and infamous for.

Much of the core game remains the same. You'll use your flashlight to expose a ghost's heart, then such it up with your Poltergust G-00, the latest model. There are about 3 types of primary ghosts that have sub-variants, either being smaller or having added defenses. Sometimes requiring you to use Gooigi has a distraction, your UV light to destroy its defenses, or sucking up its sunglasses to make it vulnerable to your flashlight.

Puzzles make up most of the adventure. Using a combination of Luigi's tools and critical thinking skills. Often, just experimenting with Luigi's UV light, Gooigi, what can be interacted with, or looking around the environment is enough. Only twice did I require a lot more time to find the solution but much of Luigi's Mansion 3's puzzles are fun to solve without being too taxing.

Luigi will be collecting hordes of treasure when going through the hotel. This includes money, metal bar, and rare gems. Each level of the hotel has a set of exclusive gems to collect and the money can be used at E. Gadd's facility for upgrades. Such as finding hidden Boos and gems. However, these are unnecessary and having more permanent upgrades would've been more ideal. Such as increased health or causing more damage.

The controls are pretty solid with the exception of targeting. The left joystick is used for aiming horizontal and vertical which can be annoying when trying to hit a specific target while moving. Also, there's no dedicated run button, instead, Luigi sprints only after walking for a certain distance. It's likely that this option was removed to give players playing on 2 separate Joy-Cons the ability to access all of Luigi's abilities. But it's still irritating and an option to turn an always run option would've been ideal.

Graphically, Luigi's Mansion 3 looks amazing. Every stage and character model looks exceptional. The sound design is also amazing, with a great array of soundtracks. Luigi's animations are outstanding with Luigi reacted to his environment in various ways. Standing up completely frighten, looking constantly on edge, and viewing his surroundings with uncertainty. On visuals and sound design alone this game would get a perfect score.

Once you're done with the 9-hour campaign you can take part in the multiplayer either online or local. With up to 8 players climbing up the ScareScreaper. Hunting ghosts, completing challenges and playing as many forms of Luigi. It's a lot of fun but can get stale quickly. It solely depends on how much fun you have hunting ghosts with allies. It lacks the progression system to keep players for long. The mode is also locked out until you reach a certain part in the single-player, which is strange since you can access the local option from the beginning.

Luigi's Mansion 3 provides an extensive amount of ghosts to hunt, areas to explore, and bosses to fight. It's exactly what fans loved about this series and provides a great opportunity for new fans to jump right into the third adventure. The story is recycled and the aiming system is vexing but the overall adventure is charming enough that you'll forget many of these problems. Luigi's Mansion 3 is another gem in the Nintendo Switch's growing exclusive library. I only hope that the next game won't take years to release.

Adam Siddiqui,
Senior Editor, NoobFeed
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