LUIGI'S MANSION 3 is Quite a Bit of Fun and the Multiplayer Options are a Big Plus
Luigi’s Mansion 3 launched at the end of October and I’ve had the lucky opportunity to get a copy from Nintendo. I’ve put in a few hours exploring the various game modes and it’s been a lot of fun as a newcomer to the franchise.
The story is pretty simple. King Boo tricks Luigi, Mario, Peach, and some Toads to a hotel. Once they arrive, they start getting settled and bad things happen. Boo reveals himself and traps everyone but Luigi in portraits. Your goal is to save your friends and bring down King Boo. Like I said, it’s simple, but fun. Along the way, you discover the Poltergust G-00 to battle and capture ghosts and you’ll find Professor E. Gadd who helps you out.
In addition to a simple, yet enjoyable story, I found the game to be visually appealing. The art style is incredible, and the graphics look fantastic. I have zero complaints in this department.
Let’s talk about the gameplay. Most of the gameplay is fine. The controls are fairly straightforward and not that hard to get used to. The only problem is when you have to aim. Whether you’re trying to aim a plunger or trying to suck things up with the Poltergust, I really struggled. You see, normally, as you walk around with the left stick, you turn. However, when you’re aiming, the left stick becomes strafing with the right stick being your rotation. This led to me constantly turning in circles as it didn’t feel intuitive like the other controls. I’m sure many of you will think I’m a big baby for it, but I did not like that part of the control scheme. Everything else was fine.
A great thing about Luigi’s Mansion 3 is that there’s a variety of multiplayer modes available. The most obvious is a cooperation mode in the story. Player 1 will control Luigi and Player 2 will control the new character Gooigi who can do some things that Luigi can’t do, but he also can’t go through water.
There’s also the ScreamPark that lets you and up to 7 of your friends play some minigames. The first minigame I didn’t care for because it relies very heavily on the aforementioned control that I mentioned. You and your foes are on floaties in a pool and you have to blow or suck your way around to collect coins, but mines will appear and one touch will blow you out of the pool and you’ll lose all your coins. The second minigame puts you and your opponents in a graveyard where you battle ghosts for points. Different colored ghosts are worth different point values, and it was fun. The final minigame featured you are your opponents fighting ghosts for cannonballs that you then fire at targets. This is one that was kind of fun with just me and my wife, but I think it would be a lot more fun with more people.
Finally, there’s the ScareScraper where you and your friends can go around working together to take care of ghosts in a randomly generated skyscraper of 5 or 10 levels. This is a semi-cooperative mode as you will need to work with each other at times, but each individual or team of two will be able to get points to add a competitive element. The ScareScraper can be played locally, online, or a small mix of the two with up to two people on one console as a team and the others online.
Overall, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. Even if you haven’t played the first two entries, you can find hours of fun. Also, if you’re looking for some new minigames to play with friends, there aren’t that many, but there are a couple of winners on this game as an added bonus.
