Our Verdict
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is a wonderful remake that improves on the visuals, soundtrack, and controls of the Nintendo 3DS original. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of the first or third game in the series, mainly due to the back-and-forth of mission-based gameplay and some samey specters, but it’s still well worth playing for fans of Luigi’s ghost-busting antics.
In terms of Nintendo remakes, we’ve eaten well over the last couple of years, with everything from Advance Wars to Paper Mario: The Thousand Year-Door coming to Switch with glowed-up graphics. Now it’s the turn of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, the middle child of the Luigi’s Mansion series, an extension of the ideas from the first game with more locations to explore, more tools at Luigi’s disposal, and yes, more ghosts and ghouls to capture.
For those who don’t know, Luigi’s Mansion 2, otherwise known as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon in the US, first arrived on the Nintendo 3DS back in 2013 as part of the Year of Luigi. Unlike the original, Next Level Games handled development on the sequel, having previously and successfully worked with Nintendo on Super Mario Strikers and Punch Out!!. It’s the same developer taking the reigns with this remake, and we have to say, it’s done an absolutely stellar job.
The concept behind Luigi’s Mansion 2 follows the classic Nintendo formula of simplistic storytelling that just works. It takes place in Evershade Valley, outside of the Mushroom Kingdom, where Professor E. Gadd has taken to studying pacified ghosts following the events of Luigi’s Mansion. Then, as it often tends to, it all goes wrong.
Right at the beginning of the game, King Boo turns up and shatters the Dark Moon, making the ghosts of Evershade Valley less peaceful in the process. This turn of events forces E. Gadd to once again enlist Luigi to face off with some newly rebellious specters, collect all the pieces of the Dark Moon, and rid the valley of nefarious spirits. It’s a little cookie-cutter, but thanks to some delicious dialogue almost exclusively from the peculiar professor, it gets the job done.
Evershade Valley features not just one haunted house, but a few spooky locations, with the first, Gloomy Manor, acting almost like an extended tutorial to the game. Here’s where you find the Poltergust 5000, Luigi’s equivalent to the Ghostbusters’ Proton Pack, as well as the Dark-Light Device, a tool for illuminating hidden objects and doors on your adventure, and learn to use them both. Gloomy Manor is much smaller than the massive mansion of the first game, but it serves as a wonderful introduction to the mechanics you’ll be using throughout.
So, let’s talk about gameplay. Each haunted location in Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD has five missions and a boss fight to complete, each of which takes anything between ten minutes in the early game and up to half an hour in the latter stages. These missions are well-designed, but as an original Luigi’s Mansion devotee, there’s something about how the game constantly pulls you in and out of the levels that slightly takes away from the immersion for me. Still, when you’re in them, the ghost-busting fun is as riveting as it is in any games from this series.
The missions themselves are incredibly fun. It’s a mix of ghost-busting action and puzzle-solving that always keeps you on your toes as you receive instructions from E. Gadd to complete objectives. Just like in the first game, you really have to engage your brain to solve some of the mysteries of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, but some fantastic game design pushes you in the right direction to avoid any sort of frustration at not being able to solve a specific puzzle without the need for glaring signposting. There’s also enough variety across the missions to keep things from being repetitive, so fulfilling the professor’s demands never becomes tedious.
I’ll say it now, though imagine I’m saying it quietly, as I’m not sure it’s going to be a popular opinion. I’m not a massive fan of the boss battles in Luigi’s Mansion 2. The first four boss battles see Luigi take on possessor ghosts, which inhabit everything from a clock tower to a massive spider. Yes, you are technically taking on ghosts in these bouts, but it doesn’t really feel like it.
I’m not sure if it’s my nostalgia for the first game from the series, but I want to see ghosts with unique abilities or gimmicky attacks. I’m being a bit nitpicky here, sure, but as far as the series goes, I think the bosses from this game detract a little from the pure ghost-hunting thrills of the first and third installments. They’re not awful, I’m not saying that at all, and they make sense within the game world, it’s just they feel a little more Super Mario than Luigi’s Mansion at times, and that’s not what I’m here for.
Having never dabbled with online modes in the 3DS version of Luigi’s Mansion 2 or Luigi’s Mansion 3, I had my first online Luigi’s Mansion experience thanks to Nintendo putting together some testing sessions before I wrote up this review. I have to say, it’s a lot more fun than I thought it would be, with up to four Luigi’s taking on the Scarescraper in four different game modes.
First, we tried out Hunter Mode, where you simply have to track down all the ghouls on a specific floor before time runs out. Next up, it’s Rush Mode, where the emphasis is on finding clocks to extend your time limit as you frantically search for each floor’s exit. After that, you’ve got Polterpup Mode, a personal favorite, which has you hunting Polterpups that leap from room to room until you shine a light on them and hoover them up with the Poltergust 5000. Then, finally, there’s Suprise Mode, which bands all three modes together to offer a slightly more chaotic experience.
All four of the different online game modes are solid fun, and a boss battle every five floors is more than enough to keep you and your fellow Luigis on your toes. It’s here where the game’s chaotic and cartoonish vibes come to the forefront, with Luigis literally falling over each other in a race to collect as many specters as possible or be the one to get the last bit of suction on the boss. If Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD ever gets its own esports category – it won’t – then I’ll drop all this reviewing lark and dedicate my life to mastering the Scarescraper. It’s just that engaging.
Now, let’s talk a little bit about visuals. While the world of Luigi’s Mansion 2 might be the most varied from the series, I can’t say the same for the ghosts. I’m not sure if it was due to the limitations of the 3DS at the time of the original game’s release, but some of the ghost designs are a little underwhelming compared to the other games in the series. They all have pretty similar designs, and while there are a few variations to keep things interesting, there’s nothing like the more memorable humanoid ghouls of the first and third series entries.
However, while the ghosts might be slightly lacking, the levels are not. Gloomy Manor is a relatively tame reintroduction to the series, but locations like Haunted Towers and Old Clockworks are fantastic departures from the core concept of plain old haunted houses. They look fantastic and are inherently explorable, and this is a game that rewards exploration, especially if you can find the hidden Boo in every level. Honestly, hunting Boos is my favorite part of the game, especially when you unlock a hidden level in each world for hunting down all five across each mission. It never gets old.
One big improvement on the 3DS release is the control scheme, with the Switch’s pair of analog sticks making Luigi’s movement with the Poltergust 5000 much more fluid. Loosey goosey Luigi can easily scope out a room with his flashlight much quicker than his 3DS equivalent. The developer has also done a fantastic job of turning a game originally intended for a dual-screen device into a single-display title. If I hadn’t played the original, I wouldn’t be able to tell that Next Level Games has condensed the experience to a single screen. It just feels natural.
Performance-wise, it’s another masterclass from Next Level Games and Nintendo. The game is clean as a whistle, and I never noticed a moment of frame rate drops or lagging, even online. Yes, we’ve come to expect this from an esteemed developer remaking a game for a seven-year-old console, but it’s something we love to see, especially considering how many studios still struggle to optimize for Switch.
Before rounding out, it’s worth touching on the Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD soundtrack. Oh boy, does it bang. From the new version of the classic theme on the level select menu that has me head-bopping for at least a few seconds before jumping into the game to the spooky slowed-down honky tonk of Gloomy Manor. It’s so good that even Luigi finds himself singing along at points. Not only is the music fantastic, but the sound design is pretty incredible too, with the digital whirring of E. Gadd’s lab enhancing the gameplay experience.
All in all, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is a wonderful addition to the Nintendo Switch’s library, offering hours of ghoul-hunting greatness and imaginative world design. It’s still not my favorite from the series, mainly due to some pet peeves with the missions system and a lack of variety in ghosts and bosses compared to the other two, but the gameplay is still fantastic, and multiplayer only adds to the experience. If you’re a fan of the series, it’s still an experience you don’t want to miss out on. That decision could haunt you.
There you have it, our Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD review. While you’re here, check out what we made of Nintendo’s other big hitters in 2024 with our Princess Peach: Showtime! review and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door review.