'Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD' Review: Nintendo’s second favorite Mario brother gets his due in this shiny remaster • AIPT (2024)

Luigi’s Mansion 3 was also my official introduction to this series. Even though I grew up with classic Mario games, only as an adult did I develop a newfound relatability towards the younger Mario brother. His neuroticism and anxiety are all too relatable and give Luigi and theLuigi’s Mansion series a certain charm.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD remasters the Nintendo 3DSLuigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for the Switch. Its opening credits shows us Professor E.Gadd hard at work with the help of some friendly, adorable, and rowdy ghosts in the background. It set expectations of what this game will be like – a whimsical, chaotic adventure, just what the doctor ordered! The scene then cuts to the Dark Moon – a gem-like object glowing in the sky that is swiftly destroyed by none other than King Boo, the main antagonist of this series and, at this point, Luigi’s very own nemesis.

The broken shards of the Dark Moon fall away into the unknown and the consequence? Those friendly ghosts we met at the start go haywire and turn evil. Don’t worry, they are still adorable. Unaware of all this, we find Luigi sleeping soundly on the couch, in front of the TV. At first glance, it reminds you of your dad after a tiring day. Our reluctant hero is then contacted by E.Gadd through the TV and is basically forced to save the day (or in this case, night).

Like any Mario or Mario-adjacent game, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD feels pretty self-contained and acts as a decent jumping on point. Apart from familiar faces like Professor E.Gadd or the adorable Polterpup, the entire game is focused onLuigi’s ghostbusting adventure. There are five mysterious mansions to explore where the Dark Moon shards have scattered to and with his trusty Poltergust 5000, it is up to Luigi to find them and restore the balance.

As the campaign clocks around ten hours, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD offers lots of exploration, ghostly encounters, and sometimes dull puzzles that I wasn’t motivated to solve. Each mansion is different from each other and acts as a separate level. To maintain the spooky atmosphere, there are lots of secret passageways to unlock. My only gripe is the lack of checkpoints in the game. If you either die or quit the game midway while exploring a mansion, you’ll have to begin from the start of that mansion and repeat everything all over again. You can’t manually save either and this was one of my biggest hassle while playing as sometimes. I had to redo a mansion again and again simply because there wasn’t a mid-level save point.

The exploration is also followed by patience-straining and sometimes difficult puzzles. This sometimes did ruin the pacing for me because one moment I’ll be fighting a bunch of ghosts and the next, I’ll have to backtrack or explore every nook and corner of a room to solve a puzzle. In most cases, the solution would be right under my nose and it was like the game was mocking my problem-solving skills.

Just like the previous games in this series, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is all about Luigi facing his fears in the form of fighting and trapping ghosts. By the end of completing every mansion, there is a boss battle waiting for players, each harder than the last. After gearing up early in the game, the Poltergust 5000 is the main and only weapon needed to defend yourself against any spooky encounter. There are a variety of enemies and boss fights, including rogue collectible ghosts called Boo. They hide across the levels and need to be discovered using your own wit and the Dark-Light device fitted in the Poltergust.

See Also

Luigi's Mansion 3 Guide: 10F Tomb Suites Walkthrough - IGNLuigi's Mansion 3: 10F Tomb Suites GuideHere's how to beat every boss in Luigi's Mansion 3Luigi's Mansion 3 Guide: How To Defeat ALL 18 Bosses

Luigi’s Poltergust is an all-in tool where the player can temporarily stun a ghost using its bright flashlight and with the suction mechanism, pull them into the Poltergust like a vacuum machine. Of course, it is easier said than done as each enemy has their own challenges and sometimes you’ll have to use a different strategy despite the combat generally being the same. Most of these encounters are unavoidable and, unfortunately, you can’t run away from them as the area locks you in until you defeat the ghosts.

The Poltergust 5000 is also useful in collecting money, important collectibles, and solving puzzles. When a collectible is hidden in plain sight but unreachable, I found myself vacuuming every object in the room to find a way and most of the time it worked. Everything collected within the Poltergust, including the ghosts, is later deposited into E.Gadd’s vault and the more you collect, the faster you upgrade your Poltergust, which helps against bigger boss battles.

Even though I didn’t find the game and its boss battles too hard or spooky, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD was still exhilarating in its own way. Even as the enemies came towards me to attack, I found them too-friendly looking because in the end, the games doesn’t take itself too seriously and just wants the player to have a good time.

With the remastered visuals looking more vibrant and alive paired with Luigi’s visible expressions as he shakes with anxiety and fear, I can’t help but think it was the perfect time to re-launch this game for newer players to experience as we near the end of the Switch’s lifecycle. I have come to enjoy Luigi’s Mansion as a series solely because this is the only time where the second Mario brother actually gets the spotlight he deserves. We have all seen Mario do his thing and save Mushroom Kingdom countless times but Luigi’s Mansion is where we get to see Luigi overcome his fears and become the hero when all he wants is a decent night of sleep. That’s literally every adult’s life, at this point.