I have to admit that I’m not the biggest gamer out there; I might play about five different video games per year. However, when Nintendo announced Luigi’s Mansion 3 would be released on their Switch console this year, I was super excited, after playing the first two installments of the franchise years ago.
One thing that I loved right off the bat was that Nintendo set the release date for October 31, Halloween this year. This was, to me, a genius marketing plan, as people are celebrating “spooky season” and looking for something to entertain them. Normally, the year’s biggest video games are released in mid-November, just before Black Friday, the biggest consumer shopping day of the year (Nintendo did that with Pokemon Sword and Shield this year, releasing them November 15.) However, Nintendo saw an opportunity to capitalize on both the Halloween and Black Friday holidays in order to have a successful release for this game. I bought the game the day after it was released, so their marketing ideas surely worked on me.
The game’s story won me over immediately. Luigi (and friends) win a trip to the Last Resort, what they think is a state-of-the-art hotel at a remote vacation site. Luigi soon finds out that the hotel is run by ghosts who they have captured his friends and trapped them in paintings, hidden in random places throughout the 15 floors of the hotel. Luigi must capture and beat all of the ghosts throughout the hotel to free his friends and get out of dodge himself.
What I found incredibly unique about this game was that Luigi’s equipment now allows him to spawn a “slime” version of himself called “Gooigi” that can sneak through small areas and help Luigi make his way through the map. Gooigi isn’t just a gimmick that developers threw into the game; instead, he serves a huge purpose in helping you complete important tasks and get through doors/rooms that Luigi could not possibly get through alone. Nintendo really hit a home run in this new feature, adding so much more thought and puzzle-like aspects to the game experience.
My favorite part of the game, however, was the immense creativity that they put into the design of the hotel. Rather than just copy-and-pasting The Stanley Hotel (the haunted hotel that inspired The Shining) across their 15 floors, the developers shine in making each floor a “world” of its own, incredibly unique. One floor is like a mall, another is set up as a giant theater, another as a medieval castle, and another as a giant garden circled around what has to be a 50-foot tall beanstalk (which honestly, should count as far more than just one floor, but that’s just me.)
Tying everything together, Luigi travels the mansion by way of an elevator; however, all of the buttons are missing. In order to get the button to the next floor, he must beat the “boss” ghost on each floor, each tying in to the theme of the setting. What I found incredibly fun and charming about the game was that Luigi, clumsy in nature, would often drop the elevator buttons out of excitement. In one instance, a cat steals the button, and Luigi has to search through the hotel to get it back. I’ll admit, it was annoying, but it really helped make the game feel more genuine to me.
I have yet to finish the game, although I definitely could have finished it by now. In all honesty, the game is so great that I am trying to take my time in finishing it, because I do not want to have it all end so quickly, maximizing the experience. You never want to rush a masterpiece, despite how much you may love it. I’m no professional video game grader; however, as of right now, I give Luigi’s Mansion 3 a 10/10.