Nintendo fans remember: Eleven years ago, Nintendo celebrated the Year of Luigi. The kick-off was the long-awaited Luigi's Mansion 2 for Nintendo 3DS. Luigi's second ghost hunt is actually a good choice for an HD remaster on Nintendo Switch, but is the full price justified? In our test, you'll find out whether it's worth buying.
Witty as ever?
In Luigi's Mansion, Mario's fearful brother takes on the main role and must explore a spooky mansion armed with a vacuum cleaner. There are puzzles to solve, keys to new rooms to discover and lots of ghosts to catch. The gameplay is reminiscent of a family-friendly Resident Evil. Since the first part was quite short, Luigi's Mansion 2 should offer more of everything. Instead of just one mansion, there is five areas, which have a playing time of about 12 hours promise. The spooky properties are undoubtedly the highlight of the game. Because they are so different and varied, it is fun to explore each new area. The level design is sometimes of very high Nintendo quality and will still surprise in 2024.
Advertisement
At its best, Luigi's Mansion 2 is simply fantastic. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of dull moments in between. This is because the developers opted for a mission structure rather than a coherent adventure. In your hideout, Professor I. Gidd gives you a mission objective and teleports you to a mansion. Once you've achieved the objective, you go back and select the next mission. So you're constantly being torn out of the game, which torpedoes the immersion of the atmospheric worlds.
Although the plot is banal, I. Gidd talks like a waterfall and also entrusts you with some repetitive tasks. For example, you have to run through the entire building and suck up cobwebs or later chase a ghost dog. Such missions feel like game time extension. You rarely discover anything new and just go through all the familiar rooms again. This is also a fundamental problem if you are hunting for points and want to collect as much money as possible: you have to search all the rooms again for coins, notes and gold bars on every mission.
Two thirds of the game are excellent, one third is a bit toughOverall, you can expect a great adventure that of course also has the typical Nintendo charm and a lot of humor. This is complemented by exciting boss battles, cool cutscenes and a pleasant level of difficulty.
The Confusion Tower should not go unmentioned. This is a multiplayer mode in which you go ghost hunting with up to three other players – online or locally. You have to fight your way through floor by floor to the top of the tower, completing a new task on each level. There are countless exclusive ghosts to discover in the Confusion Towerso you can keep yourself busy for hours. The Tower of Confusion is a really fun addition and was not included in Luigi's Mansion 3 for nothing.
Advertisement
All new features in the HD remaster
The most obvious change is of course the visuals. The graphics have not only been upscaled to the HD era, but a little more has been done. In a direct comparison, more detailed textures and adapted models are noticeable. The developers have also refined the lighting to create a denser atmosphere. That doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to make Luigi's Mansion 2 look really good on the Switch! This is not only due to the changes, but above all to the timeless graphic style of the game. The fact that there was still room for more is evident from the frame rate. 60 FPS should have been mandatory in the HD remaster, but instead the game runs at 30 FPS, just like it did eleven years ago.
The second important adjustment concerns the controls. These were overloaded on the 3DS due to the numerous actions. And since there was no second stick on the old hardware, it was not possible to swivel the vacuum cleaner or the lamp in all directions. If you wanted to vacuum something up or illuminate it, you first had to position yourself facing the object. That was a bit uncomfortable even back then. The HD remaster uses the familiar controls from Luigi's Mansion 3. Thanks to the right stick, you can walk and look in all directions at the same time. To make this easier, you can also activate the dark lamp and the flash with the shoulder buttons – this was also not possible on the 3DS.
Since the original used the 3DS's second screen primarily as a map, not much had to be adapted here. The minimap is now in the top right corner and can be enlarged using the minus button.
We didn't notice any significant changes in terms of content. Anyone who was expecting new content such as a new haunted house or a co-op mode like in Luigi's Mansion 3DS will be disappointed. It is a faithful HD remaster that does not do more than it has to. Even easily fixable bugs have not been improved. For example, it's annoying that at the end of a mission Professor I. Gidd automatically teleports you back to the hideout even though you wanted to look around. Or that you have to play missions to the end if you want to look for collectibles you missed.
Conclusion on Luigi's Mansion 2 HD
Luigi's Mansion 2 is still a good game that impresses with a great mix of exploration and puzzles. The fact that I would still rank it well behind the third part is mainly due to the mission structure. This eats away at the immersion, there are some repetitive sections and despite the minimal story there is too much chatter. As a result, the overall high quality impression is diluted by unnecessary length. If you missed Luigi's Mansion 2, you can still get it despite the price and catch up on Luigi's second adventure in the best version.
If you have already played Luigi's Mansion 2 or even still own the 3DS game, then you should think carefully about buying it. A faithful remake at full price is quite steep. Nintendo showed last year that things can be done differently with the magnificent Metroid Prime Remastered (40 euros) or Pikmin 1 + 2 HD (50 euros). As with Pikmin, I would have liked a bundle of Luigi's Mansion 1 + 2, as the first part is still missing on the Switch. Then the price would have been OK.