Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon Review

The original Luigi's Mansion was probably my favorite Gamecube game back in the day, and I was really, really excited when a 3DS sequel was announced. I have finished the game, and put a lot of time into all the little sidequests, but unfortunately, there is one tiny little thing that almost completely breaks the game for me. The levels are timed?

Some of the new ghosts in the sequel are lame. Quite lame.

I know it sounds like a small issue, but the entire point of a haunted  mansion is to explore right? Well, I have a really hard time exploring when I know that my seconds are being counted and will determine my rank at the end of each level. It drives me up the fucking wall, and what makes it worse is that each level has a number of well hidden gems and a secret boo that you have to search for! So instead of exploration and discovery, I just frantically mash the X button next to every object I see. I hate it.

Other than the time thingy, this game is great. It's a real compliment to the original, and what's great about this version is that there are multiple locations. A mansion, a haunted treehouse-mansion, a clock factory, etc. I would have preferred a single sprawling house, but the change of scenery is welcome when it happens. The controls are great, very solid, and Professor E. Gadd is fucking hilarious, still. Another new thing I love is the darklight, which reveals invisible objects.

I don't want to be so negative, but I really did have a lot of problems in hindsight. That spider boss is just wrong, and should have been completely re-worked. There isn't really a strategy, you just sprint and pray, which gets really frustrating. There is a stair puzzle (you'll know it when you get to it), which is solved by completely random trial and error, it took me a solid hour to complete. The game also isn't scary, ever, at all, like the first one was, and they removed the Mario button. 

The game is great overall, but the time-tracking system just doesn't fit this game, or this genre. It sucks the fun out of everything and makes me hate exploring any rooms that aren't imperative to the main objective. It's a good sequel, but the original will always shine brighter.