Luigi’s Mansion 3
Switch
They say horror conforms to the law of diminishing returns, though poor Luigi doesn’t seem to have had the memo. As he takes his first trembling steps onto the 15th floor of a haunted hotel – by which time he’s also explored two basement floors and the mezzanine – you’d think he’d be a little less freaked out by the spooky goings-on around him. In fairness, it’s his cowardice (some might call it pragmatic selfpreservation) that first keeps him alive when Mario, Peach and three Toads are captured and imprisoned within paintings by a familiar returning villain. Even so, by this stage, you’re wishing he’d pull himself together. But perhaps that’s because, unlike Luigi, we’ve slowly become immune to the tricks of a game that reminds you it is possible to have too much of a good thing.
Still, there’s hardly a shortage of good things in Luigi’s Mansion 3, its star chief among them. This Luigi is a masterpiece of animation, all nervy tics and anxious looks; that much was true of its predecessors, but Next Level Games lives up to its name here. At times, he’s literally scared rigid, at others he’s barely capable of holding his torch. And he’s afforded a wider variety of pratfalls than ever before: most notably when he tries to vacuum up a colourful ribbon and ends up waddling around with an oversized magician’s hat covering him down to his dungareed legs. Let’s hear it for Charles Martinet, too, a man whose work is often overlooked, but who can mine comedy gold from a single yelp or grunt, turning Luigi’s limited vocabulary into an asset. The belated reunion with his brother – please don’t pretend that’s a spoiler – is frankly adorable.
It looks fabulous, too. The original was no slouch in that regard; its sequel likewise made masterful use of autostereoscopy to make its rooms feel like miniature dioramas. But this lays a strong claim for being Switch’s best-looking game to date – certainly in undocked mode, which smooths off the occasional rough edge. The use of lighting, shadow and reflections is impeccable, while rooms are busy with detail, even before you take to making a mess with Luigi’s souped-up Poltergust G-00. Coins and notes cascade from drawers, while in one overgrown bathroom, you can whip up a whirl of cherry blossoms. There’s a gleeful physicality to many interactions, with improved physics enhancing Luigi’s destructive streak. Hoiking up heavy objects with the Poltergust’s new plunger (yes, this plumber wields one of the main tools of his trade) and destroying furniture with them is one pleasure that remains undimmed by the finish. An empty jewellers containing a heavy suitcase? Why, the place is just begging to be smashed up.
Setting the whole shebang within a ghostly hotel, meanwhile, allows Next Level Games to get away with all manner of architectural impossibilities – including an indoor ocean and an intricate, trap-filled tomb that opens up into a sprawling desert with sand you can shape into dunes and trenches. It does make for a less cohesive sense of place, with floors feeling like discrete levels, but what it lacks in coherence, it makes up for in visual variety. An extended puzzle-led set-piece in a film studio pays surprising homage to a J-horror classic before culminating in an inventively staged boss fight – which itself is trumped not long after in spectacular fashion. Other encounters, meanwhile, work minor wonders with scale and creative camerawork.
All fur coat? Not quite. But Luigi’s undergarments can, at times, seem a little skimpy. (Now there’s an image.) That Luigi’s Mansion 3 feels the need to have 18 bosses is, perhaps, a tacit acceptance that its regular ghost fights have grown repetitive. Sure, some spirits wear objects that you have to knock off or, well, let’s say remove through the use of suction. A few require a dark light to reveal them; for others, you’ll need a distraction of sorts. And yes, the slam attack – which, once you’ve wrangled a ghost for long enough, lets you repeatedly pound it into the floor or furniture – is satisfying. But by the 300th ghost, this overpowered tactic has worn thin.
And what of Gooigi? The way this gloopy doppelgänger passes between bars and slides down grates is a tactile delight; ditto, the slurpy sound he makes when squeezing through pipes. Yet beyond one or two memorable set-pieces, too often he’s deployed for the kind of co-op puzzles we’ve seen many times before. Roping in a playing partner to keep him around permanently doesn’t add much beyond making the handful of more testing scraps a little more manageable. Indeed, the most demanding exchanges exacerbate some surprising control issues. Even with a generous aim assist, you’ll sometimes find it tricky to lock onto larger enemies. This only grows more frustrating when it’s a ticking bomb you need to fire back at them, not least given the bewildering decision to limit motion aiming to the Y axis. And while you’ll surely marvel at the destructive power of your Poltergust’s final ability, it arrives so late in the day – and is so limited in its use – that it seems little more than an afterthought.
At times, it feels as if Next Level Games has done a splendid job with a tricky brief. Just as you’re beginning to think Luigi’s Mansion was perhaps a one-and-done idea that has done well to last three games, it pulls out an outstanding set-piece or a jaw-slackening visual. Then it interrupts the action for a bit of brazen padding, inviting you to trudge back through earlier floors to track the spectral pawprints of an elusive cat, and you wonder if you were right first time. A creepy-funny found-footage sequence hints at a possible future direction: a firstperson Luigi’s Mansion, anyone? Our knock-kneed hero certainly deserves another starring role, but if only for the sake of his overworked ticker, this time ‘The End’ should probably be final.
This Luigi is a masterpiece of animation, all nervy tics and anxious looks