Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon Review

The original Luigi’s Mansion is one of those games that ended up being just an interesting concept. While the gameplay still remains fine, it’s ultimately simple and relatively short. It may have some replay value, but it’s not really rewarding to play again. The sequel, developed by Next Level Games looks to build on that original concept and make a better experience.

The story here is simple; the dark moon has been destroyed, causing all of the ghosts in the world to go crazy. It’s now up to the mighty Luigi to restore the power of the dark moon to turn the ghosts back to normal. Your main goal is to receive a piece of the dark moon from each of the game’s five mansions, which have varying themes. The first mansion being your standard haunted house and it sets up a good tone and atmosphere for the game. The lighting is great, along with the game’s animations, which help sell that the game has some polish to it. The game does have a few framerate problems, sometimes hitting 60 and other times getting in the single digits. It’s fine for the most part, but it is a noticeable issue at parts.

Another notable issue is that the game does get frustrating in some places, leaving you wandering around levels aimlessly with no clue at what you need to do. The same goes for a couple of bosses later on that might take you hours, but fortunately for this review, were handled with ease. Beyond the game not giving you many clues and a few unforgiving boss fights, the game gives you a few upgrades to make the game proceed smoother, including upgrades to your Dark Light and Poltergust’s power. It’s a nice progression path that exemplifies the game’s good pacing. While the controls might feel better if there was an option to use the Circle Pad Pro, they do what they need to do well enough and aren’t frustrating or hand-cramping.

A new addition to this installment is multiplayer, both local and online in the form of the Scarescraper, which allows you to play with up to three other players as you traverse up to 25 floors in ghost hunting fun. Levels are randomized, and the money you earn also carries over with you to single player, which is a welcome feature. It’s something that if you want to continue playing is the mode you’ll want to go back to, since going for missing collectibles, Boos and 3-star ranks in single player is an ordeal not many will find the urge to do.

Overall, Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon is a fun, lengthy but ultimately forgettable experience. There’s not much in the way of memorable music or enemies, but the animations and multiplayer are worth experiencing. It’s a nice entry into the series and hopefully Nintendo will build on it in the future, hopefully with a bit more personality.

Overall Score: 8 out of 10
+ Animations
+ Multiplayer
+ Good Pacing
- Some frustrating puzzles
- Enemies are forgettable
- Framerate problems