Luigi's Mansion 3 Review in 2024

With the increased attention on the Luigi’s Mansion series, thanks to Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, a remake of Dark Moon on the 3DS from 2013, research is indicating that there are a lot of people searching for Luigi’s Mansion 3 reviews. Even though Luigi’s Mansion 3 released in 2019, we don’t need another excuse to go and finish it probably for a 4th time.

Burying the lead, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is the pinnacle of the series. It also happens to include the best thing to happen to the IP since its inception and it only has minor flaws.

The Last Resort

Luigi’s Mansion started back in 2001 as a launch title for the GameCube and even though it sold quite well with over 3 million, it will forever be tied to the question of “did the GameCube fail because it launched with a Luigi game and not a Mario game?”

The GameCube was a great system in a vacuum and even sold a little over 21 million, but by Nintendo’s standards and the competitions, it drastically underperformed. For reference, PS2 would go on to sell over 155 million, and even the upstart Xbox sold 24 million. You can learn more from your failures than your success because in hindsight, it was all for the best, as Nintendo would adopt the “Blue Ocean Strategy”, and this is why we were able to enjoy revolutionary systems like the Wii and Switch.

What makes Luigi’s Mansion 3 the best of the series is because Next Level Games are clearly listening to the feedback. The third entry takes all of the ideas and innovations that were introduced in Luigi’s Mansion 2, fixes what didnt and fully realizes what did. Exploring more than just one single mansion was a great way to keep the game feeling fresh in Luigi’s Mansion 2, but it felt segmented and because of this, the exploration, which is the core of the series felt hamstrung.

It was two steps forward, one step back, as the minute you finished the objective you were pixelated back to Professor E. Gadd, which pulled you away from the joy of exploring. Luigi’s Mansion 3 is able to solve this problem by giving a reason for variety, which still makes each area unique, but it also allows you to explore at your pace.

Like previous entries, the plot is just a whimsical device to deliver the fun. This time around, the group has been invited to The Last Resort, a haunted hotel that thrusts Luigi back into the ghost busting life once again. The hotel setting allows for variety that not only keeps the game feeling fresh from start to finish, but encourages the exploration, which is the highlight of the series.

At this point, Luigi is basically the friendly ghost busting version of John Wick. “I’m thinking he’s back”. The amount of times that Luigi has left the ghost hunting life behind only to be pulled back in to help those he loves is starting to add up.

The poltergust has come a long way since its introduction as purely a ghost hunting machine that exclusively blows and sucks. In Luigi’s Mansion 2, the strobe and the black light were introduced. Not only were these refined in Luigi’s Mansion 3, but we were also introduced to even more features including the burst feature and the suction cup.

Multiplayer

It’s not for lack of trying, but there is something magical still missing from multiplayer in Luigi’s Mansion.

The scarescraper was a fun co-op introduction in Luigi’s Mansion 2, but required multiple copies of the game and multiple systems. Although the scarescaper mode can become a little repetitive, it’s a fun distraction from the main game and allows for couch co-op in Luigi’s Mansion 3 with two players on each system and up to 8 players on 4 systems. It would have been great if the co-op mode had more appeal and if it was tuned to the correct amount of players. Trying to complete objective in scarescraper with two players on the couch is very difficult and is very hard to progress. It’s clearly balanced for 4-8 players.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 even introduced a new multiplayer mode called ScreamPark, which is a competitive mode that takes place in small arenas with teams competing in objectives like collecting the most coins or capturing the most ghosts before the timer runs out. It features up to 8 players on the same system, which is great, but it’s missing that draw that makes you want to return time and again.

Gooigi!!

While the game cant seem to find the magic in the multiplayer, we have been avoiding the best part of the game, which is Gooigi!! Shortly into the game, Professor E. Gadd will introduce you to his latest invention: a gel version of Luigi who can get into places that Luigi can’t, including going through pipes, squeezing into tight spaces, and walking onto dangerous areas that would otherwise hurt Luigi.  Gooigi does have extremely low health and can’t go near water though.  The environmental puzzles are taken to even greater heights than previous entries because of the new additions to the poletgust, but largely due to figuring out how Luigi and Gooigi must work together to figure out the solution.

While playing in single player is fun and requires you to switch back and forth between the two characters, the best way to experience is with a friend on the couch.

The list of issues and criticisms about Luigi’s Mansion 3 is about as short as Professor E. Gadd. After Luigi’s Mansion 2, there was lots of opportunity to expand the scarescraper in meaningful ways and even just balancing the mode for less players would have helped. Occasionally, it can be frustrating trying to control where you are trying to aim the poltergust, but these are few and far between occurrences and are even sometimes laughable. Finally, on more of a preferential level, it would have been nice if they tonally moved towards the first game with a scarier tone instead of sillier direction the series has went

TOP TEN Switch Game

It’s easy to see why sales have constantly grown with each successive entry in the series. Next Level Games have consistently found new ways to expand and innovate on the original blueprint. Luigi’s Mansion 3 could easily be named the best in the series based solely on the addition of Gooigi, but there is much more to it than just a gelatinous sidekick. The only real drawback is that the multiplayer modes are still incomplete, but when campaign co-op is this good, it would only be the cherry on top.

When you combine all of the new features to the Poltergust, the hotel setting that provides non stop variety and Gooigi, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is pure joy from beginning to end. I’ve said it years ago and still stand by the statement that Luigi’s Mansion 3 is one of the Top Ten Best Games on the Nintendo Switch.

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