Luigi’s Mansion 3 Preview

Luigi’s Mansion 3 has the charm of previous titles as well as even more beautiful aesthetics thanks to the upgraded graphics on the Nintendo Switch! I’ve spent over 20 hours with the game and I’m still finding all sorts of new things to do! Whether or not you’ve played the previous Luigi’s Mansion on Gamecube or the recent 3DS remake, or even Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon – this game will have you inhaling ghosts in no time! Let’s start this preview off with a little bit of the main story.

Luigi receives an invitation to stay at a hotel, so he brings Mario, Peach, and the Toads along with him to get some long-deserved rest and relaxation. After checking in and heading to their rooms to turn in for the night, Luigi hears a loud crash and scream from Peach’s Room! Upon inspection, Luigi is greeted by the Hotel Owner and finds out that she was the one behind freeing King Boo and this entire Hotel was a revenge plot against Luigi and Company. King Boo then turns Mario, Peach, and the Toads into paintings and flees the scene. The doors to the hotel are locked, all of the elevator buttons have gone missing, and the only way to escape is to locate each of the 17 Elevator buttons and eradicate all of the boss ghosts to save our friends.

Ironically, Professor E. Gadd is also staying in the same hotel. Go Figure. Luigi’s got history with E. Gadd, so it’s no time before he’s set up with a brand new Poltergust G-00. With a typical Poltergust, Luigi can inhale, exhale, strobe to stun ghosts, and darklight to find hidden objects. The new feature of the G-00 is the fact that Luigi’s now able to launch a plunger at specific objects and inhale the rope end of it in order to suplex said object into the ground to break it. Luigi is now equipped with a burst attack that allows him to push a burst of air around him to help with ghost crowd control and to activate certain areas. The best new feature about the G-00 is the fact that Gooigi is now available to be used at your command!

Gooigi was the Player-2 Clone in the Luigi’s Mansion 3DS remake that required a separate Nintendo 3DS and game in order to play Co-Op. In Luigi’s Mansion 3 Solo Mode, he’s able to be summoned at will by pressing in on the Right Thumbstick. When you’re Gooigi, Luigi stands still and is able to keep an inhale or exhale on his Poltergust. You’re able to freely switch between the two, in order to solve many puzzles within the Hotel. If you have a friend that wants to play Co-Op, simply connect a Joy-Con or Pro Controller and you’re able to play 2-Players simultaneously!

What stands out about Luigi’s Mansion 3 is definitely the Gooigi gimmick. You’re going to find yourself walking around all sorts of areas and solving puzzles by splitting up Luigi and Gooigi. Gooigi has his own health bar, he’s able to walk on spikes, and he’s even able to slip through metal grates and fences! There have been quite a few times where I’d be stuck on a certain puzzle only to finally achieve that “ah-ha” moment when I realize that I had to utilize Gooigi in a certain spot!

Luigi’s Mansion 3 controls a lot like the previous games, so veteran players will feel right at home. You’re able to use the Left Thumbstick to move Luigi throughout the Hotel, while the Right Thumbstick controls his torso rotation, just like in the previous games. Getting used to the plunger-launching mechanics and aiming is a little difficult at first, but luckily the Devs at Next Level Games programmed an “auto-lock” feature that allows your plunger reticle to only lock onto items that can actually be fired upon. Luigi’s new buff is the ability to overhead slam Ghosts while inhaling them! This move is a game-changer for sure, almost to a point where I felt it a bit over-powered. In a room full of ghosts, you can simply inhale one of them and slam him into the rest of the ghosts to cause damage very quickly and easily. You’ll be using this move for every ghost you encounter.

While you’re exploring the hotel, you’ll inevitably come across all sorts of coins, gold bars, & dollar bills scattered throughout. There are also 6 hidden gems in each of the floors of the hotel, so keep a vigilant eye out for all of them, especially if you’re a completionist like myself. The last collectible on each floor is a hidden Boo. Just like in the previous games, you’ll have to keep a close eye and, with the help of HD rumble, a close feel for the hidden Boos that may be hiding in all sorts of objects. Once you’re told about the hidden Boos, I immediately went into my system settings and turned HD rumble on and legitimately listened to my Pro Controller rumble in order to find the correct Boo hiding spot. If you’re having a hard time locating either of the Boos or Gems, you can pay E. Gadd 1000 coins for a location hint that appears on the map.

I feel that Next Level Games definitely took a page out of the Katamari Damacy book when they developed Luigi’s Mansion 3, as almost everything in the game is an object that can be moved or interacted with. See a trash can? Plunger it, then suplex it open to reveal hidden cash. See a bookshelf? Inhale all of the books into the Poltergust G-00 to reveal even more hidden cash. The amount of detail that went into the smaller inhalable objects is really stunning, even if you only notice it passively while inhaling everything in sight.

Let’s talk about the audio in this game. Oh boy is it good. I’d highly recommend wearing headphones or blasting the volume to max when you can. Each of the floors have a unique musical theme to them, ranging from piano tunes that accompany the piano theater to banjo tunes that accompany the Southern-Style Boss Ghost in the basement! The familiar jingles of the Luigi’s Mansion theme are hidden all throughout the different rooms too!

Without going into too much detail about all of the floors, just know that each of them are very unique and hold a lot of secrets within! Each of the Boss Ghosts have their own gimmick or puzzle that you’ll have to figure out in order to beat them – and some of those puzzles were pretty tough! Stay tuned to the very near future where we go over the full review of Luigi’s Mansion.