Luigi has had a tough few decades. Not only has he had to live in the shadow of his brother Mario, but he's had to fight alongside him to rid the world of evil at every opportunity. This proves harder for Luigi than it does for his older sibling, as he can be quite the cowardly figure. Still, that hasn't stopped him from working his way into the hearts of millions of gamers across the globe. So, when it was revealed he would finally make a return to the front of his own series, with Luigi's Mansion 3, audiences were incredibly excited to see just what would happen next.
Players join Luigi following receipt of an invitation to go and stay in a luxury hotel. Joining him are his brother Mario, Princess Peach and a group of Toad friends, along with his pet ghost dog, Polterpup. With excitement in the air, and rest and relaxation on the schedule, Luigi soon discovers that he and his friends have been tricked into yet another haunted mansion, with a whole score of floors to explore.
King Boo has been released from his prison by the hotel's ghostly owner, Hellen Gravely, and it's up to Luigi to get him locked away once more. With the power to trap Luigi's pals inside picture frames however, that's going to prove tougher than ever before.
The horror genre is one that goes from strength to strength via a number of different mediums, with video game horror no doubt leading the pack. When it comes to creating something spooky, but accessible for the entire family however, it proves to be a little trickier than the rest. Fortunately, Nintendo have done an impeccable job of doing just that.
Tasked with collecting elevator buttons from a series of ghostly boss fights, Luigi must traverse his way through the hotel's floors and take down the spectres he comes up against. Though the progress is linear at times, this is the most open of settings Luigi has been allowed; players are able to travel to whichever floor they like a lot of the time, and so can enjoy the specific themes of each in an order to their pleasing. The disco floor was a personal favourite.
Luigi's equipped with his trusty ghost vacuum, which has a number of unique abilities. It can suck up enemies and collectibles, but also push them and objects out of the way. There's a mini jump feature enabled which can take some adversaries by surprise, and a whole bunch of add-ons including one which allows Luigi to pull coins, gems and friends out of the magical portraits they're trapped in.
Then there's the introduction of Gooigi, who can be used to get into all of the nooks and crannies that Luigi cannot squeeze through. Developers have done a brilliant job of scattering puzzles throughout all of the hotel's floors, encouraging players to come back time and again if they're looking to complete every aspect of the game. Gooigi is a huge part of many of these puzzles, proving to be more than just a gimmicky addition.
Local co-op allows for gamers to work through the entire campaign mode together, whilst there are also eight-player ScareScraper and ScreamPark modes available. They're fun, but an afterthought. If you want to get the most out of this game, you'll be sticking to the story for countless hours.
Charming throughout and particularly tricky at times, Luigi's Mansion 3 is as close to perfection as a game of this type can get. The wait has certainly been worth the while.
Luigi's Mansion 3 is available now, exclusively on Nintendo Switch. A review code was provided to Female First in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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