By Sam Coles:
In 2001 Nintendo released the GameCube; a console while good
struggled to find a market with gamers.
For one it probably didn’t help that it
used tiny discs which could barely hold 1gb of space, compare to the PS2 and
Xbox’s DVD format that could hold over 7gb. However the console housed a lot of
great and unique games, Luigi’s Mansion was one of those games. Luigi’s Mansion
was met with hostility initially due to it not being a traditional Mario game;
however it was a fun and silly spooky horror game although it was not scary and
was more like a child version of Resident Evil. 17 years later Nintendo have
remastered it for a portable console, and it is mind boggling how I can play a
console game in the palm of my hands. How does it hold up? Fine although it
does have some control issues, let’s get into it.
You step into the shoes of the green clothed titular
plumber, but this time Luigi is not saving the princess with his brother Mario,
instead he has won a mansion in the lottery. However this turns out to be a
ruse, where Luigi goes to meet Mario but it turns out that he has been
kidnapped by King Boo who is well…. King of the Boos. The mansion is flooded
with all manners of super natural entities, and Luigi must deal with them with
the Poltergust 3000, which is a vacuum cleaner. The game’s story is great it
does not take itself seriously, plus Luigi’s cowardly personality really stands
out in this game as he hums nervously down the dimly lit corridors.
Gameplay consists of exploring, light puzzle solving and
combat, you explore the mansion looking for keys, money and objects of interest
that will lead you to find Mario. The puzzles are not anything too taxing on
the brain; it merely comes down to using the correct elemental medallion on certain
enemies or doing certain things in a specific order. You have to bear in mind
that this game is aimed at children first and foremost, so the puzzles are not
going to be enigma code levels of complexity.
Combat is where things start to feel a bit clunky and this
is due to me playing this game on an original 3DS from 2011. Luigi’s Mansion on
the GameCube relied on a dual analogue stick control scheme, the original 3DS
lacks a second stick but it does try different schemes to help improve the
situation such as gyroscopic movement. This however was a real pain in the
backside because I would find Luigi staring at the ceiling, because I would
readjust to get comfortable and my 3DS would register that as movement. I found
myself getting very frustrated in some combat scenarios, especially when I was
ambushed by ghosts from either side as I could not swing around with ease due
to the lack of a second analogue stick. I would recommend playing it on a New
3DS as that has a second stick.
The game has been given a new coat of paint when it comes to
graphical fidelity, with Luigi’s character model looking cleaner and smoother
instead of the blurry look of the GameCube original. However there are some
graphical features missing in this version of the game, there are certain smoke
and fog effects not present I expect this is to keep it at a stable framerate.
This doesn’t overshadow the experience, as you will only notice it if you own
the original game like myself.
Overall it was fun to revisit this classic in a portable
environment, if you told me 17 years ago if you could play a game like Luigi’s
Mansion on the go I would have laughed. It is astonishing what type of games we
can play in the palm of our hands these days. Luigi’s Mansion is still a
charming and fun adventure; despite some of the control issues which I got use
to eventually it is a very enjoyable game.
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