We spent some hands-on time today with Luigi’s Mansion 2 for the Nintendo 3DS and came away impressed.
The controls take a few moments of adjustment, but once you’ve got them down, the game works quite well. Essentially, you are using the circle pad to move, L and R to blow/suck up ghosts (respectively), and the X and B buttons to tilt the vacuum up and down when using it (when not using it, B actually causes Luigi to run instead).
Like the first game, there are plenty of elements of the environment which can be influenced by your vacuum. This doesn’t just include ghosts—which are obviously the focus of the game—but extends to many other things as well, such as curtains, tablecloths, rugs, lighting fixtures and furniture, and tons of other random surprises. Interacting with your environments to uncover hidden stashes of coins and dollars is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of the experience.
And, of course, it’s also the primary key to progression, as (appropriately enough) you are often tasked with finding keys of various sorts to move forward. Plenty of other obstacles apply as well, such as traps and any number of dangerous ghosts.
Vacuuming said ghosts is mostly reasonable as well. It’s meant to be a little bit of a challenge in many cases, and as such, you’ll once again find the ghosts dragging you around the room once they’re entrapped in your airstream, hoping to throw you off. They’ll crash you into furniture and just generally do their best to escape your grip.
Overall, the game left me with a positive impression. I really enjoyed the first entry in the series way back in 2001, but I felt like it needed more. From the look/sound of it, that’s precisely what Luigi’s Mansion 2 seeks to provide. It’s got multiple mansions and varied environments, and the music and visuals convey a colorful atmosphere which works well to suck the player into the game world. Fans of the first are sure to be pleased with this one if it shapes up the way it seems to be coming.