Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon - Review

I was excited when I bought this game; It appeared to have great graphics and fun puzzles that are different each time. Let me tell you: this is not true. Though the game was fun, the image was pixelated by trying to create an image similar to HD, and looked stretched. The puzzles were repetitive; each mansion varied, but the puzzles were easy. Some were difficult, but after a brief moment to think of the limited things you can do with the Poltergust, it was simple to solve the puzzle. I was disappointed by the game, overall.

An image of Luigi walking in on a ghost filled room.

The story was lacking; in fact, there barely was one. The professor tells Luigi that, while studying in peace with the ghosts, they went wild. He believes that it was because a more powerful ghost (which is shown to be King Boo) destroyed the Dark Moon gem, which kept the ghosts peaceful. other than this, the story is just to go to each mansion and recover the Dark Moon pieces from each.

The puzzles were at first, amazing. The first mansion sported the best designs and tricks, but the second, and third, and so on were boring. Collecting the hidden Boos in each stage made me feel accomplished, and redoing missions to get three stars and collecting hidden jewels was also fun, but I cannot stress enough that the first mansion was the only enjoyable series of levels.

Multiplayer was enjoyable, but like the rest of the game, repetitive. There were few options of playstyle. One was finding the exit, one was tracking down Polterpups, which were ghost dogs, and one was getting all of the ghosts in a tine limit. Each was bland and boring after the first play, and the only other varying option was the amount of floors you play through.

The first boss fight was a long, vacant tunnel, and after taking a few steps, a large spider appears. You need to use fire and burn the spider’s web three times to hurt it, and then the fourth time, it will die. It may sound simple, but it was great. First, you must light the web on a torch hanging off of a knight. Then, spin a chandelier with the Poltergust until it hits a piece of the web. Finally, drag a piece of the web down the long hallway to a torch and light it again, and defend it as you bring it down the hallway to light the web again.

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Overall, this game was a disappointment. It was repetitive, and you could have an equal amount of fun if you only downloaded the demo. On the 3DS, this game felt uncomfortable, but maybe it would have succeeded on the WiiU. Some gaming magazines have compared it to the legend of Zelda, but let me be the first to say that Luigi’s Mansion is nothing compared to The Legend of Zelda. This game deserves the 6.5/10 that I am giving it. It is enjoyable for maybe a week or two, but with the other games on the market like Fire Emblem: Awakening, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pikmin 3, and more on the horizon.