Insomnia Gaming Festival – Preview
Replaying Luigi’s Mansion & Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon recently has showcased how incredible of a job Nintendo did with this unique series, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 is no different. Within a few minutes of the demo it was clear how much love has been poured into this property and enough new mechanics to create a world begging to be explored. With every room packed bursting with secrets and collectibles, this is one that you will want to test to its limits.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 features Gooigi, a green gooey version of Luigi who can access areas which are normally inaccessible. From the press of a thumbstick, the two separate and you can control Gooigi to navigate the environment to be able to create paths for Luigi to advance or discover many secrets that could easily go unnoticed. One puzzle involved a lift which had to be manned by both characters to traverse further into the level, another consisted of using Gooigi to manoeuvre through some spikes to clear a passage for Luigi to pass through. These small challenges create inventive uses of the level and it will be interesting to see how they are utilized in the main game.
Luigi also packs a plunger, which he can fire onto walls or enemies, and use his series regular vacuum to open new pathways. Most of these instances can only be found through some visual clues in the environment and will require an eagle-eyed perception to discover. One room used brick wall in the background to hide a plethora of coins, which was only indicated by a slight difference in colour. After shooting Luigi’s plunger onto the wall, you can use his vacuum to suck and pull on the plunger, thus removing the bricks from the wall and revealing whatever secrets lie within. With each level bulging with playful ways to interact, it makes replaying levels a massive incentive.
Within the short demo, a wide array of enemies were thrown our way, causing us to use all of Luigi’s abilities before reaching a crescendo at the boss battle which forces the player to use everything that has been taught so far to perfectly counteract and combat the challenge. Utilizing some of Luigi’s new abilities such as the plunger, you can fire one onto an enemy shield before using the vacuum to rip the shield away and engage in combat. You can use the vacuum to slam enemies around instead of merely sucking them up. This ensures there’s visceral excitement to encounters and a satisfying engagement to the fight.
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon on the Nintendo 3DS failed to push the series forward massively, but it’s clear that this is a sequel that has taken a lot of time to cook and the long wait has serviced to marinate the experience in pure joy. This looks to be the finest entry in the series so far and the new abilities add a refreshing spin on to the unique gameplay that already resided within. Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a clear example of a game delivering in enhancing itself and is looking to be one of the Nintendo Switch’s best exclusives to date.
What's your reaction?
