We face the third part of a saga that is consolidated as one of the labels with more personality and entity of Nintendo.
When Luigi’s Mansion arrived at the stores on the occasion of the launch of GameCube, back in 2001, Nintendo opted to develop an adventure around a very clear idea, different from what we were used to with the plumber in red. A remarkable approach to another genre, at another rate; a different way to play and establish contact with the environment. Next Level Games picked up the witness on Nintendo 3DS in 2013 with an even better product in many ways, more versatile, more personal. Now, after completing Luigi’s Mansion 3, we realize that this idea has reached the level of maturity it needed to complete that concept, an essential video game for any Nintendo Switch player.
Direct to the Nintendo Switch podium
Because the virtues are many in this installment. The premise is clear: Luigi, Mario, Peach and Toad arrive at a hotel to rest in an apparent tranquility; vacations where thinking is the last thing that comes to mind, but a series of events end up turning this huge building into an enchanted mansion where ghosts populate in every corner. Start again.
Welcome to the Hotel Gritz
From the first stages of the adventure, it is clear that this is not an intermediate production, that it is not a title that comes to cover a gap in the calendar; It is not closet bottom. Luigi’s Mansion 3 arrives on Nintendo Switch with the intention of rubbing shoulders with the biggest, an affirmation that could seem even grandiloquent if we see a couple of trailers or if we think that this is only an evolution of the second part. The reality is very different. This third iteration of the saga is a quantitative leap, also qualitative, which takes the search for excellence as a flag and manages, in almost the whole process, to raise the bar where only a couple of names had done so during the last years in the Japanese house.
Revealing surprises would be a mistake on our part in this Reviews. We don't want you to know what happens on floor 8, nor on floor 12; not even in silver 2, because all of them are different from each other. From the lobby to the same elevator, the recesses and the locations that can come to our head when we think of a hotel: everything is represented in the Hotel Gritz, the name to which the place responds. We are told little stories, sometimes autoconclusive, where we are spectators and participants in the expertise of the everlasting Player 2.
Technical roof: no Nintendo Switch game looks like Luigi's Mansion 3
And it is perhaps that incoherent touch, the lack of cohesion in many of the things that happen on each floor, which ends up defining the title as such a special experience, for making the exceptional something habitual. Next Level Games has designed the game with great courage, calculating how to teach the player each mechanic and when to do it. The difficulty curve is therefore very correct, although the challenge is not as high as we would have liked. In the whole adventure, which has lasted us in the first game about 13 hours for another 11 hours in the second (with the road more well learned), we have barely died three or four times.
Luckily, the game does not base its challenge on difficulty but on the eagerness for discovery. The Hotel Gritz hides half a dozen jewels on each floor, some concealed in positions that seem to be raged, but intensifies the approach of the title to the interactive, to the experimental and, if you want, to the point and click.
Because additions such as the suction cup (Chupoun) or the Propeller, not to mention Gomiluigi – of whom we will detail everything later -, they are not limited to being a key that allows certain obstacles to be overcome in the scenarios: they are not a mechanic reserved for resolution of puzzles, they are another option to experiment with. We remember a situation where we had a giant watermelon that was screaming to be destroyed in a thousand pieces. The game allows you to do two things: shake it and dye it all red or, if you prefer, take the suction cup to drag it to that bathtub at the bottom of the room and hit it to destroy both. Have you seen the result?
You can pet the dog
Next Level Games wants you to break, to look under the table, to swallow that pile of dresses hidden in a closet and to expel air to those perfectly neat bottles in a cellar: something always happens.
Action, experimentation, puzzles, platform: versatility
Professor Fesor tells us at the beginning of the adventure: very rare things happen here. Its name and lines of dialogue make clear the level of location of the video game, which lends itself to reading each and every one of the conversations for its friendly sense of humor and the eccentric ideas that go through its head. Sometimes it is something redundant and intervenes in excess in the game to advise or guide us. The tracks can be activated and deactivated, but we would have appreciated a more autonomous journey.
However, the rhythm does not fall in any moment of the game: it always goes to more. There is a certain point in the final stretch where the structure to which we have become accustomed, of going from floor to floor, is broken on purpose, and the game dares to be almost a metroidvania. The result fits because it tests our photographic memory and the ability to reuse environments already visited.
You tell me or you tell me
Luigi’s Mansion 3 has some of the best final bosses that Nintendo has designed in the last fifteen years. If we draw the launch of Super Mario Galaxy (2007, Wii) as a border, there are few titles of the Japanese factory that have been able to include heads of end of the area with both atino and personality. Luigi’s Mansion 2 failed; even Super Mario Odyssey failed to reach those levels of excellence in these enemies, not as memorable as the game itself; but this time we have a couple of names that we cannot forget. It is in those moments where Next Level Games unravels and raises the bar to the point of asking if the whole game is going to be like that. Those bright final bosses arrive, surely, too soon because, although the taste produced by each final plant manager responds to subjective criteria, the truth is that there are moments of the second part, prior outcome, that are not at that level. Scary. There are parts where the work seems to be, literally, a movie, but we prefer that it is you who discover what is hidden behind the curtain.
When all the puzzle pieces fit together
The design of the levels would not be possible without Gomiluigi, which we already knew in the adaptation of the first Luigi’s Mansion for Nintendo 3DS. We can activate it at all times to live the adventure in a cooperative way from beginning to end, because this option is not so much an addition but an element contemplated on paper; All levels are ready to play cooperatively. The difference between the Luigi of meat and bone and this one of green rubber is that it can cross cells, surfaces with spikes or enter pipes. It has a defect: it can't get wet. And therein lies the grace of its existence, it is vulnerable and has as many advantages as disadvantages. We thought that using Luigi and Gomiluigi at the same time (which we already warned, it happens a few times) was going to hinder the playable comfort alone, but it is not, luckily. The local cooperative mode does not split the screen in two because each adopts a role on the stage. While one spits air at a fan, the other climbs into a kind of elevator to climb to the top of the place, find the key, etc.
Little by little we see that the task entrusted by Fesor, which is none other than recovering all the elevator buttons and reaching the top of the Hotel Gritz, grows and becomes complex. As we move forward, Luigi has more functions – one of them somewhat superheroic – mechanics that take advantage both to overcome some phases and to discover patterns of weakness of certain types of ghosts. The shake is the jewel in the crown: absorb to the point where you can start a combo. You have to measure the timing, but if we do it right we can give up to four impacts against the ground. And yes, it is very rewarding, although Luigi's face does not show any enjoyment in the process.
It is a pity that has not been used to include even more types of enemies, everything is said. Blue ghosts abound, perhaps in excess, throughout the adventure, with a really simple and conservative pattern system. Although the variety of enemies is superior to the previous two installments, we believe that some more effort in this regard would have been appreciated in the face of the final stretch of the adventure. Because it is precisely the nature of the trip that is changing on each floor; it becomes more unpredictable and fortuitous, but in many cases those enemies remain the same if we compare it with everything that happens around us. Luckily, many of the final area chiefs are as original as they are crazy, they compensate for this small weakness, which luckily is not so accusative as to overshadow the whole.
Each plant is unpredictable, and now what?
Rub your eyes: it looks spectacular
All this would not be so enjoyable without a technical section that lives up to what we have found. As usual, neither a trailer nor a demonstration at a fair represents the quality of the final product. Throughout this generation we have found cases that give for pages and pages of comments on forums: that if downgrade, that if upgrade … Luigi’s Mansion 3 is one of the seconds.
Since it was revealed in a Nintendo Direct back in September 2018 until E3 2019 there was an improvement, but now that we have been able to test it on different monitors, televisions and in the portable mode of the console we can say that it is the video game with the best section console graphic. Either because the internal studios or adhered to Nintendo are finding themselves more comfortable with the console hardware, or because they are dominating the graphic engine more, the game performs and looks better than Super Mario Odyssey.
Nintendo Switch is not a technical wonder in relation to other domestic systems of the present generation, but the artistic style of this title reduces that possible defect with a lighting system that makes you frown for its pleasant result. The details soak the TV screen with dust particles, spider webs or the trail of objects that move around us. The flashlight shows how the stage reacts to white light. Depending on where we focus, things will be clearer, but also sharper and more detailed, with even changes in hue. Luigi's suit is not always the same green color, nor the color of the carpets. The color palette is, in general, very detailed. Again, elements that are in tune with the degree of obsession of the game for detail, because adventure is a constant detail.
The animations deserve a separate mention. Luigi doesn't need to talk to tell us what's going on. Just look him in the face to see his dozens of facial expressions, which is difficult to identify when they are repeated; their nonverbal language, with gestures that convey fear, fear, cold, heat or restlessness. But Luigi goes ahead and reopens another door, makes a doorknob sound again, what awaits us behind that door? Magic is not lost in a single moment.
For those who ask, the game looks at 1080p resolution on TV locked at 30 FPS. Falls are an anomaly, especially at times that intersect with passages where the adjacent area is loaded, but they are very specific moments. The adventure does not falter, there are no jerks, no bugs; The game is over and finished off. For the realization of this Reviews we have also been able to play in portable mode both in an original Nintendo Switch model (6.2 ”screen) and in one of the Nintendo Switch Lite, the family's only portable solution (5 screen, 5"). In both cases we have completed a few hours with more than satisfactory results in both the gaming and technical experience.
Professor Fesor, once again, carries the humorous burden with success
On the one hand, the resolution is always 720p, and it shows. In recent times we have seen ports – even in native Nintendo games – where the resolution in portable mode did not reach high definition, but here the aspect ratio and the frames per pixel shine as few. It is especially notable in the original model, whose screen diagonal is large enough not to lose nuances. If you are one of those who do not usually put your console in the dock, we must say that the gameplay does not suffer in any way, although it is true that we recommend more play this adventure on the TV: it lends itself to be seen in a panel as large as possible to win in visual coverage. In Nintendo Switch Lite, despite its dimensions, neither definition nor nuances are lost; even the font of the letter has a readable size – see cases like Dragon Quest Builders 2 or Fire Emblem: Three Houses. In this case everything has been taken into account and it is appreciated. Again, we believe that this option is the least recommended of all.
Luigi and Gomiluigi, a couple that works
At the sound level there is nothing but good words, with classical music compositions going through more intense ones accompanied by electric instruments. The style is very varied, although it is true that we are missing some more memorable themes, of those that just by listening to them make us immediately come to the head's name. The sound direction, meanwhile, does reach the expected level and is very important for immersion in the game. Playing with headphones is highly recommended in this case, especially to identify the position of some enemies and feel inside each room. The variety of sound resources is immense, with winks even to other Nintendo series. The number of references, starting with the previous two deliveries of Luigi’s Mansion, will make a smile. Again, it is Luigi who stands out the most.
Sharing scares here and there
What we did not think would give us so many hours of entertainment is the multiplayer mode, as varied as cooperative … and competitive. Who expected that the multiplayer solution was going to be as limited as that of the second part is wrong, if he really knew little by little what was offered with Luigi’s Mansion 2. Luigi vs. Luigi is the name that receives the local competitive mode; a name that truly lives up to its name. As a summary, we find three aspects: Pescamonedas (win the one that gets more coins in small scenarios but full of obstacles); Ghostbusters (the one who gets the most points through the absorption of ghosts, each with a different value) wins; and finally, Disparacañones (where we have to worry about taking the bullets to load the cannon before opening fire). Without a doubt, the one that we liked the most is Atrapafantasmas, although it is really the one that you gave less than we lived in the individual adventure … but it is a formula that works perfectly and that demonstrates, once again, that Luigi's Mansion 3 is Pure talent. In all of us we can play up to eight people locally.
The worked lighting favors the feeling of immersion.
The Tower of Challenges is the other multiplayer side, although it can also be played alone. In this case we have both local and online, with quite satisfactory results in the latter case – although we have only been able to play a few games since the servers were somewhat limited in terms of participation. Not a single fall, nor lag; a performance that is quite reminiscent of Splatoon 2, which is surely the online title of Nintendo Switch that best handles both matchmaking and the stability of its servers. The Tower of Challenges can be a real hell alone because of the time we are given to complete each level, which is based on finding the ghost in question through rooms specially designed for the occasion. If we are more people it is easier to cooperate and meet the objective. It is fun and invites to use verbal communication.
In no case the multiplayer mode is the highlight of the title, but it is a remarkable way to extend the life of the game both alone and if friends come home.
We have performed this Reviews through a download code provided by Nintendo Spain for Nintendo Switch.
We wait for you back
CONCLUSION
Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a tribute to the figure of Luigi, an adventure that encompasses the character and celebrates the consummation of an idea born eighteen years ago. It's not just the best installment of the saga, it's one of the best Nintendo Switch video games. Level design, use of resources, variety of situations and final bosses that leave the bar very high are just some of the elements that allow this video game to be defined as an excellent work. Leaving aside its low difficulty, both its replayability and the enjoyment of each and every one of the floors of the hotel make it impossible not to recommend a game that is located, de facto, on the console podium. Luigi stomps back; He does it with a title that is a declaration of intent: it is not the end of a trilogy, it is the beginning of a saga that can continue to be explored for many years. Everything goes in Luigi’s Mansion 3, and the result is memorable.
THE BEST
- Level design: surprising, unpredictable and imaginative.
- Graphically it is the technical roof of Nintendo Switch.
- Some final bosses, the best in Nintendo in many years.
- Rejugabilidad, amount of surprises and collectibles.
WORST
- Certain types of ghosts are somewhat redundant.
- The difficulty, somewhat low as a rule.
Excellent
A benchmark title in its genre, which stands out above its competitors and that you will enjoy from beginning to end, surely several times. A game destined to become a classic over the years.
