Welcome to our review of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, a game that requires me to invent a new award, Remake of the Year.
The magical Dark Moon that hangs over Evershade Valley seems to calm the ghosts that live there. But when it suddenly breaks apart, the once-friendly ghosts become unruly! Luigi must stumble into action and find his courage to restore the Dark Moon to its rightful place in the sky. Sounds like a job for Luigi! Follow leads across a neighborhood of haunted mansions to find the missing shards of the Dark Moon. With a little help from Professor E. Gadd, you can pixelate from his bunker to your destination and get started! (Luigi will…probably be OK on the other side.)
Each mansion has a distinct vibe and tricky puzzles to solve. You’ll have to use your noodle to find your way through. Eek! They’re everywhere! Stun ‘em and suck ‘em up to defeat them. Use the awesome air-blasting abilities of the Poltergust 5000 to turn every room upside down and build your fortune. Spend it on equipment upgrades and stuff! Explore every nook and cranny of these haunted mansions to find the Dark Moon shards.
The first stop on Luigi’s haunted-house tour. Professor E. Gadd had been observing the ghosts living in Gloomy Manor when, suddenly, the Dark Moon broke into pieces. Second are the Haunted Towers. These remarkable towers are built around a colossal tree. The original owners had a liking for gardening and exotic plants, which are now growing out of control. The Old Clockworks are next: this factory once produced the world’s finest clocks and time-measurement devices. Readings indicate a Dark Moon shard rests at the top of the Clock Tower. And last but not least, the secret mines….
When I originally played this game on 3DS, I felt very nostalgic. I loved the original game on the GameCube and well, I think Luigi’s Mansion may be the best spin-off series ever made. Having played and replayed the first game in its remake on 3DS, I must say I was pleasantly surprised when Nintendo announced this remake for the second game, coming to Nintendo Switch and well, it triggered me to replay the third game as well.
And that has proven to be very valuable. I found a lot of similarities between both and even though the second game is a little easier and not so elaborate, I just love what they did to the game. From playing on the tiny thumb sliders from the 3DS to now full-blown pro controllers, this game literally leveled up just by being able to play on a normal controller and I say that as someone who owns a full set of 3DS games. Graphically this game has pretty much become the counterpart to the third game and it is just so great to see a game I once played in bits and bytes now in full glory of 3D.
In all honesty, this game was already the perfect story, now being upgraded to the latest console and hopefully soon to the Switch successor, which should happen. If anything, we also need the first game to be ported now in a perfect trilogy style. But yeah, I mean, this game was already amazing back in the day and just the pure joy of being able to play it on a TV now, is a fanboy his biggest dream come true.
From the start on, getting your Poltergust, getting your upgrades, … It all just flows from 1 chapter into the next. This is what I always loved about Nintendo-made games, they are just so polished. And as much as this game is easier and less complicated than the third game, it still is a perfect rendition of this already amazing game.
I recently had this conversation with some friends, there are remakes that stay true to the original and there are those that end up ruining things. I strongly believe in this theory and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is the example of the perfect remake and we should introduce the Remake of the Year award just to show how great this game is and has been made once again.
In conclusion, a score that will surprise nobody…
