‘Luigi’s Mansion 3’ is a maddening delight: Review

The following contains mild spoilers for Luigi’s Mansion 3. 

Luigi’s Mansion 3 could have been a major letdown. 

With my Switch Lite in hand and Polterpup at my side, I began my playthrough feeling very eager but prepared for disappointment. Of course, it’s one of the most hyped releases of the year, and I wanted to be dazzled. I’d seen the trailers, loved the demo at E3, and had my Gooigi Halloween costume all but completed. But I worried: How could any game be as good as I wanted this one to be? 

While I can’t answer how Nintendo made this happen — other than saying, “Well, it’s Nintendo” — I can confirm that Luigi’s Mansion 3 is just as good as we had hoped. Arguably, it’s even better. 

Meticulously crafted and incommunicably fun, Luigi’s third adventure in ghostbusting takes us to the haunted, 17-level Last Resort Hotel. Mario, Princess Peach, and three Toads have been kidnapped by King Boo and his phantasmic accomplices, and the portraits that imprison them are scattered throughout the building. With the help of E. Gadd and the Poltergust G-00 (essentially a ghost-collecting vacuum) Luigi must wander the halls of the hotel to find his friends and save the day.

That’s pretty standard action-adventure stuff. Less standard are the hyper-interactive environments and hyper-satisfying gameplay through which Luigi’s adventure takes place. 

Each level comes with its own theme, ranging from a standard hotel lobby and complementary gym to a medieval jousting arena, pirate ship, and ancient Egyptian pyramids. Within those levels, Luigi is able to use the Poltergust in a variety of ways, including suction-cupping items with a plunger, pushing ghosts back with a gigantic “burst” of air, and slamming ghosts into walls once grabbed by the tail. 

From quivering in fear to whispering “Maaariiioooooo,” each moment with this unlikely hero is endearing and immersive.

The standard suck-in and blow-out functions can also be paired with specific elements of the environment to solve levels and beat bosses, meaning new playstyles are not only routinely available but essential to advancing the story. 

You’ll propel yourself down a rushing river, launch watermelons at your foes, and suck up a full-blown power-saw to wield for pure destruction. (Cut the bed in half. It’s awesome.) 

Luigi’s also got a magic flashlight, capable of stunning his ghostly assailants and revealing hidden secrets. As a result, even the most “boring” hallways are packed with things to poke and stuff to discover. In Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, it was normal to find objects that couldn’t be interacted with, or open cabinet after cabinet to find nothing inside. 

In Luigi’s Mansion 3, if you think you should be able to touch something, then you probably can. Rugs, curtains, paintings, record players, telephones, water fountains: None of it is set dressing. In fact, it may be the key to the problem at hand. And if you don’t see the answer in front you, then try the flashlight. That what it’s there for.

These captivating environments make loving Luigi — practically an international pastime at this point — all the more rewarding. From quivering in fear to whispering “Maaariiioooooo,” each moment with this unlikely hero is endearing and immersive. You’re on this journey together. Just you, him, E. Gadd, Polterpup, and Gooigi, Luigi’s slimy double sent straight from gelatinous heaven.

Courtesy of E. Gadd, Gooigi is a tactical advancement that allows players to not only work co-op style puzzles single-handedly — or solve them as a team in proper co-op mode — but also outsmart some of the hotel’s trickier threats. You just release/poop out your gooey doppelgänger, and he’ll slide through grates, vents, and spikes to reach things Luigi can’t on his own. 

Since Gooigi will respawn infinitely, you can also send him ahead to neutralize obstacles, and preserve Luigi’s limited life force. He’ll even beat a swarm of bats off of Luigi in a pinch. You just can’t get him wet, or he’ll melt into a sad puddle and need to be reconfigured.

The kind of hand-cramping fun that sentences like “Just one more minute!” and “Right after this!” are made for.

Other characters‚ like hotel owner Helen Gravely, the absolute menace that is Polterkitty, and countless ghostly bosses, provide similarly rich interactions. There’s a possessed T-Rex with a bone to pick, a ghostly hip-hop troupe, and an asshole volleyball player who I personally despise so deeply that just writing about him makes me want to scream.

Like Gooigi, these supporting players ooze personality. One ghost, found on Level 8, even has a tragic backstory that’ll force you into a surprising moral conundrum. (Feel free to DM me if you want to talk about this one. I’m still processing.) 

Add on top of that the ScareScraper and ScreamPark — where up to eight players can compete against each other or participate in mini-games — and you’ve got a pretty spectacular experience. There’s a ton to do, and nearly all of it is worth doing. It’s the kind of hand-cramping fun that sentences like “Just one more minute!” and “Right after this!” are made for.

That said, with a game as intricate as this, there are bound to be some issues. More often that not, these hit my playthrough in the form of me overthinking a simple solution for an inordinate amount of time or somehow managing my way into an actual design flaw. 

In one instance, during the Level 10 “Tomb Suites,” I got stuck trying to advance the game with nothing but a seemingly interact-able statue in front of me. But it was doing nothing, and I was out of ideas. After smashing buttons for about 25 minutes, I realized that the action needed — just pressing “X” — could only be done by Luigi, rather than Gooigi who I was currently embodying, all thanks to an associated cut scene. This rule applied nowhere else in the game.

Another time, during a boss fight in the Level 7 “Garden Suites,” the camera inexplicably pointed upwards, leaving my battle entirely out of frame. As a result, I had to either reload from my last autosave or defeat my foe without seeing him or Luigi. (I chose the former.)  

The times I really needed assistance, the tips were categorically useless.

These dead ends were immensely frustrating, particularly with the E. Gadd hotline available. Supposedly, the feature — part of a cell-phone like device called the Virtual Boo — should have aided me when I was in a jam and hints were warranted. Unfortunately, the times I really needed assistance, the tips were categorically useless, essentially telling me to not doubt myself when my self-confidence wasn’t the issue.

I also had minor gripes with the controls on the secret-revealing flashlight — on the Switch Lite, shining the flashlight while aiming is an all right-sided affair and consequently very uncomfortable — as well as the volume of Luigi’s health-warning heartbeat. 

As soon as Luigi reaches low health in battle, the incessant blaring of his “You’ll die soon” heart monitor is so loud that it becomes impossible to focus. It’s at its worst when facing bosses that employ puzzles. You’ll need to move slowly and cautiously, often with limited risk of perishing, but the death sounds can be so irritating you’ll just want to give up and start over. 

After this happened a handful of times, I started muting the game whenever I was near death. It worked fine, but I missed hearing the sound effects and music.

Those irritations aside, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is an excellent playing experience.

From the first signs of trouble to one truly magnificent finale, I enjoyed nearly every moment of my stay at the Last Resort Hotel. One playthrough, with moderate levels of money gathering and gem collecting, took me a little over 15 hours, and I’ll definitely be going back for more. 

With so much to discover and do, I didn’t mind getting lost in Luigi’s accommodations from hell. I’m certain there are ghosts I have yet to find, puzzles I have yet to crack, and secrets worth sussing out. Plus, I want to beat that volleyball player again. (He is, and I can’t stress this enough, an absolute asshole.) 

As satisfying as popping bubble wrap and as cute as Kirby, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is everything we wanted. You’ll laugh, you’ll scream, and you’ll vacuum to your heart’s content — all around Halloween no less. Happy haunting! 

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is available on Nintendo Switch Oct. 31.