Video Game Series Review: Luigi's Mansion

Since we first saw Mario's brother in action, he's never really had a big role in them. Until now where he must be brave as he goes all Ghostbusters on us in his dedicated video game series, Luigi's Mansion. Now before I begin, I've never actually played the original game on Gamecube and (as I've said in previous reviews) likely never will, so the review for that game will be based on the footage I've seen, whereas with the sequel, I have played that and have done enough to do a review of it, so will Luigi's ghostly outing give him the love and attention that he deserves? Let's find out:

Luigi's Mansion

Luigi's first outing begins with him winning a contest that he never entered and has his brother meet him at the place where this contest took place, a haunted mansion. Mario arrives, but then goes missing, so it's up to Luigi to find him, with the help of a professor by the name Elvin Gadd who since this game, has become a somewhat regular character in the Mario games (the majority of them at least anyway). He equips Luigi with his invention, the Poltergeist 3000 which is a vacuum cleaner that can suck up ghosts and a Game Boy Horror (this is a fictional device so don't try and find it because it doesn't exist in reality) which he uses to communicate with him. The gameplay is very straight forward as you can capture ghosts by flashing your torch on them which will stun them and then use the sucking function of the vacuum to capture them (as such, you'll have to wait a while as the hit points of the ghost have to be reduced as you suck them in). There's also some collectibles that can be acquired during the course of the game. Over the course of the game, the ghosts will be harder to suck up as you may have to upgrade the device, or do certain tasks to capture them. For the most part, you'll be exploring the mansion, looking for ghosts and freeing the mansion from these ghosts. Overall, while I haven't played the game, it looks like a lot of fun that I'm sure anyone will enjoy and it's also a great idea to have Luigi be the main protagonist instead of Mario which is something that all of us Mario fans have been waiting for a while to happen and I think we're all satisfied with the result. 8/10

Dark Moon

The game is basically the same scenario as before but is much more bigger and longer than the first. As the title suggests, Luigi is tasked with rebuilding the Dark Moon which the main antagonist of the last game has destroyed, causing all the ghosts in the region called Evershade Valley (which the Dark Moon hovers around) to go hostile. Unlike before, you get to explore four mansions instead of one this time and there's a number of new gizmos for Luigi's new(ish) devices, the Poltergeist 5000 and a DS (later dubbed Dual Scream) which are used for the same reasons as before. The game is more puzzle orientated than before and I think for the most part, you will get lost and get very confused (yeah, it's that hard). The game also has a online mode called "ScareScrapper" which is a co-operative mode in which up to four players (each with a different coloured Luigi) must complete puzzles to proceed in the game. Overall, the game is great and does what a sequel should do which is to be better than the first and despite the difficulty and lack of checkpoints in the game, its otherwise a great game that surpasses its predecessor. 9/10

So with Luigi in the spotlight instead of Mario, does it all work? Yes it does for all the right reasons. They are both great games (despite that I never played the first) that any fan of Luigi will love and it definitely tells us that the Year of Luigi is in full swing and is something that Nintendo have been wanting to do for a very long time. Just hope that it all goes well for both Luigi and Nintendo. 9/10