Review: LUIGI’S MANSION 2 HD is a fun HD port

A couple of weeks ago, Nintendo launched Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. This is a “visually enhanced HD” version of the 3DS game for the Nintendo Switch. You take on the role of Luigi as he is tasked by Professor E. Gadd to help reclaim his home from a variety of ghosts.

Nintendo was kind enough to provide me with a digital code for the purposes of this review, but all thoughts below are my own. If you want to play it, you can purchase your copy from your favorite retailers, including GameStop (affiliate link) and Humble Store (affiliate link).

Explore numerous haunted mansions with Luigi and his ghost hunter Poltergust 5000

Progress through multiple missions to recover the missing Black Moon fragments scattered across several distinct haunted mansions, each with their own puzzles to solve and ghosts to catch. Earn a high score by using your super-powered ghost-hunting tool, the Poltergust 5000, to suck up ghosts (and window curtains) and blow air to search every nook and cranny of the spooky yet fascinating mansions. This spooky and hilarious adventure, originally released for the Nintendo 3DS™ system, is now visually enhanced in HD on the Nintendo Switch™ system.

Friendly ghosts turned evil: Sounds like a job for Luigi!

The Black Moon looming over Evershade Valley seems to have a calming effect on the ghosts that reside there. The eccentric Professor E. Gadd has been studying the friendly spirits. But when the Black Moon suddenly breaks apart and falls into the valley below, the once-friendly ghosts turn hostile. Luigi must spring into action and summon his courage to return the Black Moon to its rightful place in the sky.

Before I do this review, I think it’s important to disclose that I have not played the original 3DS version. As such, I won’t be discussing many of the improvements, but rather from the perspective of someone new to the game.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD It’s a solid game. The gameplay is similar to Luigi’s Villa 3 (my only previous experience with the series) and so it feels familiar. My daughter who has devoted countless hours to Luigi’s Villa 3 was able to collect Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD no problem and I started to trace a path that I have not yet reached.

The story and gameplay are fun, although I have trouble aiming for some reason, and the characters are funny, as you would expect. Luigi is almost always scared, but still helps his friends in times of need, which is awesome.

Graphically I think that Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD achieves its goal of bringing the 3DS title to HD for Nintendo Switch. It looks really nice. Just don’t expect to see the same quality as Luigi’s Villa 3 and you’ll probably like it.

Another thing I really like is how clever you sometimes have to be to solve the puzzles. Especially when dealing with spider webs. Sometimes you have to use the Poltergust 5000 to pull a hanging spider web structure shaped like a uvula, while other times you have to take a cotton ball and set it on fire.

There are also times when you have to suck on the corner of a rug to find what you are looking for. I know these elements seem very basic, but I think they are very well implemented and I liked that they were included.

Honestly, my biggest complaint is that the development team seems to have done a remastered port without including any quality of life improvements. There is one in particular that I would have loved. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD There is no way to save your game except at the end of a mission.

These missions vary in time, some taking me less than 10 minutes, some more than 20 minutes, with no real way of knowing how long each one will take. If I start a mission and something happens, I either have to tell my family not to play the Switch until I can restart (a situation my daughter was in) or I have to agree to restart the mission.

I really wish they would have implemented the same save system as Luigi’s Villa 3 where you save after entering a new room. It was such a cool save system. I would have even accepted it if they had implemented a system where you could save mid-mission from the start menu or something.

Another thing I don’t really like is the amount of treasure you have to get to unlock upgrades for the Poltergust 5000. I often feel like I get so little treasure and then it takes seemingly forever to unlock upgrades. I just wish it was less grindy.

Unfortunately I don’t have any friends who have Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD so I haven’t tried the ScareScraper. If I try it in the future I’ll update this review.

At the end of the day, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD It’s fun. It’s a solid HD port that I would recommend to friends and family. The game could have been really improved with a slight tweak to the save system, but it’s still fun to play. It’s a shame that the original game probably won’t be ported to the Switch, so we won’t be able to have a trilogy collection.