Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon Review

Stimulation

My biggest complaint with Dark Moon is the way it’s structured. Instead of having the option to explore the entire mansion in a single visit, the game disrupts your progress by segmenting the levels into the smaller objectives I mentioned earlier. These segments allow entry only to a predetermined part of the building. Worse still, Luigi always ends these segments by being teleported to the Professor’s Laboratory.

I understand this structure is to encourage small sized play sessions appropriate for handheld games. However, they disrupt the flow of the game and feel like a disservice to the cleverly designed levels.

Furthermore, E. Gadd’s constant communication with Luigi has always taken me out of the atmosphere of the moment. It just feels more padding for a game that suffers from a frustrating pace by design.

Final verdict

Even though the third installment of this franchise will be out soon for Nintendo Switch, it’s still worth returning to Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, whether it’s your first time or you’re a returning player looking to unearth all those precious stones.

While I found the gameplay structure frustrating, once I was in the mansions, I couldn’t put the game down and had to grab the 3DS loader on more than one occasion. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon offers a gripping experience as Nintendo’s most unlikely hero.