It is a pleasure to see him return, with his improbable fear and the inevitable whirlpool of Poltergust, after so long since last time. It was 2013 when Nintendo's improvised "ghost-catcher" embarked on his second adventure, in a portable episode that unfortunately failed to break the hearts of the players as it happened with the original, which arrived at Gamecube even eleven years before. The goal of Dark Moon was to overcome his predecessor in terms of variety, sending Luigi to search a series of haunted manors, each with its own architectural style and a unique atmosphere. An intent certainly brilliant, but which ended up making the game a little too disorganized and fragmented.
And here then is that Luigi's Mansion 3, a masterpiece with which Nintendo is preparing to close a masterly vintage, finds a way to solve the problem: the floors in which the titanic hotel is divided are still diversified, improbable, unexpected, but all are precisely stacked on top of each other in the same building, so that the long climb to the attic can be accomplished without interruptions, going up and down at will to rediscover the sweet pleasure of a well-dosed backtracking.
The result is a product that finally manages to keep up with the progenitor of the saga, claiming the great originality of its formula and succeeding, in the thirteen hours necessary to reach the credits, to constantly surprise those who hold the console (or Joy-Con!) in their hands. Every time we took a peek inside the hotel, even before we left, we were always struck by the inventiveness with which the development team had seasoned the progression, filling every corner with new objects, small puzzles and new elements to interact with. Today we can finally confirm that Luigi's Mansion 3 manages to preserve this astonishing sense of wonder from the beginning to the end, without even a moment of weariness: by tossing ourselves from the dance floor of a disco to the deck of a pirate ship, we assemble a varied adventure to so much so that it is even difficult to remember every facet of it.
The horrifying adventure of a brave little brother
Luigi's Mansion 3 looks like an adventure in "macabre" colors, overflowing with an amused and innocent horror, funereal but lively like that of Casper and Coco. It is no coincidence, moreover, that the game arrives on the shelves on Halloween, in the night when ghosts and ghosts become harmless and less gloomy than usual.
The incipit of the story sees the fearful protagonist arrive together with Mario, Peach and a handful of Toads in the sumptuous Hotel Miramostri, with the intention of becoming a relaxing vacation. Too bad the chubby King Boo has other plans for the patrons, intent on trapping them forever inside one of his cursed paintings. Miraculously escaping the clutches of the perfidious phantom, Luigi will have to free his traveling companions, unfortunately ended up in the enemy's canvases. Fortunately, it is from these parts that Professor Strambic's equipment is found, which on more than one occasion has served to get rid of spiteful specters.
In Luigi's Mansion 3 the story obviously remains in the background, limiting itself to a few funny interluding sketches that appear from time to time: the true fulcrum of advancement is obviously represented by the hotel, by its halls and by the guardians who infest them, who they are revealed to the piano player on the piano.
As for the gameplay, although there is still a more lively component, linked to the need to suck up ectoplasmic presences with Luigi's weird vacuum cleaner, most of the adventure is focused on careful and curious exploration, and on the resolution of small environmental enigmas: sometimes very explicit, sometimes instead entrusted to the inventiveness of the user, to his desire to experiment with the elements of the scenario to discover unexpected reactions. We say it immediately so that it is obvious: Luigi's Mansion 3 is not a difficult game, and the sense of challenge typical of action is almost completely absent also due to some questionable choices related to the management of the Game Over. On the other hand it would be unfair to define the Nintendo title as a trivial or elementary product: its formula of play hinges on a constant and pervasive puzzle solving, so every environment must be fathomed, rationalized, interpreted. It happens to get stuck, to rack one's brains in front of a strange mechanism, and to wander in search of the latest collectible, and this is enough to make the title more stimulating.
Interactions with the game environment take place through Luigi's imaginative equipment, with many different functions. First of all there is the Poltergust G-00, which can suck up everything or blow away objects thanks to a powerful air jet. With this powerful vacuum cleaner, not only the ghosts are caught, but also the edges of the carpets, the drapes of the curtains, the corners of the sheets and the tabs of the tablecloths, to then tear them away with a firm tug. And again you can put fans and gears in rotation, pull strings and chains, trying to understand how the various elements react to air flows.
At the disposal of our trembling hero there is also a suction cup connected to a strip of rope, which we can stick onto various objects to be able to drag them around and rattle around, so as to break them and reveal their precious contents. And then there are a couple of lamps: the Strobobulbo is a flash that is used to stun the ghosts, leaving them visible and lost just enough to suck them.
The Arcobaluce, on the other hand, reveals the elements rendered invisible by the "spirited spheres", making them concrete again. Starting from these elements Luigi's Mansion 3 manages to build a very rich adventure, always fresh and fun, hilarious in the true sense of the word. The creative flair of the development team means that in every floor, if not in every room, there are always new elements, contests to be tested, well-hidden secrets. Whether it is a circular saw with which to cut the drapes of carnivorous plants, or an inflatable little duck indispensable to overcome flooded areas, the imagination of the development team surpasses even the most optimistic expectations. To insist on this list of findings and stratagems would be almost criminal, because the effectiveness of the game is very much based on pleasure of discovery; you just need to know that up to the final boss fight Luigi's Masion 3 will somehow be able to amaze you.
Gommiluigi help us!
To reiterate that the focus of the experience is the research and then the resolution of the puzzles we also think of the introduction of Gommiluigi, a duplicate of the protagonist that the player can model with a slimy and soggy substance. Thanks to its yielding consistency, Gooigi allows you to explore otherwise inaccessible crevices, passing through pipes and gratings like a jelly-like body. There are wonderful moments in which it is necessary to alternate with the control of Luigi and his double, to overcome puzzles or defeat opponents who require the combined intervention of two Poltergust: a system is intelligent that makes some puzzles much more interesting.
Among other things, the presence of Gommiluigi allows to play all the adventure in a local cooperative, an element that for many could be decisive: in a market where the co-op "from the sofa" seems to be the last priority of the software houses , Luigi's Mansion 3 also focuses on a very pleasant "social" aspect, making it a perfect product for couples or families.
Fight the ghosts
Net of some other little surprise related to the equipment, the rest of the gameplay is linked as we said to the capture of ghosts which are hidden in the rooms of the hotel. The routines of the disinfestation operation are always the same: the spectrum is stunned with the flash of the Strobobulbo, and then the aspiration is started with the Poltergust.
Once hooked the feeble "pigtail" of the prey it is possible to start pulling it to reduce its resistance, and you can even slam the poor ectoplasm here and there, with little care of furniture and furnishings that in the meantime will probably be shattered.
If we examine regular enemies, those who meet incessantly for the duration of the adventure, we must admit that there are not many types of ghosts that roam around the Hotel Miramostri.
On the other hand it is true that even the adversaries do not scruple to use the elements of the scenario: some cover their eyes with the foliage fallen from the vines of a botanical floor; others recover improvised shields that must be torn off with a sucker blow. In general, the battles with ghosts, however, remain little varied and generally monotonous, apart from a few moments on the final in which we are literally overwhelmed by the number of enemies (and we would swear to have also seen a quote from Old Boy by Park Chan-wook) .
It must be admitted that the "action" component, if we want to call it that, is the least successful part of the game, even if we then come across a series of Boss Fight that completely reverses the situation. Every single floor actually has a "guardian spirit", an enemy to deal with to recover the elevator key that takes us to the next level. Whether it is knights ready to challenge us in a medieval carousel, terrible gardeners accompanied by ravenous carnivorous plants, or even orchestra conductors hidden inside a piano, the confrontations with the bosses are almost all inspired and amusing, even these extremely diversified and with always effective routines.
And there is even to say that in the second half of the adventure some battles are not lacking that can put the player in slight difficulty, despite the abundant quantity of hearts that the game dispenses (and which obviously serve to recover health).
However, there is one final aspect to be discussed, linked to the management of the difficulty. All the money that Luigi aspires non-stop with the Poltergust, scattered in the salons of the hotel, in the chests and in the secret rooms, can be invested to buy two different types of objects.
On the one hand there are cartridges that reveal the approximate position of the collectible, on the other side of the golden bones that, after a defeat, recall the sympathetic Poltercucciolo (the ghost dog that accompanies Luigi) and bring the protagonist back to life. The finances of our hero are so abundant that it is impossible to remain without a golden bone, and this is potentially enough to cancel even the degree of challenge of the most challenging battles.
This is clearly a choice made in the name of inclusiveness, which is perhaps a bit excessive and jeopardizes the balance of the difficulty. A dispassionate advice: avoid giving in to temptation, bring with you the only bone that the game forces you to buy, and leave your reserve empty from then on.
You will see that in this way Luigi's Mansion 3 will give you some moments of tension. Moreover, this solution could be assimilated to an Easy Mode that is not offered by the classic initial menu; it makes very little sense, therefore, to complain about the lack of difficulty if we calibrate it downwards. It remains true that it would have been appreciable to have an option to make the "acchiappafantasmi" phases even more challenging.
Grab multiplayer ghosts
From the initial menu it is possible to access the Paranormal Games section, which includes three competitive minigames to be faced in pairs or teams.
Fluttuamonete it is an "aquatic" challenge for those who grab more coins, played aboard huge inflatable ducks, in a pool where it is necessary to go with the Poltergust jet.
The minigame "Cacciaspettri"it is a competition for those who catch more ghosts, set in a cemetery: in addition to making the best use of Strobobulbo and Poltergust, players will have to move the graves in search of the rarest spirits. Finally,"gunfire"is a sort of gigantic co-op target shot, played with the guns of a medieval village: the members of each team must share the tasks, so that one can load the cannons and the other is the duty to fire the right moment.You can also invade the opponent's field to steal the ammunition, obviously triggering the challengers' reaction.
The challenges offered by the Paranormal Games are light and pleasant, although they can hardly be a stimulus in the long distance, given that they lack the minimum variety (of settings, structures and rules) that can excite players for a long time.
The most interesting is the Torre del Chaos, cooperative mode already seen in Luigi's Mansion 2.
The goal is to free up various floors of the tower from the presence of troublesome ghosts, looking for them from room to room and aspirating them before the time runs out. A variation at the most staid rhythms of the campaign, which focuses only on the most action component of the gameplay. The multiplayer of Luigi's Mansion 3 will not be the pillar of the ludic offer, but it could be enough to enliven an evening with friends, since the Tower can be faced also locally.
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