Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)

[SuperStingray]

Dark Moon is sold out almost everywhere in Japan.

 

Apparently, it's really hard to find in the United States too, so sale percentage could be very similar.

Yeah, I was a bit surprised that it was sold out when I went to Game Stop.  I assumed it was going to be a sleeper hit, but it actually seems pretty successful.  Which is nice.

[Carbo]

Goodness what a wonderful game this is.

It's everything I hoped for and more.

[Thrippa]

I dreamed last night I was in a hybrid of this game and LEGO City, where Luigi got to climb posts and balance along rafters to collect ghost ingredients to throw into a cauldron covered in purple fumes.  Off to one side of the creaky mansion was a bright, cheery kitchen with boards across the door so poor Luigi could only look longingly at the path of safe comfort as he shivered his way back into the gloom.  Of course, every time a ghost popped out, he toppled off of his perch.

[Doctor MK]

Goodness what a wonderful game this is.

It's everything I hoped for and more.

 

Isn't it just?

 

Beat the story mode this morning and it was a joy to play, start to finish. The game is so full of charm and creativity, and it proves that Nintendo can still pull off an imaginative high quality Mario game, despite what the NSMB series and Paper Mario: Sticker Star may have us believe. Not since 2010's Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a game in the Mario franchise been so refreshing and fun. While it may lack some of the original Luigi's Mansion's gloomy atmosphere, it's all-round a much more accessible and entertaining package with some incredible attention to detail. If you have a 3DS, you at least need to give this a try.

 

Now to catch all the Boos and collect all the gems and do all the other bonus stuff... and then... umm... see you all in another 10 years for Luigi's Mansion 3?

[KrazyBean]

This game is...EXCELLENT! I've only played it for an hour on my new 3DS XL and it's the best looking and the best 3DS game I've played!

[WarioBone]

Got it, beat it.  While I have to say that I enjoyed the first one more, this one has a lot of charm and proves that Nintendo can still crank out a high-quality, unique game when they aren't too busy whoring Mario out.

 

8/10

Edited April 1, 2013 by Flash-in-the-Pan Wario

[KrazyBean]

Got it, beat it.  While I have to say that I enjoyed the first one more, this one has a lot of charm and proves that Nintendo can still crank out a high-quality, unique game when they aren't too busy whoring Mario out.

 

8/10

 

One thing I don't like is the level structure...they should've made it like an open world game instead of a level-by-level method.

[YoshiUnity]

It's taking me a while to beat this game due to me flipping between this and BioShock Infinite at the moment. But can definitely say that this game has not only exceeded my expectations, but it has became one of, if not then THE, favorite of 3DS my gaming library at the moment.

 

Next Level Games continue to go into Beast mode with their Nintendo collaborated efforts and this is definitely up there as an overall success.

I'll give a deeper post review on this game once I've finish it, but honestly, I don't see how I can say much negative about this game at the moment.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Fun is ∞ at YoshiUnity Ent

[Gregzilla]

Beat the game a few days ago (haven't gotten all Boos or collectibles yet).

 

WHAT I LIKED:  The humor is great, with lots of funny antics from Luigi and the ghosts, as well as some good dialogue from E. Gadd.  The gameplay, despite having one less stick, I feel is more fun than the first game.  It's really satisfying to blast the ghosts with light and then suck them up.  The levels are varied and unique and they are packed to the brim with details and hidden goodies.  The first, last, and second-to-last boss fights are really cool.  Overall it's incredibly polished, has great feel, and is a joy to play.

 

WHAT I DISLIKED:  The ghost designs.  Their animation is great, and they definitely have distinct personalities, but the designs themselves is still pretty bland compared to all the portrait ghosts we got in the first one.  The music is very good, but I would have liked to hear some creepy techno sounds like the first game had every now and then as opposed to just strings.  The second and third boss fights, while aesthetically cool, are kinda boring.  The fourth boss is cool, but kinda annoying at times.  Sometimes the Toads were annoying to lead around, as they often just sat there crying instead of following Luigi.

 

Overall, the good outweighs the bad.  This is easily the best 3DS game in my library (though I do not have Fire Emblem Awakening).  It's fun and incredibly polished.  I'm disappointed with the lack of interesting ghost designs, but other than that it's a great follow up to an underrated Gamecube title.

 

Also, I thought the garage sale thing was hilarious.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Gregzilla

[Toby]

Why are we comparing the random ghost grunts of this game to the portrait ghosts of the original? Shouldn't we be comparing them to the simple ghost grunts of the original?

[Gregzilla]

Why are we comparing the random ghost grunts of this game to the portrait ghosts of the original? Shouldn't we be comparing them to the simple ghost grunts of the original?

 

Well, in the original, the simple ghosts were accompanied by the portrait ghosts.  That way the game had a variety of simple designs as well as more interesting and detailed ones.

 

Since there aren't any portrait ghosts in Dark Moon, the grunt ghosts are the only ghosts you run into for the majority of the game.  As a result, there is less variety.

 

We don't have to directly compare the new grunt ghosts to the portrait ghosts, but the original as a whole just had more varied and interesting ghost designs.

[sonfan1984]

I've spend more time playing the online multiplayer then the story mode. But it's really annoying to start with 4 people on my team and people start quitting in the middle of it. I could never finish all 10 or 25 floors.

[-Mark-]

So, I finished the main story yesterday. I'd have finished it sooner (as my brother did) but spend Friday and Saturday at my boyfriends' place so didn't really play it much those days.

 

I get a somewhat awkward feeling from this game. There's no denying it's a good game. Really, there isn't. It's solid and enjoyable and devoid of any drastic flaws... yet at the same time, throughout most of it I couldn't shake this slight feeling of disappointment, too.

 

I think it's more a bunch of small issues adding up to that underlying feeling of disappointment, rather than anything being fundamentally wrong with the game. Most of them are fairly obvious and have been said before; lack of portrait ghosts (meaning less variety and generally weaker ghost designs), the mission-based structure and multiple mansions.

 

Rather than anything making it fundamentally worse than the original from a gameplay perspective, it's more a tone/ atmosphere thing. The mission-based structure, as well as multiple mansions, really destroys the atmosphere of a large, looming mansion that the first game had. It makes it feel a lot more drop-in, drop out (which I can see what they were doing for portability, but this could have been achieved with save points) and as such, even though the game is overall bigger than its predecessor, it feels a lot less substantial somehow. 

 

Also, the mansions do feel less like actual mansions as the first game did, and somewhat more like deliberately engineered stages. They feel more like dungeons in a Zelda game; less like a house that someone would have lived in. 

 

I really wish they'd given this game Circle Pad Pro support, too. I know the game has been designed around the 3DS not having one, but considering the original used the second analogue stick heavily, it does feel quite clunky and awkward without one at times. 

 

Also, we totally need to get on Nintendo's asses for false advertising; There are multiple mansions in the game, not every stage is actually a mansion, and none of them belong to Luigi. 

 

(Oh, and on the debate over the name, I always felt that 'Dark Moon' as a title made it feel like it was trying to piggyback on Twilight or something)

Edited April 2, 2013 by -Mark-

[Conando]

You know, some of us fools should get together and play Scarescraper at some point.

[YoshiUnity]

You know, some of us fools should get together and play Scarescraper at some point.

 

Hey! I second this!

 

Hey! It would be fun. I just played a few rounds of it and it's pretty cool. Surprisingly competitive!

 

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

I should give some mods other than Hunter a shot though. :U

Edited April 2, 2013 by Fun is ∞ at YoshiUnity Ent

[Thigolf]

I never got the "Hey!" joke, honestly. Everytime I played online, "Help!", "Good Job" and even "Over here!" (I dont even know how you trigger that) were more common than the "Hey!" command.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Thigolf

[-Mark-]

The more I play this post-game, the more I like it.

 

I think once you get over the slight initial disappointment of "Aw man, they changed it and took out some of the awesome stuff from the original", you can really appreciate and enjoy the game more.

 

Sure, it's still had a few changes for the worse and a couple of its own little problems, but yeah; awesome game is awesome. (Even if it still could have been awesomer).

[canderson]

Hmm..after playing this game, I think I prefer this game's ghosts simply because of their charm and interaction with the environment. I'd rather them over the ghosts(including the Portrait ghosts) of the original game.

 

As for the ghost designs, obviously the original game wins, but other than that, I prefer the ghosts of the sequel in every way.

Edited April 3, 2013 by canderson

[Gregzilla]

Hmm..after playing this game, I think I prefer this game's ghosts simply because of their charm and interaction with the environment. I'd rather them over the ghosts(including the Portrait ghosts) of the original game.

 

As for the ghost designs, obviously the original game wins, but other than that, I prefer the ghosts of the sequel in every way.

 

I think animation is where Dark Moon shines.  While the designs themselves are boring and lack variety, the way they interact with stuff and display their behavior definitely improves over the ghosts in the original.

 

Basically it's a case of looking interesting versus acting interesting.  The first game wins in the former, and the sequel wins in the latter.

[Mangoaxe5]

I downloaded this game last week, but I've only started playing it the last few days.

I like the game, but I have mixed feelings on the mission system. I think it kind of interrupts the flow of the game, and it feels like it's only reason for existing is to artificially make the game longer to shut up all the brats who cried about the first game being too short.
I also miss the portrait ghost from the first game.

But other then that I'm enjoying this game so far.

[Lady Soniko]

My only gripe with this game was the mission structure and the constant badgering from E.Gadd whilst in-game, when I had just landed a ton of treasure from like, a 5 ghosts at once clean up with a level 3 suction, it just stops you in your tracks, also when you pick up the mission items of interest it just takes you out of the game back to the bunker rather than letting you explore more before deciding to come back, otherwise I can't get over how good this game is in both gameplay and graphics, Luigi is brimming with interaction and expressions, from his interaction with Toads to his closing interaction with

Mario, especially when it literally felt like Mario stepped down from his leader role to give Luigi the respect he deserved, even Luigi was hesitant on what to do when Mario was rooting for him, give him top spot in the group photo and such, it was a huge step from Luigi's Mansion back in 2001

 

Over all the game was pretty dang lengthy for a 3DS title and I am so glad I invested in the game when I was going to give it a miss till later on, but the Boo Stress ball pre-order kinda made me cave xD.

[SuperStingray]

There were definitely some things I missed from LM1.  The biggest was the tense atmosphere; the game was never outright terrifying, but there was a very consistently somber tone.  The music was chilling when the lights were out and there wasn't even any music at all when the lights were on, which built an odd mix of anticipation and calmness.  Dark Moon keeps the music the same everywhere and the rooms rarely don't even feel that dark when the lights are out.  The mission structure also took something out of that experience.  In Dark Moon, you always knew when the boss was coming since the mission explicitly shows a skull and crossbones.  In the first game, you don't know when you'll run into a boss, and they always have fantastic build up, e.g. disturbing the baby with a rocking horse, and teleporting into a graveyard.

 

Another thing I missed was the finite money count.  If you didn't know, the most money you can get in the first game is 142,390,000 G because money is always found in the same places every time.  I think there's something to be said for offering players these difficult optional challenges; a real feeling of mastery.

[Conando]

You act as if this game doesn't have its own way of tracking your performance, the missions DO have rankings you know. The ranking is even based on how well you know the areas you're going through and where to find their treasures. It still rewards looking around for things, but then it challenges you to be efficient in collecting the things you find.

[SuperStingray]

You act as if this game doesn't have its own way of tracking your performance, the missions DO have rankings you know. The ranking is even based on how well you know the areas you're going through and where to find their treasures. It still rewards looking around for things, but then it challenges you to be efficient in collecting the things you find.

That's different.  When I get a gold medal for a simple ten minute time trial, it's like I'm just living up to an arbitrary standard- a simple extrinsic reward for your troubles.  Anyone can be "more efficient" at something, but getting all the money in Luigi's Mansion is one of those challenges that's untoppable within the scope of the game- something that makes you feel like you've truly mastered the experience in a way few others have, like getting all the scans and powerups in Metroid Prime or even getting the Gnome achievement in HL2:E2.

[Conando]

You mean completion. ...Finding all the boos and gems is that. I mean, seriously, anyone can find all the money, boos, etc. They can look at a guide, unlike the ranking system where you have to actually prove your mettle. Taking minimal damage, finding all the treasure you can, and finishing as soon as possible.

 

I don't know, man. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is way more challenging than the original. Whether you're trying to master it or not.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Wreck-It Ralph