Luigi's Mansion 3

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Luigi's Mansion 3 for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[KarlDaFrog]

Luigi’s Mansion 3 was a nearly wonderful experience I purchased near launch but finished in the spooky season a year later.

A highlight of the game is astonishingly detailed particle effects. I could simply vacuum sand and suck curtains for an entire game. The visual spectacle of coins dancing about while money drifts down matches the decadent sound design. Every time Gooigi slurms his way through a grate I could feel his viscosity.

Unfortunately, I got soft locked in the final boss, where King Boo would not attack and just float back and forth. I had to wait to time out and lose the battle. A disappointing end to an otherwise very polished game.

[Buskalilly]

I liked this game a lot, and in what I remember as a dry year for Switch, it delivered charm in spades. I don't think it's a game I'd replay, as most sections are about seeing the amusing animations and solving the simple puzzle, but not every game needs to be inifinitely replayable. This was a quality experience to run through once, with my only complaint being some sequences of chasing ghosts back across old floors feeling a little like padding.

[Nicktendo]

Marrying this game with Halloween 2019 for someone living outside the states really made in memorable.
The graphics and art style of this game is A-tier Nintendo coming from Next Level Games. They really nailed what made the first one great and added more.
I feel as though LM2 (soon to be released on Switch) deviated a bit too far from LM1 but making more of the same. LM3 really enhanced the scope of the "Mansion" into the Hotel and made every floor unique and charming. My favourite being the Film Studio floor with it's wicked puzzles and Kaiju climax.
This title really made me look at Luigi's Mansion as a viable franchise for the green plumber, rather than a spin-off.
TWR: Spooky Fun Time

[Alex79]

Before playing this game I'd played a little of the original back on GameCube and thought it was alright. Then when Luigi's Mansion 3 was released one of my boys was desperate to play it and fellow forumite, Kurt, very kindly lent me his copy through the post.

My son absolutely loved the game, which we finished entirely in cooperative mode, once he'd unlocked Gooigi, of course. Unfortunately I found it to be one of the most boring games I've ever played. Aside from the themes of the hotel floors, the game had zero variety and was tedious and repetitive from start to finish. I cannot remember ever being more annoyed with a game than when you have to chase that bloody ghost cat from floor to floor, all over the hotel to finally catch it. The backtracking in the game was overdone to the point that I vowed never to touch the game again once I'd done my time and finished it with my son. I didn't want him to know how much I hated playing it, so spent the entire time sat with a forced, fake grin on my face, pretending I was having fun. But I wasn't. I really, really wasn't.

Are there any positives? It looked nice I suppose, and Luigi's little panicked yelps now and then can raise a small smile. But that's all.

This is, without a doubt, my single least favourite 'big budget' Nintendo game I have ever played and here's the best part, my son recently bought his own copy and is asking me to go through the game again with him. I am considering leaving my family and going to live in a monastery.

THREE WORD REVIEW: Utter distilled tedium.

[Shmerebere]

I bounced of Luigi’s mansion 3 after 3 or 4 floors, the medieval one or the haunted piano one I think.
It looked wonderful, especially considering it’s on switch but the game play loop just wasn’t enticing or interesting enough for me. I had a similar problem with the original on the GameCube but was enticed by the visuals of the 3rd outing.
As I say, it looks amazing and I’m sure Guigi is a fun addition if you have children but for me, too much a a slog.

[T-BirD]

Luigi's Mansion 3 is the first, and only, game I've played of the series, and it's one of the first games my oldest son ever played. We started when he was not even five years old, and he loved it all. It was never too scary for him, and we eventually got through the entire game.

We have played bits and pieces of it (especially the beginning) numerous times since then. In fact, as I write this, he and his now five year old younger brother are on bean bags behind me, playing together on some of the early floors.

In spite of all this play, I never became wholly comfortable with the controls; something about aiming the vacuum while walking in different directions just breaks my brain. Numerous deaths, especially while fighting a boss in a certain "pool", can be attributed to my difficulty therewith.

Aside from that complaint, the game is just absolutely charming, full of lots of secrets and little puzzles that take real experimentation, the art deco hotel is beautifully realized, and it's just joyous to play. It's also incredibly imaginative, with so many different environments being crammed onto the various floors of the hotel. The various forms of interaction (vacuum, blowing, plunger, flash, darklight, etc) are well implemented to allow a wide variety of interactions. Being able to suck up almost anything around you can sometimes be tedious, but mostly is just fun.
And smashing ghosts into the environment never gets old.

I have personally not felt any desire to go back for another playthrough, but if my kids want me to join, I do for a while. I'm thankful that the game has been such a wholesome pasttime for them off and on over the years, and it was pretty fun for me too.

3 word review:
Best with kids

[EvilNinjaPhil]

OH MY GOD THAT MECHANIC GHOST BOSS IN THE SEWERS.

Ahem. Sorry. Probably too late for the record today but, my god, this game is easily in the top five worst backtracking in a video game. Look, I love cats, I’ve got two of them, but seeing that cat arbitrarily dragging the buttons I need from one end of that hotel to the other made me want him dead. Again.

Couple that with the fiddly controls and situations where you need to do stuff with gooigi at the same time as dodging stuff with Luigi? Just infuriating. Worst bosses in any Mario game, I have no clue how that sewer boss with you in the inflatable got past Nintendo quality control. I thought maybe it was issues with drift on the joy cons, but nope, couldn’t get to grips with the controls with other pads either.

As I see it The worst crime a game’s controls can do is not making it clear if it was your fault you failed or the control’s fault and Luigi’s Mansion 3 is one of the best examples of this ever. Never felt comfortable with them for one minute during the game, something you can never normally say about a first party Nintendo game. Yes I did finish it, but only out of a sense of obligation as it was bought for us during the first COVID lockdown during a period when we were isolating as a family, so gritted my teeth and somehow got though it.

Loved Mansion on the GameCube, had a great time with Dark Moon on the 3DS but this, this can get right in the sea.