8. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
I have played and finished the original Luigi’s Mansion back in the GameCube era and just recently played through this sequel. It expands on the original in every way. It’s much longer, there’s a more involved plot, boss fights, secrets and collectibles, post-game content, and even multiplayer.
The gameplay in this game is very rewarding. You need to flash ghosts with the flashlight and then suck them up with the vacuum (ahem, Poltergust) to capture them, however ghosts can defend against this in various ways and different kinds of ghosts can be trickier to execute this process on. It takes some skill to master the game’s mechanics which keeps you more engaged.
I also liked the fact that you go to different worlds (or rather mansions) to vary the locales you play in, each with their own distinctive environmental hazards and ghost trickeries. Also, there is a lot of replay value in the form of finding all the collectibles and secrets along the way and achieving the highest rank in each mission. And doing this will take some perseverance. This is one Nintendo game I think is challenging to complete 100%.
I have two minor gripes with this game. First of all, the mission system is a little unnecessary. Basically, when you get to a certain, unannounced event in each mission, E. Gadd will pull you back to the lab and the mission is over. In a game that is very exploration based, this can be kind of annoying when you want to continue exploring and E. Gadd yanks you out of the stage right as you’ve discovered something new.
Secondly, the collectibles in this game can be very trolly. Some are just hard and take sharp, gaming senses to find (which is perfectly OK with me), but there are a few that are hidden in really idiotic places with no indication something is there. I don’t like using guides to finish games, but I had to with this one.
I am glad that Luigi has his own series and has become more than just an alternate character in the Mario series, not that that’s a bad thing.