Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD review: solid, but not spooktacular

If you’ve played Luigi’s Mansion 2 on Nintendo 3DS, then you already know exactly what to expect from Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. This is a fairly basic port of the ghost-hunting adventure with a few minor changes to accommodate the move to a new system with a single display, such as the repositioning of the in-game map and health meter from the second screen to a newly designed overlay. The visuals have also received a bit of a boost too, with higher-resolution textures and noticeably better anti-aliasing throughout.

Even so, the age and portable nature of the original title is very apparent. The lighting is rather drab, objects are built from simplistic shapes, and character models lack any real detail. This is partially by design, as Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD sticks to a highly exaggerated cartoon-like art direction, but still means that it absolutely pales in comparison to the look of the seriously stunning Luigi’s Mansion 3 or even the more atmospheric style of the first entry back on the GameCube. 

It’s also evident in the level-based structure, which splits exploration of its five haunted mansions into bite-size stages that last roughly 15 to 20 minutes each. It’s easy to feel a little frustrated in the moments that you’re ripped out of the action and forced back to a level select screen before being allowed to continue, but this system isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It suits the pick-up-and-play nature of the Nintendo Switch down to a tee and makes this installment a decent option if you’re just after something to keep you entertained on public transport or during moments of downtime on a vacation.

Mario and Boo-igi

While I ultimately don’t think this will wholly justify the $59.99 / £49.99 asking price for many returning players, Luigi's Mansion 2 HD does still have plenty to offer to those who haven’t experienced it before. Like other entries in the spinoff series, it follows Luigi as he combats rogue ghosts at the behest of Professor E. Gadd - an eccentric scientist and creator of various wacky gadgets. One of his inventions is the Poltergust 5000, a modified vacuum cleaner and your main weapon in the fight against the paranormal. Fitted with a bright flashlight, the bulk of the game is spent entering rooms and tapping a button to stun ghosts before sucking them into oblivion in order to deplete their health and trapping them in your rucksack with a satisfying slurp.

It sounds quite basic on paper, but it’s a highly satisfying formula that is cleverly expanded as you progress. New ghost types, like strong brutes or flabby creatures that spew toxic bile, are introduced at a good pace, helping to keep things fresh. The Poltergust can also be used to collect coins hidden in various nooks and crannies. Poring over each environment to uncover removable rugs or other secret spots is well rewarded too, as increasing your total number of accumulated coins grants access to useful equipment upgrades.

You also get your hands on the dark light quite early on, an inverted flashlight that reveals hidden objects. All of these tools are leveraged to create some quite memorable environmental puzzles throughout your adventure. Some favorites include using the Poltergust to blow fans in order to open up hidden areas and a brilliant sequence involving a surprisingly creepy haunted doll. A number of enemy encounters also stand out, like an amusing moment where you walk in on an unsuspecting ghost in the shower to much mutual surprise.

While your primary goal is to acquire key items or reach a new location, some stages focus on more interesting objective types. This includes tracking down Toad helpers who have become trapped inside supernatural paintings and leading them to escape points or chasing after the Polterpup, a fast-moving ghostly dog that can jump through walls. Each world also features a boss encounter with an enemy that has their own slew of engaging mechanics, though one, in particular, stands out as easily the lowest point in the game. 

You’re put behind the wheel of a makeshift snow sled armed with a cannon and have to shoot bombs at weak points on a possessed ice monster from a first-person perspective. It’s a good idea on paper, but the execution is simply awful. The bombs are incredibly frustrating to aim and there is an unnecessarily long cool-down period between shots. This wouldn’t be an issue were it not for the strict time limit, which sees the boss frequently regenerate health at the most annoying possible moments and even leads to a complete game over once an arbitrary meter fills up.

There are no checkpoints within any of the levels either, presumably due to their usual short length, meaning that you have to start this entire fight again from scratch every single time. All in all, it took about five agonizing attempts to pull the fight off and my success felt more like the result of pure luck rather than anything else. This fight was also widely regarded as an abysmal nightmare by fans of the original release, so it’s difficult to imagine why no changes were made to its mechanics this time around. The simple removal of the time limit, or even just the option to skip the sequence entirely after a few fails, would be a dramatic improvement.

Creepy co-op

The ScareScraper multiplayer also makes a return largely unchanged, again offering support for up to four players both locally and online. It takes place in a randomly generated skyscraper and features four unique modes to try: Hunter, Rush, Polterpup, and Surprise. Hunter challenges you to explore a set number of floors while working together to collect every ghost, while Rush sees you hurrying to find an exit against a very strict time limit. You can extend this time limit by a few seconds by tracking down the collectible timepieces hidden on each floor, which makes for quite an exhilarating challenge.

Polterpup mode brings back the ghostly canines from the main game and has you tracking them down on each floor with your dark light to progress. As the name would suggest, Surprise is then a mixture of all three, alternating between objective types with each subsequent floor. Although the high-pressure nature of Rush meant that it was comfortably the most compelling, I enjoyed my time with each of the modes and would definitely recommend spending an hour or two in each if you manage to scrape together some friends or find a populated online lobby. 

ScareScraper also includes a small handful of unique ghost variants to collect which, while nothing beyond basic cosmetic changes, does give dedicated completionists a compelling reason to keep coming back for more.

 Accessibility

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD includes very few accessibility features. It offers the ability to disable the gyroscope controls or invert the Y and X axis. You can also increase or decrease motion sensor and thumbstick sensitivity. As the game features little spoken dialogue, subtitles are used throughout, but there are no dedicated settings to edit text presentation.

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 How we reviewed Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

I played Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD for over 13 hours on a Nintendo Switch OLED. During that time I completed the main campaign and then revisited a number of stages to search for additional collectibles. I also spent an hour in the multiplayer as part of a four-player session organized by Nintendo in which I experienced the Hunter, Rush, and Polterpup modes. I played in both handheld and docked mode, assessing the performance of each. While in docked mode, I used a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.