Luigi's Mansion 3 Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Speedrunning Tips

Luigi's Mansion burst on to the scene in 2001 for the beloved Gamecube and found a home as yet another stellar hit in Nintendo's library. 

That original release also boosted the publisher's reputation—as if Nintendo needed any help—by way of putting out a juggernaut of a release centered on a secondary character, Luigi. 

All these years later, Nintendo has teamed with developer Next Level Games for Luigi's Mansion 3 on the Switch. And, as expected, the spooky Halloween release is not only a standout as one of the best games on the Switch for a variety of reasons, it's easily fileable into the "game of the year" contender pile. 

An engrossing experience for players of all ages, Luigi's Mansion 3 shouldn't have any problems being as revered as the first game in the series. 

Graphics and Gameplay

Pretty much anyone who picks up Luigi's Mansion 3 is likely to throw it in the "best-looking Switch game" category without hesitation.

It starts off looking like an almost souped-up version of Super Mario Sunshine before the haunted vibes of a ghost-riddled hotel emerge to the forefront of the experience. When those vibes switch, the game is just as impressive. 

This game seems to squeeze every ounce of power out of the Switch. The characters and world are crystal clear, incredible shadow detail and physics are stunning, and, somehow, none of this really makes the Switch ever notably skip a beat performance-wise. 

Indeed, it's a sheer joy to just saunter through the floors of this experience and take in the painstaking detail.

And while the vibes here are spooky with frights popping up often, some levels of the hotel predictably go with themed areas. We won't spoil, but they're diverse and incredibly detailed to the point of looking like those floors could be their own separate Switch title. 

The visual experience plays into the gameplay in sometimes-stunning ways. Looking into a mirror and scanning to reveal a secret in the background is a fun revelation, as even something as small as a bathroom holds secrets that encourages exploration of the hotel's every corner, no matter how dark.

This wouldn't have the Nintendo-quality feel without outstanding sound design. The squabble of the characters is charming, if not hilarious, and the wide range of sounds—from footsteps on different surfaces, opening of doors and even the collection of coins—is top-notch. Wearing something like an Astro A10 can create one of the more immersive experiences on the Switch console, not to mention one that can provide true jump scares every now and then. 

Also in the presentation realm is the stunning physics system in place. Almost everything in the game can fall under the effects of the vacuum. Shooting it into the floor will cause everything around it to fly off in every direction. Sucking up random items from a table or blasting them off into the distance is always an option. Basically, if players can see it, the vacuum can interact with it in an almost distracting (and fun) manner, though one does start to feel bad about the gargantuan clean-up job Luigi leaves behind for the housekeepers. 

Gameplay hits the expected beats. Luigi has a vacuum and he's scanning for hidden objects. He stuns ghouls with a flashlight, shoots plungers and slams ghosts around and into each other as he sweeps them up. 

That's a basic rundown. These tools of the trade for Luigi are simple enough to use, and it becomes fun just to see how everything interacts with the well-crafted world. The design of each room is diverse and creative enough to come away pleasantly surprised when something silly ends up working to reveal a secret. 

That's an overall testament to the gameplay experience. Progression is tied to a Metroid-ish style of unlocks that grant access to other parts of the locale. Luigi unlocks a new device or weapon, then the player has to smartly deploy it en route to something akin to a final test of sorts before moving on to the next thing. 

Before long, players are using everything at their disposal to navigate the various levels. It is a piling-on effect of new gameplay wrinkles that always feels rewarding to negotiate and mostly never felt unfair.  

Odd as it might sound to highlight this in 2019, the integration of rumble really adds to the whole experience. The feedback when doing almost anything with the vacuum—from fighting with ghosts to sweeping a curtain away from a window to reveal secrets—is borderline addictive. 

Luigi's Mansion 3 mostly controls like a charm and is simple to pick up and play. Maybe the lone complaint in ease-of-use territory is aiming the vacuum itself, which at times can feel unintuitive with the motion controls. But it is a small enough hiccup, combined with the general easiness of the game, to not dash the experience too much. 

Story and More

This won't come as a surprise: Luigi's friends have been kidnapped, and it's down to him to save them. 

A vacation-gone-bad story thrusts the nervous, easily frightened Luigi to the forefront again, and he works with Professor E.Gadd to come up with solutions to the problems as they get closer to freeing the cast. 

The pacing of it all is simply splendid. It never feels like one floor of the hotel overstays its welcome. Besting one floor or challenge provides more elevator buttons to greater heights. Pair the keep-things-moving nature of it all and the ingenuity of each individual floor and this is one of the harder to put down games of the year. 

Luigi ends up with a vast array of options at his fingertips, which weaves well into the problems confronting him at every level of the hotel. 

One fun tool is the presence of the Gooigi, a goo Luigi's vacuum spits out. Players control the Gooigi and can access places Luigi cannot, but the Luigi-looking goo can do all of the same functions otherwise. Sometimes, obstacles require both the Gooigi and Luigi do the same thing together. 

Other functionalities aren't as impressive, yet they round out a diverse cast of abilties that are a blast to employ. When Luigi shoots a plunger, he can then apply suction to the end of the rope for more pulling power. The vacuum itself can also turn into a blower.

It is rewarding to find out collecting all these coins can mean something, too. Professor E.Gadd's base has a store where players can use their earnings on worthwhile items like ghost trackers and bones for Polterpup (Luigi's dog companion who makes sporadic appearances) to grant the user an extra try or two despite losing all health. 

Co-op makes it in, too, and is an enjoyable romp. The Gooigi plays a role here, and it's fun to see what the folks in charge of the excellent single-player design have cooked up. It isn't the main attraction by any means, but in this day and age, brilliant co-op play for players of all ages isn't something to undersell too much. 

Some entertaining online minigames and other activities at the ScreamPark round out what is a surprisingly robust package. The base idea—Luigi with a vacuum fighting ghosts—really has some legs in the hands of the creative folks at the controls. This isn't simply a play-the-story-and-never-look-at-it-again experience. 

We'd be remiss not to just mention Luigi the character in passing. His mannerisms are hilarious. His frightened approach to everything is engaging, and for a younger player, perhaps soothing. The shrinking away from things, tip-toeing along and jumping at silly stuff is superbly done, and the contrast with huge celebrations as he looks to save his friends makes accomplishing the feat feel all the more rewarding. 

Speedrunning Tips

Luigi's Mansion 3 might not have the most speedrunning appeal in the world because of the simplicity of it all. 

But...that doesn't mean a certain segment of players won't want to gun through it as fast as possible. It also doesn't mean a dedicated community of runners won't pop up—stranger things have happened when it comes to speedruns now that platforms like Twitch are so popular. There's still an ongoing battle for world records in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, which released in 2013, after all. 

Memorization is going to play a big part of any Luigi's Mansion 3 speedrun. Understanding essential and non-essential rooms, where to look for what and how to advance as quickly as possible will come naturally over time. 

Most runs will fall into the any-percent category, which means no worrying about collecting the gems in each level or hunting down all of the rare ghosts. Besides tangling with ghosts requiring capture to open the locks on rooms, players can feel free to speed past most combat, when applicable. 

Otherwise, investing coins into the bones that allow retry attempts instead of game-overs is a must, which is made even easier by an unlockable that functions like a fast travel for the store. 

There is enough nuance despite the lack of difficulty to suggest a healthy speedrunning environment, so it should be an engaging community to track in the coming months, if not years. 

Conclusion

Luigi's Mansion 3 doesn't have the feel of a juggernaut release for the Switch—until one flicks on the power and starts playing. 

Maybe it isn't arriving with the hype of a new Mario release, but the total Luigi-based package is one of the better releases of the year, regardless of platform. The action is fun and engaging, the world is incredibly detailed and the characters breathe a life into what is otherwise something akin to a Stephen King Halloween trope. 

But the haunted hotel as a backdrop here just works. A symphony of parts moving together to forge an unforgettable experience, Luigi's Mansion 3 might just be the top release on the Switch this year, which is saying something given the release year Nintendo's heavyweight console has enjoyed.