Luigi’s Mansion 3: First Impressions (game review)

I didn’t play the first Luigi’s Mansion or the second one, but I heard many good things about the most recent game, most specifically on Twitter, so I decided not to pass up the opportunity to try it out. This post is my first impression of Luigi’s Mansion 3. Keep in mind there are minor spoilers below.

King Boo is back, I am assuming after being previously caught by Luigi before, and now he’s back for revenge. A hotel owner, Hallen Gravely, invited Luigi and the rest of the gang (Mario, Peach, and the toads), to a hotel for a nice stay. However, it was a trap. King Boo chases you down a hallway after trapping your friends, and you jump into the laundry shoot and fall to the basement. A friendly dog ghost helps you find a vacuum that’ll be your main weapon for the game and then you work your way up to the top floor to save your friends.

The best part of this game has to be Luigi’s voice work. I don’t think I would have had as much fun as I did if I didn’t hear his screams and grunts when he is fighting the ghosts. Plus I can’t forget his “oh yeah”!

The bosses in this game were unique. Again, I’ve never played Luigi’s Mansion before so I have fresh eyes, but the most memorable boss for me was Captain Fishhook.

You end up finding an entryway onto a boat in the mansion on the 12th floor and after you search through the boat a little you end up fighting this shark also known as Captain Fishhook.

The boss has a hook, hence his name, and he also throws cannonballs at you in addition to the little ghosts that you have to vacuum as well. I thought it was a cool setup especially because of the way it kept me moving through the fight.

All of the boss fights keep you moving honestly. And I enjoyed the strategy in this game. You have to figure out how to do certain things based on what you have available to you. For instance, if there is something in the tub, use the vacuum to turn the water on so that you can suck up the item from the tub. Or if you help need help to pull something or to get into a locked space, you’ll use Gooigi to help you. You’ll especially need Gooigi during your fight with Hallen because it mostly deals with maze-like mechanics.

When you save Mario, the cuteness overloads. But as a younger sibling, when Mario scales the side of the mansion with no problem and Luigi is left to figure out how to climb, I had flashbacks of my childhood.

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Overall, I enjoyed my time with this game. Also, it was the first game I experienced on the Nintendo Switch. I played it over 3 or 4 days and thought it was good. If you like fast-paced games, you may think that some of the seek and find parts take to long. If you are a completion, you will appreciate the intricacies of the levels. And at the end, depending on what you’ve done, the hotel looks different. But honestly, the boss fights were the best part for me.