After a six-year hiatus, Mario’s younger bro Luigi has once again busted out his trusty vacuum and flashlight in his first titular adventure for the Nintendo Switch.  Even though I missed out on Dark Moon, I got pretty psyched when I heard that Luigi’s Mansion 3 was going to be a thing.  And now that I’ve gotten my hands on it, I can say that Nintendo and Next Level Games have done an admirable job with the third chapter of this spin-off series.  With that preamble out of the way, let’s chat about all the cool stuff that Luigi’s latest Ghostbusters-like adventure brings to the table.

Hotel hijinks

The Mario Bros., Princess Peach, and a group of Toads have received invitations to a luxurious hotel called the Last Resort, so they hop in their bus and hit the road without thinking of what could possibly go wrong.  After everyone gets checked in and hits the sack, Luigi and his Polterpup sidekick wake up in the middle of the night to find that his friends and bother are nowhere to be found and the hotel seems a little haunted.  After an encounter with the hotel’s corrupt staff, as well as King Boo, it turns out that Luigi’s allies (Prof. E. Gadd included) have been imprisoned in paintings.  With the help of his ghost-sucking prowess, it’s up to the green-clad plumber to restore order to the hotel and rescue his pals.

It sucks and blows…Literally

Luigi’s Mansion 3 runs on the same engine as its 3DS predecessor, with some obligatory refinements.  The mission-based structure of Dark Moon has been given the boot, and has been replaced by checkpoints that autosave your progress.  Luigi’s Poltergust has been given some new moves like shooting plungers, knocking enemies back with a jet of air, and throwing ghosts onto the floor or into each other.  You can even play as Gooigi from the 3DS port of the original Luigi’s Mansion, and he’ll be a big help if you need to navigate tight spaces or walk across spiked floors (Just don’t fall into water).

If you want the option to have friends explore the haunted hotel with you, your wish is granted.  The campaign supports two-player co-op, and you also get a plate of eight-player modes that task you and your friends with capturing ghosts, firing cannonballs at targets, or catching as many coins as you can.  It’s evident that replay value was high on Nintendo’s priority list when this game was in development.

Who ya gonna call?

The Luigi’s Mansion spin-off series is not intended to be in the same league as the heavyweight platformers the Mario franchise is heavily lauded for, but that doesn’t mean it can’t produce fun games.  With its high replay value and truckload of charm, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is, without a doubt, another must-have for Nintendo’s hybrid console.  We might not get a fourth installment anytime soon, but there’s plenty of  ghost-sucking fun to be had here.