Over the weekend I finally sunk my teeth into BioShock Infinite. I haven’t decided whether or not to write something substantial about it yet, but I’ve not been enjoying it. At some point on the Sunday I decided to take a break, I found my 3DS XL buried under some magazines in a bedside cupboard and thought to myself, why not give that new Luigi’s Mansion game a try? I’m really glad I did.
Once you power through a stupidly dialogue heavy intro, Luigi’s Mansion 2 becomes this truly special thing. I’ve always considered it a little twee to describe a game as ‘charming’ — Luigi’s Mansion doesn’t courtesy, but it will sweep you off your feet if you let it. It’s a game that makes an art of detail, a game that invests so much in making its environment a playful space you can truly explore like a child would explore. It’s a special game.
The game centres around around the Poltergust 5000. It’s essentially a vacuum cleaner that sucks up ghosts, but it’s used for puzzles, for combat, for interacting with the detailed environment — but it’s a perfect metaphor for everything Luigi’s Mansion 2 gets right. The simple act of using the Poltergust is joyous. Push the suck or blow button and everything shakes — the ricket drawers, the dusty curtains — paintings get sucked in from their frames, revealing secrets passages, clues for how to access the next room. Luigi’s Mansion is a game that celebrates interactivity, but it’s also a celebration of making the small things feel good. It’s an incredibly tactile game from the ground up and I’m sort of in love with it.
After spending the majority of my weekend with BioShock Infinite, a game with a high sense of ambition that under delivers and feels flat and lifeless as a result, Luigi’s Mansion was the perfect antidote — a game that revels in the tiny things, that indulges in the minutiae of mechanics, and feels all the better for it.
Alright, enough rambling and hyperbole from me — what did you guys and girls think? Let us know in the comments below.
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