Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
North American box art
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD Next Level Games
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Bryce Holliday
Producer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Artist(s)	Neil Singh
Composer(s)	Chad York Darren Radtke Mike Peacock
Series	Mario
Platform(s)	Nintendo 3DS
Release	JP: 2013-3-20 NA: 2013-3-24 EU: 2013-3-28 AU: 2013-3-28 KOR: 2013-7-18 HK: 2013-7-26
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, known in Japan as Luigi Mansion 2 (ルイージマンション2, Ruīji Manshon Tsū), and in Europe, Australia and Hong Kong as Luigi's Mansion 2, is an action-adventure video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS, and is the sequel to the 2001 game Luigi's Mansion for the Nintendo GameCube. The game was first released in Japan on March 20, 2013, and in all other regions later that same month.

In Dark Moon, the player takes control of the Mario franchise character Luigi, who is equipped with the Poltergust 5000, a specialized vacuum cleaner used to capture ghosts, and an updated version of the Poltergust 3000. In the game's single-player mode, the main goal is to retrieve the pieces of the shattered Dark Moon, a magical object that has a pacifying effect on the ghosts residing in the game's setting, Evershade Valley, by seeking them out in the five haunted mansions located therein. Dark Moon offers a cooperative multiplayer mode that can be played locally or online via Nintendo Network.

Gameplay

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is an action-adventure game in which the main playable character is Luigi, who sent by Professor E. Gadd to explore abandoned haunted mansions and capture hostile ghosts using the Poltergust 5000, a specialized vacuum cleaner. In the main single-player mode, the player explores five different mansions that are each designed around a specific theme, such as an overgrown greenhouse and a clock factory built over an archaeological site, to retrieve the Dark Moon fragment hidden within.

Luigi capturing a ghost. To successfully capture, the player must vacuum the ghost until its hit points reach zero. The touchscreen shows the player's location in the current mansion being explored.

Exploration through a mansion is divided into multiple mission-based levels that focus on completing a number of objectives, such as retrieving an object, accessing a particular room, or defeating a stronger boss ghost. At the end of each mission, the player is scored based on various factors such as the treasures and ghosts collected. If during a mission Luigi takes too much damage from ghost attacks or from environmental hazards and loses all his heart points, he will faint and the player must restart the mission. If the player finds and collects a golden bone, Luigi will be revived the first time he faints and will be able to continue the mission instead of starting over. The Nintendo 3DS touchscreen shows a mini-map of the mansion's layout, with locations of (un)locked doors. The character Toad accompanies Luigi in certain missions. When the player obtains the Dark Moon fragment hidden in a mansion, he can progress to the next mansion, and the player completes the game upon collecting all six Dark Moon fragments.

To capture a ghost, the player first stuns the ghost using Luigi's flashlight equipped with the Strobulb attachment. While Luigi's Mansion only required the player to simply shine the light upon the ghost, in Dark Moon the player instead charges the Strobulb to release an intense burst of light that acts similar to a flashbang. When stunned, the ghost's hit points are exposed, allowing Luigi to vacuum the ghost to decrease its hit points until it is weak enough to be captured. Luigi can vacuum up to three ghosts simultaneously. Some types of ghosts wear protection against the Strobulb and need to be tricked into becoming vulnerable.

In addition to capturing ghosts, the suction and blowing functions of the Poltergust 5000 are used to manipulate and carry objects seen in the environment. Many of the game's puzzles are designed around this concept. For example, the player uses the vacuum to carry buckets of water, yank pull switches, spin valve handles, and propel small objects. Other objects, such as certain types of switches and locks, react only when exposed to the Strobulb flash. Early in the game, the player obtains the Dark-Light Device item, which allows the flashlight to reveal invisible doors and furniture.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon features a cooperative multiplayer mode called "ScareScraper", in which up to four players each control a differently colored Luigi. The players explore each floor of a mansion and complete the specified objective within a time limit. When the objective is completed, the players ascend to the next floor. The floors are all randomly generated, with different floor layouts and placement of ghosts and items, and the players may select to ascend a mansion that either has a finite or endless number of floors. Four different objective types are available: Hunter, in which all the ghosts on the floor must be captured; Rush, where players race to find the exit to the next floor; Polterpup, where players pursue and capture ghost dogs; and Surprise, in which one of the other three objectives are randomly chosen per floor. "ScareScraper" can be played locally or online via Nintendo Network.

Plot

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is set in a region called "Evershade Valley," where Professor E. Gadd lives in his laboratory and studies the friendly ghosts residing in the area. The game opens with the shattering of the Dark Moon, an object that hangs above Evershade Valley, which causes the ghosts to suddenly become hostile. Luigi is called by E. Gadd to re-collect the six pieces of the Dark Moon, which have been scattered to different mansions, in order to restore peace to Evershade Valley.

Luigi makes his way through five different mansions in the valley, encountering new and stronger ghosts as he proceeds and recovering Dark Moon pieces from Possessor Ghosts at the end of each mansion. However, just after he obtains the final Dark Moon piece, he is intercepted by the antagonist of the first game, King Boo. While returning to E. Gadd's bunker after completing the final mansion, King Boo captures Luigi and brings him to a parallel dimension. He reveals himself as being behind the destruction of the Dark Moon, and reveals Luigi's brother Mario who he has trapped once more in a painting. This is the fate that the professor's Toad assistants in each of the mansions had suffered. King Boo demands that Luigi hands over the Dark Moon pieces, in return for Mario's life, so he can use their power to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi refuses, as he does not have any of them, battling him and eventually defeating him once more.

After Luigi returns to Evershade Valley, he frees Mario from the painting and reunites with the Professor and Toads. They rebuild the Dark Moon, which in turn retains its effect on the ghosts in the valley. Gadd releases the captured ghosts from the Vault and they celebrate, taking a photo before Luigi finally returns home with his newly adopted Polterpup.

Development

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was developed by Next Level Games, a Canadian developer who had previously worked on Nintendo-published titles Punch-Out!! and the Mario Strikers series. Development of the game started in 2009 with producer Shigeru Miyamoto overseeing the production. Miyamoto stated that he chose to work on the sequel simply because he "wanted to" after using the original game to test the hardware of the Nintendo 3DS. The original game for the GameCube was tested for 3D effects, but this was later scrapped. The North American title of the game was revealed to be renamed from Luigi's Mansion 2 to Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon at Nintendo All-Access during E3 2012.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was released in Japan on March 20, 2013, in North America on March 24, and in Europe and Australia on March 28.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	85.86%
Metacritic	86/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Famitsu	35/40
Game Informer	8.5/10
GameSpot	6.5/10
GameTrailers	9.3/10
IGN	9.3/10
Joystiq	3.5/5
Nintendo Life	9/10
Nintendo World Report	9.5/10
Nintendo Insider	95%

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was met with generally positive reviews, gaining aggregate scores of 85.86% on GameRankings and 86/100 on Metacritic, respectively. IGN gave the game a 9.3 out of 10, citing that it was "Nintendo at its inventive best." However, GameSpot gave it a 6.5 out of 10, in which there were criticisms of "difficulty spikes and a lack of checkpoints."

Matthew Castle of Official Nintendo Magazine UK gave the game 92% out of 100, praising the game's 3D visuals and mix of old and new features. However, he also criticized the game for its lack of checkpoints, stating that "Death, though rare, forces Luigi to restart missions from scratch, punishing 30 seconds of weak defence with up to half an hour of collecting treasure and solving puzzles for a second time which feels like rough justice when you make a silly mistake in a surprise ambush". He concluded on a positive note, stating "For as much as Luigi's Mansion 2 acts like the class clown, all shrieks and pratfalls, it has more heart than any game in recent memory when it isn't yanking them out of ghost chests, naturally. So man up Luigi and embrace your applause. Funny, gorgeous, crammed full of surprises... but enough about Luigi. Nintendo renovates one of its more oddball offerings into a must-have title. The only thing to fear is that it takes another 10 years to return".

Matthew Reynolds of Digital Spy gave the game 5 out of 5 stars, commenting positively that "Practically every room in this expansive follow-up feels lovingly handcrafted and crammed full of things to tinker with, filled with playful animations and spoils to discover. While combat is less complicated but wholly enjoyable, the game's real priority lies in exploration and puzzles."

Sales

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon debuted to high sales worldwide, selling 863,000 units in the United States by September 12, 2013, and 515,975 units in Japan by April 14. In the United Kingdom, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon became the first 3DS exclusive title of the year to chart. The game charted fifth in the All Formats chart, a position it held for three consecutive weeks. As of October 31, 2013, the game has worldwide sales of over 3.13 million.

External links

• Official website