Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon - Final Thoughts

Guess who finished Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon? This girl!

Don't worry guys; it will be spoiler free of story. I will be discussing designs and mechanics of the game. If you don't want to even read of that, don't read anymore. This is only of my final thoughts of the game. Remember, they are my opinions; I have a right to them.

Ok, first of all.  The music was lackluster. For what they did have, it was nice. But, they only had 2 songs. There was main theme and some other song that they change up throughout the game. That is the only part of the game that I was unimpressed with. Nintendo, you could have done better than that. You could have done a LOT better than just two songs.

The game's graphics were outstanding. It might just be the artist in me, but I loved them. It was really pretty, and it all fit the spooky atmosphere that is Luigi's Mansion. On top of the design of the rooms, the sky was so breathtaking. I'm sorry; I am a fan of the night sky. One thing that I was a little disappointed in was the ghosts that you capture. I mean, don't get me wrong, they look awesome. There weren't any cool family member ghosts like in the last one, though. That was what disappointed me.

Moving on from the visual design of them, we go into the technical design. What you might know it as is the "gameplay". For the most part, it plays a lot like the first Luigi's Mansion did. You used control stick to run, R-button to suck up ghost, L-trigger to blow air for when you want to blow away stuff. 

Now there are things that have changed about the gameplay, such as you no longer have elemental powers of fire, water, and ice. (Seriously though, last game you got them through coins. How do you even fire with a coin? Did it double as an install disc for the Poltergeist 3000? Did it turn Luigi into an elemental master? I don't even know.) Instead, your flashlight gains the ability to flash a giant burst of light, and then there was another flashlight ability that uncovered hidden objects. While they might sound boring at first, they did well to use all those abilities in puzzles. I promise you won't be sad that they took Luigi's elemental super powers away. Oh, and you can do quite a bit of running around, but you don't get too lost. There was only one time during the game I was like "...Where do I go? WHERE DO I GO?!"

For the enemies, their mechanics work fine, and they are quite clever.  You have your basic greenie ghost. Then you have the red slammer, that which if it gets close to you it will do this giant smash with its hands that makes a shockwave. Then you have the blue hider, who likes to hide in the furniture until you find them and throw things at you when you aren't paying attention. Then you have the pink sneaker, who are for the most part invisible up until they sneak behind you and either scare or hit you. Then we have my least favorite enemy, the yellow gobbler, who spits goo at you to which you can slip on. He will attempt to spit goo at you while you sucking you up, and if get hit it hurts you. He will also sit on you if you get too close to him while sucking him up trying to avoid him. The last of the ghosts I will mention is the purple creeper, which is basically a pile of goo that with bring you into its body if you step on him accidentally. 

One thing that is for sure, the difficult stepped up in this game. Even the basic greenies will give you a hard time! Oh, I forgot one more thing Luigi's has this game: He can jump! While sucking up a ghost, you can make him jump with I think is B (It could be A, I don't remember). This is a very important mechanic to remember. If you don't, prepare to be hit a lot. 

One mechanic I love about this game is that they added "lives". Well, they aren't necessarily lives, more like reward for exploring. There are these dog bones hidden in the mansion, and you can only find them when you have a lot of money. They don't carry over from level to level, so you can't grind them up. It never gets excessive either, I think the most I ever held in one level was two. But if you have at least one, and you die, you will be revived back to full health and continue where you left off! That is the greatest reward for being a greedy money man! So as long you continue looking for money, you won't have too much of a hard time.

The bosses were nice, and of course, you can't have a Luigi's mansion game without Boos. There was one boss, though, I hated with a passion. It wasn't even the boss itself; it was the area before you get to the boss. If you have played it, you might know what I am talking about. Other than that, I enjoyed all of the bosses.

Overall, I loved the game. The mechanics work and they incorporate them well, the mobs and bosses are fun, the designs are cool, and the story was enjoyable. I am glad they made this sequel for Luigi's Mansion, and I definitely recommend it that you play it.

With that, I hope you have a great day. :)

~Jelly