Luigi's Mansion 3 | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Next Level Games |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Director(s) | Bryce Holliday |
Producer(s) |
|
Designer(s) | Devon Blanchet Jason Carr |
Programmer(s) | Brian Davis |
Artist(s) | Barret Chapman |
Writer(s) | Ryunosuke Suzuki |
Composer(s) | Chad York Darren Radtke |
Series | Luigi's Mansion |
Platform(s) | Nintendo Switch |
Release | October 31, 2019 |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Luigi's Mansion 3 [lower-alpha 1] is a 2019 action-adventure video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third installment in the Luigi's Mansion series following Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and the second to be developed by Next Level Games. The game sees players taking on the role of Luigi who must explore a hotel run by ghosts, incorporating different themes on each floor, and save his friends after the group is tricked into visiting it for a vacation by King Boo.
Alongside a number of returning gameplay elements from the previous installments, the game incorporates new features, including additional moves for ghost catching, an ectoplasmic doppelgänger assistant known as Gooigi, and expanded multiplayer functionality that allows for players to engage in cooperative and competitive gameplay both locally and online. The game received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for several awards, winning the award for "Best Family Game" at The Game Awards 2019. The game has sold 12.82 million copies as of March 2023.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(November 2019) |
Luigi's Mansion 3 is an action-adventure game, in which players control the character of Luigi from a fixed third-person perspective, as they capture ghosts across a large hotel setting. [1] The game features two modes of gameplay – a single-player story mode, and a set of multiplayer game modes – in which ghost catching functions in the same manner as previous installments: players stun ghosts with Luigi's Strobulb, snag them with his Poltergust, and weaken their health down to 0 in order to capture them.
In the single-player story mode, players explore a large hotel with 17 floors – each floor consists of a different theme and atmosphere, and a variety of ghosts, including a boss ghost that the player must defeat. Some of the first floors, such as Floor 2, do not have a theme. Unlike the story mode of Dark Moon, which focused on pre-defined mission structure of gameplay across several areas, Luigi's Mansion 3 is more open-ended allowing for greater exploration of the game's setting, with the only restriction being that players cannot explore floors in the hotel via the elevator until they have found the button that allows access to it; the hotel's main lobby and basement are the only floors to have a staircase between them that circumvents the need for the elevator.
Treasure can be found during exploration of the hotel's floor from various objects and solving some puzzles. Luigi can find coins (worth 1), banknotes (worth 5), gold bars (worth 20), and pearls (worth 100) as well as bags of money containing many hundreds of coins. He can also find special gems on each floor, alongside the capture of Boos, a regular enemy in the Mario series, while Luigi can find hearts to recover health lost from the attacks of ghosts and other environmental hazards. Some of the features introduced by Dark Moon are available in the game, including a stun charge function that can make ghost catching easier, and the Dark-Light Device, a blacklight function that can reveal objects that have become invisible (after capturing Spirit Orbs, which cause the invisibility) and animate certain portraits. It can also bring possessed items, such as possessed chests or rubbish bins, back to normal. New to the series include new functions to the Poltergust – an area burst attack that can help keep multiple enemies back, as well as blow away furniture to reveal treasure; a suction cup attachment, which allows the player to fire a plunger onto obstacles and then remove them by using the Poltergust on the cup's cord; and a slam attack, which allow players to repeatedly smash ghosts they are capturing to the ground, both for greater damage as well as a weapon to hit other ghosts around them.
The most notable addition to the game is Gooigi – an ectoplasmic doppelgänger of Luigi previously introduced in the 3DS remake of the original Luigi's Mansion . Gooigi can conduct similar moves to those of his real counterpart, and can be controlled by the player (switching between Luigi and Gooigi) or a second player in local co-op. Gooigi can be used by the player to help in battles and with solving some of the game's puzzles, some of which require the use of Gooigi and Luigi to complete. Unlike Luigi, Gooigi can squeeze through gaps in vents and grills, and walk across spiked floors, but is weaker than his real counterpart and will instantly lose his physical form if he comes into contact with water or fire.
The game's multiplayer mode allows for up to eight players to play together locally and online. In this mode, players can engage in cooperative gameplay through "ScareScraper", a returning feature from Dark Moon, or competitive team matches in "ScreamPark". Both modes use the same style of controls in the single-player mode, with players able to control four colour variations (green, purple, orange, or blue) of Luigi or Gooigi. ScareScraper focuses on cooperative teamwork between players to clear out each of the 5 or 10 floors of a randomly generated high-rise building by seeking out the ghosts hiding on each floor. "ScreamPark" focuses on team-based matches - one side as Team Luigi, the other as Team Gooigi - and scoring points in three different match types: Ghost Hunt, in which teams score points by catching ghosts, with tougher ghosts worth more points; Cannon Barrage, in which teams score points by securing cannonballs, some held by ghosts, loading them into a cannon and firing them at targets, with trickier targets scoring more points; and Coin Floating, in which teams use inflatables to collect coins that drop in a pool, avoiding mines that are dropped as well or lose the coins in their possession and pop the inflatable making them need to blow another one up allowing their opponents to steal them.
Mario and Luigi have been invited to The Last Resort, a luxurious high-rise Art Deco hotel nestled in a mountainside area, and decide to visit it for a vacation, accompanied by Princess Peach, Luigi's pet ghost dog Polterpup and a trio of Toads that serve as the former's entourage. After arriving and settling in, Luigi wakes up during the night to find the hotel transfigured to appear haunted and the others missing. He discovers that the hotel's ghostly owner, Hellen Gravely, lured the group there as part of a trap by King Boo, whom she had freed from Professor E. Gadd's custody after his recapture in the previous game. King Boo announces his plot to exact revenge on Luigi and his friends for his past defeats by imprisoning them in portraits, but Luigi narrowly escapes to the basement through a laundry chute. With the help of Polterpup, who also avoided capture, Luigi explores the basement and comes across E. Gadd's car in the underground garage and finds his latest Poltergust inside it. Using the device, Luigi follows Polterpup to the lobby and finds that the professor was also captured.
Searching the surrounding area, Luigi comes across E. Gadd's Dark-Light Device in a safe and uses it to free him. Setting up a portable laboratory in the garage, E. Gadd explains how he was also tricked into visiting The Last Resort and taken hostage by Hellen, who then plundered his latest ghost collection to staff the building. Believing that Luigi's friends are likely trapped on the upper floors, E. Gadd recommends that Luigi finds the elevator buttons for the upper floors that had been taken from the main elevator after he secures two from a ghost he had defeated earlier. While exploring the floors, each featuring a different theme to them, Luigi is supported further by some of E. Gadd's latest creations – the Virtual Boo communication device and Gooigi, an ectoplasmic doppelgänger of Luigi who serves as the professor's ghost-catching protégé. Left without any other choice, Luigi begins his search for the missing elevator buttons in order to visit each of The Last Resort's many floors.
Coming across and defeating a variety of different ghosts throughout the hotel, Luigi reclaims the elevator buttons and rescues the Toads from them, the former of whom are then kept in E. Gadd's lab for safety. Eventually, he reaches the top floor where he confronts a furious Hellen and manages to defeat before rescuing Mario. Luigi then follows him to the roof where they find Peach's portrait. Upon freeing her, the group is confronted by King Boo, having lost faith in Hellen and her staff earlier and prepares to imprison them and their allies in a single portrait. After being inadvertently saved by Polterpup at the last second, Luigi, aided by Gooigi, finds himself forced to defeat King Boo once again. During the battle, King Boo enlarges the portrait's frame in an attempt to pull in The Last Resort with Luigi still on the roof. Luigi then triumphs over King Boo and manages to recover the portrait moments before the whole hotel crumbles to the ground from its endured strain. After freeing his friends from the portrait, the ghosts Luigi had captured escape from their containment in E. Gadd's now-destroyed lab and attempt to attack, but they suddenly become social when the jewel from King Boo's crown vanishes, suggesting that they were all brainwashed. E. Gadd, seeing the ghosts upset over their home's unintended destruction, elects for the group to build a new hotel, while the recaptured King Boo is returned to his custody alongside Hellen. Depending on how much money Luigi collected throughout his adventure, the new hotel, which is built in E. Gadd's image, will be different in size. After the grand re-opening, Luigi and his friends return home.
Luigi's Mansion 3 is developed by Next Level Games, who previously developed Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon for Nintendo. [2] The game was originally planned as a Wii U title, with early prototypes introducing the Slam and Burst as new abilities; however, development started for the Nintendo Switch system in earnest following the completion of Next Level Games' Metroid Prime: Federation Force . [3] The change in setting from a mansion to a hotel was done so that players could have "three-dimensional exploration" with Kensuke Tanabe explaining that they "wanted players to be able to visualize how the hotel was set up". [4] Despite the new setting, the team deliberately made the choice for some of the settings to "make it as unexpected and even un-hotel-like as possible". The team noted that as long as they connected the settings through a traditional hotel setup they could get away with the diverse settings. [4] Some features that were previously present in or planned for the Nintendo 3DS remake of the original Luigi's Mansion were expanded on for the third installment, such as same screen local co-op play and the aforementioned new abilities. [5] Prior to the game's formal announcement, Luigi's new gadget, the Poltergust G-00, was shown for the first time in the August 2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Direct while Luigi was introduced. The Poltergust G-00 was also incorporated into Luigi's moveset, now being able to grab opponents from a distance with the Suction Shot. His new Final Smash involves sucking opponents in with it and immediately ejecting them. [6]
Luigi's Mansion 3 was announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation on September 13, 2018, with the title at the time being listed as tentative and planned for release in 2019. [7] The game was a part of Nintendo's E3 2019 showcase, with a new trailer highlighting the premise, gameplay mechanics, and game modes, including the return of the online multiplayer mode, ScareScraper. [8] A demo was also made available to play on the show floor. Nintendo of America's Nate Bihldorff stated that the game's primary campaign would be longer than that of Dark Moon. He also stated that the finalized title was changed to a simple number "3" rather than a subtitle because the time gap between the second and third installments was much shorter to the point of calling the series an established franchise, as opposed to the 12-year gap between the first and second installments. [9] A new trailer shown during the September 4, 2019 Nintendo Direct showcased some areas of the hotel setting and debuted the ScreamPark, a new party-oriented game mode for up to eight players on a single console. [10] Luigi's Mansion 3 was released on October 31, 2019. [11]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | 86/100 [12] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
4Players | 82% [13] |
Destructoid | 9/10 [14] |
Easy Allies | 9/10 [15] |
Edge | 7/10 [16] |
Electronic Gaming Monthly | 4/5 [17] |
Eurogamer | Recommended [18] |
Game Informer | 8.5/10 [19] |
GameSpot | 8/10 [20] |
GamesRadar+ | 4.5/5 [21] |
Hardcore Gamer | 4/5 [22] |
IGN | 8.3/10 [23] |
Jeuxvideo.com | 18/20 [24] |
Nintendo Life | 9/10 [25] |
Nintendo World Report | 8/10 [26] |
Pocket Gamer | 4.5/5 [27] |
Polygon | Recommends [28] |
Shacknews | 9/10 [29] |
The Guardian | 4/5 [30] |
USgamer | 4/5 [31] |
VideoGamer.com | 8/10 [32] |
Luigi's Mansion 3 received generally favourable reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. [12] Chelsea Stark of Polygon praised the use of Gooigi, as well as the variety of levels throughout the game, saying that "this is our scaredy-cat hero’s best adventure yet". [33] Ryan McCaffrey at IGN also praised the level design and variety, saying: "Luigi's Mansion 3 is so fun, charming, and smartly designed that I hope we get more than three of these every 20 years." [23]
By March 2023, Luigi's Mansion 3 had sold 12.82 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games for Nintendo Switch. [34]
Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref(s). |
---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | Game Critics Awards | Best Console Game | Nominated | [35] |
Best Action/Adventure Game | Nominated | |||
Best Family/Social Game | Won | |||
Gamescom | Best Family Game | Nominated | [36] | |
Best Nintendo Switch Game | Nominated | |||
Titanium Awards | Best Art | Nominated | [37] [38] | |
Best Adventure Game | Nominated | |||
Best Family/Social Game | Won | |||
The Game Awards 2019 | Best Family Game | Won | [39] [40] | |
2020 | New York Game Awards | Big Apple Award for Best Game of the Year | Nominated | [41] [42] |
Central Park Children's Zoo Award for Best Kids Game | Won | |||
23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards | Adventure Game of the Year | Nominated | [43] [44] | |
Outstanding Achievement in Animation | Won | |||
NAVGTR Awards | Animation, Artistic | Nominated | [45] [46] | |
Game, Franchise Family | Won | |||
SXSW Gaming Awards | Excellence in Animation | Nominated | [47] | |
Excellence in Art | Nominated | |||
Excellence in Design | Nominated | |||
Excellence in SFX | Nominated | |||
16th British Academy Games Awards | Best Game | Nominated | [48] | |
Animation | Won | |||
Family | Nominated | |||
Multiplayer | Nominated |
Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games based on the Mario franchise developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up items. It features characters and courses mostly from the Mario series as well as other gaming franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, F-Zero, Excitebike, and Splatoon.
Mario Bros. is a 1983 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for arcades. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's chief engineer. Italian twin brother plumbers Mario and Luigi exterminate creatures, like turtles (Shellcreepers) and crabs emerging from the sewers by knocking them upside-down and kicking them away. The Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System version is the first game to be developed by Intelligent Systems. It is part of the Mario franchise, but originally began as a spin-off from the Donkey Kong series.
Luigi's Mansion is a 2001 action-adventure horror game developed and published by Nintendo. The game was a launch title for the GameCube and was the first game in the Mario franchise to be released for the console; it was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the third video game in which Luigi is the main character instead of Mario, after Mario Is Missing! and Luigi's Hammer Toss. Players control him as he explores a haunted mansion to rescue Mario and battles ghosts by capturing them through a vacuum cleaner supplied by Professor E. Gadd.
Mario Party is a 1998 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The game was targeted at a young audience. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto served as development supervisor. It received mostly positive critical reviews for its multiplayer mode, concept, and music; disapproval of its slow pacing; and mixed reviews of its graphics. It is the first installment in the Mario Party series and was followed by Mario Party 2 in 1999. The game received its first official re-release on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in 2022. Content from this game was remastered as part of Mario Party: The Top 100 for the Nintendo 3DS, Mario Party Superstars and Super Mario Party Jamboree for the Nintendo Switch.
Kirby Super Star, released as Kirby's Fun Pak in PAL regions, is a 1996 anthology action-platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is part of the Kirby series of video games by HAL Laboratory. The game was advertised as a compilation featuring eight games: seven short subsections with the same basic gameplay, and two minigames.
Pac-Attack, also known as Pac-Panic, is a 1993 falling-tile puzzle video game developed and published by Namco for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. Versions for the Game Boy, Game Gear and Philips CD-i were also released. The player is tasked with clearing out blocks and ghosts without them stacking to the top of the playfield — blocks can be cleared by matching them in horizontal rows, while ghosts can be cleared by placing down a Pac-Man piece that can eat them. It is the first game in the Pac-Man series to be released exclusively for home platforms.
Super Mario is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater Mario franchise. At least one Super Mario game has been released for every major Nintendo video game console. However, there have also been a number of Super Mario video games released on non-Nintendo gaming platforms. There are more than 20 games in the series.
Mario Strikers Charged is a 2007 sports video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the sequel to Super Mario Strikers for the GameCube.
Mario is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for video game company Nintendo, which produces and publishes its installments. Starring the titular Italian plumber Mario, it is primarily a video game franchise but has extended to other forms of media, including television series, comic books, a 1993 feature film, a 2023 animated film, and theme park attractions. The series' first installment was 1983's Mario Bros. even though Mario made his first appearance in 1981's arcade game Donkey Kong and had already been featured in several games of the Donkey Kong and Game & Watch series. The Mario games have been developed by a wide variety of developers. Mario games have been released almost exclusively for Nintendo's various video game consoles and handhelds, from the third generation onward.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is a 2013 action-adventure video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the sequel to the 2001 GameCube game Luigi's Mansion, and the third Mario franchise game where Luigi plays the lead role instead of the usual protagonist, Mario. The story follows Luigi as he explores a series of mansions in Evershade Valley, capturing ghosts using a specialized vacuum cleaner invented by Professor E. Gadd. In order to restore peace to Evershade Valley, Luigi must collect the pieces of the Dark Moon and recapture the main antagonist, King Boo.
New Super Mario Bros. U is a 2012 platform game developed and published by Nintendo as a launch title for the Wii U. The game is a sequel to New Super Mario Bros. Wii and the fourth and final entry of the New Super Mario Bros. series, following New Super Mario Bros. 2. It is also the first entry in the Super Mario series to feature high-definition graphics.
Nintendo Land is a party video game developed and published by Nintendo as a pack-in launch title for the Wii U home video game console in 2012. The game was first announced at E3 2012 during Nintendo's press conference.
Mario Kart 8 is a 2014 kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. It retains the gameplay of previous Mario Kart games, with players controlling a Mario character in races around tracks. Tracks are themed around locales from the Super Mario series populated with power-ups that help players gain advantages in races. Different difficulties are selectable prior to a race; harder difficulties make gameplay faster. In the new anti-gravity sequences, players drive on walls and ceilings. Mario Kart 8 contains a variety of single-player and local and online multiplayer game modes, including Grand Prix racing and arena-based battle modes.
The Year of Luigi was the 30th-anniversary celebration of the fictional character Luigi. He was created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. and has appeared frequently as a minor or supporting character in the Mario franchise since. Due to Nintendo's decision to develop Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team at the same time, they declared 2013 the Year of Luigi. According to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo staff members also had the urge to develop games focused on Luigi, and considered the character underrepresented compared to Mario. It was announced via Nintendo Direct on February 14, 2013, by Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata and ended on March 18, 2014.
Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge is a 2016 puzzle-platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The seventh entry in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, the game was free to download on the Nintendo eShop, but requires Nintendo's Amiibo lineup in order to play. It was released in Japan in January 2016 and worldwide in April.
Mario Tennis Aces is a 2018 tennis game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The game is part of the Mario Tennis series and sold over 4.50 million copies by December 31, 2022, making it one of the best-selling games on the Switch. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics.
Super Mario Party is a 2018 party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the eleventh main installment in the Mario Party series, and the first for the Nintendo Switch. The game was described as a "complete refresh" of the franchise, bringing back and revitalizing gameplay elements from older titles while also introducing new ones to go along with them. The game was released worldwide on 5 October 2018, and sold 1.5 million copies by the end of the month.
Super Mario Maker 2 is a 2019 platform game and game creation system developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the sequel to Super Mario Maker and was released worldwide on June 28, 2019. The gameplay is largely retained from that of its predecessor, in which players create their own custom courses using assets from various games across the Super Mario franchise and share them online. Super Mario Maker 2 introduces new features and course assets, including a single player story mode and new level assets based on Super Mario 3D World.