Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon (Nintendo 3DS)

After the happenings of Luigi’s Mansion, Luigi once again has to put on his ghostbusting gear. This time he visits Evershade Valley, where the destruction of the Dark Moon caused all ghosts to become hostile to humans. Luigi is hired by the eccentric professor Gadd to visit five haunted mansions to retrieve the Dark Moon parts.

Luigi’s weapon of choice is vacuum device called PolterGust 5000 which is used to fight against the numerous ghost enemies. The basic procedure is always the same: Luigi has to stun the ghosts with the flashlight (in contrast to the predecessor, now the position and angle is important) so he can vacuum them in. Of course the ghosts struggle against it, so their movement has to be countered with the analogue stick. There are different kinds of enemies which require a variation of tactics, e.g. some ghosts have sunglasses which have to be removed first and others are only vulnerable briefly. There are also multi-stage bossfights.

The PolterGust 5000 is also used to solve puzzles, for example by sucking in a stove and using the flames to ignite something else. It is also a good idea to use the vacuum device on physical objects in the mansions in order to find secret passages or treasure. When Luigi picks up enough treasure, the PolterGust 5000 is automatically upgraded.

Besides the campaign, there is also a multiplayer mode which takes place in the ScareScraper, mansion with 25 floors. The available modes are hunter (sucking in as many ghosts as possible in a limited amount of time), rush (finding the exit in a limited amount of time; clocks can be picked up to extend the time limit) and polterpup (tracking down polterpulps, invisible ghosts, with the flashlight).