Here's a fun, vital detail about Luigi's Mansion 3: You can poop out and commandeer a slime doppelgänger of the Mario brother.
It's not technically poop. The Luigi's Mansion series casts the titular star as a vacuum pack-wearing ghost buster. So when you click the button to release Luigi's goo self, the stream of slime actually emits from the bottom of your Poltergust (that's what the ghost vacuum is called).
That's not what it looks like, though! Not unless you're watching very closely. It's fine. Gooigi is a perfectly capable poop monster.
Luigi's slime form made his debut in the second Luigi's Mansion game, but he's a much-expanded tool for puzzle-solving in this third go-round. Flesh Luigi can't walk across spikes or search below bathroom gates, nor can he be in two places at once. Gooigi enables all of those things and more.
The basic premise in Luigi's Mansion 3 is the same as ever: bust ghosts out of a haunted building. The busting involves weakening each spirit with a bright flash of light and then using your vacuum to tire it out before sucking it out of existence for good.
It's never that simple though. Ghosts have a tendency to move in packs, and focusing on one leaves you vulnerable to others. Some ghosts also carry shields or need a little more of a push to be made vacuum-ready. But Luigi's toolbox is also bigger this time.
When the crowds press in too much, you can tap two shoulder buttons to release a gust of air localized around Luigi. The fiction would tell you it comes from the vacuum, but let's be real — it's a ghost-repelling fart of epic proportions. A well-timed blast gives you the space to stay safe while you're focused on a spirit.
Once you've got a ghost actually snared in your vacuum and tired enough to stop pulling, Luigi gets violent. Smashing the A button repeatedly makes him do a powerful overhead slam. You know that scene in Avengers where Hulk smacks Loki into the ground over and over like a rag doll? Same principle.
Image: nintendo
There's also a suction dart — basically a plunger with a rope tied to the handle — which is handy for opening secret doors and ripping away a ghost's protection. Lining up your shot is a little squirrelly thanks to the controls; you can use motion controls to tweak the Y-axis of your aim, but to get the X-axis lined up you've got to maneuver Luigi just so.
The controls in general are kind of funky. You use the right thumbstick to aim Luigi's flashlight and vacuum, but it's not a case of the aim shifting in the direction you push the stick. Instead, holding left or right makes Luigi's aim rotate around in that direction (Resident Evil tank controls, anyone?). It's a strange choice whose purpose may become clear as the game moves on; but in the context of a quick E3 demo from the early game, it felt like a strange choice.
Luigi's Mansion 3 moves the setting to a towering spooky hotel. The whole Mushroom Kingdom gang heads there for a little R&R, but their plans go awry when something happens and all but Luigi are whisked off to different floors of the hotel and, as far as we can tell, trapped inside of paintings. You've got to rescue them, but to do that you've also got to hunt down the elevator's missing floor buttons.
That's the game, really: you move from floor to floor, clearing out ghosts and using your tools to uncover secrets, including the missing buttons. Floors are themed (we saw one with a Medieval vibe) and filled with hazards, ghostly and otherwise. It's all very Nintendo, and I mean that in a nice way: yes, this is a haunted house game, but all the horrors within are just kind of... adorable.
It's fun with friends, too. In a neat twist, Luigi's Mansion 3 lets up to four players hop in as different colored Luigi's. The standalone ScareScraper co-op mode allows for online or local play, and it's all about clearing floors. Sometimes you might have to bust X number of ghosts. Other times the goal is to find hidden Toads. It varies from floor to floor.
Each floor has a timer and a completely random layout. You never know how many ghosts you'll find in a given room, if they're there at all. Splitting up is the most efficient strategy, but the time constraints inevitably end up pushing multiple Luigis into a single room. These moments produce the fun kind of chaos that Nintendo's co-op shenanigans are known for.
It's a packed year for Nintendo Switch releases, but Luigi's Mansion 3 should be a highlight in what promises to be a busy holiday season. There isn't a release date yet beyond the vague promise of 2019, but something in October — just in time for Halloween — sure would fit the ghostly theme.
