Luigi is a character that hardly ever gets the spotlight always stuck in the shadow of his older brother always a player too and sometimes even made fun of by the toads but quite a while ago there was a game that finally gave Luigi his time to shine finally let him prove that he was capable on his own and didn't have to always be overshadowed by Mario that game was none other than Mario is missing oops wait wrong one Luigi's Mansion being a launch shuttle for Nintendo new console the GameCube the original Luigi's Mansion definitely struggled at selling people on the system like the Mario games that launched their previous systems did but on its own it not only gave Luigi the spotlight for the second time it showed us that he was truly capable of being a protagonist and could offer a vastly different type of game and atmosphere than what we're used to from the Mario franchise with that being said though after the release of Luigi's Mansion people didn't really expect to see any sort of sequel to it the game seemed to do what it wanted to and that was about it and as the years passed the possibility of a sequel became dimmer and dimmer that was until Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon came out of absolutely nowhere in 2013 this game introduced quite a bit to the Luigi's Mansion formula but at the end of the day didn't really stray too far from the original in terms of its core gameplay and ideas but in 2019 the series would see its biggest change yet with the release of Luigi's Mansion 3 in October of that year this game shook up everything we thought we knew the Luigi's Mansion series was capable of in the best way possible and in this video I want to take a deep dive into it and see what really makes it such a great and genius entry in the series my name is Mario mikster and welcome to a Luigi's Mansion 3 retrospective release worldwide on October 31st 2019 Luigi's Mansion 3 is the third entry in the Luigi's Mansion series no really the team behind the development of this entry was none other than Next Level games the same team responsible for Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon on the 3DS and every Mario strikker game and despite releasing over 2 years into the switch's lifespan Luigi's Mansion 3 actually started out as a Wii U game implying that the game began development well before the switch's release in March of 2017 with a lot of the main Concepts and ideas seen in the final game including the setting of the hotel already being planned when this was supposed to be on the Wii U I imagine this game was delayed to the switch because next level games either didn't have enough time to finish it before the Wii U's ER was over or Nintendo was just not okay with having a game like this be trapped on one of their worst selling consoles today in order to make this entry in the series feel like a genuine step forward and not just another Luigi's mansion Game the team brainstormed a ton of new Concepts that could make this game feel different with one of the most prominent being the introduction of guigi a gooey emotionless version of Luigi who despite being invulnerable to hazards like spikes and being able to slip through metal bars and grates will immediately melt if even a drop of water lands on him but while being an idea conceptualized for Luigi's Mansion 3 this game wasn't actually where we first saw guy King Gigi's first appearance actually came just about a year before 3's release in the infamous Luigi's Mansion 1 remake on the 3DS here he just kind of serves as a simple player too with no special attributes Serv abilities pretty lame if you ask me also according to Luigi's Mansion 3's producer guigi is apparently uh edible and tastes like coffee the game opens up with this really cute and surprisingly well animated cut scene of Mario Peach some toads and Luigi and polter pup on a bus ride to a very nice looking hotel that they were all invited to and upon making your way to the hotel with Luigi foreshadowing Mario Wonder 4 years in advance wow s and entering the hotel you gain control of Luigi and while everything here looks nice it's pretty obvious something's up with all the staff and they're uh not so convincing disguises regardless of that though the little interactions you can have with the characters while walking around here are so cute you get to see polter puff steel Mario's cake and a group of toads desperately trying their best to manage Peach's luggage everything from the toad driving the bus barely being able to see over the steering wheel to the fact that Renditions of the different Characters themes play when you walk near them in the hotel lobby it's just all so smile inducing and really paints a picture for the sheer amount of Polish and love this game is littered with after making your way to your room though this is where things start to take a turn for the worst once you're done exploring your room and make your way into bed Luigi instantly falls asleep upon literally 1 second of attempting to read a book and a few hours later is quickly awoken by the sound of peach screaming and After exiting the room and entering the hallway the one light upbeat and cheery atmosphere of the hotel is quite literally transformed into the dark depressing and gloomy atmosphere the Luigi's Mansion series is known for exploring around the now haunted looking Hotel you're not only able to go into the other characters rooms and see that Mario really took advantage of that room service but you also come face to face with the hotel's owner Helen Gravely and the main antagonist of the Luigi's Mansion series King Buu where he reveals that he's trapped Mario Peach in the toads and paintings similar to Luigi's Mansion one and plans to finish off his collection with Luigi this leads into a really cool but obviously really easy Chase sequence with King Buu which results in Luigi falling down ainger shoot all the way down into the basement in order to avoid capture down here you find a brand new model of the polter gust in the trunk of an old car and finally are able to start capturing ghosts this whole opening does a stellar job at not only introducing how the game feels control- wise and the main premise of it with the hotel and the game story but also at establishing the cartoony horror Vibe it goes for speaking of the game's cartoony horror Vibe I really want to touch on how much Luigi's Mansion 3 Nails Translating that classic theme into a video game because I feel like it's an amazing aspect of it that often goes overlooked a lot of the stuff that happens in this game feels made out of a Scooby-Doo episode from the 1970s and it works so well for Luigi's Mansion these games aren't supposed to be Nintendo or Next Level games is attempt at a horror game filled with jump scares blood and a big T for Te rating rather just games that strive to give Luigi a spotlight taking advantage of his fear of just about everything and translating it into a fun Ghostbusters esque puzzle solving game at its core this is still a game that's to be enjoyed by the same wide audience of people who play just about any Mario game and instead of baby ifying this game and making it boring and have no atmosphere at all they take advantage of the fact that this is still a Mario Universe game and basically make the thing a playable cartoon everything from the cartoony art style to the silly animations and interactions it's packed with this game is full of so many of the classic cartoon tropes you'd see in shows like Scooby-Doo and the Flintstones and it's honestly admirable at how well they did at adapting these tropes into a video game I mean just look at the way Luigi Falls when the the floor is ripped right from under him or how he just barely avoids getting his nose cut off by medieval weapons swinging from the ceiling it's so good I love how they went all out on making this game feel like a playable cartoon another aspect of this game that makes it feel like you're playing a cartoon is how expressive Luigi and the other characters are throughout the journey I mentioned some of the interactions in the opening of this game but it doesn't even come close to stopping there the way Luigi coughs around dust how egad runs I mean look at this man Toad's expressiveness throughout the FNAF VHS found footage type thing and Luigi's various interactions with polterpup are amazing the level of sheer detail present in the animations and expressions of various characters in this game do an amazing job at immersing you in this cartoony world and is to date one of the best ways the Mario Universe has been portrayed animation wise returning to EAD though and his incredible Running Animation similar to the two Luigi's mansions before this e plays a pretty big role in The Adventure this time he sets up Luigi with two new moves the burst which allows you to essentially Jump by shooting out a burst of air and the suction shot which lets you shoot a plunger out that can attach to various objects allowing you to do things like destroy vending machines and swing around like your spider Ouija along with these two new abilities egad also gives you probably the funniest item in the game the virtual Boo the item you'll use to contact egad while you're exploring the hotel and be able to view the map of the current floor you're in both Luigi's mansions before this had similar devices like the Game Boy horror and the Dual scream which were based off the Game Boy Color and the DS but the virtual boo stands out because it's based on the Virtual Boy the worst selling Nintendo console to date and easily the company's biggest failure even more so than the Wii U the virtual boot comes with almost all the amenities its real life counterpart did complete with its iconic red screen and even has overconfidence that with good marketing the device will be flying off the shelves just like how Nintendo thought the virtual boy would sell well enough about egad and the virtual boo though I think it's time to talk about easily the best part of this game and that is exploring the plethora of insanely creative and well-designed Floors the hotel has before that though I think the biggest thing to address first before delving into the hotel and its various floors is the fact that despite being called Luigi Mansion 3 this is the first game in the series to not take place in a mansion at all instead taking place in a giant hotel and while being super ironic because of the series's name having this game take place in a hotel was one of the coolest things they could have done the hotel setting with its almost infinite possibility of floors allowed the level designers to spread their wings and not be forced to adhere to a certain theme like the first game was but also be able to fit all those themes in one building without it feeling weirdly forced because of the nature of a hotel resort and its elevators separating them instead of just trying to separate different themes across multiple different buildings like Dark Moon attempted it's a great way to evolve the series thematically and allow it to explore a bunch of different themes without them feeling shoehorned in like they did in dark Moon's multiple Mansions personally I'll take a Luigi's Mansion that doesn't take place in a mansion but still somewhat seamlessly is able to incorporate a variety of different themes inside one building instead of one that desperately wants to EXP exp different themes yet tries to stick to the mansion theme and creates like five different mansions to try and explore those themes sorry Dark Moon heading into the floors themselves though this is where the cartoony nature of the game makes a big return while some of these floors are somewhat realistic in their size and theme and genuinely do seem like places that would fit and be featured in a hotel others absolutely do not and I love it some of these floors are so insane in what they do that half the time I forget I'm even in a hotel and again feel like something straight out of a cartoon I mean just look at the tomb Suites on the 10th floor this place not only features an entire mini desert complete with a giant pyramid in the center the pyramid itself houses an entire Labyrinth of rooms below It featuring literal death traps I mean the stark contrast between floor 12 being pirate themed and housing a literal mini ocean with a two-scale pirate ship floating around in the water to the next floor floor 13 just being a regular old gym is so funny and goes to show that not only did the developers explore a plethora of unique ideas to have for these floors they clearly had a lot of fun with it too my absolute favorite floor here though has to be the eighth floor with paranormal Productions this floor sees you exploring a bunch of different movie sets in order to try and find the director ghost megaphone so he can film his final movie when you initially visit these sets they're nothing more than just regular old movie sets I mean sure they're cool the blue screen to add different backgrounds and effects and posts the studio lights and of course the director's chair but what really makes this floor cool is what happens when you look through one of the cameras in the various different sets suddenly instead of just being basic movie sets they're transformed into what they would look like after all the cool movie effects were added and it completely changes how you view them along with that by positioning guigi on the set and looking through the camera as Luigi you're able to control guigi and interact and walk around the set through the camera lens as if it were real place playing out these movie scenes as if you were actually in them I absolutely love this concept and in order to play out all the scenes correctly you have to bring different items from different sets into the scenes and I always have a blast doing this whenever I get to this floor it's just such a creative idea for not only a Luigi's mansion Game but just a video game in general all of this culminates into finding and returning the director's megaphone and helping him film his final movie which you actually get to star in and and with Gigi's help take down this giant godzilla terrorizing the city it's amazing well that is Until you realize that the giant godzilla you were fighting is just a regular ghost in a costume Jokes Aside though having the final boss fight for the film set take place in an actual movie is so cool and is just another way this game constantly shakes up its formula but the insane amount of creativity present in these floors doesn't just stop with the floor themes themselves like I was just talking about with paranormal Productions the unique boss fights each floor holds and the boss ghost themselves are so cool boss ghosts have always been incredible in Luigi's Mansion games but here they're even better because of the unique and different themes each floor has you have your pretty cool but also pretty basic boss ghosts like krawler the lazy and easily frightened Mall Security Guard Chef sule the chef and Johnny deep end the bodybuilder ghost pretty similar to Biff Atlas from Luigi's Mansion one but then you have super creative ones like Aus wolfgeist a professional piano player whose piano playing changes depending on the stage of the boss fight and eventually becomes the piano by haunting it King MC frights a medieval King who fights you top his horse trying to jast with you and Captain Fish Hook one of the only non-humanoid boss ghosts in the entire series being a giant shark who in my opinion has one of the most fun boss fights in the entire series seeing you roll explosive barrels into his mouth while he possesses the ship itself and hanging on for dear life when he flips the ship sideways and tries to swallow you and even for the not so creative boss ghost design wise that doesn't mean their fights aren't unique and fun Johnny deepend who I mentioned before has a fight where he's chilling in the pool and you have to try to distract him as Luigi while guigi slips through the metal fence and attempts to drain the pool so Johnny gets stuck in the drain a lot of puzzle games like this struggle with their boss fights because of them simply not being being a priority for the team or just the moves the character has not fitting well for boss fights but with Luigi's Mansion 3 that is absolutely not the case as just about every boss fight here is unique from one another and extremely fun to fight unfortunately though the key word or words here is just about every boss fight you see 95% of these fights are a blast I don't find them tedious or annoying they super well-designed fights against mostly super well designed ghosts but the 5% that I don't find a blast and honestly kind of despise are the polterkitty fights and yes I mean fights plural conceptually polterkitty and their fights sound cool enough it's a cat version of polter pup that is a pet of the hotel's owner Helen Gravely that she sends out after Luigi in order to halt his progress in reaching her and King Buu polterkitty does this by sometimes stealing the elevator button you've just gotten from defeating a boss as you're about to push it and go to that floor after that you have to scour the floor below you and look for polterkitty and fight it sounds okay enough right well the issue here comes with the fact that you have to do this three times per encounter three times you have to nearly beat it have it run off to the floor below the one you're on and fight it again until finally getting the button back every time I put in an elevator button and see that evil cat appear I let it the biggest sigh imaginable because I know the next 10 to 20 minutes of my life are going to be pure polter hell I think polterkitty could have worked a lot better if this only happened like once and you didn't have to chase it down multiple floors it's just kind of unnecessary backtracking and wastes a ton of time on a more positive note though we have easily one of my favorite aspects of the entire game and that's the money Jokes Aside though collecting money gems and gold is easily some of the most fun I get out of this game gold collecting has always been a huge part of Luigi's Mansion series ever since the first game with the gold collecting and the scored awarded you upon completion being one of the originals driving factors due to its short runtime and arcades level of replayability here collecting gold isn't a driving factor of the game as the arcades replayability is almost entirely gone because of the game's much longer runtime but exploring every nook and cranny and trying to get as much as you possibly can is easily the most fun it's ever been for me sure I don't feel compelled to grind the game over and over again to try and get the best final score possible because of again the much longer run time but every time I return to this game every couple years and replay it I'm always searching every drawer and closet to see what I can find and I always looking for new secret treasure rooms I hadn't found before I've played through this game three times now since it came out and I have yet to get the highest final rank possible but hopefully one day I'll get it for those who don't care about collecting gold though and just kind of want to beat the game egad offers you The egad Shopping Network this cool little shop that let you buy golden bones that revive you upon death and scanners that help you more easily locate gems and booze speaking of the gems though searching for these is just as fun as searching for gold finding these usually requires you to think outside the box and a lot of them are honestly pretty rewarding and fit in really well with the floors they're in I also really like how each floor has a different design for the gems it's a cool touch the last thing I want to talk about before we get into King Buu in the final fight is a common complaint this game gets and that's that it completely abandons one of the main things that made the first game so loved by its fans and that's the replayability I mentioned earlier I've never really understood this complaint because not only does stray away from the short run time and arcades replayability allowed them to experiment with a lot more ideas and really turn these games into full-fledged action adventure experiences this also wasn't the Luigi's mansion Game to stray away from the short run time it was dark moon which according to how long to beat do is literally longer than Luigi's Mansion 3 no hate to Dark Moon though being the main antagonist of the Luigi's Mansion games and essentially Luigi's Bowser equivalent King Buu's return in this game was not a surprise at all but I'm really happy that instead of painting him as the one and only villain of the game he instead is working alongside Helen Gravely the hotel owner who's a big fan of King Buu and freedom from egad's Lab Helen has seen watching over l for the whole game getting more and more Angry as he gets closer and closer to her office on the top floor and once you reach the top floor I absolutely love the four little rooms you have to solve in order to unlock her office and save Mario the puzzles are all really cool and creative and this one room even has a mini model of gloomy manor from Dark Moon the fight with Helen herself is also pretty good as well it's nothing mind-blowing but having to switch between Luigi and guigi in the fight always keeps me engaged and despite not being the most interesting fight it's definitely one of the most difficult once you do defeat her though and save Mario from his painting prison you're greeted by one of the cutest cutcenes in the entire Mario franchise oh oh oh yeah yeah wait to go oh yeah oh come on this way uhuh uhuh this way let's go come on oh yeah ha come on Mario okay going back to how I was talking about how animated and expressive the characters are in this game this cut scene is one of the best examples Charles Martina does an incredible job with his voice work here and it's quite literally impossible to not have a giant smile on your face the entire time while watching this this continues throughout the entire time you're making your way up to the roof of the building as Mario effortlessly runs and jumps his way up happily encouraging his brother to hurry up so they can rescue Peach once you make your way to the top and do rescue Peach though the three's cute reunion is cut short as king Buu appears trapping everyone except Luigi yes even EAD in the toads in a painting and leads into the real final battle this fight is pretty good it's genuinely pretty difficult because not only are some of King Buu's attacks hard to predict as you progress into the later stages of the fight more copies of him appear and the attacks are doubled and then tripled the setting of this fight is probably my favorite aspect of it though it takes place on the absolute highest point of the hotel the arena is illuminated by the bright and beautiful lights in the sky along with the hotel's roof lights and just the whole vibe of being on a giant skyscraper hundreds of feets off the ground is super cool it kind of reminds me of 3D world's final fight in some ways I really like the variety in kingo's attacks here though the unpredictability and difficulty of them makes them an actually good challenge that doesn't feel unfair just requires you to have a really good grasp on the game's main mechanics it is definitely leagues better than the final fight from the first game and after slowly making your way through the fight and chipping down King Buu's strength grabbing his tongue with Gigi and slamming him into the ground over and over again has never felt better and serves as a satisfying ending to a stellar game the Luigi's Mansion series is not one that people talk about very often I mean what is there to say other than speculate about future games in the series or the possibility of it getting a movie adaptation in the form of a Mario movie Universe spin-off film well for the first two maybe not that much depending on how you view them but for the third game regardless of how you feel about the series this is a game that deserves to be remembered for something that could have played it so safe and just stuck Lu IGI in another Mansion trying to save Mario from King Buu again they shake it up quite a bit and bring in a whole new setting into the mix that being the hotel and with the use of amazing animation transform the entire experience into a playable cartoon these characters have never been more expressive and it really makes me wish we got to see more of this I absolutely love Luigi's interactions with everyone the creative ways he's scared by the ghosts and just how he acts in this game in general Luigi's Mansion 3 pushes the series to to be more than it ever was filling this entry to the brim with more passion love and creativity than you see in 90% of AAA games that are released nowadays I sincerely hope this entry sets the groundwork for the rest of the Luigi's Mansion series because with Luigi's Mansion 3 Next Level games has proved the series is in great hands with them just make sure polterkitty isn't in the next game oh yeah bye-bye bye bye-bye [Music] [Music] bye everybody