Luigi's Mansion 2 on 3DS (Japanese version), the franchise's original sequel with five distinct mansions. Luigi and his Strobulb against varied ghosts. Rich content and engaging gameplay. Japanese version of the classic.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player7+
Description
Luigi explores five thematically distinct mansions to retrieve the Dark Moon shards and defeat King Boo, who has made the ghosts hostile. Published by Nintendo, released in Japan in March 2013. Five thematic mansions, missions divided into objectives, Poltergust G-00 vacuum, ghost-hunting multiplayer mode. Japanese edition.
Luigi Mansion 2 review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
Lighting is the real subject of the artwork here. Almost everything is read through a torch cone that carves out the dark, reveals a slice of wall then loses it again, and a second lamp makes invisible furniture appear, walkways that were not there, chests that did not exist. The ghosts themselves are handled as coloured translucency, so they live through the light passing through them rather than through their outline.
Sound does all the work of the capture. Every spectre has its own cry, shrill or whining, the vacuum climbs in pitch with a metallic complaint that tightens as the resistance weakens, and a resolving chord lands exactly as the grip gives way. That rise and fall, repeated hundreds of times, stays satisfying precisely because it is written as a complete musical phrase.
The Japanese edition of Luigi's Mansion 2, locally titled Luigi Mansion 2, is the game's original pressing and one of the emblematic mid-cycle Nintendo Japan releases on 3DS. Its collector value comes from the more stylised Japanese sleeve and from the cartridge carrying the initial Next Level Games build, before minor international adjustments.
Is Luigi Mansion 2 still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2013 on 3DS and known in North America as Luigi's Mansion - Dark Moon, Next Level Games' project resurrects the ghost hunting with the Poltergust after over a decade of absence. Luigi, trembling and endearing, vacuums up the spectres after dazzling them with the flashlight, in mansions packed with puzzles and secrets. The humour filled art direction, the expressive staging and the mission structure cut for portable play make for a charming adventure. The mission segmentation divides fans of free exploration. An excellent action adventure game, recommended for fans of puzzles and humour.
