Luigi's Mansion 3

LUIGI'S MANSION 3

Today, we cover Luigi's Mansion 3, the long-awaited third installment of the franchise and one of the most recent games I'll be covering here, at least until Origami King comes out. Luigi's Mansion 3 sees the game somewhat return to the original game's roots while incorporating some of the better bits of Dark Moon. The story features Luigi and his friends: Mario, Princess Peach, three Toads, and Polterpup, all take a trip to a luxury hotel where they have won an extended stay. The hotel turns out to be haunted and is part of a revenge scheme by King Boo and the hotel's own Hellen Gravely.

Luigi is once again our main playable character, this time equipped with the Poltergust G-00, which again can suck in ghosts and launch them out if needed, but can also shoot out a plunger to grab far-away items, blast him up into the air, and allows him to use Super Suction, a high-powered mode for sucking in larger obstacles. His flashlight also comes with the flash ability as before, and he gains the ability to slam ghosts around to weaken them so he can capture them easier. He can also turn paintings into reality again. His most notable new move however is Gooigi, an ectoplasmic clone of Luigi that can walk through tight spaces Luigi can't get through, but dissolves in water.

E. Gadd returns as Luigi's main line of support, once again having invented everything he uses. Mario, Peach, and the Toads all act as our damsel-in-distress characters that Luigi has to rescue, and Polterpup just generally plays around on screen, sometimes guiding you to important objects in your quest, sometimes stealing things. He is a good boi, in general.

King Boo is our main villain, his boss fight being similar to his fight in Dark Moon. He can fire a laser from his crown, trap people inside of paintings, call down lightning, bounce and create shockwaves, and throw bombs. He also uses his tongue a lot more this time, smacking it out across the stage and sweeping it back and forth. Needless to say, I don't think he's an echo fighter anymore. Hellen Gravely is the second main villain, who clearly REALLY wants to be King Boo's Harley Quinn/Bellatrix/Misa Misa. Sadly, her boss fight is rather underwhelming, with her just floating and shooting lasers at you. She does have a cat, Polterkitty, who can transform into a monster, but mostly just slashes at you. Boos also appear, performing a similar function as before.

In this game, we see the return of Portrait Ghosts, sort of. More like boss ghosts with personalities and roles similar to the Portrait Ghosts from before, generally with one for every floor. The hotel's steward is the first, throwing suitcases at you. Chambrea is a maid who uses dust to make you sneeze. Kruller is a security guard armed with a flashlight and water gun. Chef Soulffle is the hotel chef who attacks with vegetables and a skillet. Amadeus Wolfgeist is a pianist who possesses the piano and audience chairs to attack you. King MacFrights wears a suit of armor and tries to joust with you. Doctor Potter is a mad botanist who makes giant plants grow. Morty is a movie director who just wants to finish his movie, and you should let him. Ug is a caveman who possesses a giant T-Rex to attack you. Clem is the hotel mechanic who controls the boilerworks in the hotel. Serpci is an Egyptian queen who attacks with snakes and giant sand fists. Nikki, Lindsey, and Ginny are a trio of magician sisters who use hats, magic wands, and cards to attack and can flip things upside down. Captain Fishhook is a pirate shark (I wonder if he's related to Jonathan Jones?) who will bite and attack with a hook and can also possess the ship you are on. Johnny Deepend is an Olympic swimmer who will throw beach balls at you. And finally, DJ Phantasmagloria is DJ at a nightclub who throws records and uses sonic blasts to attack you.

Our ghosts include variations of five different types. Goobs are the basic type, similar to Greenies and Gold Ghosts before them, and will generally pop out and scare you and play with whatever happens to be nearby. Hammers are giant square-headed ghosts that slam and punch really hard. Oozers are basically Hiders from Dark Moon in that they like to hide then pop out and scare you. Slinkers like to pull of jumpscares and will try to grapple you, and finally Trappers have a pair of blue tongue. They will grab you with one and spank you with the other.

The game takes place entirely within a massive hotel, with each floor having its own theme. If I were to choose one location for the game, it would be the entire hotel itself, but each floor is a possibility as well. The floor's theme generally corresponds to the ghost inhabiting it, including the boiler room, basement, lobby, restaurant, shops, music hall, castle, garden, film studio, museum, pyramid, magic show, pirate ship, gym, club, and finally Hellen Gravely's office, or as I like to call it, her creepy stalker shrine to King Boo. (That ghost's face is everywhere! She even has a body pillow and bath toys of him. Seriously, King Boo, run fast).

Items include treasure again, elevator keys to the various floors, and of course, E. Gadd's inventions, including the Virtual Boo (nice reference!)

Now, let's see what we've got:

Characters:
Luigi: vacuum, suck up, flashlight, fire, water, ice, Game Boy Horror, examine, inflate balloon, flash, DS, Dark-Light device, slam around, plunger, super suction, blast up, Virtual Boo, Gooigi
E. Gadd: made all the stuff, Pixelator, polish
Gooigi: walk through walls, melt
Mario
Toad
Princess Peach
Polterpup: steal stuff, sniff out things
King Boo: paintings, warp reality, control Bowser, crown laser, trap in paintings, lightning, bounce, spike balls, roll, energy gates, fireballs, slam and sweep tongue
Bowser: stomp, breathe fire, ice, throw spike balls, charge, floating head
Boo: float, hide, bombs, get bounced
Hellen Gravely: hotel, shoot lasers, Polterkitty
Ghosts (general): jumpscare, punch, grapple, banana peels, ground pound, drop bombs, roll bowling balls, skeletons, serve food, play with objects, hide, sneak, spit mud, possess, levitate, mirrors, twin tongues

Bosses:
Chauncey
Bogmire
Boolossus
King Boo
Possessor
Poltergeist
Three Sisters
Big Boo
Hellen Gravely
Polterkitty
Various Ghosts

Stages:
Luigi's Mansion
Professor E. Gadd's lab
Evershade Valley
Gloomy Manor
Haunted Towers
Old Clockworks
Secret Mine
Treacherous Mansion
The Last Resort
Various Floors

Items:
Treasure
Medallions
Mario's Things
Elevator Keys
Virtual Boo

Thanks for reading! Next up, we'll cover Super Princess Peach!