Village Gamer

We ventured to Vancouver last Thursday (along with my noxious cold & flu bugs) for a half-hour video interview with members of the Next Level Games dev team about the upcoming Nintendo 3DS title Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, which is scheduled for release on March 24th. In this new game, players will guide Luigi through massive ghost-infested mansions on an action-packed hunt for the pieces of the Dark Moon. Armed with the ghost-sucking Poltergust 5000 and other new gadgets, you’ll have to capture ghosts, solve puzzles, and battle monster-sized bosses. Besides Luigi, the game features Professor E. Gadd and his crew of Toads on the “good” side, while on the bad side we have a nice collection of ghost characters – Hiders, Slammers, Greenies, Gobbers, Poltergeists and Polterpups – along with the infamous Boo and that royal baddy, King Boo.

As told by Nintendo, the premise of the story is this: The Dark Moon that hangs over Evershade Valley seems to have a calming effect on the ghosts that reside there. For this reason, Professor E. Gadd has been studying the friendly ghosts that are unique to the area. But when the Dark Moon suddenly breaks apart and falls into the valley below, the once-friendly ghosts become hostile, trapping E. Gadd in his bunker. Meanwhile, Luigi, who is at home watching TV, gets a big surprise when E. Gadd suddenly shows up on his TV screen and drags Luigi kicking and screaming through the screen into the Evershade Valley! After a little persuasion, Luigi agrees to help E. Gadd on his quest to find the Dark Moon pieces and restore it to its rightful place in the sky.

It seems that each piece of the Dark Moon has scattered across the valley, becoming hidden inside massive mansions that Luigi will need to search thoroughly. Each mansion has its own distinct features and challenges – and is, of course, infested with ghosts. Luckily Luigi has the latest equipment to aid him on his quest – the Poltergust 5000. Also available are the flashy Strobulb and Dark-Light Device, two very handy attachments for the Poltergust 5000.

If the thought of creeping around these mansions on your own is a bit daunting, never fear, because you can take up to three friends with you. The multiplayer component of the game allows up to four players to take on the challenges of the ScareScraper, a haunted building teeming with ghosts and unique challenges not found in the main adventure. Recruit your fellow ghost hunters via Local Multiplayer, Download Play, or Online Multiplayer—or play ScareScraper solo to hone your skills. There are three multiplayer modes – Hunter, Rush and PolterPup.

My personal opinion from the little that I did see of the game itself in the time allotted, is that Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is going to be lots of fun to play – the artwork is beautiful, the characters enjoyable, the puzzles challenging, and I am looking forward to getting my hands on a copy, which will hopefully arrive Monday or Tuesday. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon has been rated by the ESRB as E for Everyone with the sub-warnings of Crude Humour and Mild Cartoon Violence.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQpETQAUj8c]

This video is, for the most part, unedited, as Scott is having hardware issues with his computer, so I apologize in advance for phone noise at the beginning of the tape, but we wanted to get the video uploaded as soon as possible for your viewing.