Luigi's Mansion (outside of OoT's port) is probably the best game there is for the 3DS. if you loved the original there is no reason not to get this game, Dark Moon/2 is much more than the original's equal. Despite it being on a handheld it is far superior to the original, more mansions to explore, more actions, enemies, strategy and some amazingly clever puzzles and touches. Everything looks incredible and everything works like it should.
the humour in the game and Luigi's character are very well realised and you can feel the genuine excitement and love that went into making this game. Luigi is a victim of circumstance and almost all of the levels entail hunting down some ghosts and retrieving something from them that you need, there are at least 4 very unique mansions but the levels work the same; find a way forward, dispose of the ghosts and get what you need but even after four mansions, all having about 5-8 levels each of the same thing in the same place, you still find yourself playing becuase it is so compelling, you dont mind that you have to search for two clock hands then the rotor then the room, then Toad, becuase you're having too much fun to really care about doing the same thing again and again, that said though you never take the same route twice and some of the puzzles are devils in disguise, it could take you 40minutes to figure out how to progress or find something you missed and then wonder why you never figured that out in the first place, it is very clever.
Everything Luigi has at his disposal can be used to take out ghosts or solve puzzles, the Dark Light is a very unique item and no doubt you'll go 'thats clever' when you first realise what it does. And you'll be saying that throughout the whole game as you progress.
I'd like to say that the 12 years we had to wait were far too long for nitnendo to make good on a game that was one of the Cube's best and most enjoyable and memorable, but i can't. I'm thankful for the wait, if this game had happened any sooner it wouldnt have been as good, it would have been a quarter of what it is if it had been released on the primitive-when-it-was-new-DS , and it would have been a motion control laden mess on the Wii. the 3DS is the perfect home for Dark Moon/2
Criticisms i could give of the game in the name of balance would be that, depending on your skill level, the game will feel oddly paced. In LM1 we had four levels, but in LM2 in the first mansion alone we have 8 levels not including the boss fight level and the unlockable levels, if you're able to get through them quickly then the game will have a very odd stop-start pace to it. Thankfully though the levels keep you thinking and things are never as simple as getting to the room you need to be in.
Secondly as far as criticisms go (and its a small one) The array of ghosts, while balanced and very well designed, don't seem to have as much character as the family of ghosts in the first game. in LM2 you'll not chase a butler down a hallway, follow him into his room and bust his ghostly ***, nor will you suck up a fat man's maids and deprive him of food enough to piss him off and have a fireball dodging session. Instead, in this game you'll see a lot of the same ghosts over and over again like the 'Greenies' which are your standard ghosts, usually theyre easy to dispatch but later they'll try to stove your head in with rocks and shield their eyes from your flash light with buckets and spades (and then they'll stove your head in with those) While it's cute it would have been nice to see some other ghosts do this rather than recycling Greenies, none of the bosses have the flair of the family in the first game either, instead the bosses in LM2 are the same breed of ghosts which have the power to posses that Mansion's theme, like a giant spider or a Clock face that acts like a gauntlet. But you won't notice this while you play it....
LM2 is very much its own beast while still being the same as the first game while being a true sequel that enhances and build upon nearly every aspect of the first, its a must buy and if OoT wasn't on the 3DS it'd be the best game on the 3DS, if you don't like Oot then its a no brainer but it still makes Luigi's Mansion 2 the best original game for the 3DS.
