Preview: Luigi's Mansion 2

Title: Luigi’s Mansion 2
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Next Level Games
Publisher: Nintendo
ESRB Rating: RP
Release Date: TBA

Boo! Luigi’s Mansion 2 is the Nintendo 3DS follow-up to the 2001 game that starred Mario’s younger, considerably more nervous brother. It was announced at E3 2011, is being developed by Next Level Games (the studio behind Mario Strikers and Punch-Out!! for the Wii), and is being published by Nintendo.

Like its predecessor, Luigi’s Mansion 2 is an action/adventure/ puzzle game that asks Luigi to call on his meager stores of courage while he works through a haunted mansion in search of items and treasure. Unlike the original game, however, Luigi’s Mansion 2 features 3D effects and will put poor Luigi through not one, but three new ghost-infested mansions.

Luigi is commissioned by Professor E. Gadd to capture ghosts in each mansion using the Poltergust 5000, a modified vacuum cleaner that can suck up the ghastlies. Whenever Luigi clears a room of its ghosts, he’s awarded with a key that grants him access to rooms deeper inside that particular mansion.

As in the previous game, Luigi uses his flashlight in Luigi’s Mansion 2 to stun ghosts before he sucks them up—but this time around, he needs to charge up his flashlight in order to release a “strobe,” an intense burst of light. Luigi can also wrestle more than one ghost at a time—if he has the guts.

Whereas the first Luigi’s Mansion game was more about exploration, project overseer Shigeru Miyamoto revealed at E3 2011 that Luigi’s Mansion 2 is more puzzle-oriented. Players are also able to use the 3DS’s built-in accelerometer and gyroscope to augment their ghost-hunting experience.

There’s no word yet on a release date for Luigi’s Mansion 2, but a Holiday 2012 date is a good guess. Nothing’s spookier than the Holiday season, right?—Well, even if you don’t think so now, you’ll change your mind once the crowds start clogging up the shopping malls.