Tag: Luigi’s Mansion 2

1203: Back to the Mansion Again

I played a bit more Luigi’s Mansion 2 earlier. Haven’t played it a lot yet, but I’m really liking it for a number of different reasons.

Firstly, the single-player mode has a very strong “adventure game” feel about it. Specifically, it features frequent occurrences of getting “stuck” — something which is not altogether common in modern games that hold your hand quite a lot. Luigi’s Mansion, though, despite appearing quite tutorial-heavy in the first couple of levels, very quickly turns into a game where you’re expected to work things out for yourself, to remember things from earlier and to explore thoroughly rather than just following the handy glowing trail of breadcrumbs on the map.

Secondly, the multiplayer mode is awesome. It hadn’t occurred to me that multiplayer in Luigi’s Mansion 2 might actually be good, but by golly, it really, really is. I’ve only tried the “Hunters” mode in Download Play so far — this apparently means it’s a “limited” form of the full multiplayer experience — but it was a blast by itself.

Essentially, the multiplayer mode is a cooperative ghost hunt for up to four players at once. Before starting the game, the players choose how many floors of a mansion they want to tackle and must then clear each of them against a strict time limit. Each level is randomly generated, requiring methodical exploration to locate where all the ghosts are and then to take them down. Communication between players is also helpful, but for those who don’t want to actually talk to each other — or those who are unable to due to playing online, for example — there’s a handy little “quick chat” thingy on the D-pad, allowing you to make Luigi say various things, but more importantly, display a callout on the map indicating that the other players’ attention is required in a specific location.

It’s a really interesting mode because it’s simple but extremely flexible. If you want a short game, you can play just 5 floors. If you want a longer game, you can play up to 25 floors, and successfully clearing this opens up an “Endless” mode, which sounds like a lot of fun. Within the individual play session, players earn points towards upgrades that are valid just for their single play session, making a single multiplayer game feel like a microcosm of the main game’s upgrade and reward structure. It’s really, really neat and I can actually see myself playing it quite a bit.

The Download Play functionality also reminds me of one of the great unsung features of Nintendo’s handhelds. It is absolutely awesome to be able to wirelessly beam a limited version of a game over to your friends and play them without them having to own the game. Wireless multiplayer on its own is great — remember the awkwardness of hooking up link cables? — but when your friends don’t have to have their own copy of the game? Brilliant. The only thing about this that I hate is the fact that the 3DS’ stupid region locking prevents handhelds from different regions downloading these multiplayer-specific packages. Sometimes. (If it was consistent, I might not be quite so mad about it, but still.)

Anyway. Luigi’s Mansion continues to be an entertaining experience, and I’m looking forward to investigating it further. For now, however, I bid you good night!

1199: Back… to the Mansion

I never played the first Luigi’s Mansion, to my shame, but I understand it was a good time, if perhaps not quite up to the standard of some of Nintendo’s other, more high-profile titles.

I have, however, been playing the second Luigi’s Mansion game thanks to a copy generously provided to me by my brother for my birthday. Yes, it’s the second 3DS-related post in as many days, but I actually want to talk a little more generally about Nintendo and how they do things rather than go into the specifics of the console and the game itself.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 doesn’t come with a manual. It comes with a pathetic little single sheet of paper that outlines the basic controls, plus all the other usual health and safety crap that Nintendo always bundle all their products with.

What struck me in the couple of levels of Luigi’s Mansion 2 that I’ve played so far was this, though: it doesn’t need a manual, because it is so immaculately and intuitively designed that even someone completely unfamiliar with the original game will be up and ghost hunting within seconds, and all without any real “tutorial”. Okay, there are a few messages the first time you get items, but an awful lot of stuff isn’t explicitly explained at all — it just makes perfect sense.

This is in direct opposition to the way that a lot of mobile and social games work — pretty much every mobile and social game out there begins with a long, tedious, badly-worded and unskippable tutorial that literally doesn’t allow you to do anything but the thing it’s telling you to do. No sense of exploration, no means of discovering things for yourself, no means of skipping the bullshit if you’re already familiar with how to “Build Your Own Town!” and then spend the rest of your life tapping on things every time your phone lights up.

I found this interesting, because ostensibly a lot of Nintendo’s games target a similar demographic to those who play mobile and social games. This isn’t to say that they’re dumbed down or “casual”, I hasten to add — but their recognisable, consistent, family-friendly aesthetic and “pick up and play” nature makes them ideal for pretty much anyone to try for themselves and probably have a pretty good time with.

I think it’s a difference in approach. Nintendo comes at it from a rather welcoming angle that is friendly to both experienced gamers who have been helping Mario out since the ’80s, and newcomers who are coming to a Nintendo game for the first time on the 3DS. “Come on in,” their games say. “We’re going to have some fun. If you know what you’re doing, go right ahead and enjoy yourself. If you’re not sure what to do, though, don’t worry — we’ll help you out.”

Compare and contrast with the way that, say, Zynga treats you when you start one of its games. “YOU!” the game seems to say. “You are STUPID. You are a WORTHLESS IDIOT who has NO IDEA how to play a fucking video game. Why else would you be playing one of OUR games? Let me walk you through everything EXTREMELY SLOWLY. No, I don’t believe that you know how to play this game already. SHUT UP. You can start playing when I say so. Don’t click there, click here. I said CLICK HERE. I’m going to wait here until you click here. No, I don’t care if you want to make it full screen. I say click here, so you DAMN WELL BETTER CLICK HERE. Twat.”

I’d never really noticed this strong distinction until recently, but by golly it is noticeable. And it makes the difference between me playing a Zynga game and feeling like I’m having my intelligence insulted at every turn, and playing a Nintendo game and wanting to show everyone how awesome it is.