This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

I never picked up a Gamecube until it was well discontinued. It wasn’t that I had anything against it, but that it came out during a time in my life where I was already all in on other consoles (ps2, Dreamcast, Original Xbox), that I could never make sense of getting yet another system when it was out. I know it is a beloved system and I know that it has some quality games. I purchased my first Gamecube within the past 3 years, because there just happened to be a good lot for sale on eBay that made it enticing enough to get. I bought and played The Wind Waker (see ranking) as I was told year over year that it was the best Zelda game of all time. One game has always eluded me on the Gamecube, and its not because it is hard to find but because Gamecube games are getting a little pricey for me. I mean I can’t justify paying $70+ dollars for a used ‘common’ Gamecube game. So I did the next best thing I could manage, and that was to play the Switch game, Luigi’s Mansion 3.

Now hopefully I don’t say anything outlandish since I missed the first and second game in the series, but outside of meeting E. Gadd in previous games I think I will be able to fairly judge this game based on it’s merits alone. Let’s pretend you are all novices, like I was, and explain exactly what this game is. You play as…. wait for it…. Luigi as he attempts to rescue his friends from some no good ghosts who have captured them. Unlike the first game or second, where I believe the location is an actual haunted mansion, this game takes place in a haunted hotel and Luigi must battle ghosts on each floor to unlock new elevator buttons so he can travel higher and higher up into the hotel.

At his disposal, Luigi has his trusty vacuum cleaner (ghost sucker 5000), a flashlight, plunger launcher, a goo version of himself (named Gooigi) and a little shockwave burst. Most of these moves are actually unlocked as soon as you get your cleaner. Gooigi and a more powerful attachment are the only two things that get dolled out over time and there is a big space between them. While I love a Metroid-vania or Zelda approach to you getting a new ability or item frequently, in LM3, you may have the same abilities but you learn to use them in new ways to tackle different challenges. For instance in the early stages the burst move is used primarily to open up areas during exploration, but eventually (the game doesn’t tell you) you will learn that you can use it as a short hop to dodge boss AOE attacks, or to cause ghosts to drop some items they are carrying. Most ghosts are tackled by simply hitting them with flashlight and then sucking them up into your vacuum, later enemies might be immune to the flashlight at first requiring you to dislodge glasses from their face, or forcibly remove a shield from their hand before they can be stunned.

What this game does best, is that the design of each floor of the hotel is substantially different and as they get more outlandish allow the gameplay to still feel relatively fresh despite your repertoire not changing. While the first 2-3 floors might seem like basic hotel fare which isn’t very interesting, eventually you will get to a floor that doubles as a television studio, a natural history museum, a pharaohs pyramid, and a pirate’s lair and accompanying ship, amongst others. The floors don’t have to make sense (how can they have that much water on the pirate floor, without having serious leakage on the floor below), but they are fun to explore. I was consistently amazed at how the physics of the game worked as well. Sand can be pushed around or sucked up completely allowing you to make ramps or find buried treasure, faucets can be turned on or off, not just in specific areas, but in any room based on if you was using the pull or push of your vacuum. Sheets can be pulled off beds, curtains can be ripped down, bookshelves destroyed, etc. you will be spending a lot of time in this game absolutely trashing rooms, not for what is to be gained, but because its fun to see what happens.

Trashing all these rooms will usually net you some good cash, maybe a collectable, or encounter with a ghost, but ultimately its fairly frivolous. Cash can be redeemed for 3 items, a continue, a map marker for a collectable item, and a map marker for a collectable ghost. The continue is nice to have in your back pocket, as during a multi-staged boss fight you might want a little assurance that if you die you aren’t starting the whole thing over, but I really wish there would be more to buy. If you are going in every room, fighting enemies, and poking your head around corners, you are going to get SO MUCH MONEY, and there just doesn’t seem like anything to really spend it on. I went through at least half of the game before I bought my first collectable map marker, and probably 2/3rds of the game before I got my first continue. Luigi left the hotel much richer than he went in. While I did spend my time getting all the collectable ghosts and items, outside of unlocking an in-game achievement it doesn’t really do anything. Now that might be because I was missing a big portion of my collection that was only to be gained through play multiplayer online, so perhaps if you truly get everything in the game, you unlock a new title screen or bikini outfit for Luigi, but I can’t confirm.

As I was stating earlier, each floor (17 in total) has a unique boss fight that goes along with its theme. You come across a ghost chef boss in a kitchen, or a ghost water polo player in the gym area. Unlike your regular run of the mill ghosts, each boss fight is more of a puzzle than previous encounters. Some of these puzzles can be fairly easy or telegraphed about what you need to do, and others can be a real pain in the ass to not only figure out what you need to do, but to execute it as well. Ignoring the final bosses, I had a real hard time with the dinosaur boss (the secret is Gooigi) because it just wasn’t something that I would naturally think of. Not to do any spoilers, but at one point you have to switch to Gooigi and let the T-rex eat him, so that you can then shoot him while he is distracted. Playing video games as long as I have, the solution of let yourself get hurt is never one I am going to first. I also really struggled with the hillbilly in the basement. His was a case of, I knew exactly what I needed to do, but the timing and the execution was a problem for me. Even with that said, I enjoyed most of the boss fights, as I found them clever and a good closure after exploring each floor.

Last 2 positives I want to heap onto this game. First, the game looks fantastic. I am sure not everyone will agree with me, but everyone complains about the switch showing its age, but playing this game on the big screen it still looks phenomenal. Maybe it amazed me more, because I am not always playing the newest and greatest games, but I certainly noticed this one and wanted to give it a special call out. The other benefit, is that this game can be played fully cooperative once you unlock Gooigi. You can have a second player controlling Gooigi and he has nearly all the same abilities and can suck up ghosts and solve puzzles all the same. Now there are sections where the game requires only one person to progress, for instance there are sections where Gooigi has to go down a drain to hit a switch to open areas up for regular Luigi, or Luigi has to turn off water to open up areas for Gooigi to go, but that should hopefully not be a deal breaker for anyone. It also has the Kirby benefit where Gooigi can die and repeatedly be re-created without any repercussions.

Now, not everything is perfect in the game. I found the control layout to be a bit clunky and when using a pro controller to play the game I found myself having to change my grip to a weird claw when I was trying to activate certain abilities. This was mainly when I was using the flashlight’s secondary feature and scanning full rooms to see what I might be missing, so it is certainly not an “all-the-time” issue, but it did happen enough for me to call it out. This can be especially difficult when trying to direct kids on what they need to do, but again this only happens in a few instances. I also found that the game outside of the bosses really lacked enemy variety which can really become apparent after 17 floors of fighting. Now there are variations here, (blue ghost, blue ghost with shades, blue ghost with shield, etc.) but when all is said and done there are only about 4-5 different types of enemies. The variants do make up for this a little bit, but they were able to come up with almost 20 unique bosses, I was surprised that the normal fodder ghosts was limited to such a small amount. I’m nitpicking here, but I would say that the cat ghost could have been cut from its second fight and I don’t think anyone is complaining. Backtracking to old floors to look for a single boss, is not something we should ever be doing.

When all is said though, Luigi’s Mansion 3 has a lot more positive things to say about it rather than negative ones. I never found myself getting bored playing the game, or that it was taking too long to finish, like I did when playing Kirby. Part of that reason is that I was invested in seeing what each floor would hold, and knowing that each floor (depending on your exploration levels) can be completed in 20-30 minutes meant that even if I was getting sick of an area, I wasn’t far from seeing the next one. Plus there is nothing better then seeing that scared Luigi face on each floor completely ignorant to the fact that he is far scarier to the ghosts than he thinks. Luigi, you cleared out 14 floors of ghosts, why are you still scared about the 15^th floor?

Is this the greatest game of all time?: No

Where does it rank: Luigi's Mansion 3 is a really fun, family friendly switch game. It's a pseudo horror game for kids and adults, with great unique floors and some engaging puzzles and gameplay. The draw for me was always seeing what floor was next, but I will admit that I was upset about the lack of enemy variety and some annoying backtracking moments that kill some of the momentum of the game. I would say this is a worthy switch game to own, but it certainly isn't the peak of the switch games. I have it ranked as the 24th Greatest Video Game off All Timeout of 148. It sits between Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (23rd) and Return to Monkey Island (25th). However, I do think there is a imaginary gulf between 23rd and 24th as I think other games (none I have in mind currently) will slot in between these two. I just think Mario Kart and above is a different tier than Luigi's mansion 3 is at.

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion).Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for listening

In my opinion Luigi's Mansion 3 is the best game on the Nintendo Switch overall.

@av_gamer: totally valid. I don't think I can get there because mario odyssey is by far my favorite that I have played exclusively for the switch.

Definitely a great game with some annoyances. Probably still a game with the most satisfying SUCKING function in it.

@glots: thanks for the comment. Do I even want to know what other games are even in the running for best "sucking" function.

Good review! Man, this game rules. Going full rockstar on every room in the hotel never stopped being satisfying. So much character and charm in these games. But in terms of best Switch exclusives, Odyssey is indeed tough to beat. A joyous experience!

@manburger: years late on the reply.. but thanks for the read and comment. I never got sick of destroying rooms and I was always amazed at some of the secrets they held