Luigi's Mansion vs Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon; The Comparison

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This isn't technically a review due to the lack of a score (and because I'm not going to be posting my actual review on this forum due to needing to keep the news site active), but I thought it was close enough that it'd fit best here. Basically, I'm going to compare Luigi's Mansion to its sequel and determine which is better in regards to every single possible element in the game. So let me begin...

Graphics

Fairly even match here, the original one had a very unique style not copied by the sequel and the sequel has some places which make the original mansion look thoroughly boring by comparison.

On the one hand, the original game had a very down to eath, realistic style with fairly 'detailed' textures and an overall 'dark' feel that's only sometimes been matched by Dark Moon. But on the other, the new stuff in Dark Moon just looks way better than that in the original. Heck, if you need a great example, just go and look at the Secret Mine and the raging blizzard/snowstorm you have to walk through to get there. That's certainly some brilliant weather effects.

The Old Clockworks looks great too, with a definite 'factory' feel to the whole design that the original game didn't even try to have. And if you really want 'creepy' in terms of a location, Treacherous Mansion makes the original game's house look like a freaking paradise by comparison. Have a nice screenshot:

[attachment=1220:TreacherousMansion.jpg]

Above: The original mansion looked like a... home. This place looks like a death wish.

So while the more... standard first mansion may or may not look as good as the original, I'd say Dark Moon generally looks the better game once you reach the far more interesting later levels and see how both jam packed with detail they are and how well the creepy 'gothic horror' look is pulled off.

Music

A difficult one to judge given how fantastic both game's soundtracks are, but I do think Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon has this one nailed down just a little better.

But they are definitely different in style first and foremost. Luigi's Mansion 1 for instance almost entirely relied on more... ambient music and background sound than recognisable 'themes' in the catchy Mario sense. This did work well in leaving you permanently on edge and making you feel super uneasy while playing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr4FdprPhCo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgE8dWwcLF8

But it did have it's flaws. For one thing, the music in the original game was very, very repetitive after a long time playing. Why? Because you had literally two or three themes played in ninety nine percent of the rooms of the game, and these looped after about thirty seconds. It's certainly not a soundtrack to listen to outside the game.

In contrast, Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon has a more varied soundtrack with more memorable songs. Yes they're sometimes not as 'spooky' or 'disturbing' as those in the original game, but they're also something that won't grate on you after a few hours of playing. Like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8tPS3hESOo

There are plenty of others, but unfortunately no one's ripped them yet. But I can tell you that the music played in the Secret Mine is pretty cool, as is the music from the ScareScraper and that played in boss battles.

Heck, even the pause menu theme is fun to listen to and never gets old!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWR2BZIn-eI

Above: Over a minute before even the pause theme loops!

In addition to all this, the game remixes them to fit in with the area played and comes up with all kinds of neat 'versions' for different situations. My all time favourites were when you played the jukebox or phonograph and a catchy piece of music used elsewhere in the game (can't remember where) started playing. Nice touch.

Trust me here, the soundtrack in Dark Moon makes the original look so super repetitive by comparison.

Ghosts/Bosses/Enemies

As far as this goes, I think it can best explained as 'do you prefer ghosts with interesting designs or interesting attacks/strategies/personalities?' Because Luigi's Mansion 1 does have more... varied ghost designs purely by having portrait ghosts in general whereas its sequel tends to reuse the same ten or so basic models for most of the enemies/bosses.

But as far as their personality and variety in gameplay goes, Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon really wins out. I mean sure, the portrait ghosts in the original were okay, but most of their battles came down to the same thing; manipulate something in the environment, suck up ghost when its heart was revealed. Heck, you could even summarise literally half the 'strategies' as 'suck up ball like object and toss it at the portrait ghost to hurt it'. Not this time.

The Possessors? All come with very interesting and varied attack patterns that you literally cannot predict in advance without seeing a walkthrough. And for damaging them it's even better, you've sometimes even got three different strategies needed in the same battle! And that's not even getting into the more... 'interesting' bosses like the Shrewd Possessor in the Secret Mine. What other boss has you charge after it on a bomb throwing sleigh as it tunnels away underground?

And the normal ghosts are even more of an improvement. I mean sure, you could say that the portrait ghosts were interesting in the original because of the pretense of them having a 'backstory' and a unique design, but what real defence was there for the generic ones? Oh, they're all a bunch of Vincent Van Gore made paintings come to life. They all had zero personality and generally existed just to make Luigi's life a living hell. But most crucially, they had zero variation. Every yellow ghost you saw acted the same and tried to punch you. Every blue one tried to slam the ground. Every purple one tried to grab Luigi. So in essence, every single generic ghost battle was basically identical to every other such battle.

None of these are the case for Dark Moon's 'generic' ghosts. Not only does every single one of them have a personality and a general reason for existance outside of 'kill Luigi' (all ghosts including the bosses were friendly before the game began), but every battle is unique due to the ghosts making good use of the environment and giving themselves things like weapons. Think Luigi can just stun them immediately? Some wear helmets or sunglasses to prevent it (both require a different strategy to 'remove'). Others hold objects to hit him with, then block the strobe light with them when attacked. And others actually disguise themselves as mummies or knights and have to be physically harmed to make them drop their defences. As a result of this, the ghosts are far more interesting to fight in the original and have much better personalities too.

Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon wins out here no problem, unless you're one of those somewhat depressing individuals who seems more interested in the art style than how the game actually plays or a character behaves.

Gameplay

Nintendo themselves say Dark Moon is more puzzle orientated than the original, but I have to say that's only part of the picture.

No, in fact, Dark Moon is just the better game gameplay wise in general, puzzles or action regardless. Does it have better puzzle design? You bet, but it's also got a lot more difficult action sequences that rely on the type of pure skill so unoften rewarded in the first game. For example, the ghost battles? Far more pressure is on you now than there ever used to be, and some things like the boss battles are almost as action packed as those in your standard Mario game.

But gameplay wise, what's the differences? Well I'd say they come down to the following:

1. Ghost catching is less... 'precise' than it used to be to place the emphasis on fighting legions of ghosts rather than just one or two. For instance, now you generally don't lose your grip on your enemies unless you either don't do anything or get hit, whereas before you'd get randomly chucked off while the ghosts broke free in the most annoying fashion. But it's not a bad thing, the battles now feel much more skill based than they did before, and the aforementioned ridiculous amount of ghosts would quite literally murder you if you had to be as ridiculously 'precise' as in the original. Seriously, if Luigi went in this game with the old Poltergust 3000 and the old clunky controls, he'd get slaughtered by about the fourth mission.

2. There are elements in the original but not the sequel. This isn't really a bad thing though, the elements were just basic 'rock paper scissors' style mechanics that were there purely for puzzle solving purposes, and you can do the exact same thing as you would with the Fire or Water elements by manipulating the environment (using careful use of fire or carrying lit objects, or by carrying water in buckets respectively).

3. Luigi can interact with the environment more in Dark Moon. Whereas before he could only suck up a few objects, shake things or solve them in basic ways with fire/water/ice powers, in this game he can use the Poltergust to carry balloons, move objects around or shoot bombs at enemies. And even without it he can do other stuff, like carefully crossing narrow beams, use the strobe light to activate machines and using whatever random controls he finds lying around. I'd say this added interaction is definitely to the second game's benefit.

4. The mission structure is a bit different in the sequel. Yes he can still wander around mostly wherever he wants, but there are distinct missions that cause changes in the environment and open new areas. But this isn't a bad thing. Was the original game really that different? Not really, each 'area' had you end at the boss and kept you in a certain 'wing' of the mansion for the most part, so the original may as well have had a mission structure as is. And the variations between missions keep things like backtracking far more fresh than it otherwise would have been.

P.S. And from what I hear, the 'time attack' mission pretty much gives you free reign over the level as is. So if you really miss the style of the original and wandering around aimlessly, just unlock the 'secret' mission and wander around at your leisure.

So the second is a very different game, but I'd honestly say it's an improvement over the original.

Length/Difficulty/Replay Value

Is this even a contest? Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon is just the better game as far as any of this goes. The battles are more difficult, the puzzles are far more difficult, enemies surround you from all sides and the game has five massive mansions to explore instead of just one. Heck, just play Treacherous Mansion and see the puzzles where you have to carry objects from room to room via a teleporter system to solve problems. That's way more complex than anything in the original game, and the later missions in the game absolutely revel in it.

If you need a good comparison length wise, look at it this way. The game is split into five mansions, with between 3 and 7 missions each. The original game on the other hand had four areas, each of which was about as long as a single mission in this game (and only a Gloomy Manor mission at that). This game is easily four or five times longer than the original game.

And for replay value, it's not exactly a difficult choice either. You've either got one secret 'hidden mansion' which changes hardly anything in the Japanese and US versions and a few secrets, or a whole ranking system with star ratings for every single mission, gems to collect in every mansion, Boos to find, hidden missions, the theoretically endless ScareScraper with randomly designed rooms and online multiplayer. There is just no possible way you can even consider the original on the same level in this respect.

Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon wins this one hands down no questions asked.

Other (content)

As you may have guessed, Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon is the better game in nearly way. But I'd also say one more miscellaneous thing is improved by it having multiple mansions, an that's the whole 'theme' thing. You see, while the first does a good job of portraying a 'realistic' haunted house, the second's variety means that the locations don't get old.

For instance, while the original did pull off the haunted house thing well, it definitely ended up being the game's undoing in the long run since you can only plausibly fit so many ideas into a single more 'realistic' location like that. Heck, the likes of Sir Weston or the Toy Soldiers would have fit far better in the sequel than the original if you ask me...

So in general, Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon is the better game. The original does a lot of things well, it's just the sequel does them better.
 
I agree with all of these points, if anyone wants citation. Especially: "Seriously, if Luigi went in this game with the old Poltergust 3000 and the old clunky controls, he'd get slaughtered by about the fourth mission." Seriously doubt he'd even make it THAT far lol
 
Best 3DS game I have played so far. I haven't played the original but it probably isn't as good.
 
Best 3DS game I have played so far. I haven't played the original but it probably isn't as good.


It was pretty decent for its time but very clunkily controlled so easily over-looked and very mixed reception was given to it. This is a HUGE upgrade from the original, though I think if you haven't played the first one that you would still enjoy it even after playing the second one.
 
I checked the game out on a Gamestop 3DS when I went to trade in some old Wii games. It looked pretty nice, I find it graphical wise the same as Luigi's Mansion, though to even compare it I'm gonna have to get my hands on it...which I don't know when that'll be.
 
Best 3DS game I have played so far. I haven't played the original but it probably isn't as good.


You can't even put a probably in that. If you haven't played the original, you can't actually judge the game. I thought Luigi's Mansion was one of the best games to be released to the GameCube.
 
In my opinion, I like the original better, It was more go anywhere you want, more creepy, better story, and the ghost were better and they weren't all cheesy and such, but that is just my opinion.
 
Except the original game's ghosts were pretty cheesy, it's just everything forgets that ghosts other than the portrait ghosts actually existed.

You know:

Blue_Twirler.png


Red_Grabbing_Ghost.png


180px-Shyghoul.jpg


Gold_Ghost.jpg


Purple_Bomber.PNG


640px-Grabbing_Ghost.jpg


GarbageCanGhost.png


They're what the Greenies, Slammers, Gobbers, Sneakers and others are successors to. They have absolutely nothing over them in design, have the most boring attack patterns you can imagine and have zero personality.

Frankly speaking, the only thing the original game did have over its sequel in terms of characters were said portrait ghosts, and even those rarely ever did anything.

As for the creepy atmosphere, I'd disagree. Dark Moon has plenty of creepy music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSRymq1yY9I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpsWF0EMOJA

And plenty of... well, more subdued themes as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu2mHTHbjYk

It's just the songs were not all background ambience with the minimal required for an actual theme or melody.
 
Except the original game's ghosts were pretty cheesy, it's just everything forgets that ghosts other than the portrait ghosts actually existed.

You know:

180px-Shyghoul.jpg



I call an exception right there! lol A shyguy or snifit ghost is pretty cool - especially over all of the ones in Dark Moon, to me. I agree with the rest of that post, though. I just love shyguys and think in LM2 they should have had a snifit ghost that shoots at you.
 
I like the new one, but I despise how frequently you get interrupted by the professor. It feels like it's nearly constant. I'm sure the mission style game works better for the 3DS in general, but between being interrupted by the mission breaks themselves, and adding in constant phone calls for the Professor to tell me things I already knew or could figure out on my own... It got a little frustrating. Better design, but poorly implemented in my opinion, and I feel the game did lose some of it's spookyness in the process.

Of course, having characters constantly pester you through the entire game instead of letting you play it seems to be a Nintendo thing recently... -_-;
 
I like the new one, but I despise how frequently you get interrupted by the professor. It feels like it's nearly constant. I'm sure the mission style game works better for the 3DS in general, but between being interrupted by the mission breaks themselves, and adding in constant phone calls for the Professor to tell me things I already knew or could figure out on my own... It got a little frustrating. Better design, but poorly implemented in my opinion, and I feel the game did lose some of it's spookyness in the process.

Of course, having characters constantly pester you through the entire game instead of letting you play it seems to be a Nintendo thing recently... -_-;


LOL Hey! Listen! ;) Be grateful zombies weren't involved and Capcom didn't develop the game; you may have had to deal with Otis from Dead Rising calling Luigi every 3 and a half seconds as well. Can you imagine a port of Dead Rising to the 3DS? Ever 3 seconds Otis interrupts you and every 15 minutes the game pauses to remind you to take a break? I think I would attempt to strong-arm the system across the map to bean Miyamoto in the temple with it.
 
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