E3 2019: Hands-on with Luigi’s Mansion 3 multiplayer and Q&A

You’ve read our single-player impressions of Luigi’s Mansion 3, and now it’s time for multiplayer! We also go ask some of the Treehouse staff some questions about Luigi’s Mansion in a Q&A format – it’s all here!

Multiplayer

The ScareSraper or ThrillTower as it was known in PAL regions was the multiplayer portion of Luigi’s Mansion 2, and now it’s back and improved in Luigi’s Mansion 3.

As the Direct showed, ScareScraper pits four players each take control of a different coloured Luigi, after that you’re given a goal and 5 minutes to figure out how to do it. The objective for each map is varied, just as the map is itself, so each time you load in you will never know what you might have to do, so communication is key if you hope to succeed.

The objectives range from defeating a set number of ghosts, to taking down a singular one, but each time you play, even if you restart a level, things will change. In my first round, the four of us spawned in the one room and as communication is key, we broke off into pairs and then hit the trail, now as these things often go, we quickly went our own ways regardless. It was a common thing to enter a room and find a Luigi, battling a ghost, if there was another one waiting in the wings, so to speak, then I would jump in and take them out, this of course proved to be a bit of a curse at times as the new Slam move, that you get in the main story can be used here and it can hurt other players.

The objective we had was to take out 24 ghosts and by the time 4 minutes of the given 5 had past, we had only cleaned up half of what was needed. It was at this point that I entered a room, which contained a little bit of a puzzle, clearing it, provided me with a treasure chest and when I opened it, a map was provided. Now the map fills in as you walk around, but this adds any rooms you have yet to visit on it, but it also allows for you to see what rooms have ghosts and which of them have been cleansed of the mischievous spirits. With that new information, I headed from the room and into a storage closet, complete with a mop and while there were only seconds left on the clock, I used the Gust ability to constantly jostle the room, picking up all the lose coins and gems I could.

Something that we saw during the Nintendo presentation, is that Gooigi can be used, just like from the main game, however, there is a bit of a difference here, they were also required to solve a very specific puzzle in their room. All 8 characters needed to stand on a single plate, to lower it and unlock a door, giving them access to the room beyond. In my hands on, I let Gooigi out for a bit and it led me to ask the question of the Treehouse member who was with me. Can he be controlled by someone else? The answer was yes, Scarescraper allows for 8-player online, with two people on a single Switch.

ScareScraper was a tonne of fun on the Nintendo 3DS, and now with more players allowed online and the benefits the Switch brings to local play – it’s going to have a huge fanbase. Just remember to talk to each other!

Q&A

But like you – we had questions. We got to have a brief chat with Nate Bihldorff and Bill Trinen about the game and have a Q&A!

Multiplayer

Q. Does the size of the level change, if you only have a few players, inside of the suggested four?

A. In terms of scale yes, the things you need to do will be smaller – Nate

Q. In the multiplayer, there were some very large enemies, will thereby some that require players to work together to defeat?

A. Nate: There are multiple ones, I don’t know if anyone ran into them, but they have multiple tails, you can take them on with one player, but if you get two players on there, it’s actually much more effective. Also, I don’t know if anyone ever found a power-up that powers up your Poltergust, but that helps a lot. You can expect to see a lot of different enemy types that require a lot of different strategies.

Bill:  Even as you saw in the single player, you have the ghosts that you sort of encounter throughout the hotel, in the different rooms and if you made it to the boss, you can see that in addition to the more common types of ghosts, there are ghosts that serve a number of roles in the game that are very personality-filled, which is something that I really love about this particular game, is that it does a really great job of blending the exploration of the series, with the personalities of some of the ghosts that we have seen.

Story

Vooks: Earlier, we saw Mario and Peach and other characters, locked into the paintings, how does that work within the structure of the game?

A: Nate – Oh we are not going to spoil that! I will say for the opening video, I don’t know why they let Toad drive that bus. As far as how the plot plays out, you will just have to experience it yourself.

Q. Can you speak to the reason why the team settled on a hotel as the setting?

A.  Nate – You know, I think Bill touched on it briefly and it really lends itself to the central theme of the game, when you get into the elevator again and again, after finding the buttons, and each time you access a floor, you might have noticed in the video that they are so thematically different, its like a different world that you are actually in.

For the original Luigi’s Mansion, there were a lot of different rooms, like dining and nursey or what have you, here you might be in an evil fantasy land and then you might end up in a jungle. The idea is that each hotel level, being themed to one of those things, just lends itself to the verticality so well and once you play the full game you will see it all come together.

Q. Are there any motion controls in the game?

A. Nate – Well, there is, in terms of your vertical aim, but you wont have to swing the controller to complete an action, just for your vertical aim.

Q. When playing with a friend, can you play with a single Joy-Con?

A. Nate: Yes, when Bill and I can do that, one as Luigi and the other as Gooigi.

Bill: When you play with one Joy-Con per player, you might have noticed it in the Direct, but you saw four Luigi players and four Gooigi players, running around, so sharing the controller helps that happen.

VR

Vooks: Some of the recent Switch games have been updated to add VR compatibility and in Luigi’s Mansion 3, with the dollhouse view, it would be fun to see the game in that way, are there plans to add that?

A. Bill: That is a good question, I think right now the team is focused on getting the game ready for launch later this year, so I don’t think they have any plans right now, but maybe they will pick it up.

Release Date

Vooks: With regards to the release date, it was the only game in the Direct that has a release year for 2019, that did not get a specific date, do you think there is a possibility of a delay?

A. Bill: No, I think really what it is, is that this is a real labour of love, they are putting a lot of care into it and want to put the care in that they want, so we are waiting on them to let us know and then we shall solidify a release date.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is out in 2019. We went hands-on with the singleplayer portion of the game as well – check it out here.