Luigis Mansion 2 - Return of The Phantom

The Super Mario Bros. franchise is probably one of the most well-known out there, given all the titles Nintendo put out in the last two or three decades, not to mention the fan tributes and the spinoffs. However, most of these games had a purpose and some work went into making them worthy of being part of the franchise, which in turn makes them fun and entertaining.

Luigis Mansion 2 - Return of The Phantom is the second entry in the series, and it obviously deals with Phantom, the famous villain from the Mario Universe. However, you play with Luigi this time around and you must wield a unique device that’s capable of trapping ghosts inside, in order to clear the haunted mansion from evil spirits and finally put an end to Phantom’s reign.

The story is poorly relayed right from the start, especially when it comes to the painful dialog and the sloppy explanations concerning what’s to come. Everything is way too straightforward and short, which makes you disregard the story entirely and just focus on the gameplay instead. Unfortunately, that’s not a magnificent idea either, considering all the problems surrounding it.

As such, the gameplay is riddled with bugs and errors, which makes it almost impossible to enjoy the game most of the time. Starting with the fact that the controls are incredibly inaccurate and badly implemented, all the way to game-breaking bugs that do not allow you to continue, everything seems to be trying extremely hard to stop you from enjoying yourself even a little.

The same is true of the graphics, because there are maybe three textures in total decorating the environments. Speaking of which, the landscapes are nothing more than black, or sometimes even bright green, which is an excellent way to ruin your eyesight and experience a lot of frustration at the same time. Hence, not a lot of praise in the technical department either.

When it’s all said and done, Luigis Mansion 2 - Return of The Phantom can barely be classified as a game, and that’s only because Mario makes an appearance on the screen. Hence, you’d be way better off playing something else, or maybe going for a walk instead.