[Co-op] Luigi's Mansion (3DS) -- 2. Better Together?
4Slimes are hot. I mean cool? I mean... uh...
LOOK OVER THERE, FERAL SOCIAL LINKS!
twitter.com/yuugijoou
discord.gg/bKT9pRW
(Phew. That was a close one!)
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And now for the REAL reason behind the incredibly valid question of "why this version?"
I'm a firm believer that adding multiplayer, especially of a quasi-cooperative variety, always makes a game more fun. Note that I said "fun" not necessarily "better"... because... sometimes, it's just NOT entirely what it's cracked up to be. Let's find out what kind this one is!
It's actually kinda surprising the lengths to which they actually went to justify Gooigi's presence here, not that they went TOO far, but they also didn't actually HAVE to do anything in the first place besides "yeah, you can do co-op, get someone else to play!"
But like... they went to the trouble of giving E. Gadd a WIDESCREEN, HIGH DEFINITION television set in his lab! This is an insane space-time anomaly, and it threatens to collapse all life as we know it into a singularity!
... ... ...but, more "importantly"... it suggests that the second game's E. Gadd was already working on Gooigi, as if he KNEW there was already a third game by the time this remake happened, and we'd need SOME reason to further non-explain how he made a creepy green goo facsimile of Luigi.
Works for me.
The thing I actually like best is that they deliberately shoehorned Gooigi into the original game's cutscenes, as if he was already there, without altering anything else about them. (If you're NOT playing co-op, Googi is absent as normal.)
The co-op experience comes with a few notable caveats. The Gooigi player makes absolutely zero progress on their own game, even though they must advance to the same point in an open file and pass E. Gadd's training regimen.
Gooigi obviously can't talk, so he can't call for Mario's help. Interestingly, Gooigi may not hear the SAME callout that the player controlling Luigi does, just drawing a random one from the available pool given the circumstances. Gooigi instead waves happily. (Not even CLOSE to being a match for Luigi's personality, Elvin!)
This also extends to the use of the Game Boy Horror, where Gooigi will simply provide the extremely useful flavor text of "..."
Incidentally, the Game Boy Horror is a real terror on multiplayer in general, because doing a scan will forcibly pause the action for BOTH players as soon as you press the button over a valid object, which can really wreck a bro's night if he's engaged in immortal combat with a ghastly ghoulie.
I'm also not sure as to the specific nature of how it's achieved, but the game feels quite a bit more hectic in co-op, particularly in certain rooms... not so much in others. I don't know if they added MORE ghosts per se, since that could adversely affect game balance, but they definitely let them be a lot less shy about showing themselves, i.e. giving both players more to do with greater frequency.
Again, I'm not sure about "better" per se, especially only a few hostile rooms in... but it's certainly more fun than I remember. Maybe a bit less methodical overall.
Letting both players double-team a spirit seems to let you capture them more easily... as long as the other ghosts in the room cooperate. Dedicated and productive ghost busters will most certainly find this to be a boon. (It might even beat the "reward" for clearing the game once in the original game for job productivity?)
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I've always been a bit confused about the paintings in the first (overtly hostile) room in the game, though... they speak of ghosts as if they're not ones... they seem to offer sinister "advice" in a fairly uncomforting way... ... ... but are they NOT ghosts themselves? Already portraits, even?!
This is deeply concerning, and I shall have to contemplate it at great length.