Mario is one of Nintendo's most illustrious characters, establishing himself as the Japanese company's main mascot. As such, the best-known plumber in video games has been in the spotlight in recent years, especially since the release of the film adaptation, which has sparked a new era of success centered on the franchise. Nintendo Switch has thus received titles such as Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario RPG, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

But the Mario universe is much broader, giving rise to numerous spin-offs and proposals in which the main character doesn’t appear, leaving the limelight to some of his companions. This happened earlier this year with Princess Peach: Showtime! and it's happening again with the revival of one of the most successful titles of the Nintendo 3DS era: Luigi's Mansion 2, which returns to the Nintendo Switch catalog with great new features in its HD version to revive the great adventure of Mario's brother.

A new ghost-busting adventure

Luigi may not have the same popularity as his brother, but the tandem has had some great moments over the years. However, in order to give the character green overalls protagonism, Nintendo thought it would be a good idea for him to star in his own saga. This is how Luigi's Mansion was born, a video game that brought out Luigi's bravery, despite always being shown as a scary and fearful character, to face a horde of ghosts in a haunted mansion. The Nintendo Switch catalog already has an exclusive new game, Luigi's Mansion 3, so the console's success was the perfect backdrop for the return of its previous offerings.

Thus, Luigi's Mansion 2 HD has arrived to rescue the title in which Professor E. Gadd returns to claim Luigi's services to investigate a strange event that has caused the Dark Moon to fragment. Mario's brother must enter a huge mansion populated by ghosts to unravel the mystery and restore peace. This is an adventure with enhanced graphics in which the player visits various locations in the gloomy Shadow Valley, where ghosts roam free to wreak havoc wherever they go, something that only Luigi can prevent.

To achieve this goal, the protagonist of the adventure has his star ghost-capturing gadget: The Poltergust 5000, a vacuum that’s vital to exploring all the mechanics of the game, from the activation of different switches to the suction of clothes and other elements of the map that allow to obtain secret objects and additional credits to get a higher score in each of the levels that make up the game.

An evolution to match Nintendo Switch

However, the game is unchanged in its approach in regard to what was seen in its original release on Nintendo 3DS back in 2013. With a few minor changes, Luigi's Mansion 2 HD is the same game as that of the previous generation handheld, so the big draw of this version is its impressive visuals thanks to the possibilities offered by a system like Nintendo Switch compared to its predecessor. It's been 11 years since its release, so time has taken its toll on the visuals. Something that this version for the hybrid console fixes in a major way.

An increased resolution that avoids jagged textures and allows for an even greater look at the environments that make up Luigi's Mansion 2, combined with handling that adapts to a single screen, as opposed to the two screens that were on Nintendo 3DS, offer a fantastic result for a title that rightly deserved to return from the Japanese company's cupboard to delight players, especially those who were unable to enjoy the original version at the time. With more than 141 million consoles sold worldwide, it seems like the ideal moment to launch it on the market.

Nintendo's strategy seems pretty clear: Endow the Switch with one of the most enviable catalogs in the gaming industry in its entire history. While preparing for the landing of Nintendo Switch 2, whose backward compatibility is becoming increasingly necessary, Kyoto continues to bet on its great franchises to raise to the maximum power a generation that is about to go down in the annals of history as the most successful of all time. The arrival of Luigi's Mansion 2 HD is further proof of this, confirming that the Japanese company's great classics never die and that they always have an extra life to be enjoyed again as if for the first time.