Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

Luigi once again sets off into crumbling mansions with the Poltergust vacuum on his back to rescue kidnapped professors and take on the ghost King Boo. Luigi's Mansion 2 HD is a reworking of the game that studio Next Level Games released in 2013 for Nintendo 3DS under the title Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon - at the time one of the most ambitious titles on the handheld, split across five mansions and dozens of smaller missions each with their own puzzles and bosses.

The Switch version, developed by studio Grezzo, brings the game from a small 3D screen to the television screen and switches the controls from the 3DS's gyroscope and touch elements to the classic analog sticks of the Joy-Cons. The graphics got a full HD coat of paint with sharper textures, better ghost lighting, and a higher frame rate, and full co-op for up to four players was also added directly within the story campaign - on 3DS, shared multiplayer only worked in the separate ScareScraper mode, disconnected from the main story. Loading times between individual mansion rooms are noticeably shorter thanks to more powerful hardware, which also changes the pacing of the individual missions.

Grezzo has experience with similar remasters - the studio previously brought the classics Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask to 3DS and also helped with the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Luigi's Mansion 2 HD thus fits into a broader wave in which Nintendo is gradually revisiting beloved titles from the 3DS era and bringing them to Switch for players who never owned the handheld.

Why play it: Anyone who enjoyed Dark Moon on 3DS will appreciate the same game without having to squint at a small screen, with more comfortable stick controls and shorter breaks between rooms. Anyone unfamiliar with the game gets one of Nintendo's best-crafted spooky puzzle titles and a pleasant entry point into the series for players who prefer a slower pace and clever puzzles over pure action.

Why play it: Anyone who knew Dark Moon on 3DS will appreciate the more comfortable stick controls without squinting at a small screen; newcomers get one of Nintendo's best-crafted spooky puzzle titles.