E3 2011: Luigi's Mansion 2 Preview Impression

One decade ago, Nintendo had the gall to launch a brand-new system without a Mario game. Can you imagine such a thing? And to make matters worse, while Mario was sipping drinks from a coconut half, Luigi was tapped to fill the void. Luigi's Mansion ushered in the GameCube launch, offering a very different experience from a typical platforming adventure. And once people got over the fact that you couldn't jump on goombas in the Mushroom Kingdom, they found it was pretty darn fun sucking up ghosts in a vacuum. Well, Nintendo announced a sequel to the game no one wanted at its press event today. Luigi's Mansion 2 is coming to the 3DS, and the green brother should be welcomed with open arms the second time around.

The short trailer Nintendo showed onstage today looked reminiscent of the GC original. Once again, Luigi is set loose in a mansion haunted by prowling poltergeists. Armed with just a vacuum cleaner, he sucks up the grabby ghoulies like Peter Venkman on a good day. But you can't just expect ghosts to float around in the open. The unruly undead haunt trains and knights, and you have to lure them out of their hiding places. We saw Luigi wrangle these bad boys out of their hidey-holes, and you can imagine how they would pop out of the screen with 3D enabled. Of course, Luigi has more tricks in his mechanical contraption than just standard sucking. We saw a blinding flashbulb lens in the trailer, and who knows what other gadgets await in the final release.

Not much more is known about this game right now. There are several new mansions to explore, though, and we got a brief glimpse of one inspired by Egyptian pyramids. But if you want more information, you'll have to check back with GameSpot a bit later.