Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (2013)

Genre: Action / Adventure | Players: 1 - 4 (local and online multi)

Developer: Next Level Games

How do you follow up Luigi's Mansion?  Throw in more mansions!
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (known outside America as Luigi's Mansion 2) is a pretty neat game starring everybody's favorite Player 2, Luigi.  It’s part of Nintendo's ‘Year of Luigi’ that currently consists of a grand total of one game; it seems like he’ll be a supporting cast member in the rest.  Yeah, totally seeing a lot of green this year Nintendo…

Since his last adventure Luigi has settled into his home, enjoying a nice sit down, when suddenly some asshole "Professor" pixelizes him and sends him to his laboratory.  There he tells Luigi that he NEEDS to retrieve six pieces of the Dark Moon, because it being broken is what’s causing ghosts to go berserk.  And so Luigi reluctantly re-enters the ghost hunting business.  Luigi is sent to his first mansion with nothing but a flashlight.  Gee, thanks, E. Gadd, for forgetting to grab the damn vacuum while you ran away from your home like a girl.

As you progress through the game the mansions seem to get shorter and shorter.  I felt like the first was very fleshed out, had pretty cool puzzle ideas and a very awesome boss fight, but after that it seems like something was missing, or the game was hurried for the schedule release.
You can add to your playtime if you spend time grabbing the emeralds from each mansion.  No, I think I know what you're thinking, you don't turn into Super Luigi.

The multiplayer is a great way to pass the time if you have a couple of buddies that want to go ghost hunting while you have the Ghostbusters theme blasting in the back.  ScareScraper (Thrill Towers as it's known in different parts of the world) can be unlocked as soon as you complete a couple of chapters from the first mansion.  In ScareScraper you can have up to 4 players at a time.  Various modes and difficulties can be set, including how many rooms you want to scale; or if you’re feeling a little ballsy, infinite rooms.  I played a couple of rooms with random players.  I found it fun but very time consuming.  Definitely play when you have extra time in your hands.

Controls are pretty cool; every button has a function and it doesn't feel overwhelming.
The 3D looks awesome.  If you've played Super Mario Land 3D then you’ll know that it was done correct.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is all about the right lighting, which is excellent; from small shadows to a single candle it looks great.
Though not a perfect game it is a very good game for our green overall wearing friend.  I enjoyed my time as Player Two.  If you liked the first game, then I’d recommend giving this one a try too.

Buyers Guide:For the 3DS. It’s still pretty new at time of writing, and being a Nintendo game you’ll probably see it stay a steady $35-$40.

4 big fat vomiting ghosts out of 5

Nutted by ASH

[SNES] Super Mario World (1991)

Genre: Platform | Players: 1 or 2 taking turns | Developer: Nintendo

Super Mario World was the very 1st video game I ever played and after all these years it’s still one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of laying hands on.
So pop a mushroom, mount your dinosaur, and swing your arms from side to side ‘cause it’s time to do the Mario!

Game Play:
Start at one end of the screen and work your way to the other before time runs out all the while beating foes and avoiding obstacles.

SMW continues the evolution from the preceding Super Mario Bros. games by adding new skills that complement the already established moves as well as tweaking the already familiar mechanics.

The combination of a decent learning curve and the fact that you can, unlike in previous Mario games revisit older levels for fun and power ups make it so that you aren’t totally overwhelmed by the near impossible stuff that pops up later on. What you will be overwhelmed by is the plethora of levels to explore, with different routes that you can take to the game’s finale and several levels with more than one way to beat it you’re going to have a lot of ground to cover.

There is a 2 player mode which has player 1 as Mario & player 2 as Luigi taking turns clearing levels. You can give and take lives from each other on the over world but other than that there’s not much interaction between the 2 players in terms of co-op and you’ll have to keep track of who has the most points or what have you to add an actual competitive slant on things. Other than that it is kinda nice to have something like it in place but the ability to tag out mid level like in Donkey Kong Country, an overall score system between the two, or just a straight up both run at the same time mode would have been preferable.

Controls:
Everything feels perfectly natural. Running, jumping, swimming, flying, grabbing, climbing, kicking, & spinning are all handled using the D-pad, A, B, & Y buttons and there’s hardly any learning curve. It’s perfectly intuitive to run, grab a shell, jump up on a platform, toss the shell up knocking a mushroom out of a block, jump on a goomba, catching the falling shell, jumping across a pit to another platform whilst also catching the falling mushroom, kicking the shell into a troop of koopas, & then jumping over the shell as it bounces back all in one broad movement.

Graphics:
I find that while 8-bit era and Playstation/N64 graphics often look far too archaic and like dead building blocks to the modern eye the 16 bit Super Nintendo & Genesis are still visually pleasing to watch for the most part. The 16 bit sprites here are simple yet have a great deal of personality to them.

This game is just pure animated fun with imaginative level and character designs that recall many western cartoons but still has plenty of distinctive Japanese aesthetics as well.  

Sound:
The sound effects are as cute as they are iconic. The music is very upbeat, catchy, and complements the various environments ranging from an undersea maze to a mountain range at midnight and can incite everything between dreamy lullabies and frenetic races to the finish.

Story:
The standard Mario tale of a turtle titian taking the toadstool tart to a terrible tower teaming with traps and the titular toilet technicians trekking treacherous turf to trounce the terrapin traitor.

Buyer’s Guide:
Super Mario World has been released, ported, & remade several times and is easily had for a decent price:

• The original cartridge in 1991. 
• The combo Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World that was released in 1994 as a bonus pack in for the SNES. 
• As Super Mario Advance 2 on the game Boy Advance in 2002. I have had hands on experience with this and can say that while it’s mostly the same game there are some substantial differences that add to the game as well as make it easier like more check points, not turning tiny when getting hit, the ability to save anytime, the fact that you keep all your extra earned lives and coins when you save and turn the game off, and Luigi is not only playable in the solo game but also no longer plays like Mario and instead handles like Luigi does in Super Mario Brothers 2. 
• It’s also on the virtual Console for the Wii, as well. 
• It's predictably on the SNES mini.

5 giant turtle football players throwing pink baseballs out of 5.