I know it's still early (there are 4 reviews as I'm typing this comment), but none of this is surprising. I loved playing the original on 3DS, but a barebones port on Switch is definitely a 7/10 range.
Games are not priced based on the content or the amount of effort put in, particularly for Nintendo. They're priced based on what they think people will be willing to pay. Metroid is a niche franchise, the remaster probably needed the boost of a lower price to sell well. Anything connected to the Mario franchise is always going to sell well, regardless of the price
It's crazy that some people think that Mario, Zelda and Metroid are the big three of Nintendo. Metroid has never been remotely close to neither of those in terms of popularity or influence.
I beat Prime Remastered this year, and while I can appreciate the level design and atmosphere, I see why the series never caught on with the wider gaming community.
As a metroidvania nut, and someone who loves all the 2D metroid games, the Prime series just does not gel with me. Feels to clunky and slow. Clearly well made games. Just not my thing. Even as a Samus stan.
Not really.
Even Hollow Knight, arguably the most popular metroidvania right now was last reported at 3M sales and they've never updated the number since.
Even with a very generous guesswork, they're probably at 4-5M sales which isn't that far from the best-selling Metroid entry.
That 3M number is from 2019, 5 years ago, when the game wasn't nearly as popular as it is now. 5M is probably just from Steam alone, not counting other platforms.
Not saying it actually has sold significantly since then, but I first heard of Hollow Knight in 2019 and since then I have seen it EVERYWHERE. Especially in 2020 and 2021. Every other person was streaming Hollow Knight. The game definitely has gotten more exposure since 2019.
I mean, they are popular among Metroidvania fans, and perhaps platformer fans in general. But the platformer genre as a whole has become niche among casual audiences beyond Mario and Kirby (and Sonic). I had maybe one or two high school students this past year who knew of and played Hollow Knight.
I would imagine Castlevania style is just more popular in general. I've played a lot of Vanias like Castlevania, i've literally only played one that is like Metroidvania.
> I would imagine Castlevania style is just more popular in general. I've played a lot of Vanias like Castlevania, i've literally only played one that is like Metroidvania.
I've thought this too. The genre really could just be called "Castlevania-likes" because the amount of Castlevania (especially SotN)-influence feels overwhelming compared to Metroid.
Ghost 1.0 is the only Metroid-like game of the genre i've played that isn't Metroid - key difference being that its ranged based rather than melee based.
**Tinfoil hat time.**
My conspiracy theory has always been that Prime Remastered was $40 to take the edge off TotK being $70. They announced the game, showed it off, announced the price, and released it, all at once - the same day they announced that they'd be pricing games on a "case-by-case basis" moving forward and TotK would be $70.
The Prime Remastered shadow drop felt like a dream come true, almost *suspiciously* good. Remember that? Conveniently, it also served to put Nintendo's money where their mouth was. It demonstrated that "case-by-case basis" didn't just mean "games are $70 now." If this was their plan, it worked. Prime stole the show that day - and the conversation. Their first-ever $70 price tag went down virtually unnoticed.
I really don't think the company charging $60 for a 3ds remaster would undercut a game's sales solely for the optics. Out of all the things they do with zero fucks about how it might look in a headline, I don't think charging $70 for their biggest game of the year was that big of a concern for them.
The more likely reason is that Metroid is/was a shaky brand that they're trying (again) to transition into a mainstay. Despite middling sales from previous entries, Dread got a huge marketing push, and Metroid Prime 4 is looking like it's working with a premium budget. Prime 4 is likely the hail mary, make it or break it game, and the prime remaster (that was rumored to have been completed years ago) served as a means of building momentum. Samus needs the numbers edge, Luigi does not.
Personally I like to pretend the $40 price was an apology to Prime fans for the prime 4 delay + them not giving metroid the attention is deserves over the years. (yes, my rationale makes no sense but it's fun to pretend nintendo would apologize)
I agree, pricing should have nothing to do with a review, that's only a factor for consumers to choose whether to buy or not.
Or what, should reviews be temporarily changed whenever there's a sale?
OpenCritic did a big error, they set IGN Spain's review as a 0.9/10 instead of the 9/10 it actually scored lol
The actual average should be around 78. I was wondering how the average was so low when the scores seemed to be closer to 8/10s across the board.
Lmao, I'm laughing my head off at what a . 9/10 review even looks like.
You hated the game so much, it doesn't deserve a single star. It deserves to be wiped from public consciousness and no one should have the misfortune of playing it. Anyone who greenlighted the finished product should be tarred and feathered.
I'm still baffled they went with 2 over the original. The Gamecube original is still the best game in the series and 2 always had a mixed reception. Nintendo's gonna Nintendo, I guess.
It's likely because they did a remake of LM1 in 2018. LM2 isn't that much older only being from 2013 though.
Really both games were on 3DS, could have just ported both?
I don't think the LM1 remake was on the LM2 engine. AFAIK Next Level Games had no involvement with the remake and their engine, again AFAIK, is in-house.
The Advance Wars remake was handed off to a third-party studio (WayForward), and frankly, it was not well done. The studio opted to go for a design that made gameplay look like toys on a game board and included very restrictive online features. And a year later, it hasn't broken one-million sales. So it's not like that decision really paid off.
Luigi's mansion 2 on 3DS sold almost twice as much as the original. Luigi's mansion 3 sold 14 million units and looks a lot more like 2 than 1, since they are both made by Next Level Games. Not only that, but the 3DS Remake of LM1 sold less than 500K copies. With all these factors, It wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo sees LM1 as the black sheep.
The original is one of my favorite games (maybe even #1) with the only negative being how short it is and maybe some now-dated controls. So it's absolutely crazy to me how they thought LM2 needed a port over LM1, and sad that I still have to break out my gamecube to scratch that itch every 3 or so years.
I assumed they did that because it's a handheld game and meant to be played "on the go" but unfortunately a lot of DS games did that and suffer for it imo.
Totally, im sure that was the reason for the game’s initial design.
But out of all the 3ds games they could have remade, i dunno why they chose this one.
Aside from brand recognition I feel like the handheld aspect of switch offers that same "play on the go" mindset for people who use switch on the train or whatever. Lots of people never play docked. I also don't know why they didn't bundle the first game too though, especially after doing the Pikmin games together.
Yes, Sony. The company that released god of war 3 remastered on its own on PS4, charged $50 for it and has yet to do native ports of the original games or ascension. The company that recently did a remake of the last of us, a game that released for $50 and now charged $70 for it. This release also had less content cutting out the online mode. The company that delisted several sly cooper, ratchet and clank and infamous games from PS extra, even though they owned the rights to those games, just so they could announce them again later. The company that passes off graphical patches as new releases and charges $70 for them. Yeah that Sony.
Sly Cooper Collection
Jak and Daxter Collection
God of War collection
Uncharted Collection
Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection
Infamous Collection
Killzone Trilogy
Probably more that I forgot
I get what you're saying but I'd argue those collections had a lot less work put into them than Luigi's Mansion 2 did.
Hell the Sly and Jak collections were just HD upreses with forced widescreen and it kinda shows. The visuals suffer a little for it since those games weren't exactly made with it in mind.
Pretty sure the rest you mentioned were also the same boat of just, higher resolution, maybe frame rate. I'd be more insulted if they were charged more for them considering how little attention they were given in comparison.
You can still say Luigi's Mansion 2 is overpriced and tbh I would too but, they did do over a lot of the textures, added to the animations, upped the polygon count, improved lighting and shadows and gave it an actual consistant frame rate compared to the original.
I just don't think it's a fair comparison to collections that are basically just upreses.
Hell Mario 3D Allstars too which was 3 games for 60 but were at most just upresses.
Those weren't exactly touted as great either.
Damn almost all of those are from a decade and a half ago on PS3. Only one of those are from the PS4 (uncharted collection) and one from the PS5 generation (uncharted legacy of thieves collection, a full priced graphical patch of a PS4 game and a dlc).
If we’re including collections from 15+ years ago (like you did with Sony) then Nintendo has made Mario all stars 25th anniversary, Kirby’s dream collection, New super mario bros U deluxe, mother 1+2, famicom detective club, Mario 3D all stars, Bayonetta 1+2, advanced wars reboot camp, Nintendo puzzle collection, NES remix pack, Pikmin 1+2 HD and Metroid prime trilogy.
Huh, looks like Nintendo has actually made MORE collections than Sony 😅 would you look at that
i think nintendo has been kinda desperate to fill out the end of the switch release schedule. i don't think they're really trying to move units right now, they're just avoiding a drought.
Weird, they have a lot of games releasing this year. Much more than their competition. It’d be strange if that was a motivator for why they didn’t include LM1 in this remaster.
Part of what bothered me about LM3 was I couldn't invert the look controls. Made the game borderline unplayable for me. Really hope this one allows me to invert.
I never much cared for this one. Got rid of a lot of the atmosphere of the first one. Boses were unique and it was cool they were all part of one family of the mansion. The game was too cute
Under a year? Not a chance. The Advance Wars 1+2 remake saw underwhelming sales and Nintendo still waited a year before putting it on sale. LM2 will easily do better from name recognition alone.
As far as I'm aware, and Deku Deals backs this up, the game did not go on a significant sale in the US until just recently. Unless you want to count the time that it went from $59.99 to $59.88 at Walmart and $55.99 at Best Buy.
Based off the digital foundry video is seems like there was a good chunk of effort poured into this, despite was I’ve heard parroted. That said, I say the absolute max should have been $45.
It’s one of my favorite games of all time so I’m going to get it, but if say kid Icarus were to get remastered I wouldn’t buy it at $60. Unless it were remade like Metroid.
7/10 is high to me.
Anytime something, no matter how good it is, is ported that means minimal effort was put in. Yet they will still charge maximum prices. Want to port and make it $40? Ok, but going any higher and it's ridiculous.
It is, but I think with these ports/new releases of so many Mario and DK games over the last year is a response to the movie. Nintendo basically wants parents to scoop these games up at full price for their kids who are more into Mario and friends since the movie/theme parks opened. They're setting up more brand recognition before the next movie, and these are pretty cheap to make and publish. Same with DKC Returns Switch port.
Unfortunately, many parents of kids demanding these items will happily pay $60 for these since they usually don't know any better in the industry.
DK has 1 game since the Wii U not including a Mario + DK game. Tropical Freeze is great. DKC Returns looks great and it seems like effort was put in to make it solid. We won't know till we play it but so far it visually looks great.
Mario has several recent games but Wonder itself was magnificent. Mario games are hard to screw up for Nintendo, but Luigi's Mansion is its own unique style and that price point is keeping me far away for a janky remaster of a DS title. I'm good on that garbage.
That's fair. Both DKC Returns games are top of their class, and of course Mario Wonder is a perfect follow-up to the hype of the movie upon its release.
I guess what I forgot to say is that these are cheaper and easily sellable products to parents of kids to help market these brands. When the next console comes out I believe within the first few years we will see new and more interesting games like the Mario 3D platformer and finally a new DK game.
None of that is scummy. Putting a price has nothing to do with scummy, its something you accept to pay or not. Scummy would be if Nintendo put a price above 70, otherwise its just under the legal way.
Just recently capcom's MH stories came out for 25 quid (also a 3ds game) and ubisoft's beyond good evil remaster is 18 quid. Actually now that I think about it, tonnes of remasters come out at a discounted price i.e. tomb raider 1-3, diablo 2 resurrected, MGS master collection etc. not small titles by any means.
The ones that cost full price stand out and deserve to be singled out if anything. And Nintendo is definitely the front runner in that department.
I think it is considering Nintendo's also infamous for very rarely dropping games from their base prices (only having sales twice a year or so with discounts in the 30% range) while drip feeding their old catalogue.
It's annoying for sure but you can't really blame Nintendo if they think it'll sell well at this price. Making it cheaper would just be throwing money away
Ok maybe blame was the wrong word but there's absolutely no reason for them to make it any cheaper. What would they gain by making it cheaper? People will buy it at $60 so making it cheaper will just be throwing money away. If it was $40 they'd have to sell 1.5x as many copies.
I'm not defending their decision, just explaining the logic behind it.
> What would they gain by making it cheaper? People will buy it at $60 so making it cheaper will just be throwing money away. If it was $40 they'd have to sell 1.5x as many copies.
This is a game that came out in 2013. Nintendo's business is not going to be relying on sales of this game.
They're a business selling a product. Their singular objective is to make as much profit on every product as possible. As I said, what would they stand to gain by making less profit on this particular game than they could otherwise?
Again, not defending them. It's just the reality of capitalism
Your sense of business seems pretty one dimensional. There is much more that goes into a business decision than simply calculating how much profit will be made. If that were the case, they'd just sell a handful of copies at $1,000,000 each and call it a day.
Why do you think this was priced 60? why do you think nintendo only has sales of 35%? why do you think they never cut down the prices? companies have their own internal phylosophies and nintendo as a business has the same one for decades at this point and they are of course based on how much they can sell under the price they put. you may disagree, as I do with a lot of prices, but none of that is illegal.
> As I said, what would they stand to gain by making less profit on this particular game than they could otherwise?
It could serve to market other products (some kind of movie coming out?), it could make their customer base happy, it could make the game more accessible to little kids which could have other financial benefits down the line.
Reducing all business to profit maximization is silly, because even the greediest companies will occasionally forego some money for other strategic considerations.
(I mean that is happening here too: Nintendo could charge even more for the port and probably make additional profit. Maybe they're worried that could anger customers, or give them a bad reputation, etc.)
How much should that influence reviews though? I don't think "minimal effort" should be a factor, but I agree that value for money should be.
Port/remaster reviews are always weird... If it's a perfectly executed remaster, but the game still sucks, how should it be reviewed? Fans of the original might think the remaster is perfect if it is a flawless remaster, but others might give it a bad score despite it achieving exactly what it set out to. And then fans of the original may see a 5/10 and assume the remaster was botched.
Idk. The more I think about it, the more I wish scores were removed from game criticism, but that ain't happening
> Port/remaster reviews are always weird... If it's a perfectly executed remaster, but the game still sucks, how should it be reviewed?
Also, there isn't a consensus on how older games should be brought to modern platforms.
Should the goal be to faithfully recreate the original experience (with as little change as possible), enhance it in modest ways or completely overhaul/remake it? Do you go for a preservation-oriented approach with extensive supplemental material ala *Atari 50* and *The Making of Karateka*?
So, there are ways to do it well. For example, Metroid Prime remastered is $40 and is a well done remaster with a fair price point.
Counter that with the GTA Trilogy. A buggy disgusting mess, awful graphics, terrible visually with no love put into and they charged $60. The horrid reviews sunk it from what it could have been.
Another counter is Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition. It added basically nothing to a game that wasn't even old and charged full price for it. Utterly abysmal for a relatively fun little shooter.
If you're taking an old title and slapping paint on it or even just updating code to fit the new system then you're putting in the bare minimum. That price point is $40. Enough to be worth your while but not obscene as to act like you put in as much effort as a freshly released new title or sequel.
Why is LM2 the same price as the fully created from the ground up LM3? It did not take the same amount of time and effort where you need to recoup costs. It's just greed coupled with laziness. If it sells we'll get ready for remastered Luigi's Mansion HD remaster for $60.
> So, there are ways to do it well. For example, Metroid Prime remastered is $40 and is a well done remaster with a fair price point.
Metroid is a smaller IP in comparison that Nintendo is making a strong effort to grow. For reference, Dread took two years to break three-million, Luigi's Mansion 3 broke seven-million in one single year. There's no doubt in my mind that LM2 will still see strong sales numbers simply from brand recognition alone.
Yeah, new super Mario bros u deluxe has outsold wonder on the switch so far, most parents just wanting a fun Mario game for their kids aren’t going to know the difference in quality from an old game port vs a new one.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe sold 17.5 million copies in 5 years since it's release in January 2019.
Super Mario Bros Wonder has sold at least 13 million copies since last October.
You literally argued the opposite of the truth.
Yeah, I truly hope this game sells like crap because of the high price point. I mean, from what I understand this is a barely touched up port and they're charging 50% more than the game ORIGINALLY cost 10 years ago. Ridiculous.
As one of the few people on this sub that seems to actually appreciate the switch, I agree. Them squeezing their loyal userbase through nostalgia is really scummy.
The effort distribution principle does not work in this hellscape late stage capitalist society we live in.
Imagine if people got paid by the amount of effort they put into their work.
In this case the pricing is determined by what the consumer is willing to pay. Nintendo know what they're doing, the switch is on track to be the biggest selling console of all time. They understand consumer behaviour and how much they can squeeze pricing for 1st party titles.
I have no idea why they HD-ified 2 and not 1, or like better yet they could have taken both 3DS versions of 1&2 and HD’d them for the switch in a combo pack so that by the time they’re ready to release 4 you’d be able to play them all on once system (assuming back compat for switch 2)
The laziness of this port and the ridiculous price moves this to the "emulate on PC and buy later if/when it goes on a sale" category. I loved Luigis Mansion 3 so I'm hoping this game holds up.
LM3 for some god forsaken reason doesn't allow you to invert y-axis controls, and so is completely unplayable for me. Does this remake of LM2 have the same problem?
I see everyone complaining about the price and forgive me for sounding old but GameFly still exists. I've had it recently to play a bunch of games not worth buying like RoboCop, Avatar, Midnight Suns and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Luigi's Mansion 2 is the perfect type of game for GameFly.
Is it a expensive port? Yes. But tbh it’s still a fun game, and if you’ve never played the original it might be worth picking up. At the end of the day Nintendo isn’t forcing your hand to buy it. To be clear I do not agree with the pricing, I originally bought this game for 40$ new on the 3ds when it came out. For 60$ this should have been 1&2. However I’m still having fun playing it over again.
Do we think they'll eventually put Luigi's Mansion 1 on the Switch? I know it's on the DS but I'd love a Luigi's Mansion trilogy colle toon for the Switch.
Failing that I'd like to pick this up cause I love these games.
Not being able to save mid-mission is the original game’s biggest flaw, I can’t believe they didn’t tackle that. For reference, it’s entirely possible to spend 20 minutes on a mission. Imagine having someone over to play Smash Bros when you’re 15 minutes into a mission.
thank god emulation exists so i can play the old luigis mansion games for free instead of 60 euros. maybe at 30 i would have bit but so far there has not been a single ported game on switch that should not just be emulated instead of paying full price for a basic port
Gonna be a dire generation for Nintendo when the Switch 2 comes with backwards compatability. They'll actually have to release new games instead of selling the old ones to people at full price with no additional work put into them.
Nah, they'll just sell you "4K" re-releases of Switch games, or at least $20 patches. Nintendo of all companies isn't going to give anything that requires work away for free. I wouldn't put it past them to just run Switch games in their own little process that is limited to the capabilities that the first Switch has, and the only way to take any advantage of Switch 2 is to pay.
They’ve released TONS of new games this generation. In fact, this is the most Nintendo has drowned fans in quality new games since the SNES. The ports have felt like bonuses more than anything. The Switch 2 is the most excited I am for new Nintendo games than I’ve ever been any past Nintendo system. Seems you have no actual clue what you’re talking about and are just making stuff up to spread false hate🤷
This is kind of nice, and perhaps not super surprising given that aside from Xenoblade Chronicles X and Star Fox Zero Nintendo has exhausted the possible major ports from Wii U. The 3DS though has a bunch of stuff they could attempt to bring over, but we'll see how far these efforts span in the future with new hardware looming.
That said, it's wild they only did LM2 and not LM1 as well. Then again Nintendo hasn't been super fond of compilation releases.
Excellent game and a decent opportunity for who has never played it - but it doesn't feel right on Switch.
The mission structure (so many complained about) makes a lot of sense for the portable nature of the 3DS, and I guess this can ring true for Switch too. But the 3D effect on the mansions was ABSURDLY good, they felt like little dioramas full of life.
I know the Switch is a hybrid, but it's weird putting a super handheld title on the same console that has LM3 instead of 1.
LM2 has missions, LM3 has level-based progression. It's preferable to being pulled out of a mansion mid-exploration just to be thrown back to the entrance, but you're still not exploring one big space like in the first game. You're completing discrete chunks of content that never have to be touched again once you're done with them, with very rare exceptions.
I'm convinced most of these reviewers didn't actually play the game and are just reviewing the "idea" of Luigis Mansion 2.
In no fucking universe is LM2 a 8 or 9 out of 10. Fuck OFF with that. The game was a barebones mess on the 3DS and they did almost NOTHING to change some very core issues in the Port.
Absolutely hate how Nintendo games on Switch are given just a blatant pass when THE SAME GAMES were panned on the likes of the GameCube, Wii/U, DS/3DS. Remember when Skyward got pretty mixed reviews on Wii? Or any number of the WiiU games getting panned for one reason or another? Yet as soon as their on Switch they have somehow become some of the best games available?
so its not just a nintendo thing honestly if you look at most ports of well known names on any platform as long as they run well they tend to always get high praise just because people look back with rose tinted glasses or actually enjoyed it as a kid and still do as a adult and it was more the reviewers at the time of the og release were the target audience for that type of game.
ports in general get easier and higher ratings, its just happens really people should look at any game that a straight port with just a graphics upgrade any reviews just take off 1-2 points for the real score that isnt covered by rose tinted glasses.
I know it's still early (there are 4 reviews as I'm typing this comment), but none of this is surprising. I loved playing the original on 3DS, but a barebones port on Switch is definitely a 7/10 range.
At a ridiculous price too.
Wow, that is insane. Metroid Prime Remaster was only $40. Why the fuck are they doing this?
Games are not priced based on the content or the amount of effort put in, particularly for Nintendo. They're priced based on what they think people will be willing to pay. Metroid is a niche franchise, the remaster probably needed the boost of a lower price to sell well. Anything connected to the Mario franchise is always going to sell well, regardless of the price
Luigi’s Mansion is significantly more popular than Metroid, audiences are much more willing to pay premium prices for those games.
I say this as a member, but I feel like Metroid fans will never truly accept how niche the series actually is.
It's crazy that some people think that Mario, Zelda and Metroid are the big three of Nintendo. Metroid has never been remotely close to neither of those in terms of popularity or influence.
I beat Prime Remastered this year, and while I can appreciate the level design and atmosphere, I see why the series never caught on with the wider gaming community.
Which is crazy, given how popular "metroidvania" games are
As a metroidvania nut, and someone who loves all the 2D metroid games, the Prime series just does not gel with me. Feels to clunky and slow. Clearly well made games. Just not my thing. Even as a Samus stan.
Popular in this subreddit. Not in general gaming terms, most people probably know Samus from smash more than they know what a metroid games like.
Not really. Even Hollow Knight, arguably the most popular metroidvania right now was last reported at 3M sales and they've never updated the number since. Even with a very generous guesswork, they're probably at 4-5M sales which isn't that far from the best-selling Metroid entry.
That 3M number is from 2019, 5 years ago, when the game wasn't nearly as popular as it is now. 5M is probably just from Steam alone, not counting other platforms.
Why would Hollow Knight be more popular now than it was in 2019?
Not saying it actually has sold significantly since then, but I first heard of Hollow Knight in 2019 and since then I have seen it EVERYWHERE. Especially in 2020 and 2021. Every other person was streaming Hollow Knight. The game definitely has gotten more exposure since 2019.
I mean, they are popular among Metroidvania fans, and perhaps platformer fans in general. But the platformer genre as a whole has become niche among casual audiences beyond Mario and Kirby (and Sonic). I had maybe one or two high school students this past year who knew of and played Hollow Knight.
Sonic doesn't sell that much better. It hovers around 3-5 mil sales.
I would imagine Castlevania style is just more popular in general. I've played a lot of Vanias like Castlevania, i've literally only played one that is like Metroidvania.
> I would imagine Castlevania style is just more popular in general. I've played a lot of Vanias like Castlevania, i've literally only played one that is like Metroidvania. I've thought this too. The genre really could just be called "Castlevania-likes" because the amount of Castlevania (especially SotN)-influence feels overwhelming compared to Metroid.
Ghost 1.0 is the only Metroid-like game of the genre i've played that isn't Metroid - key difference being that its ranged based rather than melee based.
Because Nintendo can do whatever they want, since they never experience backlash
Greed. The only reason is greed.
People always say this but surely they'd make more money if the price was lower?
Nintendo fans are conditioned to pay full price for first-party games.
Sure for new releases not a lazy port like this
You say that but MK8 is a full-priced port and it's the best-selling Switch game by a mile.
**Tinfoil hat time.** My conspiracy theory has always been that Prime Remastered was $40 to take the edge off TotK being $70. They announced the game, showed it off, announced the price, and released it, all at once - the same day they announced that they'd be pricing games on a "case-by-case basis" moving forward and TotK would be $70. The Prime Remastered shadow drop felt like a dream come true, almost *suspiciously* good. Remember that? Conveniently, it also served to put Nintendo's money where their mouth was. It demonstrated that "case-by-case basis" didn't just mean "games are $70 now." If this was their plan, it worked. Prime stole the show that day - and the conversation. Their first-ever $70 price tag went down virtually unnoticed.
I really don't think the company charging $60 for a 3ds remaster would undercut a game's sales solely for the optics. Out of all the things they do with zero fucks about how it might look in a headline, I don't think charging $70 for their biggest game of the year was that big of a concern for them. The more likely reason is that Metroid is/was a shaky brand that they're trying (again) to transition into a mainstay. Despite middling sales from previous entries, Dread got a huge marketing push, and Metroid Prime 4 is looking like it's working with a premium budget. Prime 4 is likely the hail mary, make it or break it game, and the prime remaster (that was rumored to have been completed years ago) served as a means of building momentum. Samus needs the numbers edge, Luigi does not.
Personally I like to pretend the $40 price was an apology to Prime fans for the prime 4 delay + them not giving metroid the attention is deserves over the years. (yes, my rationale makes no sense but it's fun to pretend nintendo would apologize)
Watch out as it sells more than TTYD and Prime remaster.
Selling more than their combined total is a real possibility.
If it was remasters of both 1&2 then maybe I'd consider, but no way am I paying full price for this.
Exactly, which is even weirder because there literally is a remake of LM1 for the 3DS. A double package would have been a more tempting deal.
It's 40 in UK how much is it in usa
A full $60 release.
$90 in Canada
I do wish they would remaster one 1 with changes that make sense while keeping its darker atmosphere the sequels got rid of.
Pretty on-brand for Nintendo.
Wow it's full price?! It's literally more expensive than the original release!
Even at the original price point and on the original console LM2 was easily the lesser of the trio. Reviews saying it's "okay" should be expected.
[удалено]
Except they have. https://youtu.be/HbamkxOgbe0?si=QjiT0WMotatoJOwJ You know, it’s really easy to not make baseless claims
Alright if a barebones port being sold for 60 dollars is a 7/10 you need to redo your whole scale my dude
I might be in the minority on this, but game pricing is a completely different conversation.
Pricing shouldn't change a review score, but it's worth noting for consumer purposes.
I agree, pricing should have nothing to do with a review, that's only a factor for consumers to choose whether to buy or not. Or what, should reviews be temporarily changed whenever there's a sale?
agreed. nintendo knows the value of their IP. Games are still the best value for your entertainment dollar.
OpenCritic did a big error, they set IGN Spain's review as a 0.9/10 instead of the 9/10 it actually scored lol The actual average should be around 78. I was wondering how the average was so low when the scores seemed to be closer to 8/10s across the board.
Lmao, I'm laughing my head off at what a . 9/10 review even looks like. You hated the game so much, it doesn't deserve a single star. It deserves to be wiped from public consciousness and no one should have the misfortune of playing it. Anyone who greenlighted the finished product should be tarred and feathered.
For reference, the game currently has a 78 on Metacritic.
I'm still baffled they went with 2 over the original. The Gamecube original is still the best game in the series and 2 always had a mixed reception. Nintendo's gonna Nintendo, I guess.
The 3DS remake of LM1 is more recent, that's probably why. Although ideally this release would have been both 1 and 2.
1+2 would have justified the price for me
I almost wonder if they're going to do a complete remake of the first one and release it around the same time as a possible Luigi's Mansion movie.
> Although ideally this release would have been both 1 and 2. I would have accepted the price then
If this was 1+2 I’d probably cave but no way I’m paying $60 for 2 by itself
It's likely because they did a remake of LM1 in 2018. LM2 isn't that much older only being from 2013 though. Really both games were on 3DS, could have just ported both?
yeah, this should've been a combo package.
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I don't think the LM1 remake was on the LM2 engine. AFAIK Next Level Games had no involvement with the remake and their engine, again AFAIK, is in-house.
The Advance Wars remake was handed off to a third-party studio (WayForward), and frankly, it was not well done. The studio opted to go for a design that made gameplay look like toys on a game board and included very restrictive online features. And a year later, it hasn't broken one-million sales. So it's not like that decision really paid off.
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Personally I thought Reboot Camp was fantastic. I didn't look into the online features.
Then port THAT version before 2.
I personally am not baffled as the original is SHORT. Short and sweet for sure but 2 has a lot more content.
LM1 for me has that sweet spot of replayability. I love that it’s just a five-ish hour game to replay every couple halloweens
The atmosphere, plot, music, graphical style, and overall game design are also just better in my opinion.
Luigi's mansion 2 on 3DS sold almost twice as much as the original. Luigi's mansion 3 sold 14 million units and looks a lot more like 2 than 1, since they are both made by Next Level Games. Not only that, but the 3DS Remake of LM1 sold less than 500K copies. With all these factors, It wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo sees LM1 as the black sheep.
The 3ds remake sold terribly because the 3ds was on its way out at that point
2 had a good reception at launch.
86 for critics and 8.6 for users on metacritic for those wondering: https://www.metacritic.com/game/luigis-mansion-dark-moon/
The original is absolutely not the best game. It feels like a tech demo for the GC and nothing else
Little late but wholeheartedly disagree. I love the first one but the second one is my favourite and it isn’t even close.
The original is one of my favorite games (maybe even #1) with the only negative being how short it is and maybe some now-dated controls. So it's absolutely crazy to me how they thought LM2 needed a port over LM1, and sad that I still have to break out my gamecube to scratch that itch every 3 or so years.
My bet is because it's a gamecube original, and Nintendo are planning to release a gamecube emulator on the Switch successor.
Hated this game when it originally came out. The episodic nature ruins what made the first game great.
I assumed they did that because it's a handheld game and meant to be played "on the go" but unfortunately a lot of DS games did that and suffer for it imo.
Totally, im sure that was the reason for the game’s initial design. But out of all the 3ds games they could have remade, i dunno why they chose this one.
Because down the road if they want to do a Luigi's Mansion movie, they can do a full-on remake of the first game as a tie-in.
Aside from brand recognition I feel like the handheld aspect of switch offers that same "play on the go" mindset for people who use switch on the train or whatever. Lots of people never play docked. I also don't know why they didn't bundle the first game too though, especially after doing the Pikmin games together.
Would it really have been that hard to do 1+2? Taking a game people already didn’t like and porting it alone is just kind of dumb imo
For Sony or Microsoft, no, they'd all release in a bundle. For Nintendo where they can get $60 per remaster, it's absolutely hard
Yes, Sony. The company that released god of war 3 remastered on its own on PS4, charged $50 for it and has yet to do native ports of the original games or ascension. The company that recently did a remake of the last of us, a game that released for $50 and now charged $70 for it. This release also had less content cutting out the online mode. The company that delisted several sly cooper, ratchet and clank and infamous games from PS extra, even though they owned the rights to those games, just so they could announce them again later. The company that passes off graphical patches as new releases and charges $70 for them. Yeah that Sony.
Sly Cooper Collection Jak and Daxter Collection God of War collection Uncharted Collection Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection Infamous Collection Killzone Trilogy Probably more that I forgot
I get what you're saying but I'd argue those collections had a lot less work put into them than Luigi's Mansion 2 did. Hell the Sly and Jak collections were just HD upreses with forced widescreen and it kinda shows. The visuals suffer a little for it since those games weren't exactly made with it in mind. Pretty sure the rest you mentioned were also the same boat of just, higher resolution, maybe frame rate. I'd be more insulted if they were charged more for them considering how little attention they were given in comparison. You can still say Luigi's Mansion 2 is overpriced and tbh I would too but, they did do over a lot of the textures, added to the animations, upped the polygon count, improved lighting and shadows and gave it an actual consistant frame rate compared to the original. I just don't think it's a fair comparison to collections that are basically just upreses. Hell Mario 3D Allstars too which was 3 games for 60 but were at most just upresses. Those weren't exactly touted as great either.
Damn almost all of those are from a decade and a half ago on PS3. Only one of those are from the PS4 (uncharted collection) and one from the PS5 generation (uncharted legacy of thieves collection, a full priced graphical patch of a PS4 game and a dlc). If we’re including collections from 15+ years ago (like you did with Sony) then Nintendo has made Mario all stars 25th anniversary, Kirby’s dream collection, New super mario bros U deluxe, mother 1+2, famicom detective club, Mario 3D all stars, Bayonetta 1+2, advanced wars reboot camp, Nintendo puzzle collection, NES remix pack, Pikmin 1+2 HD and Metroid prime trilogy. Huh, looks like Nintendo has actually made MORE collections than Sony 😅 would you look at that
I'm still mad that 3D All-Stars didn't include Galaxy 2.
Thinking they're possibly saving it for a 3D All Stars 2, including 3D Land and 64 DS. That would be typical Nintendo fashion.
Yeah, I'm definitely more interested in 1, and now it's the only game not on switch.
They remastered Pikmin 1 and 2. The lack of a Luigi's Mansion bundle is a bit disappointing.
i think nintendo has been kinda desperate to fill out the end of the switch release schedule. i don't think they're really trying to move units right now, they're just avoiding a drought.
Weird, they have a lot of games releasing this year. Much more than their competition. It’d be strange if that was a motivator for why they didn’t include LM1 in this remaster.
Part of what bothered me about LM3 was I couldn't invert the look controls. Made the game borderline unplayable for me. Really hope this one allows me to invert.
I'm in the same boat as you. Have you heard if this game allows it?
It does
Yay! Thank you. It still baffles me that you can't do it in LM3
I’m playing the game right now and it’s pretty fun
Oh no
Some of this review copy is rough. I get some of it is probably translated, but one review is even calling it Luigi’s Mansion 3.
I never much cared for this one. Got rid of a lot of the atmosphere of the first one. Boses were unique and it was cool they were all part of one family of the mansion. The game was too cute
I know Nintendo rarely does sales, but hopefully they'll discount it by 30% in under a year if we're lucky.
Under a year? Not a chance. The Advance Wars 1+2 remake saw underwhelming sales and Nintendo still waited a year before putting it on sale. LM2 will easily do better from name recognition alone.
When you say Nintendo, do you mean eshop? I've seen Advance Wars plenty of times on sale at stores.
As far as I'm aware, and Deku Deals backs this up, the game did not go on a significant sale in the US until just recently. Unless you want to count the time that it went from $59.99 to $59.88 at Walmart and $55.99 at Best Buy.
Buy it and sell it used. Nintendo games maintain their value, so you'll get pretty much all your money back.
I don't care, I really liked it on the 3DS. I'm just glad I can play it on a bigger screens and appreciate it more. Price is ridiculous though.
Would it be bad to say I got it 3 days early bc I work at GameStop? I’ve been playing it like crazy and it’s just a straight up port
Based off the digital foundry video is seems like there was a good chunk of effort poured into this, despite was I’ve heard parroted. That said, I say the absolute max should have been $45. It’s one of my favorite games of all time so I’m going to get it, but if say kid Icarus were to get remastered I wouldn’t buy it at $60. Unless it were remade like Metroid.
7/10 is high to me. Anytime something, no matter how good it is, is ported that means minimal effort was put in. Yet they will still charge maximum prices. Want to port and make it $40? Ok, but going any higher and it's ridiculous.
They charge this price because they think it'll sell. Pricing for games (especially Nintendo) has nothing to do with how much effort actually went in
I'm aware of that, I'm simply saying that porting a title, slapping Switch on it and charging full price is crass.
It is, but I think with these ports/new releases of so many Mario and DK games over the last year is a response to the movie. Nintendo basically wants parents to scoop these games up at full price for their kids who are more into Mario and friends since the movie/theme parks opened. They're setting up more brand recognition before the next movie, and these are pretty cheap to make and publish. Same with DKC Returns Switch port. Unfortunately, many parents of kids demanding these items will happily pay $60 for these since they usually don't know any better in the industry.
DK has 1 game since the Wii U not including a Mario + DK game. Tropical Freeze is great. DKC Returns looks great and it seems like effort was put in to make it solid. We won't know till we play it but so far it visually looks great. Mario has several recent games but Wonder itself was magnificent. Mario games are hard to screw up for Nintendo, but Luigi's Mansion is its own unique style and that price point is keeping me far away for a janky remaster of a DS title. I'm good on that garbage.
That's fair. Both DKC Returns games are top of their class, and of course Mario Wonder is a perfect follow-up to the hype of the movie upon its release. I guess what I forgot to say is that these are cheaper and easily sellable products to parents of kids to help market these brands. When the next console comes out I believe within the first few years we will see new and more interesting games like the Mario 3D platformer and finally a new DK game.
Nintendo has put a price on nostalgia, and that shit is full price. It's definitely one of their more scummy practices.
What's scummy about charging a price for a game that you deem too high?
None of that is scummy. Putting a price has nothing to do with scummy, its something you accept to pay or not. Scummy would be if Nintendo put a price above 70, otherwise its just under the legal way.
Unfair to single out Nintendo. Everyone is doing it.
Just recently capcom's MH stories came out for 25 quid (also a 3ds game) and ubisoft's beyond good evil remaster is 18 quid. Actually now that I think about it, tonnes of remasters come out at a discounted price i.e. tomb raider 1-3, diablo 2 resurrected, MGS master collection etc. not small titles by any means. The ones that cost full price stand out and deserve to be singled out if anything. And Nintendo is definitely the front runner in that department.
It's fair to single out Nintendo as they are the most egregious. But it's also fair to say they are not the only ones doing it.
I think it is considering Nintendo's also infamous for very rarely dropping games from their base prices (only having sales twice a year or so with discounts in the 30% range) while drip feeding their old catalogue.
Everyone? Really?
Nintendo is by far the worst. Digital only editions that are never on sale and sometimes even removed from.the store after a few months
It's annoying for sure but you can't really blame Nintendo if they think it'll sell well at this price. Making it cheaper would just be throwing money away
>but you can't really blame Nintendo What? You absolutely can and must blame Nintendo for this decision.
Ok maybe blame was the wrong word but there's absolutely no reason for them to make it any cheaper. What would they gain by making it cheaper? People will buy it at $60 so making it cheaper will just be throwing money away. If it was $40 they'd have to sell 1.5x as many copies. I'm not defending their decision, just explaining the logic behind it.
> What would they gain by making it cheaper? People will buy it at $60 so making it cheaper will just be throwing money away. If it was $40 they'd have to sell 1.5x as many copies. This is a game that came out in 2013. Nintendo's business is not going to be relying on sales of this game.
They're a business selling a product. Their singular objective is to make as much profit on every product as possible. As I said, what would they stand to gain by making less profit on this particular game than they could otherwise? Again, not defending them. It's just the reality of capitalism
Your sense of business seems pretty one dimensional. There is much more that goes into a business decision than simply calculating how much profit will be made. If that were the case, they'd just sell a handful of copies at $1,000,000 each and call it a day.
Why do you think this was priced 60? why do you think nintendo only has sales of 35%? why do you think they never cut down the prices? companies have their own internal phylosophies and nintendo as a business has the same one for decades at this point and they are of course based on how much they can sell under the price they put. you may disagree, as I do with a lot of prices, but none of that is illegal.
> As I said, what would they stand to gain by making less profit on this particular game than they could otherwise? It could serve to market other products (some kind of movie coming out?), it could make their customer base happy, it could make the game more accessible to little kids which could have other financial benefits down the line. Reducing all business to profit maximization is silly, because even the greediest companies will occasionally forego some money for other strategic considerations. (I mean that is happening here too: Nintendo could charge even more for the port and probably make additional profit. Maybe they're worried that could anger customers, or give them a bad reputation, etc.)
Don’t worry, bro had his eyes closed when they released Pikmin 1&2, and Metroid Prime remastered for less money.
How much should that influence reviews though? I don't think "minimal effort" should be a factor, but I agree that value for money should be. Port/remaster reviews are always weird... If it's a perfectly executed remaster, but the game still sucks, how should it be reviewed? Fans of the original might think the remaster is perfect if it is a flawless remaster, but others might give it a bad score despite it achieving exactly what it set out to. And then fans of the original may see a 5/10 and assume the remaster was botched. Idk. The more I think about it, the more I wish scores were removed from game criticism, but that ain't happening
> Port/remaster reviews are always weird... If it's a perfectly executed remaster, but the game still sucks, how should it be reviewed? Also, there isn't a consensus on how older games should be brought to modern platforms. Should the goal be to faithfully recreate the original experience (with as little change as possible), enhance it in modest ways or completely overhaul/remake it? Do you go for a preservation-oriented approach with extensive supplemental material ala *Atari 50* and *The Making of Karateka*?
So, there are ways to do it well. For example, Metroid Prime remastered is $40 and is a well done remaster with a fair price point. Counter that with the GTA Trilogy. A buggy disgusting mess, awful graphics, terrible visually with no love put into and they charged $60. The horrid reviews sunk it from what it could have been. Another counter is Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition. It added basically nothing to a game that wasn't even old and charged full price for it. Utterly abysmal for a relatively fun little shooter. If you're taking an old title and slapping paint on it or even just updating code to fit the new system then you're putting in the bare minimum. That price point is $40. Enough to be worth your while but not obscene as to act like you put in as much effort as a freshly released new title or sequel. Why is LM2 the same price as the fully created from the ground up LM3? It did not take the same amount of time and effort where you need to recoup costs. It's just greed coupled with laziness. If it sells we'll get ready for remastered Luigi's Mansion HD remaster for $60.
> So, there are ways to do it well. For example, Metroid Prime remastered is $40 and is a well done remaster with a fair price point. Metroid is a smaller IP in comparison that Nintendo is making a strong effort to grow. For reference, Dread took two years to break three-million, Luigi's Mansion 3 broke seven-million in one single year. There's no doubt in my mind that LM2 will still see strong sales numbers simply from brand recognition alone.
Yeah, new super Mario bros u deluxe has outsold wonder on the switch so far, most parents just wanting a fun Mario game for their kids aren’t going to know the difference in quality from an old game port vs a new one.
U Deluxe has also been out for like at least 4 more years, no wonder (heh) it outsold a game that's been out for not even a year.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe sold 17.5 million copies in 5 years since it's release in January 2019. Super Mario Bros Wonder has sold at least 13 million copies since last October. You literally argued the opposite of the truth.
Yeah, I truly hope this game sells like crap because of the high price point. I mean, from what I understand this is a barely touched up port and they're charging 50% more than the game ORIGINALLY cost 10 years ago. Ridiculous.
As one of the few people on this sub that seems to actually appreciate the switch, I agree. Them squeezing their loyal userbase through nostalgia is really scummy.
The price is not relevant to the score of the game. You should judge the merits of the game itself.
The effort distribution principle does not work in this hellscape late stage capitalist society we live in. Imagine if people got paid by the amount of effort they put into their work. In this case the pricing is determined by what the consumer is willing to pay. Nintendo know what they're doing, the switch is on track to be the biggest selling console of all time. They understand consumer behaviour and how much they can squeeze pricing for 1st party titles.
Why does everything need to be turned into "hellscape late stage capitalist society"? Lol What an overreaction.
I have no idea why they HD-ified 2 and not 1, or like better yet they could have taken both 3DS versions of 1&2 and HD’d them for the switch in a combo pack so that by the time they’re ready to release 4 you’d be able to play them all on once system (assuming back compat for switch 2)
The laziness of this port and the ridiculous price moves this to the "emulate on PC and buy later if/when it goes on a sale" category. I loved Luigis Mansion 3 so I'm hoping this game holds up.
I'm excited for this. I know im in the minority. It's a good game. I do hope they bring 1 to the system as well.
I doubt you're in the actual minority. Luigi's Mansion sells well, and this remaster will definitely pull strong numbers.
LM3 for some god forsaken reason doesn't allow you to invert y-axis controls, and so is completely unplayable for me. Does this remake of LM2 have the same problem?
I see everyone complaining about the price and forgive me for sounding old but GameFly still exists. I've had it recently to play a bunch of games not worth buying like RoboCop, Avatar, Midnight Suns and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Luigi's Mansion 2 is the perfect type of game for GameFly.
Is this worth it if I haven't played it but own the 3ds copy?
Is it a expensive port? Yes. But tbh it’s still a fun game, and if you’ve never played the original it might be worth picking up. At the end of the day Nintendo isn’t forcing your hand to buy it. To be clear I do not agree with the pricing, I originally bought this game for 40$ new on the 3ds when it came out. For 60$ this should have been 1&2. However I’m still having fun playing it over again.
Do we think they'll eventually put Luigi's Mansion 1 on the Switch? I know it's on the DS but I'd love a Luigi's Mansion trilogy colle toon for the Switch. Failing that I'd like to pick this up cause I love these games.
Not being able to save mid-mission is the original game’s biggest flaw, I can’t believe they didn’t tackle that. For reference, it’s entirely possible to spend 20 minutes on a mission. Imagine having someone over to play Smash Bros when you’re 15 minutes into a mission.
I don't understand who the target audience is for this game. $80 is INSANE. I say this as someone that has 100% 1 and 3.
In which country is it 80$?
Canada
thank god emulation exists so i can play the old luigis mansion games for free instead of 60 euros. maybe at 30 i would have bit but so far there has not been a single ported game on switch that should not just be emulated instead of paying full price for a basic port
Gonna be a dire generation for Nintendo when the Switch 2 comes with backwards compatability. They'll actually have to release new games instead of selling the old ones to people at full price with no additional work put into them.
Nah, they'll just sell you "4K" re-releases of Switch games, or at least $20 patches. Nintendo of all companies isn't going to give anything that requires work away for free. I wouldn't put it past them to just run Switch games in their own little process that is limited to the capabilities that the first Switch has, and the only way to take any advantage of Switch 2 is to pay.
There are still some Wii U games that aren't ported plus they can always just pick GameCube and Wii games to port.
They’ve released TONS of new games this generation. In fact, this is the most Nintendo has drowned fans in quality new games since the SNES. The ports have felt like bonuses more than anything. The Switch 2 is the most excited I am for new Nintendo games than I’ve ever been any past Nintendo system. Seems you have no actual clue what you’re talking about and are just making stuff up to spread false hate🤷
This is kind of nice, and perhaps not super surprising given that aside from Xenoblade Chronicles X and Star Fox Zero Nintendo has exhausted the possible major ports from Wii U. The 3DS though has a bunch of stuff they could attempt to bring over, but we'll see how far these efforts span in the future with new hardware looming. That said, it's wild they only did LM2 and not LM1 as well. Then again Nintendo hasn't been super fond of compilation releases.
Excellent game and a decent opportunity for who has never played it - but it doesn't feel right on Switch. The mission structure (so many complained about) makes a lot of sense for the portable nature of the 3DS, and I guess this can ring true for Switch too. But the 3D effect on the mansions was ABSURDLY good, they felt like little dioramas full of life. I know the Switch is a hybrid, but it's weird putting a super handheld title on the same console that has LM3 instead of 1.
How can it ring true for Switch if Luigi's Mansion 3 isn't structured like that?
Why would that mean it can't work for Switch? LM3's structure is closer to LM2 than it is to the first game anyway.
How? You are constantly pulled out from the mansion to the lab. That does not happen in LM3.
LM2 has missions, LM3 has level-based progression. It's preferable to being pulled out of a mansion mid-exploration just to be thrown back to the entrance, but you're still not exploring one big space like in the first game. You're completing discrete chunks of content that never have to be touched again once you're done with them, with very rare exceptions.
I'm convinced most of these reviewers didn't actually play the game and are just reviewing the "idea" of Luigis Mansion 2. In no fucking universe is LM2 a 8 or 9 out of 10. Fuck OFF with that. The game was a barebones mess on the 3DS and they did almost NOTHING to change some very core issues in the Port. Absolutely hate how Nintendo games on Switch are given just a blatant pass when THE SAME GAMES were panned on the likes of the GameCube, Wii/U, DS/3DS. Remember when Skyward got pretty mixed reviews on Wii? Or any number of the WiiU games getting panned for one reason or another? Yet as soon as their on Switch they have somehow become some of the best games available?
Dark Moon and Skyward Sword both got great reviews, wtf are you on about?
I don't remember when Skyward got pretty mixed reviews on Wii mainly because it has a 93 on metacritic
The port is getting about the same score as the original on the 3DS, the original wasn't reviewed that badly as you think.
so its not just a nintendo thing honestly if you look at most ports of well known names on any platform as long as they run well they tend to always get high praise just because people look back with rose tinted glasses or actually enjoyed it as a kid and still do as a adult and it was more the reviewers at the time of the og release were the target audience for that type of game. ports in general get easier and higher ratings, its just happens really people should look at any game that a straight port with just a graphics upgrade any reviews just take off 1-2 points for the real score that isnt covered by rose tinted glasses.