My original Game of the Year list for 2013 had a lot more mobile gaming on it. Both Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Animal Crossing: New Leaf held on until the final round of cuts. It was my last minute push to play more PC games that bumped two stellar 3DS games from the list. Worse still, I never got around to writing about those games. Thank goodness for StreetPass Princeton. This is gamer group in Princeton, NJ that does a whole lot of Nintendo-themed YouTube videos on their channel. I found their Luigi's Mansion/Animal Crossing mash-up a few weeks ago and I'm obsessed. It's so well done. Basically, they built representations of some of the best Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon levels in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
Let's work backwards, here. My favorite part about the Animal Crossing series is the customization. You can be as creative as you want within the confines of pixel art. You get to design wallpaper, clothing, umbrellas, artwork, and more in game that you can display in game.
New Leaf added online interaction and that is what almost grabbed the game a slot on my Game of the Year list. The entire point of Animal Crossing is interacting with your new neighbors and fulfilling their wishes and desires through collection and construction. You send mail, collect wildlife, gather fruit, and purchase presents to make your neighbors happy. In return, they give you tools and decor for your house that you can expand however you want.
The 3DS version allows you to exchange friend codes with your real friends and visit their towns for the first time. So at the end of the StreetPass Princeton video, they give out the friend code for the woman who designed the Luigi's Mansion house so you can go visit it in your game. That's brilliant.
Nintendo GameCube is the closest thing Nintendo has to a lost console (not counting the Virtual Boy, which very few people bought before it was pulled). Luigi's Mansion was one of the flagship games on the original "failed" Nintendo console. It was the first game to star Luigi without Mario (for those keeping score, that's three total so far, both Luigi's Mansion games and the newly skinned Dr. Luigi in the Wii U eShop) and it's wild. Basically, Luigi wins a mansion in a sweepstakes that turns out to be a trap. It's haunted. Luigi is given ghosthunting equipment by an eccentric scientist and sets off to cleaning up his new property, literally; the ghosthunting device is a vacuum cleaner.
Over 10 years later, we finally got the sequel very few people were asking for. Nintendo knocked it out of the park. Dark Moon improves upon the original Luigi's Mansion in every way. It's a longer game. The story is better. The controls are more efficient with a stylus than the ever were on the GameCube's C-stick controller. And the 3D is integral to the gameplay, creating a much needed sense of depth for creepier ghost interaction and harder puzzles.
The draw of Luigi's Mansion will always be the beautiful and haunting design. There's a reason I always paint Halloween ceramics purple and green: Luigi's Mansion. The game has a striking aesthetic that just pops on the 3DS. Nothing else looks quite like it.
That's why the Luigi's Mansion recreation in Animal Crossing is so impressive. They really captured the core style of a surprisingly creepy Nintendo game using one of the cutest series Nintendo has to offer. Both games are worth having in any 3DS library. Paired together, they're irresistible.
Have you played Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon? Share your thoughts below.