New Nintendo Direct broadcast states 2013 is ‘the year of Luigi’

Nintendo hosted yet another Nintendo Direct through its website on Valentine’s Day where eyes were primarily darted at the green-shirted plumber Luigi.

As expected with each Nintendo Direct, president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata first appeared in the stream to discuss Luigi. Iwata said since around the time Luigi appeared in his first video game, “Mario Bros.,” he has been more of a side character, unlike his famous brother Mario.

Iwata then went on to nickname 2013 as “the year of Luigi.”

For the first time on Nintendo Direct, “Super Mario Bros.” series creator Shigeru Miyamoto made an appearance to discuss some the aspects to the Nintendo 3DS title “Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon,” the sequel to the first game starring Luigi.

As the stream rolled on, it showed the environments in “Dark Moon,” which seem to contain much more diversity than the original “Luigi’s Mansion” from 2001. 

Utilizing the Poltergust, a Ghost Busters-like vacuuming device, is vital to exploring the variety of mansions. A new feature to the Poltergust is the black light, which is used to solve puzzles and reveal hidden secrets in order to progress through mansions.

Normal ghosts are now more difficult to capture. Some will use objects in the environments such as garbage can or sunglasses to prevent light from being shined upon them.

Miyamoto also showed game play footage of the multiplayer mode, which can be played locally or online with three other people. Essentially, the objective is to eradicate ghosts a number of floors set by players in a skyscraper-like building, or in this case, the ScareScraper. 3DS owners can play this game when it releases March 24.

Transitioning from “Dark Moon,” a new game in the “Mario & Luigi” role playing game (RPG) series titled “Mario & Luigi: Dream Team” was revealed. In the fourth entry to the RPG series, the setting takes place inside Luigi’s dream where Mario may enter. 

“Dream Team” will have traditional turn based game play, but with a twist. Using the 3DS’ touchscreen, players will see Luigi as he is sleeping and can use his face to assist them in the game. For example, tickling Luigi’s nose causes him to sneeze in the dream and with the gust of wind from the sneeze, a secret path may be revealed.

Although it is not necessarily Luigi centric, a new entry to the “Mario Golf” series was revealed called “Mario Golf: World Tour.” This will be the first new “Mario Golf” game since the 2004 Gameboy Advance title “Mario Golf: Advance Tour.” “World Tour” will include familiar characters in Mario franchises alongside game play for newcomers and veterans of the series.

Both “Mario & Luigi: Dream Team” and “Mario Golf: World Tour” will release in the summer of 2013.

Ending the streak of Luigi reveals was a piece of new downloadable content (DLC) for the Wii U game “New Super Mario Bros. U” titled “New Super Luigi U.” There is no “Bros.” in the name since the only playable character is Luigi.

This will not be the typical DLC with a few extra levels. Iwata said it is comparable to buying a full retail game. It will not only contain 80 brand new levels, but they are considered more challenging than the courses from “New Super Mario Bros. U.”

 “New Super Luigi U” will be available sometime in 2013.

rkey@thepinelog.com

Twitter: @Robbie_Key_V