Review: 71397 Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust
Posted by benbacardi,
Last year, Mario no longer had to play alone, as Luigi was introduced to the Super Mario line of sets back in June with 71387 Adventures with Luigi. He brought with him a pink Yoshi, a Boom Boom, and a Bone Goomba, as well as a start pipe and a number of biome plates that slot right into the Mario world we already know.
However, this year marks the start of Luigi's own adventures, with the introduction of three sets based on the video game series dedicated to the less famous brother, Luigi's Mansion. I've taken a look at the smallest of the three, 71397 Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust, which contains a new outfit for Luigi, an ally, and a single antagonist.
Firstly, all three sets come with a new start tile to be placed on a black and green pedestal, rather than the standard and more iconic bright green start pipe. This acts in the same way to start the game, but Luigi will play more haunting music throughout the course instead of the familiar Super Mario theme.
There's one antagonist to defeat, a friend to say hello to, a coin-providing machine, a couple of superfluous builds, and a display stand for Luigi's outfit change.
Before being able to defeat the ghost provided, Luigi must first swap dungarees. Those built in this set provide a button on the front, and a wheeled red backpack connected to a tube and nozzle: the Poltergust 3000, a vacuum cleaner invented by Professor E. Gadd to catch ghosts.
A display stand houses the new outfit, with a pair of arms to hold the two Poltergust attachments: the standard vacuum nozzle, or a Strobulb. For the purposes of the game it doesn't matter which you choose to use.
When you swap Luigi's clothes, he can grip the handle of the Poltergust in either of his hands; I suppose it's up to you whether to make him a leftie or a rightie!
The backpack sits neatly on his back, covering the power and bluetooth buttons; though that is not much of an issue mid-game.
The enemy in the set is a Gold Ghost; apparently, the first ghost that Luigi encounters in the Luigi's Mansion game. A clear 1x1 round brick is provided for him to float above the biome plate.
On his back is a round tile with the barcode. Scanning the barcode by itself isn't enough, and will actively hurt Luigi. Instead, you have to press the button on the front of Luigi's dungarees before scanning, and repeat the process five times, to simulate vacuuming it up with the Poltergust, after which you'll receive 5 coins.
When Luigi first enters the mysterious mansion in the video game, he meets Professor E. Gadd, an eccentric scientist and inventor of the Poltergust 3000. He stands on a small biome plate with a barcode of his own: scanning him will show a heart on Luigi's screen and yield 3 coins.
There's also some sort of machinery provided with a couple of levers, one of which is raised and tempting Luigi to jump on it…
…after which the top of the machine will flip over and reveal a coin tile to scan.
Finally, there's a couple of smaller sub-builds: a toolbox, and a lab desk with a pair of potion bottles. Scan the purple one, and Luigi reacts as he does when placed on the soda jungle, becoming more and more unhappy until he can't collect coins any more, at least until he drinks some water (scan the blue potion).
LEGO seems to have thrown a lot behind the Super Mario licence, with a myriad of sets of different sizes and the character packs. It's great to see them branch out into more video games from the franchise, and the spooky setting of the Luigi's Mansion series of games is a nice change of pace. Combined with the other two Luigi's Mansion sets, this should make for a fairly large playground for fans of the less well-known Mario brother.
However, the sets remain fairly expensive for what they are, and I have to admit I don't fully understand the attraction to the LEGO version of the game itself yet! My daughter is slightly too young for the target audience, and it can be tough for her to figure out what she needs to do and in what order, but she does love all the sounds that Luigi makes and attempting to get the coins and defeat the baddies.
It is available at LEGO.com for £21.99/$29.99/€24.99.
Thanks to LEGO for providing this set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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18 comments on this article
I appreciate that they're changing up the gameplay a bit now! The same old format kind of gets tiring after a while, though I can imagine this losing its novelty as well.
This set is cute. The gameplay is decent but it can't be stated enough how much the sound effects contribute to the authentic feel—having watched a video review of this set, the Luigi's Mansion theme that plays when you scan the start tile from these new packs and the classic E. Gadd babbling speech that plays when you scan his tile are both perfect.
This level is small but seems to have some fun features. I like the potion effects you describe since they feel very much like the kind of distracted fidgeting Luigi would get up to in a lab cutscene.
I can't wait to get a hold of that new grip-piece, so I can make the worst lightsaber ever.
Got this set yesterday as a matter of fact, along with 71399 since I’m a big fan of the Luigi’s Mansion series. E. Gadd is a favorite character of mine as well, so it was hard to resist.
i think that all three LM sets are worth it, since the series is more action-oriented than the standard SMB platform series.
Pretty sure that machine is the Portrificationizer, which is an awesome addition.
I think this scene is meant to represents E. Gadd’s lab, which acts as a mission control in Luigi’s Mansion. After defeating certain ghosts, Luigi can return to the laboratory where he can empty the Poltergeist 3000 of any captured ghouls into the machine. The ghosts are then turned into paintings as a means of safely containing them, and also making for quite the conversation piece in any mad scientist laboratory!
Although, personally, I feel $30 for a starter set is quite expensive. You don’t even get that many enemies or that much of the lab all things considered. Most of the cost probably went into those new overalls. Still, as a fan of the first game, it’s not a bad representation of the lab!
As much as I love the new Luigi's Mansion games, I'm very glad they went with the original ghost designs. Iconic, nostalgic, and a little more spooky!
I just grabbed this set today at Walmart. It’s great that they are adding accessories like the Poltergust 3000. As I’ve stated elsewhere, I really hope we get F.L.U.D.D. next. Thanks for the review!
A Luigi Board!
Thanks for the review, I’d love to see reviews of the other Luigi sets as well!
How does a plumber afford a mansion?
@gunther_schnitzel said:
"How does a plumber afford a mansion?"
Funny enough, it's not actually his mansion. It never is.
The mansion in the first Luigi's Mansion was a trap organized by King Boo to capture Mario and Luigi. The two brothers received a fake notice that they won the mansion in a contest they never entered. Mario got there first, got captured by King Boo, so the objective of the game is to save him.
^ thanks, that makes more sense.
@PixelTheDragon said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"How does a plumber afford a mansion?"
Funny enough, it's not actually his mansion. It never is.
The mansion in the first Luigi's Mansion was a trap organized by King Boo to capture Mario and Luigi. The two brothers received a fake notice that they won the mansion in a contest they never entered. Mario got there first, got captured by King Boo, so the objective of the game is to save him."
I wouldn't say it "never" is. The ending of the first game implies that once it gets cleared of ghosts Luigi does get to keep the now non-haunted property (with his "new mansion" being bigger and more extravagant the more treasure he collected over the course of the game, ranging from a massive four-story mansion if you collected over 100 million gold to a mere tent if you collected as little money as possible).
@Lyichir said:
" @PixelTheDragon said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"How does a plumber afford a mansion?"
Funny enough, it's not actually his mansion. It never is.
The mansion in the first Luigi's Mansion was a trap organized by King Boo to capture Mario and Luigi. The two brothers received a fake notice that they won the mansion in a contest they never entered. Mario got there first, got captured by King Boo, so the objective of the game is to save him."
I wouldn't say it "never" is. The ending of the first game implies that once it gets cleared of ghosts Luigi does get to keep the now non-haunted property (with his "new mansion" being bigger and more extravagant the more treasure he collected over the course of the game, ranging from a massive four-story mansion if you collected over 100 million gold to a mere tent if you collected as little money as possible)."
Funny enough, the tent is actually the hardest thing to get since you intentionally have to avoid getting money to earn so little!
When I first saw the picture, I thought the machine was a character, and the printed dials were its eyes.
Love the use of the small flame piece as the professor's hair. I always seeing pieces that are usually molded in trans colors get done in opaque, or vice versa.
I think the Poltergust could have been easily brick built without requiring that new piece.