Review: 71399 Luigi's Mansion Entryway
Posted by benbacardi,
Luigi's Mansion is the latest extension of the Super Mario franchise to be included in the LEGO version, with three sets this year. We recently reviewed the smallest, 71397 Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust, which introduced us to Professor E. Gadd and a Gold Ghost.
Next comes 71399 Luigi's Mansion Entryway, which includes a pair of ghosts and a friendly little puppy for Luigi to interact with. I've taken a look at the gameplay below, and what it adds to Luigi's storyline in the game.
Included in all three Luigi's Mansion sets this year is the new start tile, which begins the game in the same way the traditional start Pipe does for Mario, but provides spooky atmospheric music instead of the Mario theme. In this set, it's connected to set of wrought-iron gates, which are fairly intricately built and nicely detailed. They're flanked by stone pillars topped with blue flames, and can swing freely in either direction.
There's a variety of things inside the gates of the cemetery for Luigi to contend with before he enters the mansion itself. A small grave is included, complete with headstone and a burning torch. It's attached to a somewhat strange looking build: a free-standing black stone and an angled platform. I'm glad the app explains what you need to do with each component you build, because I would be a little stumped with this!
The grave has enough room for a purple ghost named Bogmire to stand. He's quite impressive, and very accurate to the in-game character, and not only down to prints: the Unikitty horn parts replicate his arms very well.
In the video game, Bogmire is able to produce shadow copies of himself, and teleport around the graveyard. When Luigi sucks up a shadow Bogmire using the Poltergust 3000, it forms into a shadow ball he can then throw back at the real ghost to defeat it. The shadow ball is represented here by the loose black rock, which you can send shooting towards Bogmire by jumping on the angled platform beneath which it rests. Done correctly, Bogmire should fall over and reveal the barcode to scan on his back.
I actually found this surprisingly hard to do: the ball either didn't have enough force to knock the ghost over, or I jumped too hard and broke the rest of the set. It'll take some practice, I suspect! However, the most frustrating part is that Luigi is unable to defeat the ghost without another set: scanning the barcode without either being invincible (by collecting a star from a question mark block) or by using the Poltergust 3000 from 71397 Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust. He takes ten scans, and yields ten coins.
Another creature in the cemetery is Polterpup, a friendly ghostly dog. Scanning his barcode before you enter the mansion yields five coins, and a cute animation on Luigi's screen.
The main part of the set is taken up with the entryway to the mansion itself; a set of wooden double doors surrounded by ornate stone pillars, flanked by a pair of windows. In front of the doors is a small well, with a bucket hanging on a lever above a barcode tile with a lock symbol.
Jumping on the end of the lever raises the bucket above the well, clearing the tile for you to scan. Scanning it just seems to produce an exclamation mark on Luigi's screen, and the app isn't clear what's actually meant to happen, so I'm not sure if that's intentional or not.
The doorway is cleverly built in such a way that sliding Luigi forwards once attached to the lock tile will open the doors wide enough for him to pass through. On the other side there's a spider, another lock tile on a gear, and a Boo hiding behind the door. Again, without the Poltergust 3000, there's no way for Luigi to defeat the ghost—but if you can, you net six coins after five scans.
Standing on the gear and turning it closes the doors, moving the spider out of the way and revealing another barcode tile, this time with a bone on it. Scanning it shows a small bone symbol on Luigi's screen.
Returning through the doors (after first opening them with the lock tile) and giving the bone to Polterpup yields you a further six coins, for a total of 11 if you scan both with and without the bone.
Unlike the starter set, this set has a specific way to connect the disparate components, and as such feels more like a cohesive level than it would otherwise. Obviously, you're free to rearrange as you see fit: whatever you do between scanning the start tile and the end flag is entirely up to you. (Like the other sets beyond the starter kits, there's no flag included.)
The way the doorway is built so that the doors open when the pathway slides is very clever, and my favourite part of the build. Balls attached to the bottom of the doors sit within a channel in the path, moving freely left and right as necessary.
The set adds a few fun elements to Luigi's game, but isn't really complete; at least without 71397 Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust to provide the Poltergust 3000. Additionally, 71401 Luigi's Mansion Haunt-and-Seek is designed to connect behind the doors, providing a substantial interior to the mansion, although we do not have that set available for review. Together, all three sets would make a decent sized playground, but at a fairly high cost.
This set, and the others in the Luigi's Mansion sub-theme, are available at LEGO.com now for £34.99/$39.99/€39.99.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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20 comments on this article
Bogmire looks great, immediately recognizable despite being an obscure enemy. Love the arms, they really look like they're dripping with shadowy goop!
I hadn't realized in the set images that there was a well in this set. The well in the original game was quite important, as it gave you a glimpse at the final boss at the bottom, but as this one is filled with water it's probably not really meant to be the same well.
The Poltergust is the make-or-break component across the board. Unfortunately I can't see any good way of implementing this without leaving some portion of customers confused. The least obtrusive way would be to make the Poltergust its own Power-Up Pack so you could choose any one of the three expansions to go with it, but then you have the problem of the Poltergust just not really having anything specific to it to work with (neither the Luigi's Mansion start tile, nor any ghost character), making it rather superfluous on its own.
Those front gates looks quite impressive - I may have to look for the parts and build that for myself!
As someone who loves the Luigi's Mansion series, I really appreciate seeing them incorporate so many elements from the games. The fact they've managed to semi-accurately recreate Bogmire's boss fight is especially commendable. Polterpup's inclusion is a bit odd, since he wasn't in the first game, but having ghost doggo is always nice, and the mechanic of giving him a bone is a neat reference to the golden bones from the series (which were essentially extra lives. If you died with one on you, polterpup would come by and revive you). The only part that seems odd is the well, since a well giving you a bucket of water doesn't really happen in any of the games.
I like the play feature of retrieving the bone. I hope they continue to push for new ideas with the possibilities between scanning tiles and the various figure inputs.
I like how the gear interacts with the studs. I shouldn't be surprised, because anything System should have a lot of thought put into the design. But it's fun to see in action.
I wasn't sure how many sets I wanted from the mansion beyond 71397, but this seems like a good addition. One thing that my kids were confused about is whether you "charge up" the Poltergust, or if you have to hold the button the entire time when scanning an enemy. But maybe it was user error and I need to try playing around with it.
Thanks for the review!
@Metroidman97 said:
"Polterpup's inclusion is a bit odd, since he wasn't in the first game"
If I'm not mistaken, he was added into the 3DS remake, with the same "get a bone for an extra life" mechanic they had in Dark Moon, so there's at least that.
(Nice username BTW, fellow Metroid fan I persume :-))
@B_Space_Man said:
"One thing that my kids were confused about is whether you "charge up" the Poltergust, or if you have to hold the button the entire time when scanning an enemy. But maybe it was user error and I need to try playing around with it. "
Press the button once and it'll be activated for a period of time, during which you can scan once. Then you need to press and scan again, up to as many times as the enemy requires.
Maybe the best Luigi’s Mansion set so far. The starter pack doesn’t have enough for the price point imo and the biggest one, while impressive, doesn't look as consistent to me. I love the inclusion of the spider given the series’ notoriously arachnophobia-inducing content, if only they hid a Minifigure head or a rope piece in one of the sets, that would’ve been absolutely gold. Maybe have Luigi do the “Game Over” face when you scan a tile.
@Robot99 I’ve only played half of the 3DS version at most but I don’t remember Polterpup appearing, maybe that’s later in the game? Idk how they could incorporate Gooigi but if they want to shout out that game they could put him in somewhere, I know he’s also in 3 but the 3DS remake was his first appearance.
@Trigger_ said:
"Robot99 I’ve only played half of the 3DS version at most but I don’t remember Polterpup appearing, maybe that’s later in the game?"
I think it was only in one of the new modes, or maybe the bone was a rare spawn, I don't remember exactly. But I'm pretty sure they put him somewhere in the game.
TBH I'm mostly reaching, they probably just put the Polterpup in the set because he's popular and cute lol
The original Luigi's Mansion is one of my favorite games of all time; it's super cool to see elements from it, like the Gold Ghost and Bogmire, in 2022!
@Robot99 said:
"I think it was only in one of the new modes, or maybe the bone was a rare spawn, I don't remember exactly. But I'm pretty sure they put him somewhere in the game."
Alright, it was gonna bug me, so I just looked into it - I was sort of right, it appears and revives Luigi if you scan an amiibo.
Ok, so I know it’s a tad more obscure than anything LEGO has done in the Mario sets, but I’d love sets based off of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. That game is one of my favorites from my childhood. I can just imagine a set with Cackletta and Fawful. It could have a power up pants set for Mario and Luigi that allowed for the combat style from the game. Mario gets an attack and Luigi gets an attack. Also the villains could have different tiles that they could send against them to simulate the different attacks from the game. It would essentially make a four person game played by teams of two.
@Robot99 said:
" @Robot99 said:
"I think it was only in one of the new modes, or maybe the bone was a rare spawn, I don't remember exactly. But I'm pretty sure they put him somewhere in the game."
Alright, it was gonna bug me, so I just looked into it - I was sort of right, it appears and revives Luigi if you scan an amiibo."
Polterpup is from the 2nd game (1st of the 3DS). It does not appear on the original game
@GusG said:
" @Robot99 said:
" @Robot99 said:
"I think it was only in one of the new modes, or maybe the bone was a rare spawn, I don't remember exactly. But I'm pretty sure they put him somewhere in the game."
Alright, it was gonna bug me, so I just looked into it - I was sort of right, it appears and revives Luigi if you scan an amiibo."
Polterpup is from the 2nd game (1st of the 3DS). It does not appear on the original game"
And it appears in the 3DS remake of the first game, as was stated
Wonder if they gonna release a full mansion later in the future.
Anyone asked why Luigi, a plumber, lives in a mansion??…..
Just sayin’
@Cooliocdawg said:
"Ok, so I know it’s a tad more obscure than anything LEGO has done in the Mario sets, but I’d love sets based off of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. That game is one of my favorites from my childhood. I can just imagine a set with Cackletta and Fawful. It could have a power up pants set for Mario and Luigi that allowed for the combat style from the game. Mario gets an attack and Luigi gets an attack. Also the villains could have different tiles that they could send against them to simulate the different attacks from the game. It would essentially make a four person game played by teams of two."
Fawful is legitimately one of the funniest villains of any video game. "I have fury!" is still something I quote regularly!
Digging the Luigi's Mansion based approach, and I like the idea of Mario and Luigi being another iteration. Far more creative than what I was assuming (Mario Party).
Oh, I love the spooky stuff. May take it as it is with no Nintendo-integration.
Anyone have issues with the orange flame piece next to the grave where bogmire goes? Mine just sits loosely in the red stud with hole, it doesn't attach at all, I have tried multiple red pieces and flames. The pin on the orange flame doesn't extend far enough through the red stud to engage the gray nipple piece and the red stud with hole doesn't grip the base of the orange flame.
@thoughtsonblocks said:
"Anyone have issues with the orange flame piece next to the grave where bogmire goes? Mine just sits loosely in the red stud with hole, it doesn't attach at all, I have tried multiple red pieces and flames. The pin on the orange flame doesn't extend far enough through the red stud to engage the gray nipple piece and the red stud with hole doesn't grip the base of the orange flame. "
Yes! My son and I were building that this evening and ran into the same issue. Kind of annoying so if anyone figures out a fix for these I’d love to hear it.