Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon claims that it is a much more finely tuned game from its predecessor, but i don't see it.
LUIGIS MANSION (gamecube) SPOILERS
Luigi's Mansion for Gamecube has a memorable story line, Luigi wins a mansion in a lottery and finds out its inhabited by ghosts. After much adventuring through this colossal mansion, you realize Bowser has trapped Mario in a painting (least i think it was a painting), and seeing that as a kid was like "whoa, Luigi's going to fight Bowser? damn Luigi". Then finally, you get to the boss, and after defeating him, he becomes King Boo. WHAT?! There was no inclination to this! ....Save the boo's which spontaneously spawned in the mansion half way, but that wasn't a giveaway... but man, that was a twist for the better. The game had suspense, mystery, great story and the ghosts themselves had personalities. 
POP GOES THE BOWSER HEAD
LUIGIS MANSION (gamecube) SPOILERS END
Dark Moon claims it has done more than the first, but i did not see that. The game length is about the same as the first even though there was 1 mansion in the first and Dark Moon had 5. That's not a real disappointment the length of the game is quite well done and is a perfect length of a game, but the way it's advertised is that "Luigi's not going through but 1 mansion this time, but a multitude of them", so instantly we who played the first are like "This games gonna be huge"
Now my biggest problem with the game (to me it least) was the ghosts didn't really have anything special. In comparison, the original had all their boss ghosts with something unique, there was a man in a rocking chair, a man eating endlessly at a table and more. These ghosts not only were different they were all their own original character, they each did something different. Also they all had a biography (if i remember correctly). It was interesting to see the level of creativity that went in to a game that no one had expected to explode the way it did.
Red heavy, Green regular, Blue ... other regular
Now Dark Moon does not do this at all. The closest it gets to giving ghosts a biography is a boss of these 3 sisters. Though it does not feel like a real change in the boss. In first game, each boss ghost looked significantly different in terms of the way it was created (so graphic wise). But each ghost in this game look like they were made in the same way.
A lovely redeeming quality i must admit to though is what Mr. Miyamoto stated in the Nintendo Direct. (not exact qoute) "We wanted to make it really feel like luigi was in the room with the 3D" and god damn this is one of the best 3D games i've played. It's not over the top, not a gimmick it just feels right. I played majority of this game in 3D, and i usually play games in 2D.
Its...its like i'm really there!
Now for the less redeeming qualities. Again.
Before Dark Moon was released, many pics were released about it, some fan made some real, but you can never tell on the internet. So the pic which seemed like it'd be the Picture of the box art showcased Luigi facing King Boo, the boss from the first luigi's mansion. Now that's not a bad idea, king boo really gave a great twist at the end. But in Dark moon, it's like your making yourself a cheese sandwhich, hoping to dear god it will turn into a sub sandwhich, and when you bite into it, its still a cheese sandwhich. Don't get me wrong, im all for cheese sandwhiches, but a sub is great every now an then.
SPOILERS
Luigi goes through the game slowly uncovering 'What or Who' destroyed the crystal moon, known as Dark Moon, (there's the title...) and Luigi "Slowly" finds out it was King boo who did it. The annoying part is, in the start of the game, we get a cut scene showing, King boo did it. So instantly the player knows who's behind it so were forced to watch luigi uncover this mystery. After saving some toads trapped in paintings, each in a different mansion, they show luigi a picture they took of the ghost boss, each time slightly missing King boo.
Opening cinematic. Look there's king boo!
Now i can deal with that, King boo wants revenge. Ok good plot i admit, but the secret which we find out, which i hope most found out in the first photograph from the toads, was that mario was captured. Again. By the same dude. Mario wtf are you doing? You are THE PLUMBER, yes i know its luigi's game and he's the hero, but what were you doing to get caught? In the first game mario won the first mansion and got caught, and luigi went in after him trying to find him. Ok Sensible. BUT WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE IN THIS GAME MARIO.
But hey gotta lure Luigi out somehow, wait? The doctor forced him to help out? Oh nevermind.
Would you trust this man? He's playing with a vacuum.
Now the final big problem is the final secret. Or lack of. In the first game It's a huge twist that the final boss is not actually bowser, and man was that a good twist, dissapointing that i wasn't fighting bowser, but a excellent twist which burned itself into my mind. So as a fan of the previous one, i kept hoping there would be some sort of twist. They show King boo at the begginning, middle and near the end, so it's too obvious that it has to be a twist or something. But no, it's king boo. Now i don't want an M. Night shyamalan thing here, but i was hoping for a bit more...
It was continually boasted how this game was going to be what they wanted to do with the gamecube version. If you ask me, i rate the gamecube one much higher than this one.
What the fourth wall toad. C'mon!
To conclude, Dark Moon isn't a bad game, but they failed to really deliver on their promises. They said i'll give you cupcakes, and you get muffins (granted i love muffins an hate cupcakes so that doesn't apply to me). If you never played the first game, all those years ago, then don't worry, you'll love it. But if you're like me and have something to compare this to, you'll see the flaws overtime, but still a good game to play. Very challenging at times and other times easy.
Don't cry luigi, It's still the "year of luigi".
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