At PAX West 2019, I played through a level filled with plants, weeds, and other assorted decaying plantlife in Luigi’s Mansion 3. With the assistance of a Nintendo staffer playing as Gooigi, we tackled a variety of puzzles and ghostly encounters as we moved through a floor stuffed with vines, snakes, rats, and secrets. And ghosts too of course! The enemy antagonist of this set of floors appears to be some kind of ghostly gardener, a taunting green visage that appeared several times throughout the level to try to impede our progress.

One of the coolest things I got to do was just play around with the vacuum-like Poltergust. There are lots of leaves to blow around in the level, but that’s just the start of what you can get up to with it. One of the best rooms in the level features a buzzsaw that you can suck into your contraption, turning it into what’s essentially a power mower with a giant blade, spinning around the room and destroying pretty much everything in sight, including a bed, desk, and ensnaring vines blocking progress. There’s even a big secret chest full of coins you can find if you’re destructively inclined. Sticking plungers on things like giant watermelons and then using the Poltergust to fling them around the room or smash into other objects steals the whole show, though battling ghosts is also a good time.

While I dusted plenty of standard issue blue ghosts, this floor featured one particular style of enemy that’s more challenging than the standard scary enemies. A giant red ghost that reminded me of a Thwomp comes covered in leaves – so you have to blow the leaves off of him before you can stun and suck him in. These leaves function like a shield and offer some floor flavor that’s in theme with the rest of the prickly plant obstacles.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 releases on October 31 – Halloween – and I’m eager to check out the rest of the mysterious floors and spooky atmosphere within.