The same goes for the cast of Nintendo characters, who are as expressive and lovable as ever. Every track is stuffed with enough personality to make simply driving around and looking at the scenery a joy.

The layouts are diverse enough to keep each race from feeling too similar. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is an iteration at its core, but its selection of courses is among the series' most charming.

The blue shell remains one of gaming's most fearsome equalizers. Those who put more into it will see their skills rewarded, but the threat of that patented Mario Kart 'BS' is always lurking around the corner, eager to level the playing field. (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a 4-year-old upgrade for a 7-year-old Wii U game, but it's Nintendo's best-selling Switch title for a reason: it's inviting to players of all experience levels, both in how it plays and how it presents itself. And because it's broken up into clearly defined levels, Luigi's Mansion 3 is a game you can drop and revisit at your leisure. Everything about the game looks gorgeous, like a playable Pixar movie. Barreling into a room with your 'Poltergust' vacuums and sucking up everything in sight is both silly and consistently satisfying. But even compared to other Nintendo games, this is a game with character, from Luigi's adorable looks of terror to the distinct designs of each hotel floor and ghost boss you meet. Luigi's Mansion 3 as a whole has issues: aiming your ghost-sucking vacuum can be frustratingly imprecise, and there are some tedious sequences that force you to backtrack through previously conquered levels for little added benefit. The game isn't particularly difficult, and because Gooigi is an essential part of solving many of the game's puzzles, your partner won't feel like a mere accessory while you do all the work. This gives them the freedom to fool around and die repeatedly without forcing you both to restart levels and boss fights. If your partner isn't well-versed in typical game mechanics, they can control 'Gooigi,' a Luigi clone made of green goo that has a lower health pool but infinite lives.

Its two-player mode isn't available until an hour or so into the story, but at that point the rest of the game becomes one of the most accessible co-op campaigns in recent memory.

(Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) Luigi's Mansion 3 tasks Mario's sheepish little brother with rescuing his friends from the clutches of a haunted hotel.

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