Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Arrives, Developer Unearthed

The developer behind the upcoming Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD has been revealed as Tantalus Media, the studio behind other big Nintendo remasters of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. The original Luigi’s Mansion 2, or Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, was released on the Nintendo 3DS as a follow-up to the 2001 GameCube classic Luigi’s Mansion during Nintendo’s Year of Luigi celebrations. In this installment, Mario’s legendary green-capped brother must collect the fragments of the titular Dark Moon and capture the evil King Boo by exploring ghost-filled mansions in Evershade Valley.

Nintendo announced a Nintendo Switch remake of Luigi’s Mansion 2 during a Nintendo Direct last September, and officially confirmed that it would launch on June 27 at this year’s Mario Day back in March. A few months later, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s file size was revealed, shortly after Nintendo dropped a new teaser trailer detailing its main story premise. While Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is only a few days from launch as of this writing, the developer in charge of bringing the handheld title to the larger Switch console has remained a mystery until now.

VGC recently reported that Australian studio Tantalus Media is taking over for original Luigi’s Mansion 2 developer Next Level Games, as listed in Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s credits. The name Tantalus Media might be familiar to some Nintendo fans, as it previously developed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on Wii U and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD on Switch. It also worked on the Nintendo Switch port of Sonic Mania, the PC port of the original House of the Dead, and helped Forgotten Empires with the Definitive Editions of Age of Empires 1-3.

Zelda Remaster Studio Tantalus Media Revealed As Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD Developer

So far, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD has been met with good reviews from critics, who consider it to be another solid Nintendo remaster in the spirit of November’s Super Mario RPG and this year’s Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Unfortunately, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD recently ran into the same pre-order problems that affected Paper Mario, resulting in Walmart canceling orders earlier this month.

Regardless, Tantalus Media has been confirmed as the developer behind Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, just a few days before the remake is set to launch on the Nintendo Switch. This wouldn’t be the first time that Nintendo has kept behind-the-scenes information close to the vest until a game was nearing release, as Super Mario RPG remake studio ArtePiazza wasn’t identified until a few days before launch. Likewise, Mario and Luigi: Brothership’s developer is still unknown, and will likely stay that way for a while judging by the patterns of previous Nintendo releases.