The last time we saw much about the lesser Mario Brother and his upcoming sequel was at last year’s E3, when Graham got a little bit of hands-on time with the then-named Luigi’s Mansion 2. A year later, the title has received an official title and is nearly ready for release. I recently had a little bit of hands-on time with the game, and it’s got me considering finally purchasing a 3DS.

Dark Moon features Luigi on yet another ghost hunt, only this time he’s got three ghost-infested mansions to explore instead of the original’s one. Professor E. Gadd is back at the helm, and has again provided the famous Poltergust for Luigi to use in eliminating the poltergeist threat, although it has been upgraded to the 5000 model. The game also features attachments for the Poltergust; we know of one so far, a strobe light that allows you to stun ghosts and unlock additional areas. There’s no word yet if there are additional attachments that you’ll encounter later in the game.

There’s no doubt that Nintendo uses its first party IP to show off innovative ways to use it consoles. The original Luigi’s Mansion was used this way to test the GameCube, and Nintendo is again attempting to use Luigi to show folks what its system can do. The two key features this time? The 3D and the gyroscope.

We knew about the tilt features last year, so that’s not new, but it gives Luigi the ability to peek around the environment a little bit more. The 3DS also delivers an always-on map thanks to the bottom screen, which is a welcome feature given the amount of exploring that takes place.

Luigi’s Mansion, despite being overlooked by many, was a joy on the GameCube, and a game that I still occasionally play nearly 11 years after release. Sure, the new features serve to hopefully enhance the gaming experience, but the core experience that Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon delivers is unique and quite a lot of fun if you give it a try.

The game’s currently slated for a release in early 2013.