Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
Also known as: Luigi Mansion 2 (JP), Luigi's Mansion 2 (HK/TW/EU/AU) Developers: Nintendo SPD Group No. 3, Next Level Games Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo 3DS Released in JP: March 20, 2013 Released in US: March 24, 2013 Released in EU: March 28, 2013 Released in AU: March 28, 2013 Released in KR: July 18, 2013 Released in TW: July 26, 2013 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences. This game has a notes page This game has a bugs page

This game/console's online features are no longer supported. While this game/console's online features were once accessible, they are (as of April 8, 2024) no longer officially supported and online-exclusive features may be documented as now-unseen content.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is the sequel to the popular GameCube game Luigi's Mansion. Going for a cartoonier slapstick comedy style this time around, it kicked off the Year of Luigi in ghost-busting style.

A HD port on the Nintendo Switch was released on June 27th, 2024, although under its international title "Luigi's Mansion 2" instead of its US/Canada name.

To do: There's unused cutscene music/audio. Much of it can be found on this YouTube channel. Can we decode the game's model/animation format? Are there any unused models? There's a TON of debug references in the code and assets. Can the debug mode be enabled? Tweaker folder seems to contain detailed descriptions of debug features. Prerelease article.

Sub-Pages

Notes

Bugs

Unused Audio Props to the Arcade Version for giving us most of these unused tracks (as well as the entire uncompressed soundtrack for this game)!

English Translation Differences "Footbrawl" versus "American Footbrawl". Guess which is the European name.

Unused Layouts

To do: See if the menus themselves can't be loaded as well

Found in RomFS\art\fe folder are two unused debugging screen layouts. To see these in-game, simply replace one of the used layout .data and .dict files.

Mission Select

debugselectmissions.data seems to be a layout for a simple menu, containing a list of missions. The mission names don't seem to load.

(Source: Skawo)

Progress Debug

progressiondebug.data appears to be a menu allowing you to set some completion parameters.

(Source: Skawo)

Unused Cutscenes

To see these in-game, simply replace one of the used cutscene .data and .dict files.

RiseSandBoxCamera

Found in RomFS\art\levels\sandbox\nistest\nis\ridesandboxcamera is an unused script for a cutscene, which consists of some camera movements.
The level that would host this cutscene is gone from the game, so the overworld map was loaded to showcase it.

(Source: Skawo)

Mission00Zone, Poltergust Upgrade

RomFS\art\levels\bunker\mission00zone is an unused E.Gadd cutscene testing script. The cutscene first loads a sub-script found in RomFS\art\levels\bunker\art\nis\poltergust_upgrade, which shows E.Gadd don a welding mask and tinker with the Poltergust on Luigi's back. The cutscene then proceeds to go through every single Luigi and E.Gadd animation that can be used for the bunker scenes, whilst popping up undefined textboxes.

Mission307Zone

RomFS\art\levels\bunker\mission307zone is an unused end-of-level cutscene. After Luigi leaves the Pixelshifter, E.Gadd proceeds to say a few sentences and brings up the Parascope map, which indicates that Haunted Towers have been unlocked.

Mission208Zone

RomFS\art\levels\bunker\mission208zone is yet another unused end-of-level cutscene. The spoils from the mission are sent to the vault, after which E.Gadd says a few undefined sentences.

(Source: Skawo)

Unused Rooms

Gloomy Manor

room_treasureroom

A complex 3D Maze found in RomFS\art\levels\mansiona\room_treasureroom. Present is a chest, which awards you a modest amount of money, and a spring pad that launches you back to the beginning.

Haunted Towers

room_secretroom1

A barely-started bonus challenge found in RomFS\art\levels\mansionb\room_secretroom1. Aside from a textureless platform, it contains one of the Secret Mine teleporters, which crashes if interacted with.

room_secretroomtemplate

An even more barebones bonus challenge, with only the platform's outer walls modelled. Found in RomFS\art\levels\mansionb\room_secretroomtemplate.

(Source: Skawo)

Unused Missions

Gloomy Manor and the Secret Mine both have a mission00 folder. Secret Mine's is entirely empty, while Gloomy Manor's appears to contain a Greenie model and references Stage 4's ending cutscene - but neither of those appear in the stage when it's loaded in.

(Source: Skawo)

Unused Actions

First Person Mode

There exists an unused first person mode toggle, which can be mapped to a button. This likely went unused because the game doesn't render a lot outside the screen. This can be reenabled by the following cheat code in the EUR and US versions:

2090A27B 00000007
2090A27E 0000000B

(Source: Marioiscool246)

Held Dark Light

There exists a mode which makes the Dark Light act more like the regular flashlight. It stays on when walking around, and by holding the Dark Light button it can be charged and strobed. The strobing doesn't seem to have any effect on actually revealing objects, however.

20908265 00000000

(Source: Marioiscool246)

Health Regeneration

The game can be set to restore Luigi's HP to full shortly after he gets hurt. Once the HP reaches 100, the game plays an otherwise-unused sound effect. This was used in the 2011 demo.

2090A534 00000001

(Source: Marioiscool246)

Unused Textures

Convergence Plane Texture

Found in RomFS\art\global.data is this texture reading "Convergence Plane" several times over.

(Source: CometMedal)

Configuration Files

Located in \ini are four files which seem to contain settings for the game, as well as general ROM information.

buildinfo.ini

Has what would likely be the last build time and date.

JPN:

Current Changelist = CL 0
Build Date = Feb 07 2013 - 23:41

EUR:

Current Changelist = CL 319043
Build Date = Feb 14 2013 - 13:05

USA:

Current Changelist = CL 319042
Build Date = Feb 14 2013 - 13:06

KOR:

Current Changelist = CL 0
Build Date = Apr 05 2013 - 14:31

releasetweakfilter.txt

Possibly the most recently used development and debugging software.

Most Recently Used
Animation
Audio
Camera
Effects
Engine
FE
Gameplay
GameplayConfig
Memory
MP
Network
NCL_Tweakers
Presentation
Profiling
Rendering
SDCard
Zones

rominfo.ini

Contains the game's "product code" serial (as seen in various places) and the unique ID part of the title ID.

CTR ProductCode = CTR-P-AGGE
CTR UniqueID = 0x0055F

user.ini

Appears to contain flags used during development of the game for debugging purposes. Unfortunately, it does not work if the flags are set to true, or the comment sign is removed.

Show Smiler = false
Warn When Too Fast = false
Colour Effects On Out Of Memory = false
#Always Unlock All Missions = true
#Skip SaveLoad = false
Show Low Memory Warning = false

Debug Features

Gyro Info

Information detailing the gyroscope position can be drawn on the screen by using the following cheat code (EUR version) and pressing the R button:

009583E0 00000001

Ghost Catch Info

Information about the current ghost capture can be drawn on the screen by using the following cheat code (EUR version) and attempting to catch a ghost:

0095AE54 00000001

Smiler

Making its way over from Super Mario Strikers is the Smiler. A small rectangle is drawn in the corner of the screen and gets angry whenever the game starts losing frames. This can be seen in the video below starting at 2:17.

00917128 00000001
2095DBB0 00000001

Debug Switches

By adding a dist.ini file with certain flags to the RomFS\ini directory, some debugging features can be enabled.

The format of the file follows the convention of user.ini, i.e

Flag Name = value

UseTestLevels

If set to true, the game sometimes loads into a glitched titlescreen. "Current: F1" is shown on the bottom screen, while a level seems to be loaded in the background. The game usually crashes not too long after. In the sequel, this is used to load into a Level Select. As such, this likely means it has been dummied out from this game, but not completely.

Skip Frontend

If set to true, the game immediately loads into a level.

Skip Frontend Level

If set to a level name (e.g. MansionA, MansionA_SpiderBoss, Bunker, etc...), it loads that level when Skip Frontend is enabled.

Skip Frontend Mission

If set to a number, it loads that mission of the selected level when Skip Frontend is enabled.

King Boo Hack

If frontend is being skipped, and loaded level is MansionE_KingBoo, if set to true it will load the final boss fight with King Boo, but if set to false, it will load the Giant Knight fight.

Always Unlock All Missions

If set to true, all missions get unlocked.

Smoke Test, Smoke Test Duration

Seems to be some sort of stability test. If set to true, it crashes the game, unless Smoke Test Duration is set to a non-zero value (e.g 190.0) and Skip Frontend is enabled. After loading into Gloomy Manor, a debug string is displayed on the bottom screen for the duration of the test. The game proceeds to warp Luigi around the manor.

Custom Level

Can be set to MansionA, MansionB, MansionC, MansionD or MansionE. If Smoke Test is enabled, the bottom screen map of that mansion will load, the debug string on the bottom screen will print the selected level, but the player will still end up in Gloomy Manor.

BootLanguage

Can be set to, for example, German. Allows one to override the game's language.

No function/unknown

The following flags are also referenced in the code, but seem to do nothing, or their function is unknown: Net Test Host, Net Test Players, TestStart, Intentionally Fail Assert, Intentionally Crash Game, Smoke Output By Platform, Changelist, AppNumber, BootRegion

(Source: Skawo)

Text Speed Tag

The text in the game can contain a {tp} tag, which can be used to control the text print speed. In every single instance of this tag being used in the final game value of 0.01 is used, however others work as well.

(Source: RoadrunnerWMC)

Unused Text

The following text in art/fe/english.data is related to debugging. Some of these strings are used in the unused layouts.

Wrong Version
Unlock Missions
100% Completion
FE Only Mode
Equipment Override
Debug Settings

POCS
Debug Menu

Interestingly, "Debug Settings" is replaced with "Debug Settings 13/12.2" in ukenglish.data (which contains all of the European English game text).

Oddities

"Pixelporter"

The device called the "Pixelator" in the North American version and the "Pixelshifter" in the European version is referred to internally by the game as the "Pixelporter".

The original name actually snuck into the final game text in a single line of dialogue (string ID 9065DC2E), but only in the North American version:

North American Quote	European Quote
We need to track h__ down. I'll pix__port you back so we c_n regroup.	We need to track h__ down. I'll pix__shift you back so we c_n regroup.

This line can be seen in the game at the end of mission C-2 ("Underground Expedition" in the North American version, "Underground Trek" in the European version).

Font Colors

A few space characters in the game's text have markup explicitly coloring them #FFFCFC (a slight off-white), a color not used for any visible game text (except in the Japanese translation, but hold that thought). Of course, this cannot be seen during gameplay. The colored spaces are marked below (as they appear in the North American version):

Those big-brained ghosts█sure put up a fight!

Remarkable! A ghost█that can possess other beings!

I've triangulated the powerful paranormal█signal, and it's coming from...the Cellar.

Luigi, my boy! What a fight! You really used your noggin to teach that ghost█a lesson!

The European English version also has colored spaces in the same places. Other translations do not.

The Japanese translation, however, is the only one that uses that font color (#FFFCFC) for any visible text. This only happens in one line (the color is represented below with an underline):

North American Text	Japanese Text
(Player name)'s ScareScraper	(Player name)のグループ

Unrelatedly, some other text in the game includes seemingly redundant font color markup:

North American Text	European Text
Why don't you check the {clr:FF9754}W{clr:pop}{clr:FF9754}{clr:FF9754}ater Supply{clr:pop} {clr:pop}on the roof?	Why don't you check the {clr:FF9754}water supply {clr:pop}on the roof?

Rewriting font color markup as parentheses, the North American text is equivalent to "Why don't you check the (W)((ater Supply) )on the roof?". Since the European text works correctly without the complicated markup, it's a mystery why it is present in the North American version.

StreetPass

The folder containing the ScareScraper-exclusive ghosts is named "streetpass" (\art\streetpass). The game doesn't support StreetPass at all...

Terror Tower

The folder containing assets for the ScareScraper rooms is named “terrortower” (\art\levels\terrortower). This may have been an early name for the ScareScraper. Note that Disney owns a theme park attraction called the “Tower of Terror”. Whether or not this was the reason for the name change is unknown.

(Source: luigim1)

Internal Project Name

The game is called LM3DS internally, according to the strings in the executables.

(Source: luigim1)