Following their press event, Nintendo allowed members of the audience to try out their 3DS lineup, including the just announced Luigi's Mansion 2. A direct sequel to the GameCube launch title, Luigi once again finds himself locked in a mansion (Nintendo says there are multiple mansions) full of ghosts.

The demo seems to be from an early segment of the game. In it, Luigi is tasked by Professor E. Gadd with locating a key so he can move through a door. This requires the sucking of a lot of ghosts.

Luigi's wanderings about the dark halls are controlled with the Circle Pad. He interacts with objects, such as doors and furniture, by a context-sensitive X. He can charge up a flash from his flashlight by holding and then releasing the A button. This allows him to stun the ghosts so they can be sucked up with the R-Trigger.

Although the demo was short it felt just like Luigi's Mansion on GameCube. The lack of the C-Stick has been addressed somewhat by allowing you to hold a button and move the 3DS (motion controls) to aim your light, but it seems that the levels I saw accounted for the lack of exact aiming in their design. At no point did I have to actually aim the light beyond pointing it in a generally correct direction, and with a fully charged flash almost the entire room will be illuminated and all the ghosts stunned.

The game looks impressive. The particle effects that were so celebrated in the original are present, although they seemed a bit subdued. However, that could be due to the fact the game was being played outside.

Luigi's Mansion 2 looks like a promising title for the 3DS and was a great surprise for the show. Check back for more details as E3 2011 continues.