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I recently made the switch from a TV to a projector and while having a giant screen at home might sound like the perfect experience, there are way more trade-offs that I wasn’t aware of when I set it up.

Don’t get me wrong, having a giant screen is an incredible experience and the projector I used is fantastic, but I’ve learned that you really want to be able to permanently set up a projector since taking it down and putting it back up every time you want to watch something is a pain.

What projector I used

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the Dangbei DBOX02 4K laser projector, and it’s been stunning. The unit can project a 4K screen up to 200-inches and has a peak brightness of 2,450 ISO lumens. It also has built-in speakers and 2 HDMI ports and runs Google TV.

There are also two USB ports on the back, an Ethernet jack, optical audio and a headphone jack.

Overall, this is a pretty big and bulky projector, but it provides a really clear and bright image that I find is worth the trade-off. It’s also one of the few projectors that’s “Netflix approved,” which just means that it’s bright and has pretty good colour reproduction.

Since it’s a projector it also gets quite hot, but the fans inside are quiet and after using it for a few weeks I’ve never heard the fans kick onto high. All in all, it’s an impressive unit, but integrating it into my home has been a struggle.

Setting it up

Luckily my living room is pretty dark by default. With light from a nearby window the projector is not as washed out as you’d expect.

The first thing you need to know about my living room (where I watch all my TV) is that I have a fairly vintage wallpaper pattern. While I thought it was fun when I moved in, It does mean I need a screen to be able to watch content. Beyond that, there are two large windows in my living room and only one of them has curtains on it — at least part of it. There’s also a large stained glass portion above it that’s not covered.

While the marketing claims you can watch TV during the day with the DBOX02, in reality, it’s pretty washed out when the lights are on. It’s possible, but I assume if you’re a movie nerd who’s going down the projector rabbit hole, you want the picture to look as good as possible. That means you need to watch in a dark room. So if I’m watching something before the sun goes down, I need to hang a sound blanket over one window and stack some cushions from a little bench in my living room to cover the stained glass. Someday I’ll install blackout curtains, but for now, I mainly watch at night.

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The next hurdle in setting up your projector is placing it in the perfect spot. Since the projector needs to be as far away from the screen as possible, most people will need to find some way to either hang it from their ceilings or place it behind where they sit. I decided to place mine behind my couch, but that required me to buy a projector stand. This is basically a tripod with only one leg and a really heavy base to make sure the projector doesn’t tip over. However, I will say the DBOX02 is pretty heavy so the stand does wobble a bit. It’s also just tall enough to see over me perfectly, so if I sit in the centre of my couch and lean forward to grad something from the table, you can see the shadow of the top of my head.

It’s also worth pointing out that the higher you raise the projector above the height of the screen, the more offset the picture will be. You can offset this in the settings with something called ‘Key-stoning’ but this only affects the picture, not the light output. This means for me that while I have a nice rectangular screen to watch, the light around it is more like a trapezoid. Lots of people paint the area around their projector screens a dark colour to absorb some of this light overshine effect, but since I rent that wasn’t an option for me. Most of the time it’s unnoticeable, but in dark scenes it sometimes makes it look like the screen is out of whack.

Now the final piece of the puzzle is the actual screen. If you have a white wall you can start with that, but if you don’t, you’ll need to buy a screen. I was able to bootleg a screen together from some old seamless paper, chandelier chains and a long section of PVC pipe. This was cheaper than a real screen, but only slightly, and the paper doesn’t sit as flat as I wanted. This looks fine for most things, but sometimes, when the camera pans in a scene, the subtle warping in the paper can make the pan look weird. It’s something I can look past, but I’ve been trying to find a way to flatten the paper to alleviate it.

That wasn’t all I needed, either. Since the projector now sits behind me, I had to get a 20-foot HDMI cable to connect it to my game consoles or soundbar, depending on what I wanted to do.

Overall, I went cheap with my setup and it still cost me over $200 to get the screen, stand and HDMI cable. If I would have gotten a real screen and actual blackout curtains I think I’d be closer to $400 in setup costs. If I really had my way, I’d paint the room a darker colour, especially the ceiling to help cut down on light reflections in the room. This would make the end picture look better, but again, it would be another couple hundred dollars and a lot of labour.

Am I going to be a projector guy now?

Honestly, for all these pain points, I’m still in love with DBOX02 projector. Having a giant 115-inch screen in my living room is amazing. Sure, it’s a hassle to set up and use with my soundbar, but at the end of the day, once the lights go off, the movie watching experience it provides is stellar and, in a lot of ways, more fun. It’s hard to describe but there’s something about the giant screen that just makes me want to make some popcorn and pay more attention to the screen than my TV.

I was also worried about lag for gaming, but I found it to be still very playable. Hardcore gamers are likely going to upset by the minimal lag, but I think people who play mostly console single-player games will be fine. Honestly, Ghost of Tsushima looks amazing when blown up on a giant screen.

Beyond that, I have been using the built-in speakers on the DBOX02 and, while it is weird to have the main audio come from behind you, they perform quite well and have a pretty good stereo separation. They also get loud, but I’ve found that since the speaker is right behind my head now, I don’t need to run it as loud as when I use the soundbar across the room in front of the screen.

I’ve also been using the projector connected to my Apple TV 4K, but it does run Google TV which I’ve only tested a bit. To be honest, I found the startup time to get to the basic apps was pretty slow and so most often I would switch it to the Apple TV input as fast as possible. However, I did need to use the built-in Google interface to set focus on the projector and to keystone my screen and both features were easy to use and understand. There’s even a button on the remote to quickly autofocus the projector. It would have been great for this to take users to the focus/keystone menu and let them choose which feature they need.

Overall, I think I’m going to stick with the projector for the time being since I love watching movies and TV on the giant screen. If you’re looking into getting one make sure you tally up all the accessories you’ll need and find a nice place to put it. If you can fit it into your life it’s definitely worth it.

You can check out the DBOX02 projector on Dangbei’s website. It retails for $1,499 USD (roughly $2,054 CAD). You can also get it on Amazon.ca where it’s listed for $2,600.

When I think about it, the 3DS might be my most used Nintendo system of all time, outside of the Switch, given its incredibly varied catalogue and portable functionality.

And yet, a major 3DS blind spot for me has always been Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Vancouver-based Next Level Games’ best-selling second entry in Nintendo’s ghost-focused action-adventure series. On top of that, I never played much of Luigi’s Mansion 3, its Switch-exclusive sequel, as my fellow MobileSyrup Brad handled that review for us instead. Therefore, I’ve really enjoyed having Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, a new Switch remaster of Dark Moon, as my first real introduction to the series.

That starts with the presentation. Luigi has always appealed to me more than the ever-confident Mario, given that the green-clad brother is a rather endearingly timid goofball, and that’s reflected throughout Luigi’s Mansion 2. Whether it’s his Scooby Doo-esque frightened reactions to ghosts or the way he uneasily hums along to the music as you walk around, Luigi’s Mansion 2 just oozes character. Naturally, there’s not much of a story here (Luigi has to explore different mansions within Evershade Valley to collect pieces of the Dark Moon and recapture King Boo), but the game’s ample personality more than makes up for that. That tone ensures that this is one “spooky game” that’s suitable for all ages.

Enhancing all of this is a commendable visual overhaul that brings Luigi’s Mansion 2 more in line with Switch-level visuals. Of course, you can still tell it’s not quite a modern game, given the relative simplicity of some environments and animations, but it’s nonetheless a noticeable graphical upgrade. Meanwhile, other modernization comes in the form of the minimap having been brought to the top-right of the screen (rather than the lower of the 3DS’ displays) and better spacing out of some of the inputs thanks to the Switch’s increased number of buttons over the 3DS.

These improvements complement the core ghost-catching gameplay loop, which remains incredibly compelling. With his handy Poltergust 5000 and attached Strobulb-enhanced flashlight, Luigi can stun and then suck up ghosts that he encounters in a bout of tug of war with the analogue stick. Basic ghouls are simple enough to ensnare, but larger variants put up more of a struggle, resulting in gleefully frantic chases around a given room that can get even more chaotic when other hazards like demonic rats and flying books are thrown into the mix.

Outside of combat, the utility of Luigi’s gear also gradually expands in some clever ways, like a ‘Dark Light’ to reveal hidden objects and doors and the ability to inflate and latch onto balloons to reach higher places. And because rooms tend to be small, you’re encouraged to blow through every corner with the Poltergust to find goodies like hearts, coins and even life-saving ghost dog bones, be they under a rug, behind a window curtain, or even atop a ceiling fan, thus adding even more depth and texture to the world. Meanwhile, the mansions themselves are impressively varied from a thematic standpoint, starting with a simple haunted house setup but soon including the likes of a sandy clock tower, a monstrous plant-filled botanical garden and frigid coal mines.

The only major shortcoming of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD lies in its mission-based campaign. After completing a certain objective, like finding four cogs to operate a lift, Professor E. Gadd will return Luigi to his bunker before sending him back. This fragmented structure might be more palatable if you’re playing in chunks on the go, but my time with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD has primarily been in TV mode, so it feels like unnecessary padding in between the engaging moment-to-moment exploration and ghost encounters. This also might take some getting used to if you’re coming from the open-ended areas of Luigi’s Mansion 3.

And while it’s not a flaw of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD itself, it’s tough to swallow $79.99 for a remaster of an 11-year-old 3DS game. (Especially when, by contrast, last year’s Metroid Prime Remastered has the far more reasonable cost of $49.99). Maybe if the original Luigi’s Mansion was thrown in to make this a double-pack, but with just this sequel remaster, that full price tag is harder to justify. It’s worth noting that I didn’t get a chance to try out Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD‘s trio of four-player multiplayer modes (two of which are “catch all of the ghosts,” while one is “find the exit”), which should, to be fair, add a bit more value. Even still, though, $79.99 for an older game will undoubtedly be a pretty big ask for some.

What I can say, for my part, is that Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is an excellent game that’s just bursting with charm, inventive gameplay and delightful Haunted Mansion-style levels. I’m also just glad it’s now found a home on Switch, as it gives people like me the chance to properly check it out. Here’s hoping Kid Icarus: Uprising is the next 3DS game to make the jump to Switch!

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD will launch exclusively on Nintendo Switch on June 27th.

Image credit: Nintendo

The new Beats Pill Speaker is the best Bluetooth speaker Apple has ever made. It sounds crisp and the soundstage that comes out of its small frame is nothing to scoff at. Combine that with much needed improvements like waterproofing and multi-day battery life, and this Pill is not only improving on the older Pill and Pill+, but it’s also finally making a play to be the best Bluetooth speaker on the market, bar none.

That’s not to say it’s perfect, though. There are too many features packed inside this little speaker for all its buttons to handle, so it’s more confusing than I’d like. That said, for its $199 price point, the new Pill beats out most of its class.

Great first impressions

Out of the box, the new Pill is sleek and smaller than I expected. It’s still pretty close to the same size as a standard UE Boom 3, but since it sits horizontally, it feels a little smaller. It also feels great in the hand with a soft-touch silicon wrapping around most of the device. It also fits into my hand really nicely. The grill on the front is metal and feels tough enough not to crack off dropped. My review unit is the Black model, but you could also get one in the fun Gold Champagne colour or classic Beats Statement Red. From what I’ve seen in the marketing materials the Champagne Gold option is the most modern looking, but I’m sure most people will end up with the non-descript black option.

The most surprising part of the speaker is actually how fun it sounds. Like many other Beats products, the sound profile you get from the new Pill is incredibly bass-forward. This brings a nice punch to a lot of music, but I’ve found as you get above 50-70 percent volume, it kicks really hard. My first reaction was, “This is awesome.” But after using it for a few more hours, I found the speaker a little overbearing for songs that already push the bass high. Balanced rock and roll songs or something classical sounded better, with nice but noticeable bass hits for such a small speaker. For example, something like ‘Boys in the Better Land’ by Fontaines D.C. played really nicely with the new Pill, but ‘Liquor Store’ by Remi Wolf, a newer rap/pop song, pushes the bass so high that it overshadows other elements of the track.

You can hear a great example of this overshadowing effect by listening to ‘Confessions, Pt. III’ by Toronto’s own BADBADNOTGOOD. This song is an instrumental saxophone-based track, but on the Pill the bass overshadows the sax every once in a while. It should feel more even with the sax front and centre. At the end of the day, this comes down to personal preference, and I’m pretty split on it. Sometimes, I find it to be a tad distracting when I’m sitting and listening to music at my desk. Other times, it fills a room with sound, and the punch of the bass just makes me want to dance. Either way, after a prolonged listening session, I found myself able to get lost in the music really easily, so I think most people will enjoy this speaker. Just be warned if you hate when the bass EQ is pushed up a  new notches.

The reason the new Pill is so bass-heavy is because Apple has re-engineered it with a larger woofer. Most speaker devices actually use two speaker units to produce a wide range of sounds. The ‘woofer’ handles the low-end frequencies like bass, while the ‘tweeter’ handles everything else. Other speakers in this size range might use two tweeters or a passive radiator to help even out lower-end frequencies, so adding the woofer can produce a wider soundstage. This is definitely true with the new Pill, but as I mentioned above, the bass can feel a little hot. That said, it has a powerful room-filling sound, and the larger the space and the further you are from it, the more balanced the bass feels.

Other features

Beats has also packed the new Pill with a ton of cool software features and other improvements outside of the realm of sound quality.

The upgrades that make me happy are the 24-hour battery life with the ability to quick charge. The press info states that 10-minutes on the charger should result in around two hours of music playback. You can also use the speaker as a portable battery if your phone dies before the Pill does.

Combine that with the new fabric handle and the IP67 water/dustproof rating, and this little speaker is ready to go on any weekend adventure you throw at it. Plus, if you have two, you can connect them together for ‘Amplify mode.’ This mode is for setting up a defacto multi-room audio setup at a party. Both speakers will output mono sound together, letting you play music in multiple places at once. If you’re having a smaller get-together or want to listen to music in stereo, you can enable ‘Stereo mode,’ which assigns the left and right channels to each speaker for a more immersive listening experience.

To sweeten the deal, the speaker can also plug into your phone and play lossless audio and work as a portable battery. Smaller devices like a phone or wireless earbuds will automatically get charged. Larger devices like laptops and tablets will use logic to determine if the speaker should charge off them or if it should act as a battery. You can also triple-tap the power button to reverse the charging direction. This is really handy, and something I’ve used on my Sonos Move many times.

One of my main points of contention with the new Pill is how few buttons it has for its plethora of controls. For instance, the power button has six different functions.

• Power on/off (hold for more than 0.8 seconds, but less than three)
• Pairing (press and hold for over three seconds)
• Voice Assistant (double tap)
• Battery status (quick tap, less than 0.8 seconds)
• Change charging direction (triple tap)
• USB-C audio pass through (press and hold button while plugging in USB-C cable)

This is way too much for one button. I’m even a huge nerd who’s studied these controls, and written them down in this article, and I know I’m going to forget. Even over the two days I’ve been testing the speaker, I’ve found it really annoying to turn on/off, and I’ve accidentally set it into pairing mode many times. Sonos had this same problem on its Sonos Roam from 2021 and it recently updated that speaker to add a dedicated pairing button.

That’s not all, either. There’s a button in the middle of the speaker that works similarly to buttons on most headphones/earbuds, but more complex.

• Play/pause (tap once)
• Skip forwards (tap twice)
• Skip backwards (tap three times)
• Enter Amplify mode (press and hold the middle button on two Pills at once)
• Enter Stereo mode (press and hold the centre button and volume up after pairing in Amplify mode)
• Break apart speaker group (Press and hold centre button and volume down)

Again, this is too many controls for one button. I would forgive this if there was some sort of app we could use to enable all these settings without a cheat sheet handy, but there’s no real app for the new Pill.  There is a version of the Beats app on Android, but it only allows you to tweak some button commands, like muting yourself during a call. You can also change the name of the speaker and add the speaker to the Android Find My Device network. On iOS, these features appear in the Settings app like AirPods. There is nowhere in the speaker settings page to adjust the EQ.

I would love to see more buttons added to a future Pill for pairing and for Amplify/Stereo modes. Hiding these cooler (yet admittedly niche) features behind a cryptic button combo is too complicated for most people to even remember, and too finicky for nerds to even want to enable them.

Almost the perfect Bluetooth speaker

At the end of the day, there’s a lot to love about the new Pill – it sounds great, the battery life is stellar and it has a lot of niche features for people looking to get the most out of their purchase. Which is why it’s so weird that there is no app for easy control of the extra features. Hiding everything behind complex button presses is not a great way to make an accessible speaker. Even turning it on and off requires more thought and timing than it should.

It’s also worth pointing out that the physical manual the speaker comes with is pitiful. It’s a tiny piece of folded paper with a QR code on the outside. When you unfold it, there are a few quick controls laid out, but it doesn’t even mention how to turn the speaker off, which as I found out, is more complex than it needs to be.

The other major thing holding me personally back from the Beats Pill is the fact that it doesn’t float. This is a small thing, but I spend a lot of time camping and canoeing in the summers, so I really like the UE Boom 3 and Wonder Boom 3 since they both float if you accidentally drop them in water. This is really handy when you’re in deep water like a lake. The Pill would be fine for most scenarios since it can take a few splashes, but the peace of mind knowing that if my boat flips, I won’t lose my speaker has always been reassuring to me.

At the end of the day, this is a really great Bluetooth speaker, and if you’re the type of person that usually cranks up the bass when you get control of the EQ, this speaker is for you.

The Beats Pill is $199 in Canada. 

The new Beats Pill Speaker is the best Bluetooth speaker Apple has ever made. It sounds crisp and the soundstage that comes out of its small frame is nothing to scoff at. Combine that with much needed improvements like waterproofing and multi-day battery life, and this Pill is not only improving on the older Pill and Pill+, but it’s also finally making a play to be the best Bluetooth speaker on the market, bar none.

That’s not to say it’s perfect, though. There are too many features packed inside this little speaker for all its buttons to handle, so it’s more confusing than I’d like. That said, for its $199 price point, the new Pill beats out most of its class.

Great first impressions

Out of the box, the new Pill is sleek and smaller than I expected. It’s still pretty close to the same size as a standard UE Boom 3, but since it sits horizontally, it feels a little smaller. It also feels great in the hand with a soft-touch silicon wrapping around most of the device. It also fits into my hand really nicely. The grill on the front is metal and feels tough enough not to crack off dropped. My review unit is the Black model, but you could also get one in the fun Gold Champagne colour or classic Beats Statement Red. From what I’ve seen in the marketing materials the Champagne Gold option is the most modern looking, but I’m sure most people will end up with the non-descript black option.

The most surprising part of the speaker is actually how fun it sounds. Like many other Beats products, the sound profile you get from the new Pill is incredibly bass-forward. This brings a nice punch to a lot of music, but I’ve found as you get above 50-70 percent volume, it kicks really hard. My first reaction was, “This is awesome.” But after using it for a few more hours, I found the speaker a little overbearing for songs that already push the bass high. Balanced rock and roll songs or something classical sounded better, with nice but noticeable bass hits for such a small speaker. For example, something like ‘Boys in the Better Land’ by Fontaines D.C. played really nicely with the new Pill, but ‘Liquor Store’ by Remi Wolf, a newer rap/pop song, pushes the bass so high that it overshadows other elements of the track.

You can hear a great example of this overshadowing effect by listening to ‘Confessions, Pt. III’ by Toronto’s own BADBADNOTGOOD. This song is an instrumental saxophone-based track, but on the Pill the bass overshadows the sax every once in a while. It should feel more even with the sax front and centre. At the end of the day, this comes down to personal preference, and I’m pretty split on it. Sometimes, I find it to be a tad distracting when I’m sitting and listening to music at my desk. Other times, it fills a room with sound, and the punch of the bass just makes me want to dance. Either way, after a prolonged listening session, I found myself able to get lost in the music really easily, so I think most people will enjoy this speaker. Just be warned if you hate when the bass EQ is pushed up a  new notches.

The reason the new Pill is so bass-heavy is because Apple has re-engineered it with a larger woofer. Most speaker devices actually use two speaker units to produce a wide range of sounds. The ‘woofer’ handles the low-end frequencies like bass, while the ‘tweeter’ handles everything else. Other speakers in this size range might use two tweeters or a passive radiator to help even out lower-end frequencies, so adding the woofer can produce a wider soundstage. This is definitely true with the new Pill, but as I mentioned above, the bass can feel a little hot. That said, it has a powerful room-filling sound, and the larger the space and the further you are from it, the more balanced the bass feels.

Other features

Beats has also packed the new Pill with a ton of cool software features and other improvements outside of the realm of sound quality.

The upgrades that make me happy are the 24-hour battery life with the ability to quick charge. The press info states that 10-minutes on the charger should result in around two hours of music playback. You can also use the speaker as a portable battery if your phone dies before the Pill does.

Combine that with the new fabric handle and the IP67 water/dustproof rating, and this little speaker is ready to go on any weekend adventure you throw at it. Plus, if you have two, you can connect them together for ‘Amplify mode.’ This mode is for setting up a defacto multi-room audio setup at a party. Both speakers will output mono sound together, letting you play music in multiple places at once. If you’re having a smaller get-together or want to listen to music in stereo, you can enable ‘Stereo mode,’ which assigns the left and right channels to each speaker for a more immersive listening experience.

To sweeten the deal, the speaker can also plug into your phone and play lossless audio and work as a portable battery. Smaller devices like a phone or wireless earbuds will automatically get charged. Larger devices like laptops and tablets will use logic to determine if the speaker should charge off them or if it should act as a battery. You can also triple-tap the power button to reverse the charging direction. This is really handy, and something I’ve used on my Sonos Move many times.

One of my main points of contention with the new Pill is how few buttons it has for its plethora of controls. For instance, the power button has six different functions.

• Power on/off (hold for more than 0.8 seconds, but less than three)
• Pairing (press and hold for over three seconds)
• Voice Assistant (double tap)
• Battery status (quick tap, less than 0.8 seconds)
• Change charging direction (triple tap)
• USB-C audio pass through (press and hold button while plugging in USB-C cable)

This is way too much for one button. I’m even a huge nerd who’s studied these controls, and written them down in this article, and I know I’m going to forget. Even over the two days I’ve been testing the speaker, I’ve found it really annoying to turn on/off, and I’ve accidentally set it into pairing mode many times. Sonos had this same problem on its Sonos Roam from 2021 and it recently updated that speaker to add a dedicated pairing button.

That’s not all, either. There’s a button in the middle of the speaker that works similarly to buttons on most headphones/earbuds, but more complex.

• Play/pause (tap once)
• Skip forwards (tap twice)
• Skip backwards (tap three times)
• Enter Amplify mode (press and hold the middle button on two Pills at once)
• Enter Stereo mode (press and hold the centre button and volume up after pairing in Amplify mode)
• Break apart speaker group (Press and hold centre button and volume down)

Again, this is too many controls for one button. I would forgive this if there was some sort of app we could use to enable all these settings without a cheat sheet handy, but there’s no real app for the new Pill.  There is a version of the Beats app on Android, but it only allows you to tweak some button commands, like muting yourself during a call. You can also change the name of the speaker and add the speaker to the Android Find My Device network. On iOS, these features appear in the Settings app like AirPods. There is nowhere in the speaker settings page to adjust the EQ.

I would love to see more buttons added to a future Pill for pairing and for Amplify/Stereo modes. Hiding these cooler (yet admittedly niche) features behind a cryptic button combo is too complicated for most people to even remember, and too finicky for nerds to even want to enable them.

Almost the perfect Bluetooth speaker

At the end of the day, there’s a lot to love about the new Pill – it sounds great, the battery life is stellar and it has a lot of niche features for people looking to get the most out of their purchase. Which is why it’s so weird that there is no app for easy control of the extra features. Hiding everything behind complex button presses is not a great way to make an accessible speaker. Even turning it on and off requires more thought and timing than it should.

It’s also worth pointing out that the physical manual the speaker comes with is pitiful. It’s a tiny piece of folded paper with a QR code on the outside. When you unfold it, there are a few quick controls laid out, but it doesn’t even mention how to turn the speaker off, which as I found out, is more complex than it needs to be.

The other major thing holding me personally back from the Beats Pill is the fact that it doesn’t float. This is a small thing, but I spend a lot of time camping and canoeing in the summers, so I really like the UE Boom 3 and Wonder Boom 3 since they both float if you accidentally drop them in water. This is really handy when you’re in deep water like a lake. The Pill would be fine for most scenarios since it can take a few splashes, but the peace of mind knowing that if my boat flips, I won’t lose my speaker has always been reassuring to me.

At the end of the day, this is a really great Bluetooth speaker, and if you’re the type of person that usually cranks up the bass when you get control of the EQ, this speaker is for you.

When I think about it, the 3DS might be my most used Nintendo system of all time, outside of the Switch, given its incredibly varied catalogue and portable functionality.

And yet, a major 3DS blind spot for me has always been Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Vancouver-based Next Level Games’ best-selling second entry in Nintendo’s ghost-focused action-adventure series. On top of that, I never played much of Luigi’s Mansion 3, its Switch-exclusive sequel, as my fellow MobileSyrup Brad handled that review for us instead. Therefore, I’ve really enjoyed having Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, a new Switch remaster of Dark Moon, as my first real introduction to the series.

That starts with the presentation. Luigi has always appealed to me more than the ever-confident Mario, given that the green-clad brother is a rather endearingly timid goofball, and that’s reflected throughout Luigi’s Mansion 2. Whether it’s his Scooby Doo-esque frightened reactions to ghosts or the way he uneasily hums along to the music as you walk around, Luigi’s Mansion 2 just oozes character. Naturally, there’s not much of a story here (Luigi has to explore different mansions within Evershade Valley to collect pieces of the Dark Moon and recapture King Boo), but the game’s ample personality more than makes up for that. That tone ensures that this is one “spooky game” that’s suitable for all ages.

Enhancing all of this is a commendable visual overhaul that brings Luigi’s Mansion 2 more in line with Switch-level visuals. Of course, you can still tell it’s not quite a modern game, given the relative simplicity of some environments and animations, but it’s nonetheless a noticeable graphical upgrade. Meanwhile, other modernization comes in the form of the minimap having been brought to the top-right of the screen (rather than the lower of the 3DS’ displays) and better spacing out of some of the inputs thanks to the Switch’s increased number of buttons over the 3DS.

These improvements complement the core ghost-catching gameplay loop, which remains incredibly compelling. With his handy Poltergust 5000 and attached Strobulb-enhanced flashlight, Luigi can stun and then suck up ghosts that he encounters in a bout of tug of war with the analogue stick. Basic ghouls are simple enough to ensnare, but larger variants put up more of a struggle, resulting in gleefully frantic chases around a given room that can get even more chaotic when other hazards like demonic rats and flying books are thrown into the mix.

Outside of combat, the utility of Luigi’s gear also gradually expands in some clever ways, like a ‘Dark Light’ to reveal hidden objects and doors and the ability to inflate and latch onto balloons to reach higher places. And because rooms tend to be small, you’re encouraged to blow through every corner with the Poltergust to find goodies like hearts, coins and even life-saving ghost dog bones, be they under a rug, behind a window curtain, or even atop a ceiling fan, thus adding even more depth and texture to the world. Meanwhile, the mansions themselves are impressively varied from a thematic standpoint, starting with a simple haunted house setup but soon including the likes of a sandy clock tower, a monstrous plant-filled botanical garden and frigid coal mines.

The only major shortcoming of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD lies in its mission-based campaign. After completing a certain objective, like finding four cogs to operate a lift, Professor E. Gadd will return Luigi to his bunker before sending him back. This fragmented structure might be more palatable if you’re playing in chunks on the go, but my time with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD has primarily been in TV mode, so it feels like unnecessary padding in between the engaging moment-to-moment exploration and ghost encounters. This also might take some getting used to if you’re coming from the open-ended areas of Luigi’s Mansion 3.

And while it’s not a flaw of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD itself, it’s tough to swallow $79.99 for a remaster of an 11-year-old 3DS game. (Especially when, by contrast, last year’s Metroid Prime Remastered has the far more reasonable cost of $49.99). Maybe if the original Luigi’s Mansion was thrown in to make this a double-pack, but with just this sequel remaster, that full price tag is harder to justify. It’s worth noting that I didn’t get a chance to try out Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD‘s trio of four-player multiplayer modes (two of which are “catch all of the ghosts,” while one is “find the exit”), which should, to be fair, add a bit more value. Even still, though, $79.99 for an older game will undoubtedly be a pretty big ask for some.

What I can say, for my part, is that Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is an excellent game that’s just bursting with charm, inventive gameplay and delightful Haunted Mansion-style levels. I’m also just glad it’s now found a home on Switch, as it gives people like me the chance to properly check it out. Here’s hoping Kid Icarus: Uprising is the next 3DS game to make the jump to Switch!

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD will launch exclusively on Nintendo Switch on June 27th.

Image credit: Nintendo

I recently made the switch from a TV to a projector and while having a giant screen at home might sound like the perfect experience, there are way more trade-offs that I wasn’t aware of when I set it up initially.

Don’t get me wrong, having a giant screen is an incredible experience and the projector I used is fantastic, but I’ve learned that you really want to be able to permanently set up a projector since taking it down and putting it back up every time you want to watch something is a huge pain.

What projector I used

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the Dangbei DBOX02 4K laser projector, and it’s been stunning. The unit can project a 4K screen up to 200-inches and has a peak brightness of 2,450 ISO lumens. It also has built-in speakers and 2 HDMI ports and runs Google TV.

There are also two USB ports on the back, an Ethernet jack, optical audio and a headphone jack.

Overall, this is a pretty big and bulky projector, but it provides a really clear and bright image that I find is worth the trade-off. It’s also one of the few projectors that’s “Netflix approved,” which just means that it’s bright and has pretty good colour reproduction.

Since it’s a projector it also gets quite hot, but the fans inside are quiet and after using it for a few weeks I’ve never heard the fans kick onto high. All in all, it’s an impressive unit, but integrating it into my home has been a struggle.

Setting it up

Luckily my living room is pretty dark by default. With light from a nearby window the projector is not as washed out as you’d expect.

The first thing you need to know about my living room (where I watch all my TV) is that I have a fairly vintage wallpaper pattern. While I thought it was fun when I moved in, It does mean I need a screen to be able to watch content. Beyond that, there are two large windows in my living room and only one of them has curtains on it — at least part of it. There’s also a large stained glass portion above it that’s not covered.

While the marketing claims you can watch TV during the day with the DBOX02, in reality, it’s pretty washed out when the lights are on. It’s possible, but I assume if you’re a movie nerd who’s going down the projector rabbit hole, you want the picture to look as good as possible. That means you need to watch in a dark room. So if I’m watching something before the sun goes down, I need to hang a sound blanket over one window and stack some cushions from a little bench in my living room to cover the stained glass. Someday I’ll install blackout curtains, but for now, I mainly watch at night.

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The next hurdle in setting up your projector is placing it in the perfect spot. Since the projector needs to be as far away from the screen as possible, most people will need to find some way to either hang it from their ceilings or place it behind where they sit. I decided to place mine behind my couch, but that required me to buy a projector stand. This is basically a tripod with only one leg and a really heavy base to make sure the projector doesn’t tip over. However, I will say the DBOX02 is pretty heavy so the stand does wobble a bit. It’s also just tall enough to see over me perfectly, so if I sit in the centre of my couch and lean forward to grad something from the table, you can see the shadow of the top of my head.

It’s also worth pointing out that the higher you raise the projector above the height of the screen, the more offset the picture will be. You can offset this in the settings with something called ‘Key-stoning’ but this only affects the picture, not the light output. This means for me that while I have a nice rectangular screen to watch, the light around it is more like a trapezoid. Lots of people paint the area around their projector screens a dark colour to absorb some of this light overshine effect, but since I rent that wasn’t an option for me. Most of the time it’s unnoticeable, but in dark scenes it sometimes makes it look like the screen is out of whack.

Now the final piece of the puzzle is the actual screen. If you have a white wall you can start with that, but if you don’t, you’ll need to buy a screen. I was able to bootleg a screen together from some old seamless paper, chandelier chains and a long section of PVC pipe. This was cheaper than a real screen, but only slightly, and the paper doesn’t sit as flat as I wanted. This looks fine for most things, but sometimes, when the camera pans in a scene, the subtle warping in the paper can make the pan look weird. It’s something I can look past, but I’ve been trying to find a way to flatten the paper to alleviate it.

That wasn’t all I needed, either. Since the projector now sits behind me, I had to get a 20-foot HDMI cable to connect it to my game consoles or soundbar, depending on what I wanted to do.

Overall, I went cheap with my setup and it still cost me over $200 to get the screen, stand and HDMI cable. If I would have gotten a real screen and actual blackout curtains I think I’d be closer to $400 in setup costs. If I really had my way, I’d paint the room a darker colour, especially the ceiling to help cut down on light reflections in the room. This would make the end picture look better, but again, it would be another couple hundred dollars and a lot of labour.

Am I going to be a projector guy now?

Honestly, for all these pain points, I’m still in love with DBOX02 projector. Having a giant 115-inch screen in my living room is amazing. Sure, it’s a hassle to set up and use with my soundbar, but at the end of the day, once the lights go off, the movie watching experience it provides is stellar and, in a lot of ways, more fun. It’s hard to describe but there’s something about the giant screen that just makes me want to make some popcorn and pay more attention to the screen than my TV.

I was also worried about lag for gaming, but I found it to be still very playable. Hardcore gamers are likely going to upset by the minimal lag, but I think people who play mostly console single-player games will be fine. Honestly, Ghost of Tsushima looks amazing when blown up on a giant screen.

Beyond that, I have been using the built-in speakers on the DBOX02 and, while it is weird to have the main audio come from behind you, they perform quite well and have a pretty good stereo separation. They also get loud, but I’ve found that since the speaker is right behind my head now, I don’t need to run it as loud as when I use the soundbar across the room in front of the screen.

I’ve also been using the projector connected to my Apple TV 4K, but it does run Google TV which I’ve only tested a bit. To be honest, I found the startup time to get to the basic apps was pretty slow and so most often I would switch it to the Apple TV input as fast as possible. However, I did need to use the built-in Google interface to set focus on the projector and to keystone my screen and both features were easy to use and understand. There’s even a button on the remote to quickly autofocus the projector. It would have been great for this to take users to the focus/keystone menu and let them choose which feature they need.

Overall, I think I’m going to stick with the projector for the time being since I love watching movies and TV on the giant screen. If you’re looking into getting one make sure you tally up all the accessories you’ll need and find a nice place to put it. If you can fit it into your life it’s definitely worth it.

You can check out the DBOX02 projector on Dangbei’s website. It retails for $1,499 USD (roughly $2,054 CAD).