When it comes to fan games and mods, projects that do the opposite job to each other are not a rare occurrence. You’ve got Super Mario Starshine and Super Mario Solarshine, which recreate Super Mario Sunshine in Super Mario Galaxy’s engine and Super Mario Galaxy in Super Mario Sunshine’s engine respectively. You’ve got DKC X Super Mario World and Super Mario World Random Revolution, which (in part) recreate Super Mario World in Donkey Kong Country 1 and Donkey Kong Country 1 in Super Mario World.

And you’ve got all kinds of examples in other franchises too, whether it be Pokémon, Zelda, Mega Man or Sonic. If there’s a full conversion mod for any game going on, there’s almost guaranteed to be a counterpart doing the exact opposite thing.

Which is only made even more obvious by todays examples too. Why? Because now we have ambitious mods trying to turn Luigi’s Mansion into a Super Mario 64 game and Super Mario 64 into a Luigi’s Mansion one as well!

With the first of them being Project Reality. This is a Luigi’s Mansion hack in the style of the Super Mario 64 concept art, where Luigi has to explore a modified version of Big Boo’s Haunt and fight off ghosts in the style of that game. Here are a few videos showing it in action:

It’s an interesting experience to say the least. Whether it’s fighting bosses like King Bob-omb and Eyerok in Luigi’s Mansion or encountering Wario and Waluigi throughout the story, there’s a lot here that’s very much not in the spirit of the original game, and it’s arguably all the better for it. Will it work out perfectly? Not sure, but with things like adapted Mario 64 enemy behaviour, cutscenes and an attempt at the Wing Cap in said engine, it’s clear the team is doing everything they can to merge the two games together here.

And the same is true of the other project we’re covering today. Titled Luigi’s Mansion 64 (and not to be confused with the much older project of the same name), this one turns Super Mario 64 into a Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon style game. Check it out here:

As you can see, it’s got many of the mechanics down pat, even at this early stage. Luigi has the same general movement physics as in the Luigi’s Mansion games, and a model that’d fit right in during the N64 era. There’s a working Poltergust that can suck up or blow away objects, and even the tiniest of enemies and mechanics are here as well, like spiders you can suck to defeat and ladder animations straight out the official titles.

It’s a very accurate remake, and one that looks like it could become an exciting project if it gets finished.

Especially given the creator’s history with the engine. Indeed, while Luigi’s Mansion 64 is certainly PapraM46’s most ambitious work, it’s certainly not their first foray into an N64 style Luigi’s Mansion game. No, they also made a mini hack called King Boo’s Dream Invasions too. And that hack is a very impressive one indeed:

Since not only are you sucking up Boos with similar mechanics to Luigi’s Mansion 64, but you’re also playing as E Gadd with his own voice lines and custom model too. Add this to the interesting Dark Moon style King Boo boss at the end (with similar weakness and defeat animation), and you’ve got a very solid base for a Luigi’s Mansion style hack even prior to LM 64 coming onto the scene.

So yeah, it seems like the Super Mario 64 and Luigi’s Mansion games have some interesting projects between them, including those that replicate the other games’ mechanics in the most unlikely of engines.

But what do you think about them? Which of these projects are you excited to try out on release? And what other games do you think should be remade in a different game’s engine?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below, on social media, or on our Discord server today!