Following last week’s Nintendo Direct, I’d say it’s reasonable to be curious about Luigi’s Mansion 2. The game has been ghost since last year’s E3 2011 demo, with nothing but a confirmation that it still exists from press releases and some game lists in investor’s meetings. So what’s going on with Nintendo’s latest collaboration with Next Level Games?

Next Level Games is a Western developer from Vancouver, Canada, best known for the three games they made with Nintendo: Super Mario Strikers (2005), Mario Strikers Charged (2007), and Punch-Out!! (2009). They seemingly followed a regular two-year pattern with Nintendo, and as such, it seemed pretty reasonable to assume Luigi’s Mansion 2 would be a 2011 release.

However, Next Level Games didn’t actually start development on the game until late 2010, according to Shigeru Miyamoto during E3 2011. So, as of E3, the game was only in development for around six months. Since they made Punch-Out!!, the company has produced three other games: Ghost Recon (Wii), Transformers: Cybertron Adventures (Wii), and Captain America (360/PS3). For comparison, they didn’t make a game between the two Strikers games, and they made two downloadable games—Jungle Speed (WiiWare), Ticket to Ride (XBLA)—and Spider-Man: Friend or Foe between Strikers Charged and Punch-Out!!. Basically, Next Level Games spent had probably a year and a half minimum of development time on their previous Nintendo projects. As of now, their 80-person team would have had roughly that amount of time on Luigi’s Mansion 2.

This fact is made more interesting by the amicable departure of Mike Inglehart, the director of all three Nintendo projects, in December 2010. He had been with the company since its founding in 2002. "I left Next Level after a very enjoyable run to join Hothead because of the opportunity to create original IP and get some new experience working on iOS games where I am now directing the Big Win Sports series," Inglehart said to us in an e-mail. Fans of the Strikers series should definitely check out Big Win Sports on iOS.

If LinkedIn is to be believed, then Bryce Holliday, who has been with Next Level Games since 2004, is directing Luigi’s Mansion 2. He only came into a directorial role in the company near the end of the development of Punch-Out!!, but has been an integral part of all the Nintendo games, according to Inglehart.

Aside from a new director, there is one fact that might explain any kind of Luigi’s Mansion 2 delay: Miyamoto is taking direct responsibility for Luigi’s Mansion 2. For their previous Nintendo outings, Next Level worked closely Kensuke Tanabe, who is in charge of production with Western developers. With Miyamoto’s comments of his work with Luigi’s Mansion 2, which has been hinted at in several interviews, we can assume this is the most Miyamoto time that Next Level Games has been privy to. That means that some tea tables might be getting upended.

Much like Pikmin 3 (another project we know Miyamoto is overseeing closely), this seems to be a passion project for him. The whole idea of a sequel came from Miyamoto following Nintendo’s use of the original Luigi’s Mansion to test the 3DS. We don’t really know how Next Level Games got on board, but it seems like Nintendo was rather happy about their work on Punch-Out!! and asked them. It likely could be as simple as that.

The only lengthy discussion about the game came during E3 2011. Miyamoto said at the developer roundtable last year that the sequel will be more focused on puzzles than the original. The sequel features multiple mansions, and E. Gadd, who returns, will move Luigi around the houses in a cute, pixel-y fashion.

The name of Luigi’s ghost-busting pack is now the Poltergust 5000 instead of the Poltergust 3000. There are likely some other additions, but we’ve only seen the strobe light effect that stuns ghosts. We know that King Boo and his army of ghosts will return, though the overarching story has not been laid out. King Boo could be the big bad again, or he could just be the boss of one of the many mansions.

Screenshots show off a variety of familiar and new locations. There’s a dining room, an icy cavern, a subterranean plant-infested area, and an Egyptian tomb-like area.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 does not have a confirmed release window, though the last time Nintendo said anything about it, it was a “2012” release.