“Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story” Review

For Nintendo DS

Pros:	Cons:
Colorful worlds with detailed character models	Overused voice acting and too much text
Great themes and sound effects	Poor overworld controls and touch controls
Silly and original story with unique characters	Tedious battles stretch forever
Fun original gameplay and combat system	Un-engaging sidequests
Fairy long quest with lots to do and find

Note: Sorry for the somewhat poor review, I had to write this in a rush and didn't have any time for proof-reading. Don't take this as a review you cannot trust however.

            For years the only Mario role-playing game I knew was the Paper Mario trilogy, for years I played this outstanding series of games and enjoyed every second of it, for years I would re-play and re-play these three marvelous games, for years, I wished there was more… Finally in fall of 2009 with the release of Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, my wish came true. You see, I never really got into the Mario RPG games besides the Paper Mario’s, and still haven’t played the first two Mario and Luigi RPG’s even to this day, but I sure am happy I’ve played the third installment in what looks to be a great franchise. And before I begin this review, I do have one confession; I hated the game at first, for nearly two years after the release I never played it. But then one day I slipped it back in my trusty DSi, and boy am I happy that I did.

                The main element that sets Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story apart from other Mario RPG’s is that Mario and Luigi are playable on the bottom screen, while Bowser is playable on the top screen (more on that later). But what’s important is how good the visuals are on both screens at all times. The lush colorful overworlds of the mushroom kingdom are beautiful and the detailed two-dimensional graphics are mostly un-matched on the Nintendo DS handheld. The game looks simply outstanding and easily one of the best looking DS titles to date. And not only are the backgrounds beautiful, but the character models look really amazing as well. Walking Bowser in a diagonal direction will make it appear as if he is a three-dimensional character, something that looks great when combined with the rest of the game’s brilliant visuals. If there’s one area where Bowser’s Inside Story really excels, it would be the visuals.

                Thankfully the great visuals are accompanied by just as good of a soundtrack that perfectly complements every area of the game with its fun and energetic music. Nearly every track in the game is a masterpiece whereas just a few are a bit less of an achievement. Some of my favorites include the Bowser’s castle lobby, as well as the final battle theme, and Fawful’s (the main villain in the game) Theme itself. Plus the sound effects are all pure Nintendo and are all fitting to their use (especially Fawful’s creepy laughing). The voice acting used for Mario and Luigi is also a real hoot but only at first, the humorous voice acting is overused throughout the entire adventure and Nintendo even re-used a lot of the same recordings over and over. I loved it at first, but eventually the repetition got extremely annoying.

               

                Most RPG’s are known for a complex and intricate story, well if that’s what you’re looking for, Mario’s latest RPG probably isn’t for you. In this game, the wacky story begins with Bowser inhaling Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and a couple Toads into his body. Mario and Luigi then run around in his body fixing things and giving him boosts in order to let him accomplish his objectives. Bowser travels the Mushroom Kingdom and fights the evil villain Fawful’s massive army while the Bros. take care of business inside Bowser, but I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, unless you play it of course. All of the characters are unique and silly as well and localization did a great job of keeping all of the text in the game absolutely hilarious, and yes I did say text. The game actually has a bit too much text, and if you think my reviews are too long, then you definitely should NOT play this game. But if you’re fine with reading go ahead, the dialogue is quite funny and should keep you hooked throughout the adventure. Sure, the story and its characters are all completely crazy, but it’s the way that all this makes an impact on the gameplay that’s so amazing and fun!

                The central gameplay mechanism will have you switching back and forth between the Mario brothers and Bowser. For the most part, this is quite fun and is used in a large variety of ways. The gameplay in the two overworlds is great and varied as well. Inside Bowser’s body, Mario and Luigi come across many 2-D side scrolling platformer sections while Bowser must do more in the field of role-playing. The controls for handling all of this however, aren’t exactly perfect. “A” controls Mario, “B” controls Luigi, “X and Y” control Bowser, and when jumping inside Bowser’s body, “A and B” must be pressed in conjunction in order to make Mario and Luigi jump simultaneously. In some areas this can be extremely difficult like when bouncing across a bouncy floor, or jumping across moving platforms. Besides this, the game requires you to change your controls constantly to move forward. You may at times have to press “R” to change from jump to hammer, or from hammer to cyclone, or from cyclone to jump and this can become annoying and a pain. Some of the touch controls on the minigames and special moves don’t always pick up your tapping or sliding and can be extremely frustrating. The combat system in the game works extremely well and has you fighting plenty of varied enemies. All of the action commands are fun to do, and rewarding to pull off. The only problem I had with the combat in the game was the fact that there are hardly any optional enemies in the game, and most of the enemies in the overworld are hard to bypass without fighting. But my biggest complaint is how long some battles can take, especially the numerous bosses. The final boss in the game took me at least an hour of non-stop fighting for me to have success over and was extremely tedious. Besides these two complaints the battle system works well for the game.

                The quest itself is fairly long, a good twenty hours or so, and has tons of secret goodies to find. There are also tons of little sidequests to complete in the game which should keep you busy, but I found most of them to be boring and un-engaging. Finding all of the beans in an area is very tedious and un-rewarding, as is many of the other sidequests. One sidequest I did enjoy however, was one in which you had to find all of the Blitty’s in the game in order to unlock Bowser’s best special move which uses Broggy the yellow cube dog to bash your enemies for you. I only wish there were better sidequests to perform.

                Overall I have no problem recommending this title for you, just make sure it’s the kind of game you’re into. The visuals are fantastic, as is the music and silly story and there should be enough content to last you a while. I have mixed feelings about the gameplay, I find that for the most part it is an extremely creative concept and is used in good ways, but I have trouble accepting the many annoying aspects of the combat system and control scheme. In the end this game may not be as good as the Paper Mario games, but it is a great RPG, and one of the best Nintendo DS games you can buy.

Graphics: Colorful worlds and detailed character models, both environments look nice        9.5

Audio: Tons of great themes and sound effects. Humorous voice acting a bit overused          9.0

Story: Unique story and characters but with too much text, albeit funny                                   9.0

Gameplay: Original gameplay and combat system with poor controls and tedious battles    8.5

Gameplay Amount: Fairly long quest with lots to do and find but not always engaging       9.0

Overall: Great graphics, unique gameplay, and a silly story add up to one of the best Mario RPG’s currently available, easily one of the best Nintendo DS games ever!                                 8.8