Good Work Nintendo

"Amazing work, Nintendo."
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, the sequel to Partners in Time. The second one was decent but not as good as the first one. But this one absolutely outclasses PiT and comes very close to Superstar Saga.1) STORY - 9/10Toads get very fat and unable to move because of Blurbs disease. Peach, Toadsworth, Mario and Luigi, Yellow Star and a group of toads think how to cure it. Suddenly Bowser attacks and tries to (again, you guessed it!) kidnap a princess! Mario beats him and he is sent far away. He meets strange salesman that gives him "Lucky Shroom".When Bowser eats it he gets ability vacuum, Kirby wannabe he is. However he also gets controlled by the salesman, which turns out to be Fawful! Koopa King eats Peach, Mario, Luigi and collapses...Mario must try to find the princess and save Mushroom Kingdom from Fawful!Interesting. Well, this is a Mario game. What did you expect? Aliens from different planet show in the past and kidnap the princess?...oh...wait....2) GRAPHICS - 9/10Yes, yes, on first look the seem to be almost the same as these in PiT. But not really! Mario walking doesn't look just like he was just wedgied, Luigi looks like Luigi. Movement is more fluid, animation is smoother. There is a lot "poses" of the heroes, not like in PiT, only three or four. Bowser's sprite became a LOT better than his previous ones, especially better than PiT one - he is no longer fat nor does he have too many spikes on the back.My only complain about the graphics - the mega boss battles. Nintendo was pretty lazy and decided to increase the size of normal sprite for these battles, instead of making new ones. Outcome is pretty bad - sprite seems a little bit pixelated. That's one point off.3) MUSIC and SOUND - 10/10Previous games had a very nice soundtrack, and so does this one. You will whistle some of the themes you hear. Worth noticing is that there are 2 versions of some overworld themes - inside of Bowser music sounds different than the one outside.You should absolutely LOVE the music - Great Job, Nintendo!Ahh, sound. Mario and Luigi series are known from Mario and Luigi's gibberish-type of voice. Yes, these are back in this game! Charles Martinet really did the best he could and-finally-Mario sounds like Mario in ML game. Worth noticing also are the NPC voices, for example Fawful's. Bowser also gets his own voice that is AWESOME, it's the voice that was used in Super Mario Galaxy. For example, he gets to say "Maaaario" or "Nintendo!".Aside from that, there are - of course - classic bleeps and blips, for example when Mario's jump.4) GAMEPLAY - 10/10See, PiT was rather bland in terms of gameplay, you must agree to that. Superstar saga was OUTSTANDING. Same here. There's so much action, and you seem to always be doing something different.Well it goes like this. You control Mario Brothers inside of Bowser in 2-D mode (just like in Super Paper Mario). You can switch to Bowser pressing Y or X and control him in 3D mode. Later in the game you can also exit Bowser's body and travel in 3D with brothers as well. It reminds me of the babies gimmick in PiT, but there it's used a lot better - you don't constantly switch between them - you get to play good half of hour with one character until you need to switch.Koopa King uses Punch and Fire breath as his basic commands in overworld and Marios use Jump and Hammer, of course.You can battle as Bowser and as Brothers. Bowser is WAY more powerful than Mario and co., but he doesn't get a combo attack like Mario Bros. You also get two different battle themes - one for Koopa and one for the bros.. Mario gets basic battle commands, such as Jump, Hammer, Use Items, Run Away and Attack Parts (about them later). He will also get a special badge move - depending on how well you pull off action commands (OK!, GOOD!, GREAT!, EXCELLENT!) a special bar will rise and if you tap it it will do...well it depends on the badge. Some restore HP, some BP, some raise Attack power...Bowser gets Punch, Flame, Items, Special and run away.Specials. It's a mix from two previous games - Bros Items, but with Bros. Point counter. To get a special move as Mario you need to find 10 Attack Parts. As Bowser, you need to free a group of minions.The specials are AWESOME :D. PiT lacked creativity when it come to them, but this one's items are great. They're so fun to use, very nicely controlled and just...ahh! :DMario Bros. bros. attacks are controlled by D-PAD and A, B buttons. The first two are pretty much rehashed from PiT, but next ones are great and more great. I especially liked Jump Helmet, where you have to contol Luigi with trampoline on his head to let Mario land on it and bounce higher. More times Mario bounces - more damage he deals.Bowser specials are controlled using the touchscreen. First one is goomba-ball, where you have to tap running goombas, so Bowser sets them on fire and they fall on enemies. Second one is a Shy Guy attack, where you have to slide the stylus so Shy Guys can push the giant Bowser's shell more and catapult it on enemies.There is a whole bunch of minigames. Few of them use stylus and some use regular buttons...these mingames are often reused, but there is always a new quirk in each of the versions. One of the games requires you to press A and B to shoot flying balls, just like in 1980-ish space shooter!What's great - you actually fight sometimes as a GIANT BOWSER. You hold the DS like a book and use stylus for punch action and the MICROPHONE for breath. The actions that brothers use are also back, for example the Spin Bros., Small Mario, Digging Luigi and also few new ones. Bowser also has his own commands. To progress in the game you have to use these actions to clear various puzzles. They're not even close to be as repetetive as in PiT. There are some techniques that require a power up, for example, you can turn Mario into Shell Mario from New Super Mario Bros. hitting the Shell Block. Until you press A with Mario, you stay in the shell.In Partners in Time, enemies have way too much HP, (to add "difficulty"), but it only added annoyance. This doesn't happen here. Enemies have increased attack power in order to make the difficulty. I really died few times on normal enemies, which didn't ever happen in previous Mario and Luigis. Okay, okay, they overpowered one or two of the enemies, making them annoying, but even it doesn't matter.Overall, the game's gameplay is AMAZING. 10 out of 10.5) REPLAY VALUE - 10/10You won't believe how many things are there to collect. Apart from the optional attack parts, beans, hidden treasure boxes there are also Blocats, Mushroom Orbs, Bros. Badges, Special Equipment...you also get special challenges that require you to continusly use special attacks and also you get few EXTRA BOSSES (you have to defeat them in set number of turns).It will take mostly 20-22 hours to finish the game itself, but can take WAY longer to complete everything.6) OVERALL - BUY, RENT or SKIP?Buy this game now or when it comes to US/Europe! You won't regret this! If you liked the past two games you will simply fall in love with this!10 out of 10 - one of the best Mario RPGs so far, on par with Paper Mario 2, Superstar Saga and Super Mario RPG.
Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/09, Updated 08/03/09
Game Release: Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!! (JP, 02/11/09)