Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story Review
Do I dare make a Fawful pun? No, because it’s a stupid name for a villain.
By Ben Salter
Why wasn’t Bowser given his own game earlier? I mean, even Peach had one (and just between us it wasn’t half bad). Big bad Bowser finally stars as a lead character in
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. Technically it isn’t his game per se, but Bowser fans should be honoured that he takes the lead in what is quickly becoming one of our favourite series. It’s only the third game in the Mario & Luigi franchise, but it feels like another of Nintendo’s classic, long-running, series already. Rather than simply bring Paper Mario from consoles to handhelds Ninty decided to take the same concept, combined what had already been established in previous Mario RPG titles, and develop an entirely new game. In this day and age of sequels, ports and multiplatform titles that’s something special. Enough about that, let’s move on and see how
Bowser’s Inside Story stacks up on its own accord.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story begins with a strange virus, known as Blorbs, infecting the Mushroom Kingdom. Princess Peach gathers the community to discuss possible solutions to stop the strange disease, which inflates people to comically distorted sizes. As usual Bowser crashes the party, but before he is able to kidnap the vulnerable princess yet again, he is defeated and sent into the forest by none other than Mario. Foolishly he eats a suspect mushroom, which forces him to inhale everyone in the area, including Mario, Luigi and Peach. From within their enemy Mario & Luigi must work to defeat their Super Star Saga nemesis, Fawful, who turns out to be behind the whole thing.
Statue sex change?As you would expect the story is a bit out there, and is far from the best you’ll find in a video game. How Nintendo tell it, switching from playing as Bowser in the real world, to Mario & Luigi inside him is the real treat, as they’ve developed it really well. One of the best things about the Mario & Luigi series is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously – a rarity for an RPG. Developer, Alphadream, were essentially given a license to do what ever they wanted with the script, and it’s worked dividends. The entire game is full of fantastic tongue in check humour, and it’s almost a parody of other RPG turn-based games. It’s not going to have you literally “rolling on the floor laughing (copter?)” but it’s nice to have a chuckle now and again with characters that have established themselves in more serious platforming games.
If you’re a series veteran, or have even played a Paper Mario game before you’ll immediately be in familiar terrain. If not, it’s essentially your stock-standard turn-based RPG. You’ll run into enemies during your linear journey, all of which you can see (no random battles), and fight it out one for one. Beyond selecting an attack, or run/item, option from the menu, the game requires you to interact with each battle; after commanding your character to do something you’ll be prompted to press a button, with precise timing, to pull off extra damage – a popular feature in the Paper Mario series. Bowser’s Inside Story changes things up a little, by allowing you to control the King Koopa himself, as well as the plumbing duo. The most obvious difference is that he works alone; it may not sound like much, but it makes a big difference when the gameplay was initially created using characters in tandem. To make up for the fact that he’s undermanned Bowser is stronger, more powerful and tougher than the Mario brothers.
RAAAAAARR!Beyond character differences the levels are actually designed differently for the two separate parties. The game is presented, as it traditionally is, as side-scroller for Mario & Luigi levels; however, this transfers to a top-down, but still linear path, for Bowser. You really have to play the game through to the end to appreciate this stroke of genius. Each of Bowser’s, and Mario & Luigi’s abilities have been crafted perfectly for their different level styles. As you’re constantly switching between the two parties it becomes increasingly important to change your play style to account for the difference in character skills, and level design; there’s no other way to describe it than pure genius. You really have to play it to fully comprehend what Nintendo have done here.
The game will take you around 25-30 hours to complete, which is huge for a handheld title. A fair amount of that time is spent playing as Bowser; approximately a 60:40 split. While officially it’s a Mario & Luigi game, at its core Bowser is that star. Much of that can be attributed to him being so strong, powerful and quite frankly badass. Touch screen controls have been implemented for many of his attacks, something that was missing from the pervious game. This ranges from his standard fire-breathing technique, to a move where he grows to a humungous size and dukes it out, giant monster style. There’s also a new range of mini-games that make use of the DS’s touch controls, but honestly they just aren’t as cool once you’ve controlled giant Bowser over two screens.
I, King Bowser, must first complete my daily yogaIf you’re not normally into RPGs Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story may still be worth a look, as it is not your traditional, serious, role playing game. It uses common RPG elements such us turn-based battles, increasing stats and an array of items, but unlike similar games it focuses on gameplay over story. A game such as Final Fantasy, for example, places a large emphasise on the story, which may scare off potential players who cannot commit to that. Mario & Luigi is all about great gameplay between a humorous script. The only complaint is that occasionally the story isn’t really coherent and doesn’t make all that much sense. You can easily read a mountain of text and realise you have no idea what just happened. However, seeing as the story is far from important it’s hardly a deal breaker; especially when we have the skip button at the ready.
The 2D colourful world looks fantastic, and reminds us why it’s okay to present games in the second dimension in this day and age. The characters look great, as do the vibrant environments, which have that classic Mario feel about them. The same can be said for the music. Honesty, is there actually a Nintendo game out there with a bad soundtrack? If there is it certainly doesn’t involve their leading man, as all of the classic Mario tracks are here sounding as good as ever.
The Final Verdict
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a great handheld RPG, and easily the best title in a series that is quickly becoming one of our favourites. It doesn’t take itself too serious, and as such presents us with a hilarious script. The level design is nothing short of genius. This truly is Bowser’s big break, and the differences in level design and character abilities for Bowser and the Mario + Luigi combo is fantastic. If you’re looking for a light-hearted RPG, or a game to introduce you to the genre we highly recommended checking out Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story.
Gameplay
9.5/10
Am I allowed to say freaking awesome? As I worry that I haven’t conveyed the genius of the level design I’ll say it again; Bowser’s Inside Story is as close as you’ll get to perfection for levels being designed specifically for characters and their different abilities. If for nothing else play this game to check it out!
Graphics
9.5/10
I don’t think I can label a game as hawt, but Mario & Luigi reminds us why 2D can still be cool.
Sound
9.0/10
Classic Mario tunes and the characters speak occasionally to humorous effect.
Value
9.0/10
At around 25 hours you’re certainly getting bang for your buck. Like all RPGs, though, it can get a little tiresome trying to get 100% if you’re not almost in love with it.
Overall
9.4/10
Submitted by ICC_06
31/10/2009
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