Wayward Review: Mario and Luigi - Bowser's Inside Story

This may be a bit of a surprise considering I have yet to review Father Of Death, which will eventually happen I assure you, but today I shall review a game for the first time.

And that game shall be Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the Nintendo DS.

Let me start this out by saying that I have been in a bit of a video game lull as of late. The only game I have spent any more than a moment or two of playtime in recently was Scribblenauts which loses its charm way to damned fast.

But I am not reviewing Scribblenauts, am I? No no no, I am reviewing Mario and Luigi 3.

One of my favorite games for the SNES was Super Mario RPG. It had the right mix of rpg, action, platformer, humor, and seriousness. So too does this game.

Action is split up between the Brothers and Bowser. After consuming a mysterious mushroom from a strange vendor, Bowser sucks up everyone inside Princess Peach's castle, including the mustachio'd duo. While Bowser is out and about trying to get his castle back or kidnap the princess, Mario and Luigi are inside him beating up whatever is invading Bowser and even helping Bowser do certain tasks. For example, if Bowser needs arm strength for a certain part of the game, the Bros engage in a mingame in which they more or less massage his arms from within.

The overworld is navigated in classic 2d RPG style (top down camera) while the segments played in Bowser's body are strictly 2d platformer style.

Battles are much more action oriented than most RPGs. Instead of just picking something from a menu, waiting for to happen, then waiting for your enemies to do take their turn, you are actively participating in every part of the battle. All of your own attacks can be enhanced with proper timing and most if not all of enemy attacks can be avoided or countered with good timing too. As a matter of fact, if you DON'T dodge enemy attacks, you will probably get owned really really fast.

Along with the regular attacks (Bowser can breath fire and punch, the Bros can jump on enemies and hit them with a hammer) there are special attacks which are really fun. Bowser's specials involve his minions (goombas, koobas, bo-bombs etc etc) and are controlled with the stylus. The Bro special attacks don't use the styus but typically have you moving in some way. For example for one attack a picnic basket appears and a bunch of food flies into the air. Luigi then has to catch the food in his mouth as it falls, then he blows up like a balloon, then Mario throws him up into the air. He falls and does damage to the enemies. Some of the attacks are very spectacular and creative.

Along with these "conventional" attacks there are "giant battles." After being invigorated by the Bros (in his crotch no less...) Bowser becomes huge and fights large enemies. There are only 4 giant battles and are fairly unique. It was really nice, as a nerd, to see castles turn into giant robots to fight a giant dragon'ish thing.

Reading through this now, I am surprised I haven't noticed this yet, but the game is hilarious. It seriously has one of the funniest scripts ever. Whether it is Luigi's scardycat goofyness, Bowser's stubborn need to kidnap the princess at all costs, or the main antagonish Fawful's.....well just Fawful is awesome. Fawful's lines are freaking funny.

Thanks to this damn game I have begun saying to myself "I HAVE CHORTLES" whenever I am amused and "I HAVE FURY" whenever I get angry.

By the way, I have only had this game for 5 days. Just throwing that out there.

There are negatives, of course. This game isn't perfect. Here is the run down:


Pros:

+ Very engaging gameplay. There is very little down time in this game, not very much back tracking. Battles are never boring.

+ Nice animation. Characters move with a liquid grace and the ambient animations for characters are oddly detailed.

+ Good graphics. Everything in the game is lovingly rendered and detailed.

+ Hilarious script. Fawful. That is all I have to say.


Cons:

- Way too many minigames. The minigames are fun the first 2 times you do them. But after blasting stamina back into Bowser's crotch for the 4th time, it was boring. And the nose minigame is just a hassle in general.

- Seems to be over really short. I beat this game with 3 days of gameplay. Granted, I played it for 16 hours in those 3 days, but I didn't expect to take a family trip with a fresh game and come home with a beaten one.

- Lack of replay value. Now that I have beaten this game, I probably won't play it again. That's a shame, it really is, but I really have no reason to play it again now.

- The enemy difficulty is a bit uneven. Some monsters I could simply walk over, but there were some that if I didn't dodge one of their attacks, I would be completely defenseless. That is fine for a boss or even a rare miniboss, but not for regular enemies.

Recommendation: Rent it if you can, buy it if you must. Either way, you will enjoy it.





I HAVE CHORTLES!