Mario and Luigi Bowser's Inside Story Review
First there was Superstar Saga, the intro to one of the best new RPG series ever created, and Partners in Time, the less entertaining sequel that upped the difficulty level and complexity a tad too far. Now with Bowser's Inside Story released in all regions, is this the new best game in the Mario and Luigi series? It very well could be.
First things first, it's got the standard old Mario story. Fawful, the bad English spouting and metaphor using bad guy from the first game, has apparently been giving out poison mushrooms which cause a strange disease called the Blorbs, which causes any Toad affilicted to become a gigantic, round ball that's unable to move or act. After a meeting that is interrupted by Bowser in Peach's Castle, the villain then gives him a mushroom to beat Mario, which in reality is a Vacuum Shroom, with the effect of making Bowser inhale everything in sight. Bowser returns, eats Mario, Luigi, Peach and all the Toads in the castle, and hence the name 'Bowser's Inside Story', because Mario and Luigi are inside Bowser's body for at least half of the game.
As you may have guessed, this is not all of Fawful's plan. Indeed, after Bowser has uncontrollably swallowed half of the cast, Fawful starts his true plan, to take over Mushroom Kingdom using the power of something called the 'Dark Star', a strange dangerous artifact with a mind of it's own that was sealed away some time in the past. He's captured both Peach and Bowser's Castles, brainwashed Bowser's minions, and changed all the creatures of the kingdom into bizarre Fawful like monsters. Off Mario and Luigi go looking for a way out of Bowser, and off Bowser goes to beat up Fawful for stealing his castle, trying to take over the known world and using mind control on his army.
But quite honestly, no one really cares about the story. The script is excellent, with Fawful again being one of the funniest characters in video game history (this time, new catchphrase being 'I have Chortles!' as an evil laugh), but most people really care about the gameplay. After all, no one plays a Mario game for the plotline... or at least no one really should.
But the gameplay is the best thing of the game, and comes in two different styles, almost making the experience two games in one. Inside Bowser, Mario and Luigi are controlled like normal, except in 2D. It's platform adventuring for them, with the standard turn based battles seen in the last two games whenever they meet an enemy or boss. Attacks include jump, hammer and special abilities used outside battle, and it all works well.
On the top screen, you've got Bowser. His gameplay is the standard RPG style wandering around the world, beating up enemies and bosses and solving puzzles. Unlike Mario and Luigi, he can't jump. Instead, he relies on his punching and fire breath to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, with new moves like the Body Slam and Shell Spin unlocked later.
In battle however, more new additions await. For Mario and Luigi, it's like a cross between Superstar Saga and Partners in Time. You have the items for special moves, but you have an SP meter like the BP meter in the first game rather than having to buy/collect certain amount of items. These attacks are handled by pressing buttons with the right timing, and are probably one of the most hilarious things to watch, from the Snack Basket move (Mario throws a massively overweight Luigi into the air to cause an Earthquake, damaging ground based enemies) to the Falling Star, where they have to fire small stars at a colour coded large star on the top screen, and the resulting combo smashes down on a single enemy. Some are arguably pretty tough to use well, with Super Bouncer and Youhoo Cannons being a pain, but at least attacks like the Green Shell, Jump Helmet and Mighty Meteor are pretty much simple to use well.
Their other options in battle of course are Jump attacks, Hammer attacks, items and the very much silly 'run from battle'. Of course, the former two can also be powered up with carefully timed button presses, like the former two games in the series, and the third and fourth are self explanatory.
For Bowser... it's a bit different. Jump and Hammer are replaced by Punch and Fire Breath attacks, which have to be charged up for about half a second to be effective (as in, you choose to release/press the button required when Bowser has pulled his arm right back/his face turned red. which all takes place in the one turn). His special attacks are minion based, where he sets his army on enemies. Goombas, Koopas, Shy Guys, Bob-ombs and Magikoopas are the order of the day here, with the controls utilising the touch screen. Fear not, with the possible exception of the Bob-omb themed attack, all the above attacks are incredibly easy to get the hang of.
He can also, at least part the beach level of the game, use the Inhale option to eat enemies and items, sending any enemies to Mario and Luigi for them to defeat. It's a useful and clever mechanic, and is used quite a bit both in normal enemy battles and boss fights.
Another fun point, returning from the previous games is how the enemy attacks work. In most RPGs, turn based battles usually involve your character getting a punch in against an opponent, then them attacking you back with the character being unable to do anything whatsoever until their turn comes around. Not here. Mario, Luigi and Bowser can dodge and counter attack in enemy turns. For Mario and Luigi, this involves jumping over/on or hammering away enemies and their attacks, while for Bowser, it involves punching or ducking in his shell to avoid them. A key difference is that Mario and Luigi get only one method to counter depending on the attack, while Bowser can use either method or even both in succession depending on the enemy. Heck, for that matter, not all attacks involve the standard counters, two bosses Mario and Luigi face have them holding on to Starlow (a star shaped helper character) who flies them to the top screen to dodge a massive, likely instant kill beam attack fired in their direction, while one of Bowser's opponents uses an attack that sends a whole army of enemies against him which have to be counter attacked to reach the battle arena again. It's simple to get the hang of, and at least in my opinion, makes this the best series of RPGs ever released.
A key new mechanic however is the co operation between the Mario brothers and Bowser. Remember, with Mario and Luigi inside Bowser's body, whatever they do will affect his actions on the top screen, and vice versa. Many mini games for example are to increase his arm strength, leg strength or adrenaline to make him giant. Other interesting tricks involve various sections inside him. The Pump Works section gets flooded when Bowser drinks from a fountain, and dries when he stops. The Airway gets frozen when he breathes cold air from the now frozen Blizzard Midbus. And their answer to getting Bowser to remember a safe combination is to go into his mind and jog his memory by solving an incomplete jigsaw puzzle which has the code on it. There are other examples I think I missed, but that's just a few of them.
Talking of which, there's also the giant Bowser boss battles. Great new mechanic, has Bowser become a fifty plus feet high monster to fight massive bosses that neither characters could even scratch otherwise. And I mean massive. Bowser fights his own case. As in, the building itself. He fights a giant tower, and even fights a fleeing train going down a railway track firing missiles at him in return. Here, the DS has to be held sideways, and his attacks are powered by the touch screen and microphone. It's great fun, although some of the more complex battles are a bit difficult to get the hang of, and has some of the most suitably epic boss music in existance loudly playing in the background. Not to mention the sheer terror of the enemies when they see a massive Bowser towering over trees and buildings and throwing them halfway across the map. Pity however you can't replay these, and only four battles exist.
This leads to another point, the music. Both previous games had good music, and this one is by no means any exception to the rule. It's generally pretty good as a baseline, but some of the themes such as the final boss theme, the giant battle theme and some of the villain themes are actually good enough you could listen to them on CD. Have a quick listen:
Something however that was missing in Partners in Time that this game has addressed however was the lack of things to do other than the main storyline. There wasn't much of an overworld, no optional missions to complete, and the whole game ended rather quickly because of that. Fear no more.
In fact, Bowser's Inside Story has a all original overworld made of around 10 interconnected areas, with a few hundred unique major areas with different area themed enemies and such like. There's even an underwater section, missing from the previous game. Now, you think it's good, right? Better than that, you visit most multiple times with new abilities and have to explore new sections. There are plenty of hidden puzzle rooms just inches off the beaten track, with blocks, gear and items found in secret. There's also a lot of clever mechanics, although a lot don't appear nearly enough as they should, such as the fire propelled platforms for Bowser and the underwater sections.
As for bonus sections, this game practically destroys all the past games in the series. Superstar Saga had a few mini games, not much. Partners in Time, even less, with even worse mini games. This however has mini games. It has the Gauntlet, a seven round mode of fighting much tougher versions of previously seen bosses. It has the Cholestoroad, a mini game area where you have to get good scores for the special attacks. It has the massage area where Bowser has to get good scores for his special attacks for items. It has side quests. It has lots more.
Now, those are the positive aspects. And why it's a great game, it's not quite perfect just yet. Better than Partners in Time, a slight amount better than Superstar Saga, but it's not perfect. The first minor problem is that the game is a tad too easy. No, seriously, the bosses have quite low health and some easily dodgeable attacks in most cases, and compared to the the relative difficulty of the original and the insane overkill of Partners in Time, your mileage may vary as to whether this is a good thing. Similarly, enemies give as a result very little experience, which means that beating the game at below level 40 is relatively normal (goes up to level 99, as usual), and even reaching level 40 or 50 requires hours of level grinding, and is required when braving the fun yet insanely cruel Gauntlet in Challenge Mode. Maybe it's just that this game lacks the difficulty brick wall the last two had in their final dungeons, where the enemies and bosses suddenly became twenty thousand times more difficult without any real warning.
Another very minor criticism is that certain attacks... are not particularly well designed. The Hammer uses the Partners in Time system, which was already broken the first time and remains so for attacking in my personal opinion. And some special abilities, such as Super Bouncer, Youhoo Cannons and Bob-omb Squad are just... not than fun to use in battle, nor particularly effective. At least however the vast majority of good special attacks make up for this, with Mighty Meteor, Magic Window, Magikoopa Mob and Bowser's Koopa army attacks being both easy to use and extremely effective in battle.
Finally, the gear and badge system is pretty basic this time around. Now, that's not to say Partners in Time or Superstar Saga had a more complex system, since they had weak aspects as well, but here... these systems are just too boring and devoid of content. Not kidding here. The badge effects system is a good idea, and works well, but the amount of badges is literally in the single digits. No, no jokes here. No secret badge shop for game breaking ultra badges, just about 8 relatively boring and weak ones with little useful effect. Gear too. Bowser's is the better of the bunch, with heavy defense boosting gear and neat effects being the norm, but neither him nor the brothers Mario have a wide range of gear to choose from, even with you exploring all the overworld, shops and winning the mini games. This part of the game could definitely be far better in my personal opinion.
Finally, a very bizarre side effect of the enemy tailoring towards specific characters can be seen, which is both a semi positive and a semi negative. In this game, each enemy has apparently been tailored for only one of the two teams of characters you use to battle, which means that the bigger enemies are tailored to give EXP based on what level Bowser will be at when he passes through the area, and the smaller enemies give EXP based on what Mario and Luigi will be at skill level wise by the same time (aka, much, much later in the game). This leads to a very strange dissonance. You've got truly MASSIVE enemies meant for Bowser which do tons of damage to the Mario Bros and are often difficult to avoid... yet they give you like, 50 Experience Points and 10 coins each when dead. On the other hand, you've got their MINIONS, weaker, small enemies Bowser usually just smashes aside on the overworld... and yet they give you about SIX HUNDRED EXP and TWO HUNDRED COINS each when defeated. This strangely turns all the boring, small enemies like the Fawful Hoppers, Drillbit Crabs, Mawful Moles, Fawful Guys and Flagikoopas into what are very, very easily defeated money spiders/Amazy Dayzee level bonus reward equivalents and the massive enemies like Beehosses, Crawfuls and Toothys into demonic spiders that are a pain to defeat yet give hardly anything when dead. Weird.
In conclusion, what to give Mario and Luigi Bowser's Inside Story... well, it's a great game, and it was good enough to nearly stop me eating for three days straight trying to reach and defeat the final boss, so that has to count for something. Well, I'd give it about 93%. It's a good game, I liked the music, general style and gameplay, and the story, so that's all good. It has to be rated better than Partners in Time and the original due to the sheer level above them that this game fars into, and all in all, it's a fun game, which is what matters.
Definitely the best Mario and Luigi game in the series, at least so far.
