The third in the popular Mario & Luigi RPG series for the Nintendo handheld range has been widely anticipated, and easily as popular as its predecessors. The world's most famous plumbers once again must save the Mushroom Kingdom from distress, as an illness called the Blorbs begins affecting the inhabitants, leaving doctors stumped. An emergency meeting at Princess Peach's castle is interrupted by Bowser, yet again hell bent on kidnapping her (you'd think he'd have given up by now...). Upon defeat by Mario - yet again - Bowser comes across a travelling salesman who offers him a free Lucky Shroom. Far from the promise of making Bowser lucky and powerful enough to defeat Mario for once, it instead leaves him inhaling everything he comes across - including a lot of the Mushroom Kingdom's highest authorities.
The Game
It's a sequel. That's about it. It's a sequel to a hugely popular and immensely successful series of games. Superstar Saga gave us a good platform to work with, and Partners In Time expanded a few of those ideas and even created more. Yet, Bowser's Inside Story seems to have given us not much more than a few things chopped and changed. Bros. Points (renamed to Special Points) make a welcome return, but the attacks themselves are very like those in Partners In Time. Gear is more useful, and badges have been changed to allow an incentive for getting the timing down perfectly (more on that later). Yet, it seems somewhat restricted. Well, that's the feel I get from it, anyway.
In addition, the humour that makes its predecessors popular - particularly some horrible puns in Superstar Saga - seems to have disappeared somewhat, though it does still have its moments (particularly early in the game, with the phrase "A WINNER IS YOU" being referenced. It makes for a much more serious storyline, but (and let's be honest) who wants a serious story when we're already in a world with walking mushrooms, talking turtles, and plumbers who save the day?
It is also far more repetitive than the previous two games. Bowser's insides are very well laid-out, which makes gameplay easy to pick up, but in order to perform some actions, progressively harder minigames need to be played inside Bowser. Veterans will breeze through these minigames with no worries. Yes, they provide a good challenge for those less acquainted with the series, but there's not much that hasn't been seen elsewhere.
The last gripe I have with the gameplay is the timing of the button presses. The other games in the series were a lot more lenient and provided a lot more opportunity to save yourself should something go awry. In this game, the timing is a lot more unforgiving, and you can find yourself being knocked out from a single shot, even if you're at full health. Its pedantry doesn't help, either. I have had to start from my last save point on several occasions because I was out by the narrowest of margins.
Asides from those negatives, gameplay runs reasonably smoothly. Control of Bowser is innovative, and just as simple to pick up as Mario and Luigi's controls. The storyline is perhaps a little shorter than Superstar Saga, in terms of length, but just as gripping. It still has the familiar look and feel of the other two, but it seems to have been updated a tad. I like this game for its faults.
The Ratings
- Playability: Laid out above. 9/10
- Usability: irrelevant. It all depends on how well you wield the Nintendo DS.
- Lastability: not as good as before. 8/10
- Graphics: 2D, but a good 2D. It is difficult - in fact perhaps impossible - to expect Nintendo to change this format for future releases, so if this is as good as we're gonna get, I'm happy with it. 9/10
- Sound: Much the same as its predecessors. 7.5/10
- Overall: 33.5/40 = 8.375/10. Not too shabby. Hopefully they'll have a new handheld console to play with when it comes to releasing the fourth one.