Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)

Mario & Luigi:
Bowser's Inside Story

AlphaDream/Nintendo

Anthony: Maybe it’s my affinity for using the disproportionately huge and buff characters in games (which almost inevitably leads to them having a boring heart of gold) that makes a game like Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story so glorious. Why? Because for once, the huge, menacing character has no heart of gold, nor is he an unnecessary and unrelenting jerk either. With this game alone, Bowser has become one of the most likeable, charming, and delightfully antihero characters this side of Sin City.

Thankfully the good news doesn’t end there. In many ways, Bowser’s Inside Story is a success on all levels. As an RPG, it has cute story, great characters, and an engaging battle system. As an action game, it has varied exploration, minigames, and an impressive variety in the battling. I loved the original Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, enjoyed Partners in Time (though I found it to be a slight step back) and can safely say that this was the most entertaining and fun entry in the series for me.

What’s good:
- The game looks great. Character sprites in the game are colorful, expressive, and have excellent animation. Nothing looks “beautiful” per se, but everything looks very good, and the exaggerated and comical animations really liven the experience.

- The game also sounds great. Several tunes will get hopelessly stuck in your head. Mario and Luigi’s exchanges of Italian-sounding gibberish and Bowser’s bellowing of “Showtime!” will elicit smiles. Everything matches well with the environments.

- The problem I had with Partners in Time is that the experience started to feel stale and more akin to a chore as time went on. Bowser’s Inside Story doesn’t give you much time to be bored though, as enemies are very unique and creatively designed, the exploration/platforming sections are frequently broken up with minigames, and both the Bowser and Mario & Luigi sections get ample time and play differently.

- “Creativity” is a point that really needs to be pushed here. Both in fighting enemies and especially with bosses, they really worked hard this time to create a memorable experience. Learning how to dodge and counter attacks from the lowliest fat goomba to the mightiest end bosses can take real creativity and can be really impressive to witness. Combining that with the wealth of clever minigames and truly awesome Giga Bowser fights especially give you a very diverse and unique experience.

- Beyond the fact that they’ve created a very charming antihero in Bowser with the game, bringing baddie Fawful back to the fray and juxtaposing them among a bundle of funny NPCs makes for a very funny RPG. This game rivals Paper Mario 2 as being one of the funniest RPGs I’ve played; it’s chock full of good natured humor among Luigi-bashing, Bowser-posturing, and Fawful-ramblings.

What’s neutral:
- Admittedly, there are some potential problems with the accessibility of the game. Success in battles is about 10% strategy versus 90% timing and execution. New enemies, and especially bosses will typically pound your characters pretty severely until you learn how to dodge or counter their attacks. That may be a point of frustration for some, especially since a learning curve is expected, but a boss may do a new powerful attack that’s tricky to dodge, hit you, cause you to be stunned, subsequently hit you again, and before you know it you’re near death. They’re pretty generous with recovery items as usual, but it’s admittedly not near as satisfying to chug mushrooms to win, considering the game is built around learning to avoid damage altogether. Some may find the platforming element of “Press A + B” tricky jumping with Mario and Luigi a point of annoyance as well.
- The minigames are an important inclusion toward making the game feel fresh and varied throughout. That said, they are mandatory, and this means inevitably some players will dislike specific games. I found the variety to be quite enjoyable, but making a game like this absolutely runs the risk of players thinking “not this game again!”
- Replay value is mostly good, but has a sticking point or two. The game isn’t particularly long, running 20-30 hours, but it’s also so crammed full of gameplay that it can easily feel like more happened in that time than 60 hours in other RPGs. Surprisingly though, the bonus content is fairly weak, with no new game+, and only a battle arena as a side challenge. Additionally, to have any chance of beating the arena completely requires backtracking with Bowser and Mario and Luigi to access an area just to level them a bit more. That’s not a particularly fun way to spend extra game time.

What’s bad:
- There’s no excuse for the fact that they’ve not only kept the “save points” system, but frequently made the saving points bafflingly far away from each other. Pretty much any DS game these days allows you to save anywhere, and for a game that doesn’t, there’s just way too much time and distance to cover between them. Stop that, Nintendo.

Oh hey, I actually kept this pretty short. I guess things just came more easily for me in regards to the game. Graphics are great, sound is great, gameplay is great, the story is funny, and the characters ooze charm all around. It’s not long, but the amount of variety in the gameplay makes the whole thing feel like you’re been hit with a gameplay freight train, though in a good way.

If you liked any of the previous games, the Paper Mario series, or action/RPG games in general, I absolutely recommend the game. It may have potential frustrations, but as an overall experience, it’s hard to beat. Bowser’s Inside Story is just plain fun.

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Lauren: As a lifelong Mario fan, I've been very impressed and amused by the many entries into the "Mario RPG" series, both on consoles and handhelds. Bowser's Inside Story definitely did not disappoint, even for someone who's not big on timing-based battles and mini-games.

The colourful graphics look great, especially on a DSi, as long as you don't mind the cartoonish style. Its backgrounds, character sprites, and animation flow together wonderfully. And as Anthony mentioned, the scenes with Giga Bowser look particularly impressive.

The music is often quite catchy, with some tunes getting caught in my head for days after playing. There's some nice original stuff here, with the occasional nod to old-school Mario games. And as always, there's not much in the way of voice acting, but the audio clips of Mario and Luigi talking Italian-style gibberish to each other are simply hilarious. Bowser's deep growls were a nice touch, too.

The gameplay is similar to that found in the first two Mario & Luigi titles. Your characters wander around the field and perform platforming actions to proceed. Enemy sprites appear on the map, and actual encounters occur in a different screen. All attacks and defensive actions require decent timing and practice to pull off. As a result, encounters with new enemies can seem somewhat tough, but after a bit of practice, they're much easier. The same goes for bosses, except you don't get quite as much practice with them.

But the real draw of Bowser's Inside Story, as with the other entries in the Mario RPG series, is the amusing dialogue. The story is silly, Fawful is as hilarious as ever, and the main characters' animations and sound clips are very cute. Of course, the story is simplistic, but refreshingly so.

Mario and Luigi lasted me about 30 hours. I ended up doing most sidequests and a lot of item-gathering, so that definitely added a few extra hours. As with most short and cute RPGs, there isn't much need to play it again, unless you're a huge fan.

Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is a step above Partners in Time and just as fun as Superstar Saga. My only complaints are a sore hand from having to hammer on A + B frequently to jump, and some issues with the timing-based attacks, but that goes with the territory. It's a light-hearted, colourful, and funny title that any DS owner should try, as long as you don't mind some platforming in your RPGs.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Nintendo

Anthony: There’s something to be said for sticking with a formula you have down pat. New Super Mario Bros. Wii treads virtually no new ground aside from the addition of co-op (didn’t Sonic 3 do that?) yet it hasn’t been hurting in sales or been slammed in reviews despite that. Why? Well it’s a completely solid game that doesn’t really need a new formula to make it entertaining. We have good Mario games in 3D land and in 2D land, and well, that’s just Peachy.

I won’t keep you too long here, because chances are, you’ve already decided whether you care about this game or not. And to that sense, I wouldn’t even try encourage or discourage you, because New Super Mario Bros. Wii is exactly what you’d expect... nothing less, and not much more either.

I should take a quick moment to note that from videos posted online and a particularly egregious one we found in-game, that the game does seem to have a share of potential glitches. I lambasted Scribblenauts for it and I’ll still say it here, these days should be long behind us, programmers. It’s especially surprising to have a Nintendo product with these, but I will say that most of them seem benign. Just not the one we ran into.

On the “New” realm of the game, we have the addition of new powerups, co-op play, gameplay videos, and some minor inclusions of motion control for puzzles.

The new powerups are solid... the Helicopter suit is fun and almost overpowered in being useful, the Ice Flower is a seamless inclusion that add a gameplay element in the creation of ice blocks, and the Penguin suit is just kind of like the turtle shell from New Super Mario Bros. crossed with the Ice Flower. The Mini-Mushroom from New Super Mario Bros. returns, though it’s used with surprising rarity. Although the Helicopter suit almost seems too good (we at least had to gain speed to fly with the Raccoon Leaf back in my day), my only real issue is that the Penguin suit is fairly uninspired. Giving the Penguin Suit another unique ability instead of ice balls would’ve been nice.

Co-op play is a beast all its own. The series could’ve used this for a while, and the good news is it’s well-implemented. Stages are designed wide enough to accommodate multiple players and will expand accordingly, powerups will be spit out in a group for each player, and any player can “avoid” the action by temporarily pressing A to go into an invincible bubble for passing difficult sections. The feature itself works as a double-edged sword, as partnering offers increased mobility, additional firepower, and a general safety in numbers for exploring difficult sections. However, it brings its own troubles, as coordinating jumps among other rubbery characters is difficult, trying to keep powerups properly dispersed takes some planning, and in general it just takes someone out of their usual Mario-realm of gameplay when another person can accidentally stomp you to your doom mid-jump. It’s why Penny Arcade lovingly referred to this feature as “Divorce Mode,” though I’m pleased to report that Lauren only issued me a trial separation instead.

The unlockable gameplay videos are a cool idea that I think other games should consider. Some give demos for well-hidden secrets, others show creative ways to get bundles of 1-Ups, and others just show crazy developers flying through stages with infuriating ease. Sure, it might be maddening to see someone coast through a level that gave you trouble, but it’s cool to watch and nice to put those in the game.

Inevitably, we come back to the fact that this game is pure 2-D platformer nostalgia. If you liked Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World, chances are you’ll enjoy the game. If you’ve never been a fan, you probably won’t become one here either. The formula holds up fine here, and even still has a few moments that may make you pause and say “okay, that was pretty cool.” If there’s a problem, it’s just that the game doesn’t really take any risks. Other than the co-op aspect, there are few ways in which this is a genuinely different game from the DS’ New Super Mario Bros. A few stages require you to control the movement of platforms or searchlights using the tilt of the wii remote, and it works well, but there’s nothing ground-breaking about it. Aside from a really cool fight or two, the game doesn’t really offer much in the way of surprises or innovation. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing at all, it’s just like getting a specific sandwich from a deli... when the formula is always bread meat cheese veggie bread, it can only taste so good.

So in a way, the best news I can give is just to describe the game as it is. It’s like playing a game from 2009 if 2-D platformers were still a major staple in next-gen gaming. It’s fun, it’s difficult at times, and it has tons of smile-inducing moments for the people who played these games in the 80s and can be excited by the mere inclusion of a long-forgotten enemy. I’m among that crowd, and can safely say despite offering such a straightforward product, New Super Mario Bros. Wii never failed to entertain us.

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Lauren: Well, Nintendo has managed to successfully combine Super Mario Bros. 1, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World - all of which happen to be some of my favourite games of all time - into a colourful 2D platforming package that defines the term "competitive co-op."

Up to four people can play simultaneously, and it's up to the group to decide if they'll play nicely or not. The mechanics of the game make it possible to team up and help each other through the levels. For example, pressing the A button will put your character into a bubble that floats over the stage, making you essentially invincible to all obstacles, yet unable to interact with anything. However, the only way to escape the bubble is to have a partner hit it. This can be a very useful tool for letting one partner catch up to the other after a series of dangerous obstacles.

This flexibility, however, can also allow you to harm your teammates. You can use your friends as jumping platforms (causing them to plummet into a pit), or you can hog all the power-ups and 1-ups.

Or, of course, you can hover somewhere between the two. Anthony and I love co-op opportunities whenever we find them, so we had a ton of fun taking on the levels while helping each other in a strategic way. ...Which was usually him doing a series of daring jumps over moving platforms in lava, then me turning into a bubble and floating safely over to him.

The graphics are wonderfully colourful and well-animated. It's exactly what you'd expect of a modern 2D platformer from Nintendo. Sure, much greater graphical feats have been achieved on the other next-gen systems, but the cartoony style is fun to watch. The same goes for the music - many hints of classic Mario themes are present, as well as some catchy new tunes.

NSMBW kept us busy for many hours, with the usual 8 worlds of levels and hidden goodies. Once you find the three hidden coins in each level of each world, new levels open up in World 9. Those ones kept us busy for a while too, because most of them are pretty challenging. Still, it was a ton of fun. (The lava roller coaster immediately comes to mind.)

There were only a few points in which we got annoyed with the game. We were frustrated upon encountering a weird game-freezing glitch when we hadn't recently saved. And of course, some of the levels walk a fine line between "challenging" and "mean." Even so, the satisfaction of finally beating those levels with all three hidden coins certainly made it all worthwhile. Also, the aforementioned coins can unlock some pretty amazing and entertaining gameplay videos.

If you loved Mario as a kid, don't hesitate to play this one. I'm sure it's fun enough as a single-player game, but I'd recommend playing this one with friends, just like in the good ol' days. It's a healthy dose of nostalgia with modern improvements and a lot of fun.