Review: Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Mario & Luigi. It truly seems like they’ve been through everything together. They’ve saved princesses, raced in go-karts, competed at the summer and winter olympics, and even battled the denizens of many Nintendo universes. If you can name a video game genre, chances are swell that Mario & Luigi will have their names somewhere within its history. They are certainly no stranger to role-playing games. We saw their induction into that genre when the aptly named Super Mario RPG was released for the Super Nintendo. To the surprise of many, it was a fantastic game. It provided innovation, comedy, and a fun experience. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story continues that tradition, sending it in new and funky directions, and at its core providing a quirky and fun handheld experience.

Being an RPG, the game tries to have a story. Being a Mario game, that story is…how do I say it delicately? Fluffy. Mario RPG stories often remind me of Christopher Moore books. They generally revolve around something outlandish and only ever serve as a vehicle for lots of comedic dialogue and just a hell of a good time. The games don’t need particularly involving narrative to tell the story of a couple of plumbers who fall into a giant lizard’s belly and then end up working with him to save the Mushroom Kingdom (from within!).

There are, of course, other nuances. We see a returning villain to the Mario-scape named Fawful. Fawfu’s worthy goal is to become lord and master of all. Mushrooms being a commonality of Mario games, he naturally begins this mission by poisoning the Mushroom Kingdom’s mushrooms and rendering its toadstools into giant, unmoving slobs. Fawful’s success means that the game revolves around retaking both Bowser and Peace Castle and saving the kingdom. Fawful is quite possibly the funniest villain, or even character, in any video game. He has catch phrases and a word-backwards way of speech that never lets up and every time he said something, almost without fail, I laughed. The Globins inside Bowser are about the only character(s) that come close to matching his whackiness.

The main charm in the game comes from the dialogue and the events that Mario, Luigi, and Bowser all participate in. Yes, players use all three of them. Mario and Luigi are naturally a team of two, and Bowser gets to thump heads and wash flame over baddies all by his lonesome. What makes this so enjoyable at times is the ability to switch between them at will. As I said before, Mario and Luigi are INSIDE Bowser. He sucked them up like a Hoover sucks up a daddy long legs. Their battle is one of gastrointestinal proportions, though later in the game they are allowed to switch from the wide world to Bowser’s innards whenever needed. And Bowser this time seeks to save the Mushroom Kingdom from Fawful’s evil ploy.

A bit twisted isn’t it? Not only are players in control of Bowser, but he’s in essence the grand hero of the game. His motives are far from altruistic. He mainly just wants his castle back. Nevertheless, with a little help from his inside crawlers, saving the world is his goal.

As for Mario and Luigi, they have a few goals. Naturally one of them is rescuing the Princess. When they’re first sucked in, they have no idea where’s she’s gone. For all they know, she could be giving Bowser an untrained colonoscopy. Their quest is one of rescue and one of escape because let’s be honest, how long can a dapper plumber and his brother survive inside the bowels of a big bad dinosaur? In Mario-land, this is possibly indefinite, but they don’t want to be there.

The mechanics of the game are RPG-esque. Bowser walks around on an isometric/top down map breaking rocks and burning down forests. He enters battle with on screen enemies by either walking into them or punching them (punching them nets a bit of extra damage at the start). Mario and Luigi, on the other hand, run around Bowser’s insides on a 2D plane, much like any classic Mario platformer. The interesting bit about their movement is that they must be controlled in tandem. They run together with the d-pad, but each has a different jump button, and while it’s awkward at first getting them both up platforms and across pits without messing up, it quickly becomes rote.

As they both traverse the lizard’s innards, they can interact with on screen enemies by jumping on their heads. The combat for both Mario & Luigi and Bowser is actually quite fun. Players can literally walk away unscathed from every battle if they’re quick enough on the button timing. There are counter-attacks for nearly every strike an enemy slings. Often these will result in damage to them, but most importantly they result in zero damage to the characters. The addition of attack bonuses for rightly timed button pushes and special moves that also require timing make for interesting combat that rarely gets old.

But as I’ve said, the highlight of the game lies in the pure fun factor. One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a video game is Mario or Luigi attempting to speak to people. Everyone else in the game has a speech bubble, but whenever Mario or Luigi has something to say, they spit it off in rapid fire audio in a very stereotypical Italian accent, and somehow people understand them. Bowser is also a comedian with his single-minded hatred of Mario and his oofish comments whenever someone makes the mistake of talking to him. Add in some classic Mario nostalgia as a layer over the entire game, and it’s pure win.

I also feel the need to mention that this is one of the crispest games I’ve seen on the DS. The visuals are gorgeous and not at all choppy, something I’m used to seeing on the DS. It helps that most of the scenery and animations are fairly simple. The audio is also great, but it has been for the last 20 years. It doesn’t really need to change, though every rendition sees a few new tweaks thrown in for fun.

The game has its flaws certainly. For one, it’s very hard on the DS’s touch screen. There are fun chunks of the game that require players to hold the DS vertically and control Bowser across the screen, fighting castles and equally large ridiculousness. In these sequences, he has different attacks, and they always require the stylus moving across the screen in some manner. The vehemence with which players move the stylus will often determine how hard an attack will hit. I often found myself nearly ripping the poor handheld apart in an effort to destroy some train or building. It also has quite a few “scratch back and forth” moments that put some unneeded wear and tear on the DS. And there are a slew of minigames that are fun the first or second times, but beyond that become more of a chore, particularly if one fails the task and has to restart.

There is something that’s hard to put my finger on about playing Mario & Luigi, something that never compelled me to hurry on with it. Certain games do that properly. They urge a player on, hook him or her with something that almost forces them to complete it. I never found that with Bowser’s Inside Story. It was funny and enjoyable and deserves a good recommendation and score, but without something more I can’t give it anything too high. It’s probably not something I will go back and revisit. It’s fun to sit down and dink around with for a few hours over the course of a few months perhaps, but I never wanted to pull any all nighters.

Nevertheless, it is easily one of the best DS games of the year, and probably one I’ll remember longer than most simply for sheer character. I guiltily admit that I’ve never played any Paper Mario games or even the first Mario & Luigi, but the taste that Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story has given me will ensure that I will probably at least look into picking them up.

Doin It RIGHT:- Completely hilarious dialogue. - Continually engaging battle system with lots of great special attacks and counterattacks. - Classic characters, with a ridiculously funny villain.	Doin It RONG: - It’s tough on the DS itself, physically. - Mingames become wearing after the first few times. - No Koopa Kids!
FINAL SCORE: 8 / 10