Hilarious, fun and addictive – Bower's inside story is a game you just can't put away until you've beaten it
In the start of the game, Mario, Luigi, Peach and a star-something called Chippy are sucked into Bowser's body due to the doing of some crazy dude called Fawful. It is up to Bowser to save the Mushroom Kingdom (though of course he does it for all the wrong reasons), while Mario and Luigi are helping him from the inside. Bowser himself only knows that Chippy is in there, but he knows that something is going on. Inside Bowser's body you sometimes move around in a side-scrolling environment, fighting what you come across and work to do something. Other times you play mini-games to for instance help him do a heavy lift. Bowser is walking around in a 3D overworld, though limited by his lack of jumping ability.
The combat in the game is turn-based, but unlike most games with turn-based combat, there is so much more to it than just strategy. You make your attacks more powerful with good timing, but what is the most fun, is when the enemies attack. If you do it correctly, you can avoid taking damage, and even deal some damage to your opponent. The enemies are very well-done, and you need to learn their moves to know how to deal with their attacks. It is done so brilliant that all enemies feel unique, and therefore it took fifteen hours before I began to find the combat repetitive. To be a master of the game, you must have strategy, timing, fast reaction and motoric skills. When you use special attacks it might even require precision and memory.
The reaction comes in handy when you don't know which of the brothers will be attacked, and if the attack goes towards them, meaning you should jump, or above them, meaning you really shouldn't. Sometimes it is ruined by the fact that you can jump with both brothers and there won't be a penalty for it. When you play as Bowser, you respond to attacks by either ducking or boxing, and at times, you need quick reaction to choose the right one.
There are a lot of strategic elements. As you level up, all stats will be increased, but you also choose one stat that you'll increase extra, and here you can increase it with 1 to 7 points depending on your timing. There is gears to equip as well, and they have very different effects. Do you want a gear that heals you once per turn, one that heals you when you use a specific attack, or one that races your stats, and in that case, which stats are most important to you. Then of course you choose what attacks or items to use in combat, and there is even a badge system with a meter that builds up as you perform excellent action commands.
Timing is everything when it comes to action commands and blocking your enemies attacks, and is also important in many mini-games. Motoric skills, or frequent button mashing if you like, might be a pain to many, and while the Mario brothers only use it against certain enemies, Bowser uses it a lot. He has an inhaling command which is used to suck enemies into his body so the brothers can take care of them or to check enemies for creatures called "blitties" (if you collect them all, you'll get a price). It is also useful against certain enemies. For instance, you might want to inhale the teeth of one of the enemies since it raises your defence.
In any case, the gameplay is very varied, and without saying to much, there will be times when you fight in an unnormal way. I have never played a game with a better turn-based combat system, and the boss fights are particularly magnificent.
The incredible thing about this game, is that you could buy it for the gameplay alone and enjoy it very much, or you could buy it for the humour alone and enjoy it very much. While the dialogue is not as funny as in some of the Paper Mario games, the brothers' expressions and their Italian talking is ingenious. And then, there is the Luigi moments. I don't want to tell you about them, just look forward to them, it will be good.
The bottom line is, this is the best Mario RPG and one of the most fun games ever. You are looking at more than twenty hours of loving-every-minute of it. Well, almost at least. As I've mentioned, the combat begins to feel repetitive after fifteen hours, though it quickly returns to awesomeness. Also, some of the touch screen based mini-games are ruined by the brothers being small, and when you have to tap them as they are moving around, you might easily miss, which in at least one mini-game means you are likely to fail at it several times before completing it. The two flaws are enough to prevent the game from being a perfect ten, but not at all enough to ruin the experience.
By the way, if after reading this review, you still can't imagine how great the game is, I will put it simply: Buy it and find out for yourself.