Being able to play as Bowser is a great feature.
Toad Town has been overrun by the swine flu! Just kidding. Instead, it has been overrun with the blorbs, which makes everyone gain huge size. During a meeting, Bowser crashes the party, but fails, and is blasted away to Dimble Wood. He meets a character who sells him a "Lucky" Shroom, which Bowser eats. However, it's really a Vacuum Shroom, which sucks up everything. He goes back to the castle, and sucks up Mario, Luigi, and Peach, along with a bunch of toads.
Mario wakes up in the Trash Pit, which is basically the tutorial. Starlow, the Star Sprite(who is basically a Navi wannabe), says you should find Luigi. You learn how to battle, and learn the basics. When you get outta there, go to the Funny Bone and hit it, which will wake up Bowser. You now control Bowser. Find your way out, and you'll find the main villian in the game, Fawful. NOW I REMEMBER! Fawful was Cackletta's right hand man.(Actually, I'm not sure what gender Fawful is....is he a guy or girl?) So Fawful sends his underling Midbus to fight Bowser, and he loses. So now Bowser wants to chase after Fawful and get his castle. So let's start reviewing.
One of the most noticeable features is now you can play as Bowser. You control him with the X and Y buttons, like how the babies were controlled in Partners in Time. In the field, you can press the X button to punch, and y to breath fire. The A and B buttons control the bros. You will actually control Bowser more than you will control the brothers.
The battle mode has been changed up a bit. The bros. battle mode works basically the same without the babies. The bros moves have been changed up. They are now called special moves. These are moves that can deal tons of damage. A few of these moves were copies from the previous game, but most are new. Think of it as the bros. mode from Superstar Saga and the bros. items from Partners in Time fused into one. This was fine by me. You will need SP to perform special moves. To get the moves, you need to find 10 Attack Pieces in an area.
Bowser's moves are different. He has the help of his minions. These moves involve using the touch screen. To get his moves, you need to find the minions on the way of your quest.
For the next part, I'm gonna talk about new stuff. As I just discussed, the battle system was changed. Badges were also changed. Mario and Luigi have special badges. Every time they nail an Action Command, they add power to the badge, and when it's fully powered, you can use the badges. Such badges will let you heal, increase power, etc. Also, when leveling up, there are ranks. When you increase in rank, you can equip new items and access new areas, specifically shops in Toad Town.
There is only one sidequest. Over the game, you will find Blitties when you use the vacuum. When you find 'em all, go to Broque Monsieur and he'll give you his pet Broggy, which you can use as a minion attack. It's really powerful. I recommend getting him. I think there should've been more sidequests.
The graphics look the same as the previous game. So don't expect it different.
The controls work fine. A and B to control the Bros, and X and Y for Bowser. The touch screen is used much more in this game than in Partners in Time, which is great.
THE VERDICT!
So, now this is the most recent game in the Mario and Luigi series. Which one was the best? Well, mine is this. The first was too long, the second was too short, the third was just right. The only downsides was that it was really hard to figure out how to dodge enemy attacks, and there weren't a lot of sidequests.