Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story supports awesome story and gameplay, making it the best Mario and Luigi game yet.
Mario and Luigi's next adventure starts with a mysterious disease called the blorbs, which has every Toad that is sick growing into a huge ball. Mario and Luigi visit Peach and then are supposed to find out where the disease is coming from. But then Bowser mixes up the action and wants to kidnap Peach. Of course he gets defeated from Mario right away, and when he then gets kicked out of the castle, he meets somebody who sells him something to eat, under the description that it would make him stronger. But then everything goes wrong, Bowser is now able to swallow up everything. He then goes back into the castle to swallow Mario and Luigi up, which of course works..
I know, bad description of the story, but lets move on. From there the adventure begins. You play Bowser outside in the real world while you have to play Mario and Luigi in Bowsers body. Until later where Mario and Luigi find a rom with pipes that lead out of Bowser right to the open world.
The story is one of the strongest aspects of the game. It's funny, it's exciting and it is simply really entertaining. Things evolve in a very interesting way, and the game always tosses something new in your way.
Bowsers also shows his personality. He thinks he is the best and he shows us once again that although he has the potential to be really powerful and threatening, his dumbness hurts his potential a lot.
The design of Mushroom world is impressive, with lots of roots to find and big environments to explore. There are a lot of secrets in the game to find, some which are hidden very well.
Both the Mario bros. and Bowser control very well. The D-pad is responsive and there aren't any hiccups to encounter.
Bowser has a nice set of moves outside the battling. At first he can only punch and breath fire, but the farther you get into this glorious adventure the more moves Bowser learns, such as slide punching, rolling into a spike ball or performing and earth shaking ground pound. All the moves are used in clever ways to solve clever puzzles. Mario and Luigi also have their own set of moves. At first they are only capable of performing their ability for what they where always known for: jumping. But same here, the farther you get into the game the more abilities they learn, such as being allowed to fly bigger distances, though oddly, most of Mario and Luigis moves are from Partners in Time.
However, during battles, the Mario bros. and Bowser have an terrific amount of moves. First both of them have to normal attacks, Mario and Luigi have the jump attack and hammer attack while Bowser has a punch attack and his fire breath. And then they also have a neat number of special attacks. Though this time a number of points is required to be payed in order to use a special attack. The Mario and Luigi battles are epic, but the Bowsers battles are the ones that take the cake. Landing a hit with Bowser is immensely satisfying, and damaging an enemy with one of Bowsers special attacks is beyond immensely satisfying.
Battling an enemy encountered during a level is half satisfying. The boss battles are the really satisfying enemies to defeat. They are huge, last pretty long and the last hit against them is a huge relief.
Playing with Bowser also leads to some huge battles. And with that I mean Bowsers growing absolutely gigantic, so that he can battle another gigantic boss. For those battles you'll have to turn your DS sideways, and use the touchpen for punching or using the microphone for Bowsers fire breath. Those battles are exceptionally original and probably the most awesome aspect of the game besides the final boss. Landing a hit as huge Bowser is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done.
Now the game is easier than the previous Mario and Luigi games, but that doesn't mean it lacks the challenge. Though real hardcore gamers might find this to be a bit to easy, and though I agree halfways, I still got a healthy amount of challenge in my adventure. Later boss battles do prove to eat some of your lives before advancing and some of the clever puzzles that you encounter also prove to have a challenging solution.
The game takes like about 20 to 25 hours to beat, which is a pretty nice length, considering on how meaty this quest is. There is also some replay value, at least for Mario and Luigi, like a mode inside Bowsers body where you can battle against previous bosses that you have encountered with Mario and Luigi, only that they are harder this time. There isn't much replay value though, which isn't really bad of course, so after finishing the game once, except if you want to play the adventure a second time through, you'll probably put this game beside and play another game.
All in all though Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story is a must buy for any DS owner. The hilarious, entertaining story and awesome gameplay make up for the best Mario and Luigi game yet. Period. This is no doubt one of the best RPG's in recent history.
THE GOOD
+ exciting, hilarious story that holds some nice surprises open
+ Bowser is playable
+ charming, colorful graphics
+ nice world design
+ epic and satisfying battles, especially the boss battles
+ lots of variety with lots of clever puzzles
+ lots of new moves and combos
Review Score: 9/10