Packed with wholesome RPG and platform fun, cool combat mechanics and tons of humor.
Along comes Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, in the same style as Super Star Saga but with one major difference: twice the fun and double the adventure with Mario, Luigi and their respective baby counterparts.
The plot begins as Princess Peach disappears while using Professor E. Gadd's time machine and it's then up to Mario and Luigi (and a very special suitcase) to travel back in time searching for her. During their travels, the Mario brothers will encounter baby versions of themselves as well as baby Peach and baby Bowser, while trying to save Mushroom Kingdom from an invasion of creepy evil Shroobs.
The controls take a little getting used to, but in the end they work really well. Basically, each button is assigned to a single character: A for Mario, B for Luigi, X for Baby Mario and Y for Baby Luigi.
The group moves around together with the babies on piggyback, but at times you have to work with the two sets of brothers separately. Since Mario and Luigi can't always fit everywhere, they can at least roll over the babies and flatten them out. Their baby selves become flat as pancakes and can then fit into tiny spaces, helping the older brothers with the environmental puzzle-solving. At these times, you will see Mario and Luigi on the bottom screen while the babies move around on the top screen.
The combat system uses a series of timed button presses for attacking and dodging enemy attacks. You can use each set of brothers to unleash a more powerful attack, or make use of special items to allow the group to attack all at once, but no matter how you choose to attack, you will still use the timed button pressing. There are a series of moves and the controls might seem complicated at first, but the game itself will teach you how to use them.
The leveling system is the good old "fight, gain experience, increase your stats". Defeating enemies gains you experience points, but there's an extra bonus for when you level up. A bit like a tiny slot machine, it lets you add a random number to the attribute of your choice.
Another RPG element is the availability of clothing and badges with certain qualities, which the brothers can find or purchase and then wear.
Partners in Time makes good use of the dual-screen capability of the DS both in and out of battle. The top screen is used for cutscenes, showing a map while exploring the world, showing a different area when the pairs separate or to show vertical distances in a battle for certain enemy or player attacks. The stylus and touch-screen are obsolete, except for starting the game.
Graphically, the game looks very crisp on either screen and you will notice that each area has been given a different color palette and graphics style. The music and sound effects are quite good, aside from the babies crying (that gets pretty annoying really fast). The story is written in a casual manner and funny dialogs are a constant, my favorite being the "l33t" koopas'speech, who insist on "pwning" everything because they "roxxor". Now that was unexpected!
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is packed with wholesome RPG and platform fun, cool combat mechanics and tons of humor. It's a game that will appeal to Mario fans, RPG enthusiasts, as well as everyone else with a thing for "l33t sp33king" koopas.
Review text part of Grrlgamer.com
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