Rated CBAM!: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Review)

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (Nintendo DS)

Rated “E” For “Everyone”

A new sickness, “The Blorbs,” is causing citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom to balloon to gigantic proportions. Mario and Luigi are brought in to figure out what’s wrong and restore normality to the ever-crazy world they’re a part of.

=====Story=====

While the story starts off with “The Blorbs” being the main threat, things suddenly change with the appearance of Bowser. After another defeat at the hands of the plumber brothers, Bowser treks around elsewhere and comes across a vendor declaring him a winner. His prize? A not-so delicious mushroom that causes Bowser to inhale anything in his path. This brings him back to the Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and other Toad citizens as they soon find their new dwellings inside Bowser.

Fawful is revealed as the evil doer that gave Bowser the mushroom. Fawful’s plans of overthrowing the Mushroom Kingdom, finding and controlling the Dark Star, and taking over the world starts and it is full of chortles. Mario and Luigi must find their way out of Bowser. In doing so, they actually must use and help Bowser as he tries to get rid of Fawful for his own evil reasons.

=====Gameplay=====

There are really 2 ways of playing. One way is outside of battles and the other way is inside of battles.

Outside of battles consists of platforming by the brothers and stomping around by Bowser. Playing as Bowser will allow you to punch through and flame objects that get in your way. A few more abilities will help make travel for the king of the Koopas easier and faster. As the Mario Bros., you’ll gain new abilities to help get you to locations you could not before such as Mario jumping on Luigi and doing a spin move to travel in the air longer distances. There will also be times that doing things with Bowser will effect what and how Mario and Luigi do things inside his body such as shining a light in or inhaling cold air. While being inside Bowser moves in a sidescrolling manner, there are times that you will be outside of Bowser’s body and using those abilities around the areas that Bowser had traveled. You’ll also be able to battle the same foes Bowser went up against.

Before starting battles, you can get the preemptive strike by connecting your abilities on the on-screen enemies. Once in battle, you’ll have your standard attacks and special attacks along with use of healing items if needed. Timing your attacks will reward you with stronger hits and easier battles. These timed attacks also keep your attention on the battle instead of plugging in commands and watching them happen. While Mario and Luigi have special attacks that consist of button presses, Bowser utilizes the touch screen for his specials. And along with attacking is defending. You can block, stop, or counterattack ALL enemy attacks with proper timing. It won’t take long to figure out what to do for enemy attack patterns.

=====Difficulty=====

While the interactive battle system keeps your attention, the enemy attack patterns might be a bit too easy. Even if you don’t figure it out the first time, after seeing the enemy attack a few more times, you’ll know exactly what to do and possibly come out of every fight without a scratch. Level grinding can make any fight simple to the point that your preemptive strike could finish some battles. Higher levels make boss fights easy with just using a couple of well timed special attacks.

The story is also very linear. Once you’re done with one task, the next one is usually presented to you right away or soon after. Being linear doesn’t necessarily make the adventure easy. It helps carry the story along and there is plenty of story and areas to explore and go through. But you will almost never be lost as to what to do and where to go next.

=====Content=====

There’s platforming, RPG battles, and a few other modes of play. There are minigames scattered about within and outside of Bowser’s body. A lot of the things that happen inside Bowser’s body is done in the form of some type of minigame whether it’s powering up Bowser by knocking spark pulses with hammers into his muscles or making Bowser grow to gigantic proportions by sending shooting green and red sparks into Bowser’s body.

Bowser being giant sized is another form of battling. You have your punches and fire handy, but you will have to turn your DS horizontally to use the needed functions better. Punches consist of you sliding the stylus across the screen towards your foe or to knock away projectiles. Blowing a stream of fire requires you to blow into the DS mic. The longer you blow, the longer and stronger your fire will be. You’ll also have to tap on the screen to do quick attacks and knock/blow away oncoming enemies and attacks.

There are plenty of puzzles scattered about to earn more items and special gear and beans all over the world to hunt and improve your party. Those that choose to find everything will have a few extra hours added to a 15-20 hour game.

=====Final Thoughts=====

The 3^rd Mario and Luigi RPG adventure takes everything that made the last 2 installments great and used those elements and added more to it. The gameplay is tight. The story is lighthearted, purposeful, and almost never takes itself seriously. The characters are highly colorful and very animated. The game lasts a long time and has some replay value for those that like to collect everything. Platforming, minigames, classic sounds and music, familiar characters, and new characters. There’s a lot to like as there is a lot to offer. Almost every adventure featuring the familiar Mario cast is great and this is no exception.

AND YOU GET TO PLAY AS BOWSER AS A QUASI-HERO!