Screenshots :.
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
DS
Matt
21-10-2009
"Tee and indeed hee"
"BOWSER POWER!"
"Don't worry, Jay is suing over use of his likeness."
"Sticky."
I would absolutely love it if the real life daily happenings of UltraNinjas were given a bit of AlphaDream’s Mario and Luigi treatment. I’d probably hop into work on a giant mushroom-shaped space hopper and proceed to jump around the office collecting cans of coke and packets of microwavable rice, at which point Jay would bounce in, fall over and then try to run away from his computer as soon as he saw his workload. A few people might even notice his paunch and make jokey remarks. It’d be like normal goings-on, but with a bit of a slapstick edge to it.
This explains why the Mario and Luigi series is so popular to me quite well, as they are basically exactly what you’d expect a Mario game to look and sound like, but with the added bonus of some hilarious dialogue and some Charlie Chaplin style comedy thrown in for good measure. This is all built around a solid, enjoyable action RPG in which you usually have to make use of both of the DS’s screens to ward off some kind of mild peril by jumping, stomping and woo-hooing your way around some really rather wonderful locations.
Whereas the last Mario and Luigi saw us battling alongside baby Mario and Luigi, this time around our favourite plumbing duo have somehow ended up inside Bowser, and must traverse his insides to complete tasks and help the oafish brute rescue the day after a strange and contagious illness (ooh, topical!) lays the Mushroom Kingdom low and allows a familiar bad guy to swoosh in and take control. It’s a neat idea, and it works particularly well.
This is mostly due to the fact that you control Bowser himself in various points of the game. At the start the big fatty has forgotten most of his most powerful moves and hence it’s up to Mario and Luigi to whiz around to various internal sections and complete a series of reasonably-sized side-scrolling dungeon areas to help the big guy unlock his lost potential. In addition, there are a few sections where you flit between controlling the brothers and Bowser as he occasionally is able to do something that changes the state of a part of his body, helping Mario and Luigi on their way. That’s what I call teamwork boys!
Of course, the main hilarity in all this is that Bowser spends most of the time completely unaware that the brothers are in his gut, but there’re some really lovely conversations and moments of comedy lodged in for good measure. It also looks vibrant and packed full of curious settings as you’d expect from something cut straight from the Nintendo cloth, whilst the background music buzzes and bounces along in the background in a most charming manner. It’s one of those games that makes you smile just by looking at it and listening to it.
Playing it is a good laugh too, with the game being a mixture of top-down adventuring, turn-based battling and occasional segments of platform hopping, each of which are good fun. The normal happenings see you wandering about as either Mario and Luigi (whom you control simultaneously with a combination of the face buttons) or Bowser, during which you can chat to friendly folk, engage in battles with meandering baddies and discover the various scattered goodies that have been left around. Throughout your adventure you’ll pick up new abilities that all three chaps can use out in the field to expand their exploration and find new goodies.
Every so often you’ll find yourself plunged into a battle, and whilst they are turn-based there are a number of pleasingly interactive options to unleash on the goons that stand in your way. Even your standard attacks have an element of timing to them be it Mario and Luigi’s head-stomp or Bowser’s punch, and the special attacks usually involve a bit of swishing about with the stylus in various styles, such as tapping to propel Luigi bouncing into the air on a giant rubber ball, or tapping little goombas to set fire with them as Bowser so they leap into the air and cause all sorts of havoc.
Hence, the game neatly sidesteps the combat becoming repetitive and mundane by allowing you to have a bit of fun. This is most certainly a good thing as during the game’s 14+ hour length you are going to be doing a heck of a lot of it as you attempt to level up your characters. There are also a couple of points where Bowser turns into a supermassive mega hulk to fight some large bosses during which you turn the DS on its side and use the stylus at all times, and each is a nice variable thrown in to mix things up a bit. Chuck in a few little sections where you have to play a little mini game such as shooting different coloured blobs to stimulate Bowser’s muscles and having to play tennis with a bouncing ball of energy to give the big guy a bit of a boost and you have something that offers a heck of a lot in terms of challenges.
As a result it keeps your attention throughout, and given the high quality and rib-tickling comedy on show then it adds up to being a really cracking little game. It might not have come flying out the traps with the usual Nintendo fanfare, but AlphaDream have once more stepped up to the plate and chucked us a fantastically enjoyable role playing/adventure hybrid for our handhelds. Expect this one to sneak into many a Top Ten of 2009 lists come the year’s end.
This explains why the Mario and Luigi series is so popular to me quite well, as they are basically exactly what you’d expect a Mario game to look and sound like, but with the added bonus of some hilarious dialogue and some Charlie Chaplin style comedy thrown in for good measure. This is all built around a solid, enjoyable action RPG in which you usually have to make use of both of the DS’s screens to ward off some kind of mild peril by jumping, stomping and woo-hooing your way around some really rather wonderful locations.
Whereas the last Mario and Luigi saw us battling alongside baby Mario and Luigi, this time around our favourite plumbing duo have somehow ended up inside Bowser, and must traverse his insides to complete tasks and help the oafish brute rescue the day after a strange and contagious illness (ooh, topical!) lays the Mushroom Kingdom low and allows a familiar bad guy to swoosh in and take control. It’s a neat idea, and it works particularly well.
This is mostly due to the fact that you control Bowser himself in various points of the game. At the start the big fatty has forgotten most of his most powerful moves and hence it’s up to Mario and Luigi to whiz around to various internal sections and complete a series of reasonably-sized side-scrolling dungeon areas to help the big guy unlock his lost potential. In addition, there are a few sections where you flit between controlling the brothers and Bowser as he occasionally is able to do something that changes the state of a part of his body, helping Mario and Luigi on their way. That’s what I call teamwork boys!
Of course, the main hilarity in all this is that Bowser spends most of the time completely unaware that the brothers are in his gut, but there’re some really lovely conversations and moments of comedy lodged in for good measure. It also looks vibrant and packed full of curious settings as you’d expect from something cut straight from the Nintendo cloth, whilst the background music buzzes and bounces along in the background in a most charming manner. It’s one of those games that makes you smile just by looking at it and listening to it.
Playing it is a good laugh too, with the game being a mixture of top-down adventuring, turn-based battling and occasional segments of platform hopping, each of which are good fun. The normal happenings see you wandering about as either Mario and Luigi (whom you control simultaneously with a combination of the face buttons) or Bowser, during which you can chat to friendly folk, engage in battles with meandering baddies and discover the various scattered goodies that have been left around. Throughout your adventure you’ll pick up new abilities that all three chaps can use out in the field to expand their exploration and find new goodies.
Every so often you’ll find yourself plunged into a battle, and whilst they are turn-based there are a number of pleasingly interactive options to unleash on the goons that stand in your way. Even your standard attacks have an element of timing to them be it Mario and Luigi’s head-stomp or Bowser’s punch, and the special attacks usually involve a bit of swishing about with the stylus in various styles, such as tapping to propel Luigi bouncing into the air on a giant rubber ball, or tapping little goombas to set fire with them as Bowser so they leap into the air and cause all sorts of havoc.
Hence, the game neatly sidesteps the combat becoming repetitive and mundane by allowing you to have a bit of fun. This is most certainly a good thing as during the game’s 14+ hour length you are going to be doing a heck of a lot of it as you attempt to level up your characters. There are also a couple of points where Bowser turns into a supermassive mega hulk to fight some large bosses during which you turn the DS on its side and use the stylus at all times, and each is a nice variable thrown in to mix things up a bit. Chuck in a few little sections where you have to play a little mini game such as shooting different coloured blobs to stimulate Bowser’s muscles and having to play tennis with a bouncing ball of energy to give the big guy a bit of a boost and you have something that offers a heck of a lot in terms of challenges.
As a result it keeps your attention throughout, and given the high quality and rib-tickling comedy on show then it adds up to being a really cracking little game. It might not have come flying out the traps with the usual Nintendo fanfare, but AlphaDream have once more stepped up to the plate and chucked us a fantastically enjoyable role playing/adventure hybrid for our handhelds. Expect this one to sneak into many a Top Ten of 2009 lists come the year’s end.
9/10
