"Final Fantasy VII has nothing on this!...with being overrated anyway"

When I entered the Mario and Luigi universe, it was with the vastly underrated Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. The game was pretty fun, had it's laughs, music was pretty barren though, nothing too bad about it. Then I tried out the original Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and it was freaking fantastic. The music was excellent, story was compelling, gameplay was interesting, never once getting repetitive and boring, a true classic. Better than Partners in Time by far. Then there's this one, Bowser's Inside Story, the probably last of the Mario and Luigi games. How well does it hold up compared to the first two? Well.......to be honest, not by much. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two. Maybe because the wait was too long or because I was sick of the series altogether and wanted something else to play. But the main problem I had with this game was just the game itself. It felt...incomplete, like Nintendo just wanted to finish this series and be done with it. Sadly it's fallen into the same pit most other trilogy ending games do: mediocrity and staleness.

Story: 6/10
A good story is what drives most RPGs. Bowser's Inside Story's felt really rushed and cliched to the point where it was just offensive. The game starts out with the majority of the Mushroom Kingdom being infected by a mysterious disease named the Blorbs. I would've just called it the "poorly named stock sickness", but that would have exceeded the character length, so Blorbs it is. This is all talked about in a ten minute cutscene, which for me felt like a freaking hour because of how ****ing slow it was going. Let me summarize it for you while being as spoiler free as possible: "BLAHBLAHBLAH Bowser interrupts, Nintendo then rips off Paper Mario, what's supposed to be hilarity proceeds to ensue". Oh, and Mario and Luigi must try to find a way to cure the Blorbs. As for Bowser, after getting kicked by Mario and Luigi, is flung to Wonderland-I mean Dimble Wood, where he meets this mysterious merchant who gives him a weird mushroom named the Plot Shroom-I mean Lucky Shroom. Bowser, being as smart as he is, scarfs the thing down, and not ten seconds later he can now inhale things as if he was Kirby. Turns out the Lucky Shroom was a Vacuum Shroom. Anyway, he proceeds back to Mushroom Castle through several areas that should already be available if Nintendo is being serious about this game, and promptly inhales everyone and everything he sees, including Mario, Luigi, Peach, Starlow, and several others. Thus begins Mario and Luigi's most idiotic quest in video game history. Seriously, even though the first two games went a little crazy with their plots, at least they made sense and had consistency. This one is just a garbled mess which takes forever to understand, and then it makes even less sense when you figure out how to get out of Bowser. Ugh, not as bad as Echoes of Time's, but still pretty lousy.

Gameplay: 4/10
Wow. Just...wow. Nintendo really screwed up big time here. Almost nothing has changed from the previous two games, except now there's a "Badge Meter" in the bottom of the battle screen. Other than that, the gameplay is still the same: A for Mario and B for Luigi. You will need to master this if you are to win. With Bowser, it's X and Y. You will never need to combine the gameplays except for when you use Bowser's Vacuum ability to suck in baddies and allow Mario and Luigi to pummel them when they land in Bowser. You got your typical RPG command menu, or "Blocks" in this series case. You got Jump, Hammer, Items, Badge, Special, and Run for the Bros, and Punch, Flame, Items, Special, and Run for Bowser. The only real difference is when using Bowser's Special Attacks, you use the Stylus, which could be a problem if you haven't taken good care of your DS or have nerve issues. When defending, dodging, or countering, you use the same method: right button or the right bro or defense with Bowser, which are again A and B, and X and Y. What's truly different is that Badges no longer grant abilities right away. Instead you have to perform attacks at the right times to get that Badge Meter filled up. When it's full, just tap the star to use the ability which can grant the bros and only the bros more exp, coins, attack boosting, or healing. This is all made possible by getting a Good, Great, or Excellent during your attacks, which are all based on the timing of your attacks. The more precise you are, the faster the meter fills. For Special Attacks, it all depends on how long you last with them, because some of them are infinite and will become more difficult to perform, while others will stop as soon as you get an Excellent on them. I know it sounds like a lot, but believe me not much has changed. I felt really underwhelmed by the Badge system as well as using Bowser. I don't like feeling unsatisfied when using Bowser, Nintendo. Even the Giant fights with him weren't all that great. These use the Stylus like his specials did, and these fights are actually hard at points, but they still don't make up for how unappealing it is.

Music: 5/10
If you thought Sonic Chronicles had forgettable music...you're right, but this game comes about halfway there with it's. Yoko Shimomura, Kingdom Hearts composer, has been with Mario and Luigi since the start. Shimomura's music in Superstar Saga just leaked of Mario Brothers goodness, while in Partner's in Time it felt...gritty. This one sadly does not make up for it. I honestly felt like I was playing a Kingdom Hearts game with Mario characters in it. Listen to Dimble Wood's music and then Wonderland's music form Kingdom Hearts, 2, Chain of Memories, etc. They have the same ****ing tune. Cavity Cape is pretty good though...I've also noticed a lot if not all of the areas in this game are puns on body organs. The rest of the music is pretty forgettable, especially the last dungeon's. I'm not gonna spoil what it sounds like, but I honestly think some people are crazy if it sounds anything like either of the first two games. I don't hear the similarities at all. Also, there are the "body'd" music of the game where if you're inside Bowser, the area he is in will be a remix when you're as the bros inside Bowser. Sometimes it works just fine, others (Cavity Cape) it just sounds awful. Also, I dislike this game's final boss music. It's badly overrated, overhyped, and just sounds so lazy. No damn clue why it gets so much praise.

Dungeon Design: 6/10
Let me make it easy: Bowser's dungeons don't exist most of the game and Mario and Luigi are the ones doing all the work, because Bowser's body is home to several dungeons. There are panels inside of him that you can travel two which are color coded for you convenience. Mushroom is for a safe area which is where the Toads are, the Globin face thing is for the extras area, the blue parts are for plot purposes only meaning you visit them once and never again, the green areas are the dungeons, and the red areas are minigames. As for the dungeons, well, you map the place as you go, as well as unlocking shortcuts should you ever need to go back for grinding or 100%. I found it to be unnecessary myself. Each dungeon has it's own gimmick which you will need to use to have access. Some require removing then reapplying the gimmick, which can get annoying at times. Other than that, they mostly revolve around solving puzzles and using the abilities you relearn...and no, you can't skip the tutorials. Not much to say about the dungeons really, other than being decent at best and not depending too much on abilities. Some though, get a little ridiculous. Some are ass numbingly long in the sense that you have to do this five times or grab this, take it there, grab another take it to the same place, and it just goes on, and on, and on. It gets old and boring fast and just makes you wonder when it will end. Luckily there's plenty of Save Blocks everywhere, but overall it's just boring.

Final Score: 6/10
A fairly decent platformer/RPG that falls short of expectations, thanks to lazy design, lackluster music, and ridiculousness all around. Most of what made the first and second Mario and Luigi's great has been sucked out and replaced with mediocrity. If you're looking for a game to just mess around with, then you might want to pick this up. If you're looking for a game with solid gameplay and good music, you could feel very disappointed with this. Rent it if you wish. Honestly, this game had potential to be great, but it just falls short. Again, I have no idea how it got so popular. Sorry Fawful, I do not have chortles. I have disappoint.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/17/10

Game Release: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (US, 09/14/09)