"If you see talking suitcases, you're either playing Mario...or you're on acid"

Who wouldn't be skeptical about a Mario RPG? I was very skeptical about the idea when I first heard about Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (which I found tediously boring), so I was even more skeptical when hearing about this Mario RPG for the DS called Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. I played a demo of this game a while ago and I didn't think it was too shabby, so of course, I took the time to play it. All-in-all, it's a decent showing.

One of the things I love about this RPG is that it strays away from the turn-based RPGs everyone is so used to. Not to say that it isn't a turn-based RPG, but whether you get hurt or not during battles is up to your skill at figuring out enemy patterns and being able to hit the right buttons at the right times to avoid these attacks and, hopefully, do some extra damage on your enemy. This is true while attacking, also, so you don't just have to sit there and stare at your character fight, you actually get to be interactive with the move you're doing by hitting certain buttons at the correct time in order to rank up some massive damage.

The real gimmick behind Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, however, is the fact that Baby Mario and Baby Luigi are with you during most of the game and you use them to solve puzzles in order to progress in the game or to find items that would otherwise be unreachable. The babies are also part of the battles, but they die way too fast for them to be any use.

Much like other RPGs, there are certain items you can put on your characters to increase stats or cause other various effects and you can buy mushrooms to heal, 1-up mushrooms to bring a fallen character back to life, and other various herbs and vegetables for other effects that may befall the Mario Bros. in battles. The items you may equip to your character are items called Badges which change stats, etc. and various overalls which also change stats and serve other purposes. However, I disliked this because Badges and the clothes were rarely useful throughout the course of the adventure, and it basically relied on the player's ability to dodge the enemy's moves and nail perfect moves with Bros. Items.

Bros. Items are another original factor in this title and they are usually what you use to attack with (besides the basic jumping and using the hammers that the babies possess…real safe, huh?). Bros. Items may include green shells (which you have to kick back and forth), trampolines (where you have to hit the button of the bro that is about to land on the enemy) and flowers (which you have to mash the button of the bro in possession of the flower power at the time). I loved the Bros. Items and found them to be an entertaining and thrilling feature that really kicked the game up a notch.

Special moves that are used with conjunction of the babies are learned throughout the course of the game in order to make progress through the levels. The babies can spin around to go underground; Mario and Luigi can roll into a ball to increase their speed, etc. However, the controls for these moves were sometimes unresponsive when trying to switch between the babies and the bros., causing very annoying re-doing of puzzles.

Item blocks that you have to jump into seem very pointless, especially ones that a specific bro has to jump into because you'll always have at least two bros. under your control at all times. It's just pointless.

Since this is a game on the Nintendo DS, I bet you're wondering what the stylus is used for, and here's your answer: almost nothing. There is basically one point in the entire game that the stylus is needed and this event lasts for seconds. It is very disappointing that the stylus wasn't implemented more to make the game utilize the Nintendo DS's unique capabilities more, but that's the way it is.

Enemies are strewn about so you can dodge them if need be to avoid battle (what a great break from random battles…damn you, Pokemon and Final Fantasy!), but until you can figure out enemy patterns, they will always be a pain in the ass. Nearly every move will cause massive damage to your bros. so wasting time figuring out how to defeat certain enemies will take a pretty chunk out of your pocket…err…suitcase.

The old scientist (introduced in Luigi's Mansion, one of the best GameCube games ever) makes a time machine so Princess Peach can travel to the past and visit the Mushroom Kingdom of yesteryear. Everything goes fine, until a strange alien comes from the past and Princess Peach is nowhere to be found. Mario and Luigi head back in time to save the Princess, meet up with their baby counterparts (even that of Bowser), and are sent on a quest to save the Princess and defeat the invading alien army of the Shroobs. A very good, twisting story is in store for the player, which is probably one of the highest points of the title.

The graphics were pretty sub-par compared to other DS games, but that's okay. The top-screen of the DS is used uniquely in some areas, but most of the time it's used as an unreliable and often confusing map. The flashing lights of defeated bosses are prone to give players a headache, but besides the previously mentioned, there isn't much to complain or praise with the graphical presentation of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.

What is the most annoying sound ever in any video game? The cries of babies in the Mario games. You will want to rip your hair out every time a cut-scene forces you to listen to the wails of the babies, but thankfully, these moments are few (however, long).

A major high point of the title is the hilarious dialogue and quirky story-telling. I don't think I've ever laughed harder at any game since Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64. The music is all right and the sound effects are okay.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is one of the shorter RPGs out there, which is really depressing since the game's story is so hilarious. Even more depressing, there is about zero replayability present in this title, and I really doubt anybody would have the urge to replay it after beating it.

All-in-all, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is a decent DS title that could've been much better, if the babies weren't so annoying, the touch-screen and the microphone actually mattered, the graphics were improved, and the boss fights weren't so annoyingly long (they can take up to an hour…that's when games just quit being challenging and start to become painfully boring). Can't wait for the next installment of this hilarious series, Nintendo.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/07