"Mario and Luigi get down with their bad baby selves and give the DS some RPG luvin'."

Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time is the sequel to Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Gameboy Advance (both are developed by AlphaDream). In case you don't already know, the Mario and Luigi's are both RPGs that are very similar to the Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario, as in, rather than just waiting for your turn and pushing a button and looking at how much damage it does, you control how much damage your attack will do depending on the right button presses at the right time. Meanwhile, outside of battle, the field screen plays out just like a psuedo-Mario level, as in you can jump and hit item boxes and everything. This results in some really interesting gameplay and is really just fun.

Story
The story in this game is actually a bit better than most of the Mario RPGs, and it's a little easier to follow along with. Basically, there are two time periods here--the Mushroom Kingdom in the present time, and the Mushroom Kingdom a long time ago, when Mario and Luigi were still babies. In the Mushroom Kingdom of the present, Professor E. Gadd has just invented a time machine. Princess Peach goes into the time machine, and seems to be late for her getting-back to the present..so Toadsworth demands someone go get her. Mario and Luigi are thinking about doing it, when Luigi gets knocked into a time portal, and Mario, being his brother, chases after him. They end up in the Mushroom Kingdom of the Past. Here, Baby Mario and Luigi are just playing when suddenly, the Mushroom Kingdom is invaded by aliens, who are named Shroobs. The Shroobs take over everything and turn Mushroom Castle in the Shroob Castle (!). Baby Mario and Luigi and Older Mario and Luigi meet eachother, and decide that they should work together to defeat the Shroobs and ultimately save Princess Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom of the future.

Let me just say that the story and the dialogue is pretty hilarious. There's a lot of Nintendo sort of making fun of themselves, and just a lot of great humor in here, from teasing Luigi to the bosses speaking in 1337. (No, I am not kidding.)

Graphics
The graphics in the game, at first glance, honestly do not look all that better than the GBA game. Then again, how many 2D games do? It's going to take a closer look at the game to truly realize how well the 2D is done in this game. The colors are a lot deeper, there's better animation, and there's some great effects. Overall, it's not a huge improvement over the GBA game, but it looks great anyway.

Control
Control takes a major part in this series, as pushing the right button at the right time can be the difference between doing a teensy amount of damage and falling over or nailing your opponent into the ground with a magnificent jump and destroying them. In the GBA game, Mario was controlled with the A button and Luigi with the B button. In the DS version, of course, there are two more buttons, X and Y, to control Baby Mario and Luigi. This can all add up for some frantic battles, and everything is completely responsive, although sometimes you'll get your buttons mixed up and tell the wrong person to jump at the right time, but that's sort of the point.

Sound/Audio
I'm a little disappointed with the music in the game. It features some remixed Mario tunes, of course, but other than that, it doesn't have the catchy battle
theme that Superstar Saga had, and I end up humming it to myself during battle. The sounds are top-notch, though, with all the standard Mario sounds.

Gameplay
What makes Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time different from other RPGs is really the battle and exploration systems. In battle, it combines the Final Fantasy style of waiting for your turn with fast-paced Mario reflexes. Mario and Luigi don't use weapons all that much--although they can, but their main thing is jumping, of course. When you jump on an enemy, if you push that character's button (A for Mario, B for Luigi) right before you hit them, you'll do extra damage.

But that's just one part of it. Every enemy is different in the way that each has their own special attack, that can be dodged by jumping (or not jumping) and even has a way to counterattack. For example, some enemies will try to dash at you. When they just start to run at you, you can jump over them to dodge them. Or, if you start a little earlier, you might even jump up, and land directly on them--which is like an attack for free. There are also 'Bros Items', Mario items that would usually be used to hit an enemy that are now turned into Mario RPG form. For example, the Koopa Shell can be kicked with that character's button. It'll bounce off of your foe, and move toward the next brother, in which you should push his button, to kick it back at the foe. You can keep kicking it back and forth, and it'll go faster and faster and faster until eventually you kick too late. The battle system is just so well done and kind of makes the old waiting around system feel weird.

As mentioned before, in this game, Mario and Luigi team up with their Baby selves. Now, the babies aren't all that strong in combat, but they do help Mario and Luigi adventure. Baby Mario and Luigi can explore on their own, or they can ride piggyback on big Mario and Luigi. You can switch between the two teams by pushing X/Y or A/B. The two teams are used to help get eachother through dungeons--for example, when Baby Mario and Luigi are riding piggyback on Mario and Luigi, Mario and Luigi can throw them up to a high spot they normally couldn't reach (think of Donkey Kong Country), and up on the high spot, the two babies can activate a switch to help the adults up. This can make for some really great puzzles, and it adds a clever twist to the gameplay.

One thing you can also do on the overworld map is..just explore! You can really jump around like in a real Mario game, and you can see your enemies. When you bump into an enemy, it'll enter battle mode, which I described above. You can also jump on your enemy, which will enter into battle, but they'll take damage before the battle starts. On the other hand, if they hit you from the behind, you'll be slowed down.

Overall
Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time is more or less of the same gameplay as the GBA game, although it does make some neat twists that freshen it up, and the result is amazing. Whether you liked the first one or just want an RPG for your DS, I'd recommend this game any day.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/05