"This is a great game, but not as great as it could have been"

Well, Mario, look at you! Almost 25 years ago, you were just this random Italian plumber trying to rescue someone from an irritable ape. Since then, you've made your way onto platforms, gone from two dimensions to three, became a racer, a baseball star, a soccer star, held eight parties to date, rescued a princess several times, grinded a certain blue hedgehog into the ground, had at least two television shows, a movie spin-off, and you've become a pop-culture icon. Now you're on a handheld in your fifth RPG, which is a sequel to one of the greatest games on the GBA. But before you get too full of yourself, Mario, let me just say: this game, Partners in Time wasn't all it was cranked up to be. You want to know why? Here's why:

STORY: 15/20
The story is a key component to any RPG; if it doesn't have a good story, then it could ruin the whole exprience. The story to Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (PiT) seems pretty weird at first, but later you think it could have some potential. Sadly, the story becomes repetitive and dull after a certain point in the game. There's an alien race called the "Shroobs", and they're pretty hostile. One day, they were looking for something to conquer, and they happened to find the Mushroom Kingdom. They flew down and took the place over with no trouble. However, there's a twist: this is in the past! In the present, E. Gadd has just made a time machine powered by the Cobalt Star (Mario sure loves his stars, doesn't he?) and Peach is the first to test it. As luck would have it, Peach gets transported to the past Mushroom Kingdom when the Shroobs were attacking, and in no time, she gets kidnapped. Mario and Luigi are called upon to travel through "time holes" the time machine left when Peach used it and to rescue her from the Shroobs. The story is new to the Mario series, but you'll find later on it just doesn't have the same charm as Superstar Saga (SS) did. There are a few plot twists along the way, including one right at the end, but they're nothing extraordinary or shocking. You may think the story is great at first, but when you go on that stereotypical RPG scavenger hunt to find the smashed pieces of the Cobalt Star to power the time machine and as you progress through the game, you'll realize the story is nothing great, but it certainly passes.

GAMEPLAY: 34/40
The gameplay here is solid. Controlling Mario and Luigi is basic, as is controlling their baby counterparts. Throughout the game, Mario and Luigi learn special moves to help them go through the game's puzzles or to do things more quickly and conveniently. It's very easy to learn the controls, but there's something even more important to RPGs, and that's the Battle System!

BATTLE SYSTEM
If you've played SS, then they battle system will seem very familiar. You can decide whether to attack enemies by jumping on them, or by smashing them over the head with a hammer. When Mario and Luigi meet up with their baby counterparts, you'll be able to do attacks with them, too. Babies work the same way, except they use different buttons to attack. You also find out early on how to make Baby Mario and Mario (same with Luigi) attack on the same turn, dishing out more damage than usual. And, as in SS, you can dodge/deflect/counter enemy attacks. To dodge or counter an attack, simply hit the jump button (A for Mario, B for Luigi) or if you need to use hammers to deflect the attack, use X for Baby Mario or Y for Baby Luigi. When you're not in battle, you can still see enemies on screen, so you can avoid fighting them if you want to. OR you can jump on them while you're not in battle so you can deal some damage to them before the battle even starts. Something new to the battle system is Bros. Items. Bros. Items replace Bros. Moves from SS, and while I'm still debating whether or not it was a good idea, the Bros. Items are certainly a welcome addition. You can now use items like shells or pocket chomps to attack enemies in battle and do collosal amounts of damage with them. (with one Bros. Item, I remember doing 1268 damage) There's nothing wrong with the battle system, and that's good.

Back to regular gameplay. There are puzzles to this game, but most of them don't really take any logic to do; the puzzles moreso rely on reflex, timing and speed. The puzzles later involve Mario and Luigi (and their baby counterparts) to do a specific move to either open a gate or make their way through a dark tunnel.

With all this said, the gameplay is still flawed. For starters, in SS, you could freely explore Beanbean Kingdom as you wanted. In PiT, however, you're restricted to Princess Peach's castle in the present. But when you travel to the past, you don't see Peach's castle as much as you see places from other Mario games in the past, as well as some made up places. Unfortunately, you can't leave that area once you go to it unless it's through a time hole back to the present. It was a HUGE drawback not being able to freely explore, but the problems didn't stop there. The puzzles in this game become extremely repetitive and predictable after a while. They may seem new and unique at first, but when it comes down to it, they're nothing except Mario and Luigi splitting up from their baby versions and doing one thing while the babies do another. Like I said, it becomes obvious and repetitive after a while. What's even worse is that the game barely makes use of the top screen, but it fails completely to make use of the DS's most innovative feature: the stylus. With the exception of one useless part near the end of the game, you don't use the stylus at all

GRAPHICS: 10/15
The graphics to this game are pretty clear. You can clearly see who everyone is and the enviornments are very well done. Well, if there's no huge problem with the graphics, then how come they're getting a 10 and not a full 15? Well, have you seen SS's graphics? Yeah, they look pretty much the same, don't they? This game looks like it could've gone on the GBA with no problem graphics-wise, with the exception of a few 3D aspects to the game.

SOUND: 11/15
The sound is only a notch higher than the graphics. The background tracks aren't too catchy in this game, nor is the Shroob Princess's theme (although it does fit her rather well) When you're in the present time and you're in Peach's castle, the only sound you hear is a remix of the Castle theme from Super Mario 64. Mario and Luigi still babble when they talk, but there are some new additions as well. (everytime Mario says "Babies!" I can't help but smile) The battle music sounds more like battle music than SS, but not nearly as memorable; same with the boss battles. The final battle track, on the other hand, sounds much better than it did in SS. Anyway, the sounds coming from characters' mouths is still classic and funny, the battle tracks pass, but the regular tunes you hear in the background just don't cut it.

LENGTH: 5/10
This game is short; it'll take you no more than 20 hours to finish. (it would only take 18 if it wasn't for that ridiculously long three-part final boss) The fact that it's a handheld makes it okay to be short, but the bad part comes from there being no replay value or mini games. If they just put a sidequest or mini game in this game, then the length would get a better score. They could have made a few sidequests or missions, or a few things to get some secret unlocks. But, they didn't.

Total Score: 76/100
Averaged Score: 7.6 (rounds up to 8)

Buy or Rent?
I'm not sure if you can rent these games at any stores, but if you have something like Gamefly, then just rent this. You should be able to finish it in a decent amount of time. But if you've got a DS, you might want to buy this game if you're a Mario fan or a fan of RPGs.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/06, Updated 02/27/06