Mario and Luigi RPGs (Triple Feature) Review

Messaggio di Interest

This is my new line of threads so as to digress from the long-time coming instance ideas (having a writer's block).

*****SPOILER ALERT. MY REVIEWS MAY SPOIL THE STORYLINE OR THE GAME IN SOME SORT OF WAY******

I've decided to write video game reviews. Should they be buried in this board, you can always look in my profile and browse for it (once I update it).

As the title mentions, this particular review is on the line of Mario and Luigi RPG games. This is not to be confused with other games like Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG.

Quick jump to an individual game review:

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)
Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (DS)
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga Review:

Overview:

The first of this series is Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. For its time, it wasn't a particularly bad game. The story is that Mario and Luigi must go to the Beanbean Kingdom and recover Princess Peach's voice. Otherwise, a powerful object known as the Beanstar, could be used by the evil villain Cackletta, who is behind the theft of the voice.

The game takes you through many different places, ranging from desert to forest to an icy palace, and finally ending in Bowser's floating castle above the Beanbean Kingdom. Though the first part of the game seems like a tutorial, it does not seem to forgive beyond that. You have to use every ounce of reflexes and skill to get through this game well. Failing to do so is fatal. Along the way you will meet a range of foes. Some are the generic foes you usually see from Super Mario Brothers, like the Lakitu. But others are absolutely unique, like bean-shaped foes that just ram you, or even a monstrous dragon (something you don't see everyday in your average Mario game I'm sure). The bosses are really the highlighting point of the game. You battle the Queen of the Beanbean Kingdom, a thief that you won't be forgetting soon, and even a tree-and-rock-like monster that splits into many pieces.

Battle Mechanics:

Like any other RPG-type game, one of the main focal points is the battle mechanics. More or less, it is copied off the concept of Paper Mario (note: I forgot Legend of Dragoon has a sort of "action command" but it's so easy it's not worth mentioning), where you do "action commands." This is mainly done by pressing a button at the right time to deal more damage or successfully unleash an attack.

In this game, you used A for Mario, and B for Luigi. The concept of Action Commands is rarely used in most turn-by-turn RPGs. In fact, it seems rather exclusive to the line of RPGs involving Mario, as the first use actually was (I believe) Super Mario RPG.

However, unlike in previous games, to actually do well in this one, action commands are practically a requirement to beat the game. This is because you don't just use them to deal more damage, but you have to jump or hammer to avoid taking excessive damage. This was the first of its kind, more or less, and this made the game rather forgiving.

One new type of attack in this game is a Bros' Attack. There's a total of eight of them, four for each brother. They usually require a combination of button presses or consecutive button pressing. It's rather simple, and the game walks you through it if you have them set to mode 1. As you get more experienced with the attacks, you can increase the difficulty of the attack by increasing the mode number. The second mode will not be slowed down like mode 1 is, but you can still see button promptings. Mode 3 is just a slight step up, and you have to perform the attack as if you know it by heart. The benefit of doing the attack at higher mode levels is you not only deal more damage, but you use less of a resource called Bros' Points, which allow you to perform such attacks. Most of the attacks in this game are rather cheap, regardless of mode level. No attack costs more than 10 points, I believe. However, the amount of damage they can do can get rather ridiculous. This is especially so once you unlock the Advance mode of the attack. What is "Advance?" If you use the Bros' Attack in question enough times, you unlock an Advance mode for the attack. This requires a different series of button presses at a certain point (an exclamation will appear prompting Advance mode). The outcome of the attack will be different. For example, for Fire Bros', you'll unleash a huge fireball rather than some quick low-damage hits. This opens up 16 different special attacks.

However, there is even more. On top of the standard jump and less common hammer attacks, there's a unique "Hand" attack at some point in the game. These do elemental damage, which is useful because certain foes have weaknesses to the fire damage of Mario's fire hand attack, or the lightning damage of Luigi's thunder hand attack.

Finally, the battles are very quick paced. You can first strike opponents on the field, or they can get a jump on you. How a battle is initiated can greatly affect the verdict.

Stats are important in this game. And this game has a really unique way to distribute stats. Mario has a growth generally geared towards power and speed. Luigi is more tankish, and has more health and defense. The stats in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga are:

HP, BP (Bros' Points), Power, Defense, Speed, Stache (having more of this decreases prices in shops and makes you do "Lucky" (critical hits) more often)

Fortunately, you can change how your characters build up because when you level up, you choose a statistic to improve further. A lakitu will fly down and have an arrow with a window pointing to the stat to boost more. Then some numbers flip through like a slot machine. Then number you get is the amount added to the stat. This is a feature used in all three RPGs and though it's creative, it is more or less useful to just spam Power in this game. In this game, you can also improve your stats by using beans and gear. More on this later.

There's one mechanic I really hate in this game. And that is if one of your brothers falls, and you still have to guard attacks, the other brother picks up the fallen brother's body. This actually severely cripples your chance to guard attacks, and can actually cause a painful game over. It's really an incentive to not die at all.

Overall, the battle mechanics are kinda like Paper Mario, but very well improved. They also introduced unique attack types that really challenged the reflexes of RPG gamers, something they generally lack (because how do you improve reflexes just pressing the attack button all day?). One problem I have is the stat scaling goes out of control. More on that later.

Score: 8/10 (80%)

Overworld, Adventuring, etc:

Though the first part of the story is really forced and linear, once you get past perhaps the Chuckola Woods, or a bit earlier, you can really just spend time exploring the overworld around the Beanbean Kingdom. There's many abilities that help you get to those seemingly impossible to reach places.

There's the jump, hammer, and hand abilities, which are pretty self-explanatory. (You can use the hand attack to light torches, for instance, or hammer rocks to break them).

Then, there are abilities that work VERY similar to your Bros' Attacks in battle. In fact, in this game, you unlock Bros' Attacks by learning some new ability on the field. This ranges from spinning around with both brothers, to jumping higher, to burning Luigi's butt to make him run really fast (not kidding). To switch around the brothers to perform all the possible actions, you have to press START. This is the only game that really lets you "switch" the brothers around. More on that in later reviews.

The environments, as mentioned above slightly, are varied. One second you might be on a beach, and the next you have to go to a University (the Hooniversity in this game). They really don't get that bland.

An incentive to explore is to gather the beans of Beanbean Kingdom. This can range from ? blocks to digging (Chuckle) beans from the ground. The usefulness of this gathering decreases later in the game, when you can do a minigame involving surfing. Regardless, it was a rather creative incentive. The best part is this is purely optional, as the only real benefit is stats (but who wouldn't want more of that?) and special equip items that have allow you to perhaps jump longer to defend in battle or make items drop. In addition, you can get some treasure in the form of gear or decent consumables.

Overall, the overworld and dungeons are very creative in this game. The puzzles stretch your ingenuity to use Bros' Abilities on the field to quite a limit as the game goes on. And there's some very good optional incentives to go around the Beanbean Kingdom to get phat loots. The graphics are a bit wacky though, mostly because of the restrictiveness of it being a GBA game.

Score: 8.5/10 (85%)

Storyline and Plot: (SPOILER WARNING. SKIP THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET SPOILED)

Though detailed above, it wouldn't hurt to recap.

Mario and Luigi are going to the Beanbean Kingdom to recover Peach's voice. It begins on Bowser's airship, where they are confronted by Fawful, Cackletta's minion, who makes the ship crash in the northern area of the Beanbean Kingdom. They travel through mountains and fields and reach the Beanbean Castle. However, it is in ruin and they are thrown in the sewers. They confront a corrupted Queen of the Beanbean Kingdom, courtesy of Cackletta and her henchman, Fawful (I have fury!). After defeating the Queen, the only cure is a brew found deep in the Chuckola Woods. After recovering this brew,and meeting a familiar face, they are tasked to confront Cackletta at the Hooniversity. She is defeated, and the Beanstar enraged by the voice Cackletta captured. However, when Mario and Luigi try to obtain the Beanstar, it is split, and they are thrown on an island. There they learn their hand techniques, using them to return to the mainland where they meet Princess Peach, who didn't actually have her voice stolen. They go to a Toad refuge town through a desert, where Peach stays at. Mario and Luigi then go on random antics throughout the Beanbean Kingdom to recover the pieces of the Beanstar. They then go to an Ice Palace, and obtain the fully reformed Beanstar. During this time, Fawful revives Cackletta by letting her spirit possess Bowser, and captures Luigi, who is disguised as Princess Peach. He escapes with the Beanstar and Mario rescues him from the desert.

The game then reaches its climax as Bowser's Castle looms over the Beanbean Kingdom, threatening destruction. After a harrowing journey through the airborne castle Mario and Luigi confront Cackletta and defeat her.

Not a bad story eh?

8/10 (80%)

Last Words, and Other Criticism:

The game is not really all that bad. It was the first of its kind for a handheld system, implementing all the basics that set the standards for the Mario and Luigi RPGs. However, there were some basic problems, some which really reared their ugly head in the late game.

For example, I didn't really mention gear. You don't really need it because the gear isn't all that great. You can wear any ol' pair of pants and do just fine. This doesn't mean you should. Always buy the best pairs of pants from the shops.

The big problem is the badges. Some have really unique powers that set them far apart from others. Though in general they increase attack power, some allow jumping on spiked enemies and the like. The infamous Mush Badge (and the stronger versions that are buyable later in the game) makes you deal damage based on the amount of Mushrooms (only the item called "Mushroom", not the stronger versions) in your inventory. So all you have to do is get 99 Mushrooms and decimate everything. It's rather sad that you can dismantle the final boss of the game with 4000 damage Knockback Bros and so on.

Another problem is the bean brews that increase stats. As I mentioned above, the beans can be found in the Kingdom. However, the surfing minigame effectively allows infinite of most beans. Other minigames provide the fourth type of bean the surfing minigame does not. This means you can raise all your stats to 999, though the effort required is great.

There's also a hilarious bug on the final boss where Luigi can actually NOT get KO'd by the Time Bomb that comes in as part of the battle. This is done by raising your stats to monstrous amounts.

Regardless of these flaws though, the game is a really fun one to play through. It's quick-paced, has a decent, but more or less standalone, storyline. Just overlook the overscaling and a couple other frustrating things about the game (like finding the Bros' Rock badge, for instance) and it's really enjoyable.

Rating: 8.1666666666666..../10 (81.7%)

Pros:
-Decent Storyline
-Unique RPG turn by turn style.
-Very unique gaming skill requirement for RPG standards.
-Exploration is rewarding
-Great for a first in the series.
-Fast-paced
-Some parts are forgiving for new players

Cons:
-Improper gear effects that ruin the fun.
-Possibly the learning curve.
-Some frustrating puzzles.
-Wonky graphics (seriously).
-Crippling defense mechanics if an ally dies.

Next: Partners in Time.

Messaggio di Interest

Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time Review:

This game was an interesting one. You fight as two sets of Mario and Luigi brothers. Obviously you get the present-age ones, but you also get Baby Mario and Baby Luigi. This really introduced a lot of new, unique battle and exploration mechanics that made a decent, but not completely potential use of the Nintendo DS platform it was for. In fact, you rarely use the touch screen at all.

Battle Mechanics:

Moving right along, the battle mechanics are slightly different in this game as opposed to Superstar Saga.

You can power up your jump as normal with Mario and Luigi (present) by using A and B. However, there's another attack that the tutorial will tell you attack when jumping. If you jump with the corresponding baby on the adult brother (X for Baby Mario, Y for Baby Luigi), you do a second jump, and deal your normal damage with the adult brother. This allows for some serious extra damage as the game goes on.

In addition, the hammer attack is changed. You always use X or Y to attack with the hammer. The mechanics for the 4 brothers using hammer is rather annoyingly god-awful (something like A then X or something). It's much more desirable to jump on enemies if possible; those double jumps tend to deal more.

This game also introduces Bros' Attacks. But instead of keeping an eye on a second resource like Bro Points in the first Mario and Luigi RPG, you instead use Bros' Items, which function as the Bros' Attacks. This ranges from Green Shells, which you just punt at the enemy, to Mix Flowers, which requires all four brothers to shoot fire at the sky to create a giant fireball that hits (the enemy's weak point) for massive damage. Actually, in truth, the Bros' Attacks in this one scale about as well as in the previous game. You can really use Green Shells throughout the whole game, though other attacks have easier to use action commands and so on. The problem with this is your money really determines how often you can Bros' Attack, and as I'll mention later, money is really not a problem in this particular game. Also, some Bros' Attacks require all four brothers. And some are enhanced when all four brothers are battling. This is a rather interesting, unique mechanic that makes one think twice before using a particular Bros' Item.

The stat growth is very similar to the previous game. One noticeable difference is the fact that the baby bros have a ton more speed at the cost of other stats. This means that if all four bros are fighting and an adult bro goes down, you can practically use a 1-Up immediately to revive that fallen brother, making you practically unkillable. In addition, the only time you would have to hold onto a brother and cripple your evasive maneuvers is if one of your Baby brothers dies (this has NEVER happened to me, so I'm not sure if this is true).

Overall, the mechanics are improved from Superstar Saga. But there are some features that are quite overkill, like being practically invulnerable. Fortunately, there's no retardedly overpowered stat scaling in this game, thanks to the removal of bean brews from the first game. But there's still the gear...more on that later.

Rating: 9/10 (90%)

Overworld/Adventuring

The game seems far more linear than its predecessor. Though you are generally assigned to do some objective in Superstar Saga, you can freely explore the overworld or even have the freedom to perform the task how you like. Unfortunately, there is no real "overworld" in Partners in Time. You just go back to Peach's Castle every time you finish an area that you reach only by the "time holes" that appear in the castle. These appear gradually as you learn new moves that allow you to get through the many puzzles (some extremely complex and occasionally infuriating) that are placed before the four brothers. You really aren't given much beyond that. You just go to the area and collect a piece of the Cobalt Star that you are assembling (more on this later).

Like the previous game, there are some "bros" moves that allow you to progress through the game. Some are taken directly from the previous game, like the Spinning ability that lets you float to normally inaccessible areas. Some were given to the babies, such as the "Baby Drill", which was an ability given to the original brothers in the previous game (though under another name). There were, however, some interesting ways the adult bros abilities could interact with the babies in the later game. For example, you could Spin Jump into the babies to make them go really high, reaching areas one couldn't jump to. Overall, though some abilities were recycled, this game really introduced some interesting new bros moves that really added to the flavor of the game.

8.5/10 (85%)

Storyline and Plot (Skip if you do not want to get spoiled!)

This story is a bit less whacky than the previous game's, but not by much. It starts out with Princess Peach taking a time machine, made by E. Gadd, back to the Mushroom Kingdom past. Unfortunately, something goes very wrong when the time machine returns with a strange, mushroom-like creature. It turns out to be a Shroob, which are a race of alien mushroom people who have come to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom in the past. The adult pair of Mario and Luigi soon meet their baby selves and they choose to work together as a team of four. They are assigned by E. Gadd to reassemble the Cobalt Star, which will supposedly help to defeat the Shroob race. In addition, a talking briefcase made by E. Gadd joins the quartet to help them on their adventures.

So they go back in time to many of the areas of the Mushroom Kingdom past, including Yoshi Island and Toad Town. At a later point, they are met by a "spirit" inside of the Cobalt Star who claims to be able to eradicate the Shroobs if it is fully assembled. They soon assemble almost all of the star and the four brothers assault Peach's Castle, now completely under the control of the Shroobs. There they rescue Peach and defeat Princess Shroob...and more (no more spoilers here, play the game yourself to see =D).

After the brothers reign victorious, the younger Mario and Luigi pair, as well as all the past versions of the denizens of Peach's Castle, who managed to escape during the Shroob invasion return and the time line is fixed.

8.5/10 (85%)

Last Words and Other Criticism:

I found this game to be a rather improved version of its predecessor. Though there is a flawed combat system where you can practically kill everything underleveled. Fortunately, you can't walk around killing everything in one hit because you farmed beans for a few hours. However, the gear system is rather bothersome because if you get enough beans for the "Treasure Badge," you can obtain the strongest gear in the game with just a few Mix Flower uses. In addition, you can infinitely use special attacks with certain badges, which can be problematic when you can deal upwards of 2000 damage per turn with a Copy Flower. Even then, it's really easy to get money, and you don't really need to buy gear since you'll get the strongest gear at the end anyways. Hell, you can purely gear up through item blocks.

Fortunately, Nintendo and Alpha Dream definitely did not repeat their mistakes from the previous game, and made a rather fun, playable game for all ages. The difficulty has been increased for the action commands, by the way.

Rating: 8.66666667/10 (86.67%)

Pros:
-Superior storyline, though somewhat cliched.
-Same battle style as the previous game, with some changes.
-Skill cap has been increased to do well (offensively).
-Excellent for a sequel.
-Decent for any level of player.

Cons:
-Too easy to win overall.
-Lack of need for coins. Item blocks practically provide everything.
-Doesn't use the full potential of the Nintendo DS well (you use the touch screen for ONE FRIKING THING).
-Controls take a bit of time to get used to.

Next: Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Messaggio di Interest

Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story Review:

As many others said, this game is acclaimed to be the best of the series thus far. I would have to say I concur with them. Below you will see a detailed reason as to why.

Battle Mechanics:

The usual battle mechanics are back again for the third time, and yet they fail to become stale. It is still action packed. A and B still control Mario and Luigi, but this time, the X and Y buttons control Bowser's action commands. You need to use both X and Y to defend. X punches to defend (what it stops can vary from a charging foe to massive projectives). Y makes Bowser duck under his shell and deflect attacks, even oncoming foes from above!

Mario and Luigi can "double jump" in this game. It's rather similar to doing the action command in Partners in Time, but instead you just press A or B to correspond to the brother. The hammer attack has reverted back to the Superstar Saga action command, but is a bit more difficult to do, and the "Excellent" version of the command looks supremely bad ass. Bowser has a punch and fire breath attack. Bowser's Punch attack works very similar to the brother's hammer. If you charge up and press X at the right time, you smash the enemy back and do a ton of damage. Fire Breath works for cleaning the field of multiple foes and potentially burning them. It charges similar to the punch or hammer, but you press and HOLD the Y button to do maximum damage.

The new set of abilities, called "Special Attacks," serve as the equivalent of Bros' Attacks and Bros' Items from the previous game. To gain Special Attacks with Mario and Luigi, you have to go around areas and find "Attack Pieces." Finding 10 Attack Pieces will unlock a new attack. Mario and Luigi's new Special Attacks require a significant amount of button pressing as well as actual left and right controls, as opposed to the Bros' Attacks and even the Bros' items. Some attacks span two screens like certain Bros' Items. A few such attacks are even based off Bros' Items. However, more or less most of the attacks are pretty unique. Mario and Luigi can even practice some special attacks at a place called the Challenge Node at a pretty early point in the game.

Bowser's Special Attacks are far more interesting. They involve his minions, which you free from cages at certain points in the game. In addition, you get a giant block dog as your final attack, which does huge single target damage. All of these attacks require use of the touch screen. This adds a whole new element to the game, as the previous game in the series didn't even really use the touch screen at all! Bowser can also practice some of his special attacks at a certain massage area.

Bowser also gets another ability early in the game called "Vacuum," which allows him to suck enemies and other objects into his belly where Mario and Luigi can handle them vigilantly. A prompt to use this attack at the right time shows up when it blinks during Bowser's turn.

Aside from the normal combat, there is also something in Mario and Luigi called "Giant Battles." This is where Bowser gets huge and fights giant structures and other things he normally couldn't take on. These are always boss battles, and though the first few are easy, it can get rather hard without a properly working touch screen. Like Bowser's Special Attacks, all action commands for the Giant Battles require extensive use of the touch screen with exception to the breath, which uses the mic. This sort of new fighting mechanic is something I personally was looking for in an RPG, and though I had some trouble, they sure as hell delivered.

Finally, there's a new system in this game called the "Rank System." This effectively prevents the trio from grinding some coins and buying up the best gear in the game. Mario and Luigi have "5" ranks. The first two advancements grant extra gear slots to equip items (though you cannot equip two of the same type of item, like 2 socks or 2 pairs of pants). The latter two grant access to high tier shops to buy better gear with your coins. Bowser has "3" ranks. Both advancement ranks grant an extra gear slot. To gain ranks, your characters must level up enough. Speaking of leveling up, the little flagpoles that show at the end of battles determine your experience needed to reach the next level. The higher the flag is on the pole, the less experience you need to advance. When the flag reaches the top, that character gains a level, and the usual attribute boosting deal comes in, where you can choose to increase one stat further (raising POW and STACHE/HORN, the Bowser equivalent of STACHE, is the generally viable option).

Overall, the combat system combines aspects of the previous two games and adds several new twists, as well as a whole new character to work with. On top of that, the design of gear and stat scaling is excellent, as it makes the game have some element of difficulty. The maneuvers all your characters have to perform are significantly more difficult as well (dodge many, many attacks, and so on). The team who made this game definitely put a lot of great work into the combat system.

Rating: 9.5/10 (95%)

Overworld/Adventuring:

The Overworld definitively digresses back to the Superstar Saga side of things. However, at the beginning, the game is really linear with where you have to go. Especially for Mario and Luigi, there's a place the characters must go to to progress the story. For example, Mario and Luigi have to go to various parts of Bowser's body and explore through a dungeon-like area to get to the end. However, after Mario and Luigi finally find a way to leave Bowser, the overworld is definitely more explorable. Nintendo and Alpha Dream made it much easier for players to get around. For Bowser, there's portals called Chakroads which allow teleportation to several designated areas, allowing Bowser to travel quickly. The catch is obviously that Bowser has to find the Chakroad to be able to teleport to it in the future. For the brothers, there's pipes that allow easy access around the world, and they all converge on one area (not saying!). Both Bowser and the brothers can tread the overworld. However, there's places where only the brothers can go, or where only Bowser can go. As you learn new moves, like the traditional Spin Jump or use new items found in the overworld, like the Shell Block (gives Mario a shell), more things open up, allowing players to reach new loots.

The reason used moves in new areas is such a strong incentive is because the beans that you can receive in this game work very similar to Superstar Saga. You use the beans to raise stats (kinda like a HP UP in Pokemon), but can only raise health, special points (the points needed to use special attacks, obviously), and attack power. In addition, there is a limited number of these such beans you can find, putting a hard cap on how far the stats of each character can go in growth. More on that later.

Like in battle, Bowser can punch and flame breath his way through the overworld. Bowser can obviously obtain new moves himself, by the way, such as curling up into a spiky ball of death. Otherwise, it would be painfully bland going through the same crap over and over again. Another fun thing you can do as Bowser is pummel smaller creatures off the world (without fighting them!) and receive free money.

Overall, this game's overworld exploration is much better than Partner's In Time's forced linear approach, and also restrict the overworld somewhat to prevent the player from venturing into areas of instant death. It's not the best, but it's excellent based on the overworlds of previous games. The dungeons are about the same message.

Rating: 9/10 (90%)

Storyline/Plot (SKIP TO AVOID SPOILERS)

This game starts with the Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom coming down with a strange disease called the Blorbs. However, that's only a fraction of the brothers' problems as they deal with Bowser, only to get inhaled, along with everyone else in Peach's Castle, into the villain's belly. However, there's an even more devious mastermind behind these plans, as he deliberately gave Bowser the power to inhale large objects. He is Fawful, from Superstar Saga, and though he was only a henchmen in his previous debut, he is truly a badass villain with his own sidekick, a hedgehog-like brute known as Midbus. Fawful systematically takes over the entire Mushroom Kingdom, claiming both Bowser's and Peach's Castle as his own.

Fawful's intentions become apparent when he uses Princess Peach, who he extracts from Bowser, to steal the Dark Star and drain power from it. The trio then compete to find three magical "Star Cures," which not only would stop the Blorbs, but also would help wane the power of the Dark Star. After the three cures are gathered, the three assault Peach's Castle. First the brothers, then it's mainly Bowser who attempts to take down Fawful's forces. Eventually they take down a Fawful empowered with the Dark Star. However, the Dark Star absorbs Fawful using his new shape in the form of Bowser. The two Bowsers engage in a final battle, and with the help of the brothers, the Dark Star is vanquished...

Overall, the plot isn't amazing, but it's quite good and even brings back an old villain, turning him into something of a meme among players.

Rating: 9.5/10 (90%)

Last Words and Criticism. Also Music:

This game surpassed any standards I expected when I played through it. It made me feel like I was playing the Golden Sun of Mario RPGs, no kidding. Everything looks really polished and the combat system and overworld exploration make the previous two games look like test runs for the real thing. The stats also don't scale out of control. After reaching about level 40, the stat growth is heavily stunted. This is especially noticeable for Bowser, who gains like 7 points of Power each level normally.

The game also makes excellent use of everything a DS can do. In some ways it overflows the potential of the DS; doing too much damage in a single attack can actually cause the game to freeze. There's also a lot of minigames in this game. I don't particularly like that some are mandatory, but it sticks after a while. Plus some excellent music plays along with it.

Speaking of the music. For all three games, the music is composed by Yoko Shimumura, the same composer for music in the Kingdom Hearts series! Her excellence is definitely apparent in all three games. Most of the battle music sticks and the overworld music easily matches the environment it's designed for. However, the reason I mention this only now is because Bowser's Inside Story seems to exceed that standard more than the other two games. This is mainly due to the final boss music, which has been remixed and remastered perhaps multiple times. (On a side note, I will say I'm surprised Shimumura actually composed music for a Nintendo game considering she works for Square Enix).

The point is, to recap from above, this game is easily the best of the three; the fact that everything looks so perfected and that there is content beyond just beating the crap out of the final boss (something that is rather lacking in the previous two games) ties it all together, and making the game a challenge for even the most veteran players. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are also detailed tutorials on how to do practically everything, even Special Attacks, which makes beginner players have an easy time learning to play this awesome game.

Rating: 9.3333.../10 (93.3%)

Pros:
-Amazing storyline that keeps the players hooked, but also enough optional content to make it not seem forced.
-Polished combat system that utilizes every button and feature of the DS in some sort of way.
-Skill cap is very high. The sky's easily the limit for this one.
-Learning curve is decent. Beginners can easily pick up the gameplay (those Retry Clocks help!)
-Bowser is a playable character. Nuff said.
-Returning villain is an amazing success.
-Extremely high rating from official video game sites.
-Excellent utilization of gear and stat scaling.
-Best of the series thus far.

Cons:
-Slightly glitchy, and can freeze because it cannot handle massive damage.
-Some action commands are annoying to perform.
-Emulator ruins the difficulty of the game.

Messaggio di cheezedood21

I'll be reading this in full tomorrow afternoon. :)

Just to clarify for the community, Interest had the idea of reviewing games before I had the idea of making my thread, and he'll be posting more. However, he's let me put his reviews inside the index in my thread.

Once I've read it, I'll be looking forward to the next one, Interest. :)

Messaggio di cheezedood21

Just read it now. It was a very in-depth review; nice job! You pretty much covered all the bases.

Messaggio di Interest

Just read it now. It was a very in-depth review; nice job! You pretty much covered all the bases.

Actually, after thinking about it, I forgot to review the music. I'll just compare all three game's music when I talk about Bowser's Inside Story.

Mario and Luigi RPGs (Triple Feature) Review

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