December 1, 2009
I HAVE CHORTLES!
While I was in Arkansas, I needed something to play. I picked up and played most of the rest of the way through Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, a game I had set aside for no good reason. When I got back, I finished it. Now I am finally writing a review for it. Yay.
Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a great game. A really great game. It’s just held back by a few really, really stupid decisions. For one, there are a lot of little mini-games to break up the action. However, it’s clear they spent less time perfecting those than they should have. Some of them are near-impossible to control, and make you fail constantly. (the nasal passage game is particularly bad in this regard.) Some, like the Revival Boats, are just kind of annoying since you have to do them all the time.
Also, I didn’t technically “beat” this game, as it pulls the same bullshit that all of the Mario and Luigi games have pulled: The last boss has too fucking much HP. I fought the last boss for 20 minutes straight, and then died, and I’m not sure I was anywhere close to beating it. I said “fuck this shit” and counted the game as beaten. I’ve done this on every game but the first, and the only reason I didn’t on the first was because I was really, really bored and tried it like 4 times.
Besides those two annoyances, though, this is by far the best game in the series. The writing is top-notch, and with so much Bowser, who’s character I love in the Mario RPGs, I was grinning almost the whole game. His combat is extremely rewarding, just as much so as that of the Bros, even with just him in it. His touch-screen “minion” attacks are decent. They’re certainly better than the minigames, and they are a nice change of pace from the timed button mashing of the Bros attacks.
The game does so many smart things with the two screens, too. Just little subtle effects, such as when Bowser is walking around when Mario and Luigi are inside him, and you can see the “interior” map of Bowser’s body? It bounces as he stomps about very slightly. It’s a neat effect. They also do some really clever things in the cinemas with the two screens. It’s very clear that they’ve mastered the use of the system since Partners in Time.
One of the best parts, though, is the fan service return of Fawful from the first game. He makes a great, entertaining villain, and I was grinning when I saw him enter the scene for the first time. In the end, he ends up being second-place to a main boss again. but it was fun seeing him come into his own as an evil mastermind.
The game does beg the question, though: How many more star-based MacGuffins can the people at Nintendo invent? The “star cures” you are collecting in this game seem like a huge, huge stretch. Where can they go from there? All MacGuffins must be star-based in the Mario world! This is a potential issue in the future. Might I suggest “Star Map” or “Star Chart” next time? That could be entertaining.
In any case, Bowser’s Inside Story is Nintendo designing for the hardcore at its finest. You really should play it. It feels very fresh from the other games, very creative, and is just a lot of fun. Just don’t feel bad if you can’t beat the last boss, okay? I certainly won’t think less of you.