"Do I look like I need logic? Listen, I NEED to breathe fire!"
The Mario & Luigi line of handheld RPGs have surprised me, and they have annoyed me. I'm surprised by their control scheme and the mechanics of controlling both brothers at the same time, but I'm annoyed at how even an hour into a game - on a handheld console, remember - I'm still sitting through tutorials as the story crawls into view.
Superstar Saga on the Game Boy Advance kicked things off, Partners in Time gave us four characters to juggle, and now Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story takes us on an adventure to a part of the Mushroom Kingdom we really didn't need to see, did we?
Frustrations
I'm emulating Bowser's Inside Story for now, and a certain main menu option seems to suggest I may be having some difficulties in doing so at some point. A quick skim of the Wikipedia entry for the game says I should be fine for the most part, and I'm sure I can fiddle with some settings to botch my way through it, but until such time arrives, let's hope that this game is as fun as it looks like it's going to be.
Fun Times
Oh, I am sold. The Mushroom Kingdom is currently suffering from the blorbs, an infection that causes the citizens to balloon to a ridiculous size and roll around the place. I think it's the idea of anything happening to these Toads that amuses me. They're too happy to care about. Then again, every Mario game does tend to start with their entire kingdom under threat...
Princess Peach has requested help from the Star Sprites, but their representative, Starlow, is as stumped as anyone else at the meeting to try and work out what's going on. Out of ideas and in a pinch, there is only one man to who we can reach out. And his brother will probably tag along, too.
There we go, Blorb Mushrooms. Clamp down on the sale of them and you stop the problem dead in its tracks. Gah, we could learn a thing or two from Bowser's Inside Story and we've not even met Bowser ye- oh, speak of the devil.
As is the norm for these games, a boss fight with Bowser is our (re)introduction to the mechanics of the Mario & Luigi series, where everything a character does is tied to their specific button. Mario has the A button at his command, so select an attack with A, a target with A, time another press of A correctly to do another point or two of damage, and when it's your turn to dodge, press A to leap out of the way.
If you've played any of the series before, it's safe to say you know what you're doing here. If you're completely new, don't fret - there are so many tutorials to get you up to speed.
A mysterious voice beckons us over to a bizarre carnival game or shop or scam, we're not sure which. Bowser's certainly convinced - or just conned - into eating a mushroom which will give him the power to defeat Mario once and for all...
I bet he regrets that. The vortex that emerges from Bowser's mouth sucks in the nearby forest, and it doesn't stop sucking all the way back to Princess Peach's castle.
We've either been consumed or inhaled and to be honest, neither is preferable, but it does result in some 2D side-scrolling Mario platform action. Well, the bare basics. Jumping, platforms, coin blocks. There's not a lot of challenge inside Bowser's guts, not yet at least. I'm pretty sure there were a few of us that got sucked in here, too.
Starlow is nearby, as is an Emoglobin, if I recall, a helpful little fellow of some description that points out that Bowser's insides function very much like the Mushroom Kingdom does. After all, our bodies are absolutely full of pipes and platforms and doors.
Saving Starlow is a piece of cake. You've got to remember that even though we're coming up to 30 minutes in this handheld game, we're still very much in tutorial mode...
Once we meet up with Luigi again, we get more tutorials about controlling two characters at once. Again, if you've played previous Mario & Luigi games, it'll be second nature, but it might be a little fiddly to get your head around on some occasions if you're new.
I am familiar with Mario & Luigi titles, but I'm clearly still a little slow when it comes to quickly recognising whether I need to press A or B before an incoming attack deals damage. You'll get used to it over time, and I doubt failures will be too costly in a game with an audience as wide as Mario's.
After wading through yet more tutorials about how to open menus and maps, we battle anything in sight because, frankly, I could do with the practice and the experience will help us out too. After all, this is an RPG, so we'll need to keep on top of our stats and inventories.
Not even a bonus of +4 to Mario's Stache stat is enough to bring him close to the might of Luigi's facial fur. Perhaps Mario's strengths lay elsewhere.
Further Frustrations
The game continues by telling us that special attacks can be learned if we collect a bunch of puzzle pieces in a given area of Bowser's insides, and so here comes another safe room full of puzzle pieces and platforms for us to practice jumping with two characters.
It's an important skill because while Mario is quite happy leaving Luigi behind in some spots, you do need to move in unison in others. Jumping a gap, for example, requires a quick press of AB, first to jump to Mario, then Luigi, all while holding the direction of intended travel.
It reads more difficult than it actually is, but you too may end up grumbling at Luigi failing to jump in time, despite it clearly being your fault. But that's how these Mario & Luigi games are. If you're not a fan of this sort of control mechanism, leave now, while you still can.
Our special attack is, of course, something we'll immediately make use of in a tutorial about enemies that wear hats to protect themselves from our default stomp attacks. It's good to learn, of course it is, but there's an awful lot of it in Mario & Luigi games, and I'm sure it could be done better.
Further Fun Times
Smashing open a crate reveals a set of hammers that we can use both in and out of combat to smash open big crates, or wallop Bowser's insides, or attack spikey enemies in safety. Again, their use is tied to the one button your characters use, and icons and HUDs couldn't make it much more obvious what that button is about to do if they tried.
Like the previous Mario & Luigi games, by this point I'm engaged, I'm interested, I want to see more, but I do wish things could just move along that much quicker.
Heading deeper into the unknown, we're prompted to make use of our hammers on an exposed bit of nerve. No prizes for working out what that does. Our host, Bowser, is finally awake and understandably not pleased.
He's also not aware of the fact that he's got Mario and pals wandering around his insides, and so it's time for Bowser's Inside Story to split and showcase what it's going to do a little differently from the previous games - namely switching between controlling Bowser and the folks in his guts.
When it finally arrives, it's nice to see, but I'm still not really allowed to explore it on my own as the story slowly shows itself and yet more tutorials get in the way.
The first problem Bowser encounters, other than not knowing how he got into a cave and why someone is inside his guts, is that his fire breathing ability doesn't work. I guess that's a problem for the Mario Brothers to solve...
Final Word
... at some point. Life got in the way here, but I will be back to see more of Bowser's Inside Story because of two simple things. It feels familiar to what I've played in the past, but it has a new coat of paint and a few new additions to make it feel different enough.
That's not only Mario in a nutshell but most of gaming. Need for Speed: Shift does very little that is new and different to previous racing games, but it's different enough to allow me to enjoy it for hours on end.
I suspect that on the whole, there won't be much difference between how Bowser's Inside Story and Partners in Time play, but the premises of both games are so different that you can look past the clichés and enjoy travelling through time or the digestive tract.
Once the tutorials stop banging on and on. I want to play each of these Mario & Luigi games thanks to this 1001 list, and I will get around to them at some point, but in all cases it seems, it takes more than an hour to even see where each game will take you - and these are handheld games, remember.
These spin-off RPGs are going to be more complicated than a simple platformer, and they are going to be more focused on telling a story than challenging players to navigate a platform level. But at what point do you abandon holding a players hand? At what point do you assume they'll have worked it out by now? When does Mario & Luigi let me get on with the game?
Mario titles, for better or worse, come with an expectation that anyone can play them, and anyone can dive into Bowser's Inside Story. If you've not plunged into one of these spin-offs yet, this might be even better than Partners in Time, if only because we're not looking after Baby Mario. You really should give them a go.
I just wish they got going far sooner than they actually do.
Fun Facts
A Nintendo 3DS remake, featuring some extra content and quality of life improvements, is supposedly the last Mario title to be published for that handheld. Maybe that's the version I should track down, seeing as P2's 3DS continues to sit around here doing nothing.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, developed by AlphaDream, first released in 2009.
Version played: Nintendo DS, 2009, via emulation.