Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
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| Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story | |
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| Developer(s) | AlphaDream |
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| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Release date(s) |  February 11, 2009 September 14, 2009 October 9, 2009 October 22, 2009
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| Genre(s) | Role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) |  Everyone
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| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Media | Nintendo DS card |
| Preceded by | Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time |
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!! in Japan) is the third installment in the Mario & Luigi series and the second to be released on the Nintendo DS. It was announced during Nintendo's October press conference. It was developed by AlphaDream and featured, for the first time in the series, Bowser as a playable character. The babies from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time are no longer present.
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[edit] Gameplay
Mario and Luigi are controlled together while Bowser is controlled separately. While not in battle, the A and B buttons will make Mario and Luigi jump, respectively. Bowser, on the other hand, can be controlled with the X and Y buttons, which will allow him to punch and breath fire. The touchscreen and mic is used in various mini games. In Bowser's Inside Story, Mario and Luigi will trek through Bowser's body after being engulfed by him and subsequently shrunk while under the control of Fawful. Bowser, on the other hand, will travel throughout the Mushroom Kingdom in order to reclaim his castle. Bowser's segments are open world while Mario and Luigi's parts are sidescrollers in a similar vein to Super Paper Mario.
[edit] Overworld
The overworld for Bowser and for Mario and Luigi are different. Mario and Luigi actually travel inside Bowser's body in a sidescrolling setting reminiscent of classic Mario platformers. Each section inside Bowser's body is small and the brothers can easily traverse the body via the map. When controlling Bowser, on the other hand, the player is given much more freedom. Rather than be constricted to only left and right, the player can go in any direction they wish. Often times Bowser will be too weak to perform a certain action such as pulling something towards him, so the brothers will be required to enter a certain part of his body and stimulate body parts (such as muscles) so that he'll be given enhanced abilities. Occasionally an event will occur in Bowser's body that will prevent him from performing actions that he normally can such as breathing fire, so the brothers will have to inspect his body and find what's wrong and fix it.
[edit] Battle
Battles will be triggered when either the Mario brothers or Bowser touches an enemy. There are no random enemies in the game. Fighting enemies and consequently defeating them will result in experience points. Once you receive a certain amount of experience points, your character will level up. After each level up, the amount of points he'll need in order to level up again will rise. Battles are turn based as in the previous titles. Mario and Luigi will fight together during battles but Bowser will fight alone. Like on the worldmap, the A and B buttons are both assigned to Mario and Luigi. During the course of the game the player will find special attack parts that will give the characters special attacks. These special attacks can be found in blocks marked with an "A", though Bowser's parts can be collected by saving his minions and Blitties. Each of the attacks use SP, which can be refilled by using Syrup.
Fighting with Mario and Luigi is similar to the other titles. The player chooses an action for each character from six different categories, and following this they'll execute the action, whether it be to attack an enemy, escape, or use an item. Attacks can become more potent by pressing either the A or B button (depending on the character) at the exact moment that they connect with the enemy. For example, if Mario is assigned to jump on a foe, the moment his shoe touches the enemy the player is required to press the A button in order to deliver more damage than he normally would. A new option is available called Bros. Badges. As in previous games, badges can be purchased in shops and found throughout the game's world. In this game, when each brother's bar during battle meets in the middle, they are able to execute a command that will benefit them. The bars only increase when they are able to time their attacks so that they deliver more damage.
[edit] Cameos
- Near the beginning of the game Fawful exclaims "A WINNER IS YOU!", a reference to the Nintendo Entertainment System video game Pro Wrestling.
- The Elder Princess Shroob from Partners in Time can be found in Bowser's basement.
- Various references to Wii Fit are made throughout the title.
- The Sockop enemy is a reference to Kuribo's Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Viruses from Dr. Mario can be seen on a poster in Dr. Toadley's office.
- The Cavities the Toothy enemy shoots out resembles the Viruses from Dr. Mario.
[edit] Reception
The game has been well received. Both Nintendo Power and IGN rewarded the game with a 9.5/10, both stating that Bowser's Inside Story was the best of the Mario & Luigi series. Nintendo Power went as far as to say that it was the best of all the Mario role-playing games, which includes the first three Paper Mario games and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. GameDaily gave the game an impressive 10/10, noting that there were very few faults with the title.
