Bowser steals the show,
Each Bro has his own button,
In a pinch, press both!
Additional Comments:
Man, I love the DS. When a game is done right on that system, it such a treat. This is definitely one of those games. This is my first Mario and Luigi title, though I'm very familiar with Mario RPG, which is its progenitor, so playing an RPG with the Bros. isn't exactly foreign to me.
First off, let me say that this is one of the best DS games that I've played. Though I can't give this game a perfect score, this game uses the DS's capabilities in really fun ways, like when you have to blow into the microphone for Bowser to blow fireballs, or when you have to turn the DS vertically in order to fight off a castle (yes, you really do!). The story is typical Mario zaniness, and it makes no sense, but it completely works because you know right away what you're getting into when you play this game. It's really about the fun factor and polish and not about the emotional resonance you get from a game like Mass Effect. I also really like that you use Bowser so much in the game. Basically what happens is that Boswer sucks up a whole town and Mario and Luigi happened to be there when he did, so you're inside Bowser's body most of the time. Most of the exploration (until later in the game) is done by Bowser, and when trouble comes along, and he can't go it alone, Mario and Luigi do something inside his body that effects some change, like making Bower super strong so he can pick up a boulder or increasing his metabolism so he can lose weight after getting fat from engorging himself.
The battle system is very fun and should be familiar to most veterans of RPGs. You basically have all the basics, just with a Mario twist. You have basic attacks (jumps), alternate attacks (hammer), special attacks, and items. And in all of these (except for items) you can do extra damage if you time the attack right and press the corresponding button on time. The enemies are really fun, and they play differently when you fight them with the Bros. or with Bowser. Each enemy has a "tell" that shows what they'll do when they attack, and you can either escape damage all together or lessen damage by timing your button press as you do in the attack options. The special attacks are really cool and are almost mini-games of a sort. The only problems I had with the special attacks was that only a couple of them seemed useful, you really get too many of them, and some of them were just way too hard to pull off.
The music in this game is awesome. I think most Mario games have awesome music, but this has some of the best Mario music around, in my opinion. A couple of my favs: Toad Town, Bumpsy Plains, Plack Beach, and Dimble Wood. I found myself humming and whistling these songs while playing--even while not playing. They're just so darn catchy.
My biggest complaint about this game is something that some will like more than me. Too me, this game was way too long for what it was. I enjoy long games (heck, right now I'm playing Fallout New Vegas!), but at 35 hours, you can only take so much Mario. Some people will obviously disagree with me on that, so it just comes down to personal taste, but to me, it seemed way too long and really dragged toward the end. The other thing is that there really is no need to find everything in this game. The last enemy doesn't really even fight the Bros., so there's no point in finding the rare gear for them. And the last fight, though challenging, isn't a slug match with each side throwing blows at each other. Rather, it's almost a puzzle to find the perfect way to evade danger and KO the bad guy--which reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus. The other thing I wish the DS (or Wii, for that matter) had is achievments of some sort. Those always make the game more enjoyable for me, and it would be a welcome gimmick for Nintendo.
Rating: 4 mushrooms out of 5
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