Written by: Ian

 

 

 

The Mario RPG games have normally met with universal acclaim- will this latest DS game, "Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story" carry on the tradition? With an odd story, and no multiplayer, has the series moved on at all, or is it basically a rehash of the original GBA game?

 

 

The story is both innovative, and really odd. There’s some weird social aspect, with a decadent society of toads fighting against a basically communist rabble. But it’s mostly in the background.

 

Nonsensically, most of this is ignored, as somehow you get shrunk into Bowzer’s belly after he eats some magic mushroom, and have to plough through his body, escape, and save the day. It ends up being a little bit of a mess to be honest, although it can be quite entertaining.

 

 

If you’ve ever played a Mario RPG, then you know what to expect here- nothing has really changed here, especially if you’ve played one of the previous versions on the DS. Indeed, if you have, you may quickly become tired of the endless tutorials that the game dishes out, many of which are compulsory. 

 

 

Combat is turn based, but with some nice real-time aspects. If you get your timing right, you have the ability to dodge and/or counter an enemy’s attack, and you can power up your own attacks with well-timed button presses. It’s a fantastic system, and always has been, but with no changes at all, all fans are getting is a content update, which may put them off paying full price for the game.

 

Another potential put-off is the fact that this is the shortest game in the series in some time, if not the shortest of them all- people that have played another title in the series will probably see the credits roll after 9-12 hours, whilst even most children probably wouldn’t spend more than 20- which is really, really short for an RPG.

 

There are some touch screen puzzles, and decent environments to be had, but again, it feels like nothing is new. Having said that- whilst there’s little to no innovation to be found in the game, over the previous iterations the gameplay has been enhanced to the point where I wasn’t overly upset- the game still felt great to play, even if it was pretty obvious that it’s ultimately a little lazy in its execution.

 

 

I do feel like experienced players may find this a little bit of a step too far, although kids or newcomers to the series obviously won’t have a problem, as the mix of platforming, exploration, and turn-based combat with RPG elements has always been one of, if not the best, RPG-lite experiences out there, especially on a hand-held system. I’d expect more upgrades, either visually or gameplay-wise for the next iteration, but Nintendo just about get away with things here.