Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

[toblix]

It's sad that since the developers of these games are Japanese, they're not reading forums like this and getting awesome feedback and tips, but instead reading crazy Japanese forums where I'm guessing all they want is bigger hair and swords.

[Garple]

It's sad that since the developers of these games are Japanese, they're not reading forums like this and getting awesome feedback and tips, but instead reading crazy Japanese forums where I'm guessing all they want is bigger hair and swords.

WHEN CHARACTERS GET FLUSTERED I WANT THEM TO HAVE A GIANT TEARDROP COVER HALF THEIR FACE AND FOR THEM TO FALL DOWN.

Also: I would play the hell out of a Mario game with swords.

[Psych]

Also: I would play the hell out of a Mario game with swords.

I always thought that Mario should be whacking things with a giant pipe wrench, he could also use it on pipes sometimes too.

[syntheticgerbil]

Maybe this is somewhat close enough?

[miffy495]

Nah, he's used the hammer in every Mario RPG they've made, as far as I know. Wouldn't be asking for a wrench if all the hammering had satisfied that itch already.

[toblix]

So, I'm about ten hours in now, and I've formed more of an opinion: Not as awesome as Partners in Time, but still great. Not a fan of the stylus stuff -- either it's pointless (like the giant fight sequences) or frustrating due to bad controls (the smelling mini-game). The main thing that is irking me though -- it feels as though I'm constantly being led to new areas, without really getting to explore each of them fully before moving further on. I'm obviously supposed to return to some places later on with new skills, but I'm wondering if I'm supposed to take some sort of initiative and stop progressing the story. The way I remember it, in PiT, I could just follow the story as it went, and it would lead me through areas, and I could go around and find everything before moving on. I'm worried I'll suddenly find myself at the final boss fight, with half of the loot and coins still in their floating boxes...

On the plus side, the various fights are still super-cool and fun. All the enemies have their own custom attacks, with their different tells, and some of them have combo attacks, etc. It's great when, after being hit a couple of times by an attack seemingly impossible to dodge, you suddenly "get" the tell and can dodge it easily.

[Sombre]

Not sure if I like it, it's far too broken up, nothing really sticks. At about 6 hours in. The battles can be neat, but the entire thing feels too inconsistent. The incredibly labyrinthical nature of Bowsers body comes off as far too linear.

That being said, Bowser steals the story.

[miffy495]

Yeah, I can't play a game like this with a completionist mentality. I'd go damned insane. I probably did have half of the items uncollected at the end of the game. Still loved it though.

[Sombre]

Still enjoying it, kind of.

Some of the "minigames" are unbearable and tedious, and I'm stuck inside Bowsers memory banks, because the "Antivirus" boss is raping me through a hole.

[Irishjohn]

Giant Bomb named this game their DS game of the year. They've been talking it up for months and I don't know how much longer I can hold out!

Interesting to read some of the comments here, though. I've never played a Mario and Luigi game, so I'd like to give it a try.

[miffy495]

The only minigame that bothered me much was the top-down shooter you had to play whenever you made Bowser grow to building-fighting size. Drove me crazy. Irishjohn, why are you holding out? It's an awesome game. Unless you're really strapped for the $40 it would cost you (that's the Canadian price, I don't know about elsewhere) I don't see a reason to deprive yourself of the fun...

[Sombre]

The only minigame that bothered me much was the top-down shooter you had to play whenever you made Bowser grow to building-fighting size. Drove me crazy. Irishjohn, why are you holding out? It's an awesome game. Unless you're really strapped for the $40 it would cost you (that's the Canadian price, I don't know about elsewhere) I don't see a reason to deprive yourself of the fun...

That's the one that's killing me, too. There's NO hit detection/collision/recovery so if one hits you, it can mess you up. And that awful luigi being chased by a boo move. Oh I hate it.

[Irishjohn]

The only minigame that bothered me much was the top-down shooter you had to play whenever you made Bowser grow to building-fighting size. Drove me crazy. Irishjohn, why are you holding out? It's an awesome game. Unless you're really strapped for the $40 it would cost you (that's the Canadian price, I don't know about elsewhere) I don't see a reason to deprive yourself of the fun...

To be honest, 2009 wiped me out as far as my video game budget can go, and 2010 is looking worse! It's only a matter of time though...

[toblix]

I've picked this up again, and, while still being a completely amazing game, one thing is annoying the living Hell out of me. When I'm in an area, and it has two or more exits, there's no way to tell which is the one that goes ever on through the story, and which lead me to some more bonuses and optional areas. This leads to so much backtracking since I end up traversing the level breadth-first to make sure I get most of the stuff before I fall down some one-way hole. I don't see any great solution to this, other than making everything strictly linear or having some indicator on where you're supposed to be going, but that's why I don't make games for a living.

[toblix]

Okay, so I just beat the

dark star

in what was yet an amazing and clever fight. It's amazing how Alphadream manage to come up with so many different foes and attacks that remain fresh and surprising throughout the game. I like how each type of enemy start out only using their "simple" attacks at first, but later on start using variations of combos. The only enemy I could do without is that god damn guy who barfs up a stack of bricks and throws it at you. It's not that they're hard to beat, it's just that it takes so much time, and there's never any variation.

Also, I could probably do without the huge number of enemies in some areas. If they reduced the total foe count by 25%, I'd be fine with that.

I saw you mentioned that Bowser got the spike ball thing close to the end. I've been using it for a while now, and still haven't gotten to Bowser's Castle (which I assume is where the final showdown will take place).

Anyway, awesome game.

[Sombre]

Okay, so I just beat the

dark star

in what was yet an amazing and clever fight. It's amazing how Alphadream manage to come up with so many different foes and attacks that remain fresh and surprising throughout the game. I like how each type of enemy start out only using their "simple" attacks at first, but later on start using variations of combos. The only enemy I could do without is that god damn guy who barfs up a stack of bricks and throws it at you. It's not that they're hard to beat, it's just that it takes so much time, and there's never any variation.

Also, I could probably do without the huge number of enemies in some areas. If they reduced the total foe count by 25%, I'd be fine with that.

I saw you mentioned that Bowser got the spike ball thing close to the end. I've been using it for a while now, and still haven't gotten to Bowser's Castle (which I assume is where the final showdown will take place).

Anyway, awesome game.

Did you find yourself pretty much only ever using 2/3 moves by the end though? I was only ever using the pipe thing really, because everything else seemed like wasted MP

[toblix]

Holy fucking shit what the hell is this final boss battle? They had to make this awesome game and then have it suck so badly? I spent ages chipping away at that god damn thing, and then blaeeehh.

[Tanukitsune]

I got this game while I was in London, most of the mini games were on the verge of annoying, I didn't really love any of them unless you consider the Giant Bowser battles a mini game...

Bowser was awesome, I'm not so sure about the rest of the game, there were too many mini games and not enough "chortles"....

Maybe I just still have a bad taste in my mouth from playing the Sonic Bioware game....

[toblix]

Never mind! Retraction to be issued.

[miffy495]

I didn't find the boss battle bad at all. Waiting for your retraction...

[toblix]

Okay, this is embarrassing. For some reason I never used the special attacks. I guess it's because some of them were finicky with the controls and prone to failure at the slightest timing error on my part, and I could always take down the enemies and bosses using nothing but jumps, punches and hammers.

So, the reason I thought the final boss was so lame is that I kept hitting Dark Bowser with punches, right? After maybe ten attacks on my part he'd go down and I'd battle the dark star inside Bowser. I'd take out the eyes with, say, three attack cycles each, and then each leg with as many hammer attacks. So, maybe fifteen-twenty cycles depending on damage and healing. When the dark star falls, I get a couple of jump attacks in, at maybe 80-100 damage each before we're blown out and return to fighting Dark Bowser. I had went through this cycle of Dark Bowser/Dark Star maybe ten times when my healing routine slipped and both M&L died. This was probably after an hour, which explains my rage.

I thought I'd give it another go, and this time, just as an experiment, I started using special attacks. This let me take down DB in two attack cycles, and Dark Star went down like a house of shit cards. The whole boss battle took me maybe five minutes, it was ridiculous.

So, the moral of the story is: use special attacks.

[Sombre]

Okay, this is embarrassing. For some reason I never used the special attacks. I guess it's because some of them were finicky with the controls and prone to failure at the slightest timing error on my part, and I could always take down the enemies and bosses using nothing but jumps, punches and hammers.

So, the reason I thought the final boss was so lame is that I kept hitting Dark Bowser with punches, right? After maybe ten attacks on my part he'd go down and I'd battle the dark star inside Bowser. I'd take out the eyes with, say, three attack cycles each, and then each leg with as many hammer attacks. So, maybe fifteen-twenty cycles depending on damage and healing. When the dark star falls, I get a couple of jump attacks in, at maybe 80-100 damage each before we're blown out and return to fighting Dark Bowser. I had went through this cycle of Dark Bowser/Dark Star maybe ten times when my healing routine slipped and both M&L died. This was probably after an hour, which explains my rage.

I thought I'd give it another go, and this time, just as an experiment, I started using special attacks. This let me take down DB in two attack cycles, and Dark Star went down like a house of shit cards. The whole boss battle took me maybe five minutes, it was ridiculous.

So, the moral of the story is: use special attacks.

I love it. And the new tag only sweetens the deal.