Game Review: Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time

When Professor E. Gadd makes a time machine, Princess Peach and her loyal toadstool subjects decide to travel back in time to see Mushroom Kingdom. As usual, something goes wrong and when the machine returns the Princess is missing. Mario and Luigi are called up to rescue her, again. One would think that basic storyline would get old, but it never does and probably never will, at least for me. The brothers travel via time portals to the past and eventually team up with the baby versions of themselves to rescue the Princess.

This game is a sequel to the first Mario and Luigi RPG (role-playing-game) "Superstar Saga" for Nintendo DS. I loved the whole set up of "Superstar Saga" from the RPG to the hilarious in game dialogue. "Adventures in Time" definitely carried on that set up. In this RPG, Mario, Luigi, and the babies defeat evil shroob monsters via turn based battles. Throughout the game they learn individual abilities, partner abilities, and group abilities. I really loved how for some areas you would have to use a combo of all 4 characters to proceed. So, every character played a key role in beating the game. Also, leveling up the characters was easy to do since there were a lot of mobs to get rid of.

Aside from the battles, the storyline provided some good laughs. In some parts, Luigi would have to try and calm down Baby Luigi who would be crying hysterically. Mario would be doing something similar to calm down Baby Mario. When the group arrives at the top of volcano, there are Thrwomps. From the dialogue you learn it is a husband and wife. The wife is upset and the husband is doing his best to console her. She "suggests" that he take the group down into the volcano.

While in the volcano or various other stages there are also mini-games to play. I thought these games were a great addition to the storyline. In one game, Mario/Luigi use their special roll ability to form a ball and are then shot out of a cannon. They land in a maze and as they fall to the bottom they collect coins. When they arrive at the bottom the coins are totaled. The number of coins equals the number of spins the babies get on what looks like a slot machine. You can win more coins or special beans depending upon the combo. you get.

While it sounds like I thoroughly enjoyed this game, there were a few things I did not. One was not being able to skip the cinema scenes. I understand their purpose, but some of them I could have skipped and been fine. There is a mini-boss at the end of every stage. One of them is a bomb looking fellow wearing a fur hat. He sends out ba-bombs that roll a gigantic ba-bomb toward the brothers. For hours upon hours, I spent my time trying to figure out how to defeat him. Nothing he had said before the battle gave a clue of how to beat him, while in other stages they would. So, I had to look it up and found out it was going to be a very tedious thing to do. Eventually, I did defeat him. The other issue I had was jumping from platform to platform. You had to make Mario and Luigi jump at the same time. If one landed on the target area and the other did not, then you would have to start over. I would have preferred just moving the one who missed. The Shroob Princess battle at the very end was way too long. There is only so many items one can have before running out. I had to back track, get more coins, and buy way more items.

Overall, I loved this game. I look forward to release on Sept. 14 of "Mario and Luigi: Bower's Inside Story". You can just about guess from the title where this story takes place!..ewww..