Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time
Feb. 18th, 2013 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThe alien Shroobs have attacked the Mushroom Kingdom of the past, and unfortunately it’s at the same time* that Professor E. Gadd has unveiled his new time machine and the Princess has gone exploring in that past. Good thing that Mario and Luigi are around, and they’re baby selves from the past can give them a helping hand!
Okay, so there was a bit of weirdness to this for me, because it involves Mario and Luigi teaming up with their baby selves in a time-traveling adventure, and I started it the morning after I became a dad. I wasn’t even thinking of that when I picked it up; I just wanted a DS game that I could easily pick up and put down but that would be very distracting while I was playing it. And this fit that bill really well.
It’s pretty much in-line with my review of the sequel, except that the sequel used the features of the DS much better, and this only makes (good) use of the two screens and the four buttons—it doesn’t use the touchpad or microphone at all. But’s still very cute and clever, it’s still a really well-done action/rhythm-rpg blend, and it’s still forgiving enough that you can screw up a bit and still keep going. They’re also very generous with save points. It does seem a bit shorter than the other two games—I wonder if that’s just because I’ve gotten better at them?
The one design decision I’d call out is that Bros attacks—special attacks using two or all four characters—are all items, instead of MP-using spells. It’s an interesting choice, and they provide enough of them that I was fairly willing to use them even on non-boss battles, but it means you can’t just spam your favorite attack and no others. (Until you find infinite-item badges.)
The storyline seems to sorta-kinda be keeping continuity with both the other Mario & Luigi games, and with the characters established in SMW2: Yoshi’s Island. you don’t need to know anything but the very broad strokes of the Mario mythos to appreciate it, though—it’s not a particularly deep game.
The final boss has a million phases (including a gimmick final fight), but the first of them is really the hardest, and there’s no cheap difficulty trick like in Superstar Saga. Honestly, except for one segment with the babies in the final dungeon, I thought the difficulty level was reasonable and appropriate throughout, and my rhythm-game reflexes are only okay. I never felt the need to seek out game breakers (like the Mushroom Badge in Superstar Saga).
Overall: If you like rpgs that use action commands and cute, not-too-serious plotlines, you will like this game (and the other two in this series).
* Yeah, yeah, time-travel terminology and simultaneous events. The past is another country with younger versions of the same people and only a couple of paradoxes. Don’t think about it too hard.
Okay, so there was a bit of weirdness to this for me, because it involves Mario and Luigi teaming up with their baby selves in a time-traveling adventure, and I started it the morning after I became a dad. I wasn’t even thinking of that when I picked it up; I just wanted a DS game that I could easily pick up and put down but that would be very distracting while I was playing it. And this fit that bill really well.
It’s pretty much in-line with my review of the sequel, except that the sequel used the features of the DS much better, and this only makes (good) use of the two screens and the four buttons—it doesn’t use the touchpad or microphone at all. But’s still very cute and clever, it’s still a really well-done action/rhythm-rpg blend, and it’s still forgiving enough that you can screw up a bit and still keep going. They’re also very generous with save points. It does seem a bit shorter than the other two games—I wonder if that’s just because I’ve gotten better at them?
The one design decision I’d call out is that Bros attacks—special attacks using two or all four characters—are all items, instead of MP-using spells. It’s an interesting choice, and they provide enough of them that I was fairly willing to use them even on non-boss battles, but it means you can’t just spam your favorite attack and no others. (Until you find infinite-item badges.)
The storyline seems to sorta-kinda be keeping continuity with both the other Mario & Luigi games, and with the characters established in SMW2: Yoshi’s Island. you don’t need to know anything but the very broad strokes of the Mario mythos to appreciate it, though—it’s not a particularly deep game.
The final boss has a million phases (including a gimmick final fight), but the first of them is really the hardest, and there’s no cheap difficulty trick like in Superstar Saga. Honestly, except for one segment with the babies in the final dungeon, I thought the difficulty level was reasonable and appropriate throughout, and my rhythm-game reflexes are only okay. I never felt the need to seek out game breakers (like the Mushroom Badge in Superstar Saga).
Overall: If you like rpgs that use action commands and cute, not-too-serious plotlines, you will like this game (and the other two in this series).
* Yeah, yeah, time-travel terminology and simultaneous events. The past is another country with younger versions of the same people and only a couple of paradoxes. Don’t think about it too hard.
