By Nathan Blades
The Mario series of video games is one that’s recognised the world over, from devoted video game fans to your gran. He’s starred in more video gaming genres than most would care to count (or have even heard of). Some of his exploits have been incredibly successful – Everyone loves Mario Kart and the Super Mario games – others less so. The less said about Mario Teaches Typing, the better. But one group of games from this pop culture giant has been a bit understated; the Mario Role Playing Games (RPGs). Acclaimed by fans for being a breath of fresh air from Final Fantasy, they’ve always been packed with humour and series references, bundled up in bright, happy colours and an easy-to-learn control scheme.
The newest incarnation of these games is Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story for the Nintendo DS; and thankfully it stands up to the high standards the previous games have set for it. To break the plot down; Bowser’s regular plans to kidnap Princess Peach goes awry when he’s tricked into eating a dubious ‘Vacuum Shroom’. Instead of just capturing the princess, he ends up inhaling her… along with the Mario Brothers. From there the game plays out as Bowser from the outside and the Mario Bros. from the inside.
The lush Mushroom Kingdom that our anti-hero traverses moves almost seamlessly to his neon, cartoon-y insides as you switch back and forth to solve puzzles. A biology lesson like you’ve never seen before; when Bowser needs to do some heavy lifting, Mario sprints off to his biceps, thwacking his muscles with a hammer to make them tense up. When there’s a wall too tall to jump over in Bowser’s stomach, they have him guzzle water from a fountain to flood the area.
As the game progresses, new puzzles taking advantage of Bowser’s abstract anatomy are served to you, right up to the final moments of the game. A few ‘levels’ take a little longer than they held my interest for, and the rarely-used stylus controls can be a bit unresponsive; but then the next cool body part is open to play with, and the stagnant moments are quickly forgotten.
But it’s not all just playing around in Bowser’s body, there are fights to be had! In a lot of RPGs the battles are turn-based, and all it takes to smack the foe silly is a single button press. Not quite so here; while you still have to wait for your turn in battles, you’re not allowed to relax – timing your button presses during your attacks racks up the damage, and Mario and Luigi do some cool acrobatics. You even defend this way – if you’re hardcore enough, you can avoid any and all damage! Bowser’s battles also work similarly, but he’s much slower and stronger. While the Mario. Bros team up to perform combination attacks, Bowser throws out brutal left hooks and scorching fire breath. He can even use the vacuum ability he’s gained to swallow his enemies whole, delegating the battle to the plumbers inside him.
While there’s a lot to experiment with, it’s all very intuitive. A good thing too; because the fights get steadily more demanding as the story goes on, with steeper penalties for screwing up. There’s even a Challenge Mode – er – Node for you to really test out your skills. While this game can be enjoyed by anyone with a DS and a sense of humour, Nintendo fans will get a lot more out of this – it’s stuffed to the nines with references and jabs at the gaming company’s history. A look at the Mario universe from the antagonist’s point of view can’t fail to crack a smile.
Nice article, well done.