Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

released on Nov 28, 2005

The famous Mario Brothers return in this sequel to the humorous Superstar Saga. In this adventure, Princess Peach takes a trip in a time machine, but when it returns, there's only a monster inside! The heroic brothers travel back in time only to discover that evil alien life forms known as the Shroobs have taken over the Mushroom Kingdom, and no-one is safe! They soon meet up with their younger selves, and set out to stop the alien menace, not to mention rescue the Princess!


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Time travel is not alien to the world of videogames, let alone RPGs. Partners in Time though treats timeline shenanigans in a clever, weirdly somber and mature approach, considering the depressing and oppressive turn the game's story takes: it is now the Shrooms whom act as cruel and memorable villains in this story, having conquered the Toad Kingdom past.

Mario, Luigi, Mario Jr. & Luigi Jr. work well enough together as a team, but it's not as effective as in Super Star Saga: instead of using points to use combo attacks, they are now essentially items you can buy. Since money was never an issue in M&L games, you can see where the issue lies: the game's difficulty takes a nosedive each time a new combo item is introduced, making enemies' health bars just a matter of time, instead of strategic thinking. Platform sections and puzzles are fun enough, but despite having more bros, there's much less to do in terms of combo and exploration. I'll be blunt, the game takes a lot of steps forward in settings, story, characterization, with the four protagonists weirdly well characterized despite never speaking and Prof. E. Gadd stealing every scene he's featured in. The soundtracks also kind of rocks?

At the same time, it takes away a lot of ingenuity and platforming\puzzles from Super Star Saga, not taking real advantage of the dual screen if not for the occasional battle animation. It tries striking a balance between funny and emotional, which doesn't always land. To me it'll always be charming, but there's a lot of things to consider and wade through before getting to the "good stuff". Strong beginning, weak middle, padded ending but satisfactory experience don't make for a game I'd recommend easily.

In terms the average game journalist can understand, it's a A24-produced, genre-redefining, trope-subverting, 40 KB JPG atmospheric, dark and eerie, emotionally draining [...] game.

A bit underrated, this is a slightly less polished entry in the series that's still full of charm, and has the darkest theme in the series which really impressed me as a kid. I don't think I ever reached the end myself.

Mi favorito de los M&L hasta el momento, y la vdd me gusta el reto de controlar a 4 personajes a la vez.

He rejugado este juego un montón de veces y no me canso. El mundo de Mario y Luigi en un RPG en el que interactúas con cada ataque para mejorarlo, con el humor clásico de la saga y los enemigos recurrentes. El estilo pixel art de este juego es precioso y la música encaja a la perfección. La historia tiene el estilo de Mario muy marcado y rebosa carisma por todas partes.

tia turbina >>>> princesa shroob.