Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is the peak and pinnacle of the series. Both the bros and Bowser have fun to use move-sets, with Mario & Luigi having their returning attacks polished. The game combines 3D puzzles via the overworld with 2D puzzles in Bowser's body, allowing for the best of both worlds. There is also a good bit of side content, with some satisfying rewards alongside them. The story is pretty good as well, particularly in the character department. Bowser is good fun as always and his humor is great. Fawful is possibly one of the best villains in the Mario series, his personality being a breath of fresh air from the somewhat generic maniacal villain stereotype that Cackletta and Princess Shroob had. Overall, a very good turn-based RPG.

I was looking forward to finally be playing this after hearing only good things about it. And as far as presentation goes this is a 10/10. The music is amazing, the spritework is simply at its best and the writing is sharp.

The gameplay department covers a lot of diversity as well as providing the traditional Mario and Luigi formula to the mix. There's half and half segments that swaps over to stylus controls, whether you like that or not is subjective. What I personally wasn't a fan of was the continous swapping to stylus and regular controls through special attacks in any form of battle, again different strokes and the game does give you as much leisure as you need to put away your stylus before going back into the game.

While the writing is excellent and fawful is an entertaining villain he felt underutilised, as the plotline takes a backseat from the halfway point up until the endgame and really all you do is hunt for story stars and backtrack through areas you've already seen for a very good chunk of the remainder of the game. Skipping all the bean collecting and the few scattered collectatons/minigames leaves for a surprisingly short main campaign.
The dungeons however were all great and definitely the highlight and fundamentally Inside Story is super duper solid.

It was a fun run, but I also feel relieved to get away from the occasional boredom through all the less endearing exploration parts by the time I finished it.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story was the first RPG I ever played. I also have quite a bit of history with it over the years too. Back when I first had the game, I played it quite a bit and ended up getting pretty far. The further I got, the more difficult it was to progress. The game wasn't absurdly hard for me it was that my DS shoulder pads beginning to wear out from use over the years. I ended up getting to the final boss but I could never mash fast enough when dealing with a certain part. I eventually abandoned it and sold it. Eventually Nintendo announced the 3ds remake back in 2018 and while the remake itself didn't need to exist, I was excited because that meant I'd finally get another chance at beating it. I did, and it took me over 8 years to do it. Since there is extra content and a handful of things to compare, I will probably review the remake a separate time.

The story itself isn't extremely grand or convoluted but it is better than your average Mario game and will likely keep you hooked on what happens next. The dialogue is what really makes the game and all of the characters will definitely get a chuckle out of you in some capacity. Bowser is the one who steals the show in this game though, not only is Bowser a bit of a goofball but you get to see more of his personality in general which is something you don't usually get in a Mario game. He is a fully three-dimensional character and not just a "bad guy who kidnaps damsel-in-distress."

The gameplay is a lot more engaging than most RPGs. It is turn-based but unlike most turn-based games you actually have control over your attacks for better or worse based on your timing. The same goes for enemy attacks as well since you will have to memorize their patterns and have the proper timing to avoid their moves. Even outside of the traditional combat, the game gets very unique with how it utilizes the DS's features. The stylus is used in mech fights and you do use it for certain moments where you're inside Bowser. Speaking of that, the gameplay really takes advantage of the concept of the Mario Bros being stuck inside Bowser. There are a wide variety of minigames and puzzles that make the game fun and give it a sense of immersion since you're usually shown what happens to Bowser as a result of what you're doing to him on the inside.

The soundtrack is peak Yoko Shimomura and rivals her work in the Kingdom Hearts games. The most memorable song to me is In The Final which you can obviously tell by its name plays when you fight the final boss. It makes the fight all the more badass.

This game was a fantastic experience and I'm glad it was my introduction to the RPG genre. It's easily one of the best games released on the DS. If you love Mario or/and love RPGs, you won't want to miss this one.

this game is fun? but why is it so horny?
there's:
vore
inflation fetish
weight gain kink
waterworks
scat

this is the Salo of the Mario universe

Almost funny how I remembered all the insane high points from the first playthrough but upon a replay I kept running into moments of "Oh... this part..." The tutorials, the mini games, the giant battles, not all of them are bad but they're not the reason why I enjoy this game. And I did say "not all of them are bad", there are definitely ones that I could go the rest of my life never playing again.
The combat, characters, visuals, music, and creativity are exceptionally strong, but despite that this is kind of a "one-and-done" game. That isn't inherently bad, but it can feel like a slog to replay it and re-experience some of the best moments in any Mario game.