Really great pacing throughout the game and good humor too.
The combat is really good even if it becomes a bit oversaturated at times
pretty much all of the bowser parts are straight heat and the Mario and luigi parts are have some really great things too
The final boss was really good and so was the fawful boss fight
Characters are solid (except for the emoglobins) but for some reason I do lack a bit of emotional connection to some of them
My main complaint that keep it from being a 10/10 is just too much fighting of the same enemies over and over again
I like to fight everything in each area and they just stuff the same guy over and over again way too much in my opinion
also for some reason I feel like other than the final fights the game dragged towards the end

This game awoke my true feelings for Bowser when I was 6. Thank you AlphaDream.

(REAL NOTE THOUGH!!! I adore this game, the music rocks, the writing rocks, everything rocks!!! I love playing as bowser and I truly do adore his writing, he's such a funny character and he's sooooo cool!!!! There's so many iconic moments it's insane. I've replayed this game probably every year for the last three years and I adore it everytime. This game genuinely makes me want to cry everytime I beat it since it makes me so happy, it's embaressing to say but it's true. Amazing game, please play it.)

(Note: BIS is an abbreviation of the games title for brevity’s sake, just thought I’d clarify)


For the last 8-9 years I’ve heard near endless praise levied at this game constantly. Next to Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door this is frequently talked up as one of the best Mario spin-off titles, Hell some people even think it’s better than Thousand Year Door just to give you some perspective. Of course this begs the question of what I thought of it as a huge fan of the last 2 Mario & Luigi games? D’ya not see the rating, I fucking loved it!

I’ll admit the story might not be as concise as the last 2, it mostly follows Bowser travelling the overworld and getting into assorted shenanigans, but I honestly don’t mind because Bowser’s just such a fun character in these games. Bumping him up from tritagonist to main character really shakes up both the story and gameplay for the better, and the more emphasised snark and ego he often displays adds way more personality to him than even the best of the main line games can manage. Of course the other noteworthy thing about this game is the return of Fawful, this time as main antagonist. Needless to say he’s still just as fun and entertaining as he was in Superstar Saga, and watching the clash of egos between him and Bowser was an absolute riot.

BIS also isn’t without its fair share of entertaining new characters, such as Broque Monsieur, Midbus and the Elite Trio. However perhaps the most notable of the newbies, if only because she went on to return in both of the following games, would be the Star Spirte Starlow. On paper she mostly serves the same purpose as Stuffwell from Partners in Time, in that she’s a way to give the player tutorials on certain mechanics in a less sterile way than just explaining it to the player more directly. However while Stuffwell was so forgettable and honestly pointless to the main plot that I didn’t even feel the need to highlight him, Starlow isn’t. She’s an active participant in the plot and actually has a proper personality besides occasionally making crappy puns. I know some fans don’t like how much of a dick she can be to Luigi, and I’ll admit I was put off by that at first, but provided you go out of your way to do a certain optional boss fight, (if you know, you know) there is a scene where she does apologise and acknowledge that Luigi is indeed just as great as Mario, so she gets a pass on that front. I mean they totally walk back on that in Dream Team but that’s beside the point.

BIS also dabbles in some world building, albeit in small doses. Superstar Saga kinda did this with the Beanbean Kingdom, but really it didn’t contribute a massive amount that the setting was wholly different to the Mushroom Kingdom aside from the odd exchange rate joke. Likewise for Partners in Time which didn’t really use the time travel plot point to enrich the lore at all. Here though we’re given a slight bit of that with what’s arguably this games MacGuffin, the Dark Star. The fact the Star Sprites, which are arguably the Mario equivalent to Demigods, had to come in to assist in sealing it away adds a lot of weight behind just the power of the thing, which of course leads to added tension once we learn Fawful is after it. I do wish we got some more expansion on it as more of a character seeing as how it does talk from time to time, but it works just fine as this mystical apocalyptic force.

Now that all that’s out of the way, I can finally talk about the gameplay, or rather the few bits that this game introduced. With Bowser being one of the 3 leads now that obviously translates to combat sections where you play as him in turn. These aren’t a huge step up from the regular combat other than the enemies having more jacked up health to accommodate for Bowser being stronger, but it’s still really fun getting to blow through enemies as the Koopa King. We also get a slew of mini games throughout that either involve very specific button mashing or often using the DS stylus. While some of these can be a little annoying they’re never enough to kill the pacing or make me want to put the game down, even the infamous carrot mini game wasn’t all that bad. This also marks the debut of giant battles which are, ok. The touchscreen controls are kinda finicky and sometimes my inputs don’t even seem to be registered, but again they’re not a deal breaker, not even the Fawful Express which actually WAS just as bad as people make it out to be.

Oh and the soundtrack is absolute gold, I really haven’t given Yoko Shimomura the kudos she deserves for her work on these games. Be it the area themes or the battle themes Yoko manages to pull off some really impressive stuff given the DS’ sound capabilities. All of this ultimately culminates in what might be my favourite final boss fight in any Mario game. The settings intense, the story’s reached its peak in tension, the integration of both the Bowser and Bros combat sections are fantastic, and it’s all capped off with Yoko pushing the DS’ sound limits to create one of the most amazing final battle ballads I’ve ever heard.

Well that’s that, I went in with high expectations and even then I was blown away by this. In a few years this might end up being my favourite game possibly. In the meantime I want to implore all of you to PLAY. THIS. TRILOGY. They have their ups and downs, but after Mario’s massive stagnation for most of the 2010s these games are a huge breathe of fresh air, not to mention just really fun and engaging. The original Superstar Saga and Partners in Time are available through the Wii U eShop for dirt cheap, with the former also being remade on the 3DS, and Bowser’s Inside Story is stupid easy to get a copy of these days. Please, if you haven’t played these 3 before, do it! You might not love them as much as I do, but I can assure you that you’ll almost definitely have a good time with them.

10/10

This game is pretty much the same as the original Superstar Saga in quality to me, though I do really enjoy Bowser's personality and the use of the dual screen setup of the DS which gives it unique points. It also has some overall improvements, like the Bowser gameplay shaking things up and the special attacks being more dynamic and interesting, but I think if you didn't like Superstar Saga you wouldn't like this game and the same goes for if you liked it. Definitely get this game physical if you can, while still enjoyable on emulators I'm sure I can't imagine it'd be the same.

It's unfortunate that Alpha Dream went under. Clearly, the Mario & Luigi series had a team of talented developers behind it. They made a successful formula with Superstar Saga and Partners In Time. Bowser's Inside Story feels quite inventive with the addition of playable Bowser in the overworld. This leads to a lot of gameplay interactions between Bowser and the Mario brothers who, weirdly enough, find themselves in Bowser's insides as the main premise of the game. This predicament is caused by the returning villain, Fawful, who completely steals the show in terms of character writing. I think that's a big reason why this series is so beloved. The characters have far more personality and charm than main series Mario entries, where Mario is still just a blank slate.

I think the gameplay of Bowser's Inside Story is a massive standout. It follows various RPG tropes like random encounters and usable items, but what it brings to the table cannot be understated. The game follows a unique combat system that gives the player a chance to avoid enemy attacks. If the player is able to remember the enemy patterns, they can be rewarded by dodging at the right time either by jumping or swinging their hammer. With this alone, the game has it's own feel. This feature is massive for player engagement because fights suddenly demand your attention. Also, enemies will often cue specific attacks with subtle actions. Learning these patterns is honestly very satisfying and goes a long way towards this game being fun and interesting. However, I can't help but feel that the game loses it's in this idea too easily. There is a lot of enemies to remember and having to be fully wired in to each fight can be a little overwhelming. Some of the boss fights feel especially unrelenting, as they can deal massive damage as a result of small mistakes. I'm not really sure where the balance is. The combat system overall is good, but not without flaws like this.

In conclusion, I think this game is good. It's a bit of a hidden gem from the DS era that I think would be worthwhile for RPG fans to check out. There's a lot of campaign to unpack and it brings some pretty good ideas to the table.

from my twitter media thread:

top 1 DS game and top 1 mario & luigi game and its not even close. rip alphadream i'm so sad a poorly timed remake of this phenomenal game is what killed the company. i hope we can see more of this series someday

addendum:

nothing to add. top 1 DS game still