Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

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F or a few months now we've been slowly working our way through the Japanese version of Mario and Luigi's latest role-playing adventure on the DS, known simply as Mario & Luigi 3 over there. It's been great fun, but naturally a game like that doesn't really come into its own when you don't understand a word that's being said, especially considering that the series is well-known for its hilarious, well-written dialogue. So when we got the opportunity to properly sit down with some work-in-progress code of the English language game, we jumped at the chance. Finally, we could find out what's going on!

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Basically, all the stuff we thought we'd deduced from the Japanese version of the game turned out to be right. A nasty virus called "the Blorbs" has been spreading around the Mushroom Kingdom and causing Toads to swell to ridiculously large sizes, turning them into the shape of beach balls. For some reason, humans are immune so Princess Peach calls a meeting at her castle with Mario, Luigi and some of the unaffected Toads to try and figure out what's going on. During the meeting Bowser appears, attempting to take over the castle for the umpteenth time. Used to this sort of thing by now, Mario gives him a sound kicking (this battle acts as the game's tutorial mode for newcomers who aren't used to turn-based battling), booting him right out the castle.

Food For Thought
Bowser wakes up in a forest, where a mysterious stranger offers him a "lucky mushroom". After eating the mushroom the stranger reveals himself to be Fawful, the sneaky Beanbean Kingdom resident who wants to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. It turns out the mushroom isn't lucky at all - instead it makes Bowser inhale and swallow everything in sight, shrinking it so it all fits inside his stomach. The mushroom also allows Fawful to brainwash Bowser so, completely under his control, Bowser goes back to the meeting at the Mushroom Kingdom castle and swallows everyone in sight, including Mario, Luigi, Peach and a whole host of Toads. Hence Bowser's Inside Story - because Mario and Luigi are literally inside his stomach.

As a result of this, the game is split into two different adventures. On the bottom screen you've got Mario and Luigi, trapped in the depths of Bowser's stomach, trying to figure out a way to get out of there and defeat Fawful. Meanwhile, on the top screen, the now-recovered Bowser is also on the hunt for Fawful himself. So sometimes you'll be controlling Mario and Luigi in the side-scrolling platform-like stomach areas, sometimes you'll be controlling Bowser on the more traditional top-down RPG areas, and sometimes you'll be switching between the two to solve puzzles.

Drinking water as Bowser to raise the water level in his stomach and allow Mario and Luigi to get past obstacles, for example. Don't worry by the way, it's not all gut-related shenanigans for the plumbing pair. Later in the game they'll manage to get out of Bowser's stomach.

Combat on the bottom screen is similar to how it was in the previous Mario & Luigi games, in particular Partners In Time for the DS. All of Mario and Luigi's actions are controlled using the A and B buttons (A for Mario's stuff, B for Luigi's), and you deal out extra damage if you can press the button again just as you make contact with an enemy.

Choose Your Weapon
On the top screen however, Bowser's battles work slightly differently. It's still turn-based stuff but he has two main attacks which are controlled with the X and Y buttons - a punch attack and a flame attack. Instead of pressing the button again just as the attack connects as with Mario and Luigi, Bowser instead walks to his enemy and either slowly winds back a punch or slowly takes a deep breath (depending if you went for a punch or a flame). You have to judge the best moment to press the button again to stop winding up and get the most power out of the attack. It's a neat little quirk.

Bowser's Inside Story will be out on 9 October and we'll have a full review in issue 48 of Official Nintendo Magazine. Rest assured though, with its great sense of humour and its brand new special attacks, we reckon this is shaping up to be the best game in the series yet.