It’s summer!
You can use this time to go to the beach, hike up a mountain, spend some time with friends, or—fuck it, we’re playing some video games.
Hey, speaking of video games, you know what no one talks about anymore? Positives.
I mean, really think about it—when was the last time you heard someone say something good about a game that came out recently? Excluding Mario Odyssey, or Breath of the Wild, or Red Dead 2…you know what, forget it.
There are a TON of bland first person shooters about aliens nowadays, and while some of them are great, like Doom or…guys bear with me I don’t play a lot of first person shooters unless they’re on Roblox.
There was a time when those didn’t exist, during, in my opinion, the golden age of Nintendo: The DS.
During the DS era, you would get instant classics back to back.
I mean, there was also nonstop shovelware, but those usually come on good consoles.
Speaking of poor companies, a few months back, AlphaDream went bankrupt after getting very few sales on the remake for Bowser’s Inside Story, and the internet was heartbroken.
Mario & Luigi fans in general have trouble agreeing on anything for the most part.
Games like Dream Team, Partners in Time, and ESPECIALLY Paper Jam were heavily debated on.
However, there was one thing fans could agree on:
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is the best in the series.
But is that really the truth? Or are people just nostalgia-blind? Well, I guess I’m gonna find out.
So, a bit of context. Superstar Saga was silly, it had you explore a place called the Beanbean Kingdom and stop Cackletta, and her sidekick, Fawful. Remember him, he’s important.
It was a pretty simple story mixed with pretty simple gameplay, except for the Bros. Attacks, where you would press A and B in different ways to create a more damaging attack.
Nothing groundbreaking, but a neat game.
Compare that to Partners in Time, where you would team up with Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to stop the evil alien race called Shroobs, who…kidnap Toads, have trees strangle the life juice out of them, use that juice to power an alien Wiggler that power UFOs that take over the world.
It’s a pretty dark game, yeah.
It’s definitely not as simple as the first game, and Bros. Attacks were replaced with items you would use that are pretty much the same thing but use more than just jumps and hammers.
So we have a lighthearted story contrasted with a dark one, two buttons for attacks contrasted with four buttons, how do you mix this?
Sure enough, in Nintendo’s Tokyo Press Event in 2008, the third Mario & Luigi game was revealed, under the temporary name of Super Mario RPG 3!!! With three exclamation points. Neat.
Then, at E3 2009, they revealed its official name as Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story and said it was going to have a fall release.
So how about that inside story, huh? Well, we have a lot to talk about, because this game has a ton of inside stories.
So it starts with Toads becoming Blorbs (which somehow ISN’T an internet slang term) and Peach holds a meeting with Toadsworth to discuss the issue, inviting Mario, Luigi, a shitton of Toads, and the Star Sprite Starlow, or as I like to call her, ALPOS, which stands for annoying little piece of shit.
Bowser crashes the party in an attempt to kidnap Peach (again), Mario tries to stop him (again), tutorial (again), and Bowser somehow has 20 HP give or take.
Peach has telekinetic powers (SOMEHOW????) and yeets Bowser out of the castle.
Bowser wakes up, and OH MY GOD YOU CAN PLAY AS HIM WHAT-
That’s right, this time, you can play as Bowser himself, it plays a huge role in why this game is loved so much.
You can punch, breathe fire, and inhale.
What was that about inhaling?
Yeah, Bowser gets a weird mushroom from definitely not Fawful and loses his ability to breathe fire, gaining the ability to inhale instead. Don’t worry, he gets fire breath back later.
Surprise! It was Fawful, returning from Superstar Saga or arguably Partners in Time. He’s the main antagonist of this game, and honestly, the villain of this game being a returning character from a previous game is honestly really cool.
Fawful flies away, Bowser goes back to the castle, inhales everyone, and the rest of the game is spent inside his body. Starting to understand the title?
But like I said before, this game fuses the lighthearted tone of Superstar Saga with the tense tone of Partners in Time, with the dark stuff coming towards the end following an entity called the Dark Star, a relic that Fawful seeks in order to gain lotsa power and take over the world.
So, yeah, the rest of the game has Mario and Luigi fighting enemies and exploring new areas inside Bowser, who is also fighting enemies and exploring new areas. The Mario and Luigi segments are 2D platformer, while the Bowser segments are traditional RPG. This can lead to some great puzzles that utilize both groups.
This time, Fawful has a minion of his own, Midbus, who is Bowser’s rival and eventually takes over his own castle.
Let me tell you, Midbus’ interactions with Bowser are absolute gold.
There’s also the Elite Trio, made up of Corporal Paraplonk, General Guy, and Private Goomp. They make up pretty much all of the minion humor in this game. You know, the one liner-focused humor usually starring Bowser’s minions as they fail to defeat Mario? That. They eventually betray Bowser by locking him in a safe, but they’re still cool.
Some of the bosses even have some unique quirk to them, like when you get to Bowser’s Brain (my personal favorite area) and come across clones of Mario and Luigi. There’s also a Monty Mole train with Fawful’s face on it that you can only fire breathe on to hurt it, and it keeps hiding under mountains and such.
The characters in this game overall are pretty awesome. Well, except for ALPOS of course.
Okay, DEFINITELY don’t know if this is a hot take or not, but I CANNOT STAND Starlow. Stuffwell from Partners in Time was a little annoying, sure, but at least he pointed you in the right direction and stopped there.
Starlow, on the other hand, just keeps pushing and pushing and pushing it.
This game has no voice acting, yet whenever she talks I get annoyed.
If Luigi BREATHES, she’ll do endless bullying.
And she stays for the REST OF THE SERIES.
Oh well, enough about ALPOS. Let’s talk about the minigames, because this game has them.
One of the more prominent ones is when Bowser is stuck under something and Mario and Luigi have to power him up by whacking electric bolt thingies at his muscles with their hammers. It’s pretty fun.
There’s also one with a boat which is similar, and then, there’s the god forsaken carrot minigame.
So Bowser invades a farm and does something to a huge carrot, then the owner of the farm, a Wiggler, catches him and forces him to eat the whole thing.
Now Mario and Luigi have to break down the carrot pieces in his digestive system.
How this works is you use the stylus to break down the carrot pieces one by one, unless you find a body bomb (as I’ll call it) in one of the pieces, then it will explode and destroy a bunch of carrot pieces for you.
YET, THIS MINIGAME IS THE ONE THAT IS HATED THE MOST.
I know some people who have had to clear this in more than 10 attempts.
This minigame was kind of very bullshit.
But a pretty good lineup overall.
Now, the bosses.
Bosses are a staple in the Mario & Luigi franchise, there were an abundance of them in Superstar Saga, hell, there was an hour-long video of just fighting those bosses alone.
You can’t have a Mario & Luigi game without bosses. As the series progressed, there were a lot more unique ways to kill bosses rather than just hitting a brick wall until it breaks. Partners in Time had a decent lineup of bosses like that, but Bowser’s Inside Story had an excuse to make some quirky bosses thanks to being inside of Bowser.
The regular-sized Bowser fights are decent, nothing too special, but they’re still pretty fun. You inhale enemies that Mario and Luigi fight inside of Bowser. Neat.
The boss battles inside of Bowser are my least favorite of the three categories of boss fights, but they’re easily the most quirky in terms of design.
And then there’s the crown jewel in my opinion, the giant boss fights.
Good lord, these were fucking awesome, they even brought them back in Dream Team.
Literally the first giant boss is Bowser’s own fucking castle.
You use the stylus in these sections, and they were a ton of fun.
Unless your mic was broken when you went up against the Fawful Express, in which case…F.
Blizzard Midbus is really the last innocent boss before the endgame, and it’s a really cool fight, but we’ll get to the endgame later. For now, let’s talk about the music.
I am a man of my word, now we’re going to talk about the music.
This game has amazing music, and it’s pretty well-known on the internet. It’s not exactly the soundtrack of the internet like Kevin MacLeod’s tracks, but I’ve seen it been used in quite a few videos.
You have Grasslands, All the Way; Beachside Dream, the battle themes, Fawful’s theme, it’s a great soundtrack. And, it’s composed by none other than Yoko Shimomura, who composed most of and maybe all of the music in the Mario & Luigi games, and also Kingdom Hearts, Xenoblade Chronicles, Final Fight, Final Fantasy XV, and Nemo, which is an arcade game released in 1990. Which means no Marlin or Dory unfortunately.
So, you’re probably confused—Leafy, where’s The Grand Finale?
Well, I was actually saving it for this segment. The endgame of Bowser’s Inside Story starts when Midbus gets defeated once and for all, and Peach is released. However, the Dark Star gets released too, and Fawful absorbs it. Luckily, Bowser punches him, laughs, and the Dark Star gets stuck inside. So Mario and Luigi go to MURDER IT before it can do any real harm, witnesses the Dark Star copying Bowser’s genetic code, MURDER IT, then Dark Fawful is revealed to exist.
Then Dark Fawful remodels Peach’s Castle into Super Peach’s Castle of Fury.
THE LAST GIANT BOSS BATTLE IS PEACH’S FUCKING CASTLE OH MY GOD.
So Bowser kicks its ass, then goes back into the castle to kick Dark Fawful’s ass, then Dark Fawful turns into a SLIMY LITTLE BITCH BUGGER that questions his own catchphrase.
The Dark Star’s copy of Bowser inhales that bugger and takes full form, taking to the skies and waiting for Bowser.
Once Bowser comes, Dark Bowser sweeps the Mushroom Kingdom into something of a hurricane and monologues. Bowser says it all, really.
“Great dark hurricane! Seriously, perfect backdrop for an awesome final battle!”
And so it begins.
First off, there’s the music. I mean, if you haven’t heard this song already, what’s wrong with you? It’s all over the place. It can send two completely different vibes, one being “Hell yeah, final boss battle!” And the other one being…well, “We’re fucked.”
You have Dark Bowser throwing all these attacks at you, from throwing you in a cage and making you punch your way out, to throwing dark versions of your own minions at you.
Both sides can counterattack, really adding to the feel of a true fight scene, and probably the most fight scene the series will ever get.
Once Dark Bowser is defeated, Bugger Fawful will come back out, you inhale him, and Mario and Luigi take care of the rest.
Bugger Fawful grows to a freakish size and lets out a chilling chuckle.
You attack the glasses, then the legs, then the Dark Star itself.
Once Mario and Luigi are finished, Bowser will perform one...five KO punches, ending the final boss on a flashy note.
So Bowser regurgitates everyone out of his body, discovers that Mario and Luigi were inside of him the whole time, then they engage in their typical duel. The credits roll, and there’s a post-credits scene in Bowser’s Castle.
The Elite Trio want to crawl back to Bowser, and get rehired (fuck those guys) and then a bird comes in with a present from Peach. Bowser swats everyone away so he can enjoy his present in privacy.
And it’s none other than a cake, usually made for Mario, directed to Bowser.
And at this moment, it all came rushing back to me.
Just this once, Bowser deserved it.
A wholesome ending to one of the best Mario RPGs.
So, what have we learned?
Is Bowser’s Inside Story the best Mario & Luigi game?
Yeah, it probably is.
This game had so many gimmicks, whereas the other games would’ve been satisfied with one single gimmick.
You had the ability to play as Bowser, Mario and Luigi being inside his body, Fawful returning, 2D sections, giant boss battles, the list goes on.
This one is the most revered out of all of them by Mario & Luigi fans, and I can definitely see that.
Mostly because of the final boss being so amazing, but hey, if Wii Play can be judged by its tank game alone, why not?
But at least unlike Wii Play, everything in this game lives up to it.
This game got great reception, getting a perfect score on Giant Bomb, Nintendo Life, and X-Play.
I never played this game as a kid, so I can’t say I have any nostalgic connection to it, but that kinda works in this review’s favor.
Because I’m not saying all this out of nostalgia, I actually think this is a great game.
I recommend you give it a shot, it’s a fun time.
…Hey did you know that this game got a remake?
Yeah, I think it’s fine.
It objectively improved upon two things: Adding spooky music to the Dark Star fight and the Dark Fawful fight.
Everything else is subjective.
Bowser Jr.’s Journey is inferior to Minion Quest in my opinion, but whatever, it’s a fine remake.
With that, see ya.
You can use this time to go to the beach, hike up a mountain, spend some time with friends, or—fuck it, we’re playing some video games.
Hey, speaking of video games, you know what no one talks about anymore? Positives.
I mean, really think about it—when was the last time you heard someone say something good about a game that came out recently? Excluding Mario Odyssey, or Breath of the Wild, or Red Dead 2…you know what, forget it.
There are a TON of bland first person shooters about aliens nowadays, and while some of them are great, like Doom or…guys bear with me I don’t play a lot of first person shooters unless they’re on Roblox.
There was a time when those didn’t exist, during, in my opinion, the golden age of Nintendo: The DS.
During the DS era, you would get instant classics back to back.
I mean, there was also nonstop shovelware, but those usually come on good consoles.
Speaking of poor companies, a few months back, AlphaDream went bankrupt after getting very few sales on the remake for Bowser’s Inside Story, and the internet was heartbroken.
Mario & Luigi fans in general have trouble agreeing on anything for the most part.
Games like Dream Team, Partners in Time, and ESPECIALLY Paper Jam were heavily debated on.
However, there was one thing fans could agree on:
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is the best in the series.
But is that really the truth? Or are people just nostalgia-blind? Well, I guess I’m gonna find out.
So, a bit of context. Superstar Saga was silly, it had you explore a place called the Beanbean Kingdom and stop Cackletta, and her sidekick, Fawful. Remember him, he’s important.
It was a pretty simple story mixed with pretty simple gameplay, except for the Bros. Attacks, where you would press A and B in different ways to create a more damaging attack.
Nothing groundbreaking, but a neat game.
Compare that to Partners in Time, where you would team up with Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to stop the evil alien race called Shroobs, who…kidnap Toads, have trees strangle the life juice out of them, use that juice to power an alien Wiggler that power UFOs that take over the world.
It’s a pretty dark game, yeah.
It’s definitely not as simple as the first game, and Bros. Attacks were replaced with items you would use that are pretty much the same thing but use more than just jumps and hammers.
So we have a lighthearted story contrasted with a dark one, two buttons for attacks contrasted with four buttons, how do you mix this?
Sure enough, in Nintendo’s Tokyo Press Event in 2008, the third Mario & Luigi game was revealed, under the temporary name of Super Mario RPG 3!!! With three exclamation points. Neat.
Then, at E3 2009, they revealed its official name as Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story and said it was going to have a fall release.
So how about that inside story, huh? Well, we have a lot to talk about, because this game has a ton of inside stories.
So it starts with Toads becoming Blorbs (which somehow ISN’T an internet slang term) and Peach holds a meeting with Toadsworth to discuss the issue, inviting Mario, Luigi, a shitton of Toads, and the Star Sprite Starlow, or as I like to call her, ALPOS, which stands for annoying little piece of shit.
Bowser crashes the party in an attempt to kidnap Peach (again), Mario tries to stop him (again), tutorial (again), and Bowser somehow has 20 HP give or take.
Peach has telekinetic powers (SOMEHOW????) and yeets Bowser out of the castle.
Bowser wakes up, and OH MY GOD YOU CAN PLAY AS HIM WHAT-
That’s right, this time, you can play as Bowser himself, it plays a huge role in why this game is loved so much.
You can punch, breathe fire, and inhale.
What was that about inhaling?
Yeah, Bowser gets a weird mushroom from definitely not Fawful and loses his ability to breathe fire, gaining the ability to inhale instead. Don’t worry, he gets fire breath back later.
Surprise! It was Fawful, returning from Superstar Saga or arguably Partners in Time. He’s the main antagonist of this game, and honestly, the villain of this game being a returning character from a previous game is honestly really cool.
Fawful flies away, Bowser goes back to the castle, inhales everyone, and the rest of the game is spent inside his body. Starting to understand the title?
But like I said before, this game fuses the lighthearted tone of Superstar Saga with the tense tone of Partners in Time, with the dark stuff coming towards the end following an entity called the Dark Star, a relic that Fawful seeks in order to gain lotsa power and take over the world.
So, yeah, the rest of the game has Mario and Luigi fighting enemies and exploring new areas inside Bowser, who is also fighting enemies and exploring new areas. The Mario and Luigi segments are 2D platformer, while the Bowser segments are traditional RPG. This can lead to some great puzzles that utilize both groups.
This time, Fawful has a minion of his own, Midbus, who is Bowser’s rival and eventually takes over his own castle.
Let me tell you, Midbus’ interactions with Bowser are absolute gold.
There’s also the Elite Trio, made up of Corporal Paraplonk, General Guy, and Private Goomp. They make up pretty much all of the minion humor in this game. You know, the one liner-focused humor usually starring Bowser’s minions as they fail to defeat Mario? That. They eventually betray Bowser by locking him in a safe, but they’re still cool.
Some of the bosses even have some unique quirk to them, like when you get to Bowser’s Brain (my personal favorite area) and come across clones of Mario and Luigi. There’s also a Monty Mole train with Fawful’s face on it that you can only fire breathe on to hurt it, and it keeps hiding under mountains and such.
The characters in this game overall are pretty awesome. Well, except for ALPOS of course.
Okay, DEFINITELY don’t know if this is a hot take or not, but I CANNOT STAND Starlow. Stuffwell from Partners in Time was a little annoying, sure, but at least he pointed you in the right direction and stopped there.
Starlow, on the other hand, just keeps pushing and pushing and pushing it.
This game has no voice acting, yet whenever she talks I get annoyed.
If Luigi BREATHES, she’ll do endless bullying.
And she stays for the REST OF THE SERIES.
Oh well, enough about ALPOS. Let’s talk about the minigames, because this game has them.
One of the more prominent ones is when Bowser is stuck under something and Mario and Luigi have to power him up by whacking electric bolt thingies at his muscles with their hammers. It’s pretty fun.
There’s also one with a boat which is similar, and then, there’s the god forsaken carrot minigame.
So Bowser invades a farm and does something to a huge carrot, then the owner of the farm, a Wiggler, catches him and forces him to eat the whole thing.
Now Mario and Luigi have to break down the carrot pieces in his digestive system.
How this works is you use the stylus to break down the carrot pieces one by one, unless you find a body bomb (as I’ll call it) in one of the pieces, then it will explode and destroy a bunch of carrot pieces for you.
YET, THIS MINIGAME IS THE ONE THAT IS HATED THE MOST.
I know some people who have had to clear this in more than 10 attempts.
This minigame was kind of very bullshit.
But a pretty good lineup overall.
Now, the bosses.
Bosses are a staple in the Mario & Luigi franchise, there were an abundance of them in Superstar Saga, hell, there was an hour-long video of just fighting those bosses alone.
You can’t have a Mario & Luigi game without bosses. As the series progressed, there were a lot more unique ways to kill bosses rather than just hitting a brick wall until it breaks. Partners in Time had a decent lineup of bosses like that, but Bowser’s Inside Story had an excuse to make some quirky bosses thanks to being inside of Bowser.
The regular-sized Bowser fights are decent, nothing too special, but they’re still pretty fun. You inhale enemies that Mario and Luigi fight inside of Bowser. Neat.
The boss battles inside of Bowser are my least favorite of the three categories of boss fights, but they’re easily the most quirky in terms of design.
And then there’s the crown jewel in my opinion, the giant boss fights.
Good lord, these were fucking awesome, they even brought them back in Dream Team.
Literally the first giant boss is Bowser’s own fucking castle.
You use the stylus in these sections, and they were a ton of fun.
Unless your mic was broken when you went up against the Fawful Express, in which case…F.
Blizzard Midbus is really the last innocent boss before the endgame, and it’s a really cool fight, but we’ll get to the endgame later. For now, let’s talk about the music.
I am a man of my word, now we’re going to talk about the music.
This game has amazing music, and it’s pretty well-known on the internet. It’s not exactly the soundtrack of the internet like Kevin MacLeod’s tracks, but I’ve seen it been used in quite a few videos.
You have Grasslands, All the Way; Beachside Dream, the battle themes, Fawful’s theme, it’s a great soundtrack. And, it’s composed by none other than Yoko Shimomura, who composed most of and maybe all of the music in the Mario & Luigi games, and also Kingdom Hearts, Xenoblade Chronicles, Final Fight, Final Fantasy XV, and Nemo, which is an arcade game released in 1990. Which means no Marlin or Dory unfortunately.
So, you’re probably confused—Leafy, where’s The Grand Finale?
Well, I was actually saving it for this segment. The endgame of Bowser’s Inside Story starts when Midbus gets defeated once and for all, and Peach is released. However, the Dark Star gets released too, and Fawful absorbs it. Luckily, Bowser punches him, laughs, and the Dark Star gets stuck inside. So Mario and Luigi go to MURDER IT before it can do any real harm, witnesses the Dark Star copying Bowser’s genetic code, MURDER IT, then Dark Fawful is revealed to exist.
Then Dark Fawful remodels Peach’s Castle into Super Peach’s Castle of Fury.
THE LAST GIANT BOSS BATTLE IS PEACH’S FUCKING CASTLE OH MY GOD.
So Bowser kicks its ass, then goes back into the castle to kick Dark Fawful’s ass, then Dark Fawful turns into a SLIMY LITTLE BITCH BUGGER that questions his own catchphrase.
The Dark Star’s copy of Bowser inhales that bugger and takes full form, taking to the skies and waiting for Bowser.
Once Bowser comes, Dark Bowser sweeps the Mushroom Kingdom into something of a hurricane and monologues. Bowser says it all, really.
“Great dark hurricane! Seriously, perfect backdrop for an awesome final battle!”
And so it begins.
First off, there’s the music. I mean, if you haven’t heard this song already, what’s wrong with you? It’s all over the place. It can send two completely different vibes, one being “Hell yeah, final boss battle!” And the other one being…well, “We’re fucked.”
You have Dark Bowser throwing all these attacks at you, from throwing you in a cage and making you punch your way out, to throwing dark versions of your own minions at you.
Both sides can counterattack, really adding to the feel of a true fight scene, and probably the most fight scene the series will ever get.
Once Dark Bowser is defeated, Bugger Fawful will come back out, you inhale him, and Mario and Luigi take care of the rest.
Bugger Fawful grows to a freakish size and lets out a chilling chuckle.
You attack the glasses, then the legs, then the Dark Star itself.
Once Mario and Luigi are finished, Bowser will perform one...five KO punches, ending the final boss on a flashy note.
So Bowser regurgitates everyone out of his body, discovers that Mario and Luigi were inside of him the whole time, then they engage in their typical duel. The credits roll, and there’s a post-credits scene in Bowser’s Castle.
The Elite Trio want to crawl back to Bowser, and get rehired (fuck those guys) and then a bird comes in with a present from Peach. Bowser swats everyone away so he can enjoy his present in privacy.
And it’s none other than a cake, usually made for Mario, directed to Bowser.
And at this moment, it all came rushing back to me.
Just this once, Bowser deserved it.
A wholesome ending to one of the best Mario RPGs.
So, what have we learned?
Is Bowser’s Inside Story the best Mario & Luigi game?
Yeah, it probably is.
This game had so many gimmicks, whereas the other games would’ve been satisfied with one single gimmick.
You had the ability to play as Bowser, Mario and Luigi being inside his body, Fawful returning, 2D sections, giant boss battles, the list goes on.
This one is the most revered out of all of them by Mario & Luigi fans, and I can definitely see that.
Mostly because of the final boss being so amazing, but hey, if Wii Play can be judged by its tank game alone, why not?
But at least unlike Wii Play, everything in this game lives up to it.
This game got great reception, getting a perfect score on Giant Bomb, Nintendo Life, and X-Play.
I never played this game as a kid, so I can’t say I have any nostalgic connection to it, but that kinda works in this review’s favor.
Because I’m not saying all this out of nostalgia, I actually think this is a great game.
I recommend you give it a shot, it’s a fun time.
…Hey did you know that this game got a remake?
Yeah, I think it’s fine.
It objectively improved upon two things: Adding spooky music to the Dark Star fight and the Dark Fawful fight.
Everything else is subjective.
Bowser Jr.’s Journey is inferior to Minion Quest in my opinion, but whatever, it’s a fine remake.
With that, see ya.