Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey 3DS Review

The Mario & Luigi series has seen incredible popularity since its debut with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is regarded as one of the best in the series. It brought back Bowser as a playing character and teaming him up, unknowingly, with Mario & Luigi; something that hasn't been done since Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Like the remake of Superstar Saga Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey brings back the original game with updated visuals, new content, and changes to the original game that makes it more accessible. For those who missed out on this gem of an RPG now is your chance to experience this outstanding adventure and if you did there's plenty of reasons to journey again with Mario, Luigi, and Bowser again.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story still maintains the original narrative, a disease called "The Blorbs" has been spreading across the Mushroom Kingdom and causes the residents to balloon and roll around uncontrollably. Bowser consumes a "Vacuum Shroom" that causes him to inhale everything in sight, allowing the Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser's realm to be taken over by intruders. Bowser unknowingly joins forces with Mario and Luigi to retake control.

The visuals have been improved from the DS version, with more detailed sprites, animation, and resolution. The character models move and act with more fluidity and the developers have implemented a dedicated simultaneous jump button for Mario and Luigi for those timed platforming leaps. Other than that, the game's story and gameplay remain largely unchanged.

Players will engage in turned-based combat that relies heavily on timed defensive and offensive attacks. When attacking the player much performed timed actions or input certain commands to maximize damage while performing similar defensive actions to avoid damage and counter-attack. Players will need to act effectively in both areas in order to succeed since enemies can attack multiple times. Special attack tests your speed and accuracy as you'll need to perform fast actions to maximize damage such as cleaning a dog or throwing stars. These timed actions extend to exploration and platforming.

During the platforming portions of the game, the player will need to do special actions to navigate obstacles and break barriers. For example, drinking water as Bowser will flood his body with water and allow Mario and Luigi to reach new heights while Mario and Luigi can do similar things inside Bowser to trigger things. Bowser also has his own abilities such as breaking boulders and breathing fire. There are minigames peppered in as well and the included musical challenges allow for some incredibly fun artistic games as you match the beat with the actions being performed.

Returning from Mario and Luigi: Dream Team is the vertical battles where, instead of Luigi, Bowser grows and takes on larger foes. Before these battles were a bit tedious due to the necessary need of blowing on the DS' microphone and using touch controls but here it is much more responsive. Most likely due to the 3DS improvements on these features.

Bowser Jr.'s Journey is a separate campaign added to the game that serves as a side story for Bowser Jr. during the events of the main campaign. Bowser Jr.'s adventure is a tactical strategy game where rows of Bowser's minions clash with enemies. The combat is more passive as you line up your forces to clash with the opponent. It's a fun distraction and those who played the original will find a lot to love here, especially if you enjoyed the story.

What is much different in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey is the challenge. Those who played the original will find this version of the game much easier than the original. For example, the eating parts of the game required fewer taps to destroy the food and ended quicker than the original. In addition, the final boss was much easier to defeat in this version of the game.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey is an outstanding RPG with welcoming modern updates. The visuals are stunning and the addition of Bowser Jr.'s Journey provides more reasons for newcomers to replay this incredible adventure. It's a lot easier than the DS version of the game but this was a minor issue. From start to finish Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey will bring a smile to your face.
 

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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