5/5 ★ – JetDusk's review of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

This was my very first Mario & Luigi RPG. For the longest I was only familiar with Paper Mario (Another Great Series!). It was a fantastic start, even though I didn’t know who Fawful was, he’s still a very charming and funny villain to pit against Bowser. The best part of this game is Bowser. His character is just as fun as he is in Paper Mario, and I absolutely love his focus on raw power and blundering through all his problems with force. It’s incredibly entertaining. Mario and Luigi are super fun as well. It’s nice to see the brothers together for an adventure, especially with the humor provided by Luigi, as well as Mario playing the straight man (He’s still up for goofy antics as well though). A is Red, B is Green, and there are super creative enemy patterns to learn and conquer over the course of the game. My only big complaints would be Story Pacing, Big Bowser Battles, and the tutorials. The story goes everywhere, and it keeps you on your toes with who you’ll be controlling next, but a lot of parts drag out for too long. The final area feels like it’s about to end at least 3 times, then you get thrown into another mini game to completely break the pace. The Big Bowser Battles have suffered over time. The novelty is great and fun the first few occasions, but the train and final fight suffer from imprecise Stylus Inputs. It’s infuriating to almost win and then have to redo a whole scripted 10-minute fight just because your touch screen didn’t react to your swipe. Finally, my god, there are tutorials everywhere. You get a new mechanic every other room, and there are so many mini games that come and go or overstay they’re welcome. Even in the FINAL AREA you get introduced to multiple new mechanics. It’s great they have ideas and want to spice up the game, but at a point you just need to ramp up to a finale instead of wasting time flinging balls around. Despite my misgivings, I love this game. 5 Stars because I love it, not because it’s perfect. But I want everyone to play it. The sprites are fantastic, the music is sublime, and the bosses are super exciting spectacles. It’s worth your time, I highly recommend it.