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

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey
Developer: AlphaDream
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: DS for Bowser's Inside Story, 3DS for Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey
System Played On: 3DS
Rating: 3 stars 

On June 30, 2023, I defeated Dark Bowser and Dark Fawful (both products of the Dark Star), thus finishing Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey for the Nintendo 3DS. In my playthrough of the Bowser's Inside Story part, I leveled up Mario & Luigi to level 34, which is rainbow rank (the highest rank), and I leveled up Bowser to level 31, which is master boss rank (the second-highest rank). I also found 76% of the blocks, 54% of the beans, and 89% of the music. In my playthrough of the Bowser Jr.'s Journey section, I discovered 94% allies, 100% of the enemies, 66% challenges and 18% formations. I also cleared all 89 quests, thanks to getting my squad level 57. My playthrough for Bowser's Inside Story took 31 2/5 gameplay hours, and my playthrough of Bowser Jr.'s Journey took 18 1/4 hours, for a grand total of 49 2/3 gameplay hours over a 2-month span. [WARNING: SPOILERS ALERT AHEAD!]

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story realized that 4 party members for 4 face buttons, like done for Partners in Time, was a bit too much, yet they didn't want to reduce it down to just 2 like in Superstar Saga. Therefore, the middle-ground was to have 3 playable characters. For this game, the 3rd playable character was Bowser. It only makes sense that a character as big as Bowser would take up the remainder face buttons. Yes, while Mario is the traditional A button, and Luigi is the typical B button, Bowser takes up X & Y. Bowser taking up 2 face buttons originally sounds helpful but ends up hurting. In regard to Mario and Luigi, when needing an action command, Mario is always A, and Luigi is always B. Regarding Bowser, however, when needing to do a quick time event, it could be X, or it could be Y. When you have to make quick-thinking reaction, it's easy to confuse the buttons, and that could be costly.

The 3 party members, however, do not play synchronous. Bowser plays separately from Mario and Luigi. This is the Inside Story of Bowser's Inside Story. At the beginning of the story, Fawful tricks Bowser into eating a vacuum shroom, which makes Bowser eat Mario & Luigi, as well as some Toads. Mario & Luigi spend a majority, if not most, of the game exploring Bowser's body. Bowser is the one exploring the outside world between Peach's castle and his castle. Therefore, the RPG battles will take place with either Bowser or both Mario & Luigi. Again, in regard to Mario & Luigi battles, the gamer merely has to tell which party member the attack is directed to, and then use the corresponding character's button. Regarding Bowser, however, the player has to figure which Bowser command counters the attack, which isn't always obvious. The kicker is that, in the 2nd half of the game, near the end, Mario & Luigi found a pipe in Bowser that leads to the outside world, allowing Mario & Luigi to traverse in between inside Bowser and the outside world. To quote CinemaSins, "WHAT ARE THE RULES?!" Did Bowser always have this pipe in him, or did he suck it up when sucking up everybody else? Did it always function in the sense it led to the outside world? How does it power itself? I don't get the point of this. I would have preferred the whole Mario & Luigi part of the game take inside Bowser, and leave Bowser alone the sole adventurer in the outside world. To me, the game should have ended when Mario & Luigi escaped Boswer's body.

Going back to RPG battles, Mario & Luigi have their traditional jump and hammer. Their special attacks, called Bros attacks, seem to be a combination of Superstar and Partners in Time. A lot of the attacks either come right from or are inspired by Partners in Time. The Bros attack are powered by Bros points, like in Superstar Saga, and not by items, like in Partners in Time. I like this best of both world approach. I liked the Partners in Time Bros attack better than the ones in Superstar Saga, but I like the single points system from Superstar Saga. The only problem, however, is to acquire these Bros. attacks, the gamer has to find puzzle pieces in a certain area. While well guided, they can still be missed. Bowser's regular attacks contain punching and fire-breathing, which fits Bowser. As a kind of sort of third attack, Bowser has inhale, which sucks up enemies for Mario & Luigi to deal with inside Bowser's body. I like this inclusion, as this is one of the ways to incorporate all 3 characters at the same time. Bowser has his own special attacks, known as Brawl attacks. When Bowser finds his minions in his exploration, he adds them to his party in the sense that he uses them for his special attacks. Whereas Mario & Luigi use their action buttons for their Bros attacks, Bowser uses the touch screen and stylus for his Brawl attacks. Ugh, why!?! It's somewhere between jarring and annoying that I have to take out my stylus to perform the Brawl attack, and then put it away for the rest of the battle. Half the time I just kept it out in my had while pressing the buttons.  Again, I ask why, just why. Speaking of which...

Well, way to go, everybody! Nintendo heard everybody mention how Partners in Time had so little touch screen input, so they stuffed it full of touch screen inputs for Bowser's Inside Story. In order for Mario & Luigi to activate parts of Bowser's body, it usually comes down to a minigame with touchscreen controls. The most famous (infamous) example is in the enzyme minigame for eating the carrot, but I didn't have too many struggles with it. As more touch screen minigames were added to gameplay, however, it became hard to keep track of which minigames requires which touch actions. It feels especially jarring when switching between button controls of the RPG battles and the touch screen minigames. Mario & Luigi has gone from not enough touch screen input to too much touch screen input.

Another added feature is when Bowser grows to kazu size to fight a building or a fortification. This too is based in touch screen. For these battles, the 3DS needs to be held vertical. While this is supposed to look cool, it does not feel cool. To start, the hinges of the 3DS gets in the way, unintentionally splitting a single image. On top of that, what's meant to be cool comes across as an inconvenience. The gamer has to turn the 3DS on its side when it begins, and then turn it back to normal when done. The player has to go to mashing buttons to furiously scribbling and tapping on the touchscreen. It almost feels like Alpha Dream or Nintendo had this gameplay mechanic in mind, but neither could think of a whole game of it, so they throw it into a Mario & Luigi game. This feels so out place. It does not need to be here.

Once again, Alpha Dream has a problem of escalating the final boss battle too much. On my final day of play, I did the battles between Fawful, Dark Star, Peach's Castles, and Dark Bowser/Dark Fawful. Those 4 battles alone took me 3 hours. Yes, each battle took about the same amount of time, so each battle took 45 minutes. Not only did the battle itself escalate, but the attacks within the battle escalate. One minute the enemies' attacks do 50 points of damage, and the next minute the foes' attacks do 150 damage! This makes it extremely hard to predict when to use items, and when you waste time to use items, you miss the window of opportunity to attack. I can't count the number of times that either a battle was elongated or I had to redo a battle because I miscalculated an escalated attack. Furthermore, Alpha Dream's final bosses once again gets an unfair amount of attacks. I can't count the number of turns when one of the bosses mentioned above got to use his entire arsenal of attacks before the player could even get off 1. Again, that turn is wasted if the gamer has to spend it using a healing item, only for the next turn to have the boss's whole arsenal of attacks to widdle down HP again. Once again, this feels unfair and unnecessary.

Just to briefly cover Bowser Jr.'s Journey. You'll notice Bowser Jr.'s Journey took longer than Bowser's Minion on Superstar Saga, 18 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours respectively. That's because Alpha Dream added more layers and gave it more depth. Bowser Jr.'s Journey adds "first mates," which gives Bowser Jr. extra leadership commands, which makes things more complicated. The 9 in your squad can form certain formations, which gives statistical advantages, as another layer of complexity. Whereas Bowser's Minions on Superstar Saga only had 1 extra challenge, a "true ending," Bowser Jr.'s Journey on Bowser's Insider Story has a whole after game, giving even more challenge. On top of that, Bowser Jr.'s Journey has a bigger and more complex story, especially considering it adds 3 brand-new antagonists. All these extra layers of complexity are good. I enjoyed them. My only complaint is that I got stuck in the middle and the end, which required grinding to advance. Still, I had to grind more often in Bowser's Minions, so Bowser Jr.'s Journey must have found a way to reduce it.

While not as exciting as the 4 party members of Partners in Time, the 3 party members of Bowser's Inside Story mixes up the formula from the 2 members of Superstar Saga. If the gamer is still wary about 3 party members, Bowser's Inside Story has the 3 party members play asynchronously, which still mixes up the formula plenty, considering both past and future games in the series. Bowser's Inside Story goes back to formatting of the Bros. Attacks from Superstar Saga, yet it keeps the style of the Bros. Items from Partners in Time, another example of the best of both worlds from the previous games in the franchise. Bowser's Inside Story utilizes the dual screens and the touch screen more than Partners in Time on the DS, for better or for worse. Bowser Jr's Journey fleshes out Bowser's Minions more, in both quality and quantity, making Bowser Jr.'s Journey worth playing more that Bowser's Minions. For all these reasons, I give Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey a 3-star rating out 5 stars. In comparison to the rest of the games in the Mario & Luigi series, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey falls somewhere between average and mediocre. I would just play it, whether that be for an hour or until the player gets bored, but by no means feel obligated to either finish it or complete it.