Gaming Nostalgia: Mario & Luigi – Bowser Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey (3DS) ~ It’s inside me, Mario!

Wikipedia entry – Nintendo Microsite

Remember the Zelda project, Final Fantasy project, and the Tomb Raider project? Well, today a new project drops all about Mario! The mad man, The Well-Red Mage found over 100 bloggers to write about the Mario series in the style that I found several bloggers for talking about the Zelda series and the Tomb Raider series. In any case, of course, I’m a part of this collaboration of fine bloggers! Now, you can find the hub article where you can find links to all the other articles here: [LINK TO ZE HUB BABY!] And in this article I’ll talk about my adventures and thoughts of Mario & Luigi’s Inside Story + Browsers Jr.’s Journey. So, let’s go with this Mario RPG!

It’s a me, a remake!

This game tells the same story as the original Nintendo DS game released in late 2009. From what I can see, most of the changes in the game are focused on the graphics. While the original game has a more 2D look to it, the remake has a more 3D look to the visuals. You can see a great comparison in the video created by aWiibo where both versions are set side by side.

On top of that, this game has an additional story mode telling a story about Bowser Jr. This mode adds 7-ish hours of playtime if I compare the times on howlongtobeat.com. But, the game almost doubled in playtime for people who want to play the game to its full completion.

There is another writer taking a look at the DS version of this game, but I’m focusing on the remake of the game. While I haven’t finished the game for this article due to time constraints, I did some research to make this article interesting in another way.

Some random facts

So, did you know that this game is one of the final games released by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS? It wasn’t the last Nintendo published game on the 3DS however, that honor goes to another remake: Kirby’s Epic Yarn a bit later in March of 2019.

The title of this game in development was Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!!. Since it was the 3^rd Mario & Luigi game. Before this game, we got Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga on the Gameboy Advance and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time on the Nintendo DS. So the title makes a lot of sense since it’s the 3^rd game in the series.

For some reason, Nintendo skipped over remaking Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and remade this game. Partners in Time is the only one of the three first games that didn’t get a remake on the 3DS.

Something that I found quite strange is that there are a lot of leftover sound effects from Yoshi’s Story and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time in the rom for the original DS version. This isn’t the case in the 3DS version.

This game got two updates. The first update fixed an issue where you could soft-lock yourself with Luigi. In the second patch, a sound issue was fixed in the Music menu under records.

According to the TCRF (The Cutting Room Floor), there are various test rooms left in the final version. You can read about them in more detail on the page of this game.

After releasing this game, the developer AlphaDream filed for bankruptcy protection. Which is a shame since we might not see a Mario & Luigi RPG on the Switch. Maybe Nintendo can get the IP to another developer?

My thoughts

So, apart from those interesting facts about the development of this game; let’s give my opinion on this game. I won’t give my full opinion on this game just yet since I haven’t finished the game and I’m planning to write a review about this game in the future anyway.

Now, the tricky thing is that I had almost finished the DS version. I was close to reaching the final area. But then disaster struck. I lost my save file and I felt a bit too discouraged to restart the whole game to get to the point I was at.

It’s a darn shame since the game is quite a lot of fun to play. If you have played the two previous games, you know what to expect here in terms of gameplay. It’s an RPG where you play as Mario & Luigi, where the A button controls Mario and the B button controls Luigi. This is also the case in the battle mechanics where you have to rhythmically time your button presses to do more effective attacks.

The annoying thing is that I’m anything but rhythmic. So some battles took longer for me since I wasn’t able to do all the attacks at full damage. I did improve the more I played the game, but I rarely got consistent.

Yet, I did enjoy the game for silly and unique storytelling. In this game, something strange happens with the toads. They swell up like a balloon getting the nickname “The Blorbs”. After some investigation, all the affected toads act a strange mushroom created by the mad scientist Fawful. So, Princess Peach orders Mario & Luigi to set out and try and find a solution. But, then Bowser tries to kidnap Princess Peach. When this fails, Fawful lets Bowser eat a vacuum mushroom and this sucks Mario, Luigi and various other characters from the mushroom kingdom inside Bowser. Mario & Luigi have to help Bowser to regain his strength in order to escape and find a cure for the Blorbs.

The multiple layers of the story are something I truly love. The writing is rather humorous and lightweight. There isn’t a lot of voice acting, but the voice clips that are used help a lot to understand which emotion is in that certain part of the dialogue.

Bowser Jr.’s story takes place during the events of the main game. So, the additional story is a bit of a side story. Currently, I’m playing through it and I’m going to keep my opinions and this quite interesting side story a secret.

Now, I much prefer the visual upgrade from the remake over the original. I have looked at various screenshots and video comparisons of the original game and the remake. I think that the remake’s visuals feel more alive and pop that much more. It makes the original look more like a sort of Saturday morning cartoon from a decade ago.

Anyways, I think I’m going to end off this short look back at Mario & Luigi’s Bowser Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey. That’s a mouthful. That said, I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

Wahoo! You are a Super Reader! But the adventure doesn’t stop here… There’s more of this project in another castle! This article is just one level in an entire Super Mario Multiverse, a galactic collaboration between writers around the world sharing a bit of our hearts and memories about our favorite Mario games. Visit the Center of the Multiverse to see more:

https://thewellredmage.com/2020/03/10/center-of-the-mario-multiverse/

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First Impression: Broken Sword 5 – The Serpents Curse (PC – Steam) ~ Fan Funded!

Official website

Gorge and Nico are back baby! In the full 2(.5)D glory. When I saw this game being created by a Kickstarter I was hyped. And the big surprise is that the studio’s budget was as big as the money donated by the fans. Sadly, I wasn’t in time to donate. But I think some promotion like this will pay my debt back. If you wonder what I’m talking about, let me explain to you. I’m a big fan of this series. It’s the best point and click adventure game build in Europe. This game actually made me enjoy this genre of gaming, and it stuck with me ever since. For my Christmas present I actually asked to get the collectors’ edition of this series. And recently, this game popped up on Steam. Also, this game is only 20 bucks! And in addition to that, the big finale, which is going to be released at the start of next year, is going to be free if you bought the first episode. Anyway, enough introduction! Let me know in the comments what you think of this game and / or my article. 

Story, not perfect.

In terms of story, this game is neat. A story in this series starts with a big problem and then through-out your adventure you start to learn what has been going on. And some conspiracy is always the outcome.

The writing is again brilliant, yet it’s a bit weaker this time around. Don’t get me wrong, I think some moments are hilarious and some thrilling. Yet, it doesn’t have the right power to be as good as the previous stories. Lots of critics complain about it. But it’s something different that destroys the story for me.

It’s the presentation of the story that’s flawed. I’ll talk about the graphics later. Just to be clear, I’m talking how the story is being told to us. One thing that bothers me is that the dialogue isn’t fluid. The next line waits until the animation is done. This makes for sometimes short and awkward pauses in a conversation and that breaks the immersion a bit.

Talking about the animation, it’s pretty well. They are pretty realistic and well-made. Each character has its own set of animation like his or her own personality. With the brilliant voice acting, the animation is top-notch. If you ignore one thing though. The lips. I don’t know how, yet sometimes when a character speaks their lips don’t seem to move. As if they were thinking. And that’s the second issue with the story for me. I start to notice that and the charm of the story goes lost.

New and better!

Apart from the issues with the story’s presentation I have one other complaint with this game. And that’s the movement. For one, there isn’t a run button. And secondly, you can’t really walk freely around without having to click on things. That’s what I dislike the most about this game.

Yet, the game is more newcomer friendly. With a great tutorial, that’s optional (take notes devs!), you get introduced to the game’s mechanics really easily.

Also, the fact that hints now unlock way easier is a big plus! In addition, the presentation of the hints is just amazing. It’s the question people ask when they are stuck. Like “I can’t get the door to open. What should I do?” And while I love to find out everything by myself, I sometimes can’t resist clicking the hint button to enjoy the writing.

Now about the graphics. They are mind-blowing. If you look at screenshots and such, the characters might not really fit in. I give you that. But keep in mind that apart from that, everything is hand drawn. And I get a realistic feel. Like real characters sat in front of a green screen. And I do think that this style fits the series extremely well.

The puzzles itself are again incredible.  Some make you truly think, and I honestly missed that. Also, the style of achievements like in Alan Wake to take your progress is just a neat idea. That way you have a nice list of how far you are in the game. Yet, I do find it extremely silly that every achievement displays “100%”. Almost like they are somewhere visible. Yet, I do think, while it’s neat and all that, this makes for spoilers. As the achievements give some spoilers if you would display them on the steam page.

Just exploring.

The music of Broken Sword was never really my favorite to listen to. And please, don’t get me wrong. I don’t turn it off or anything, it builds the atmosphere really well. Yet, I enjoy more melodic pieces of music instead of the music of Broken Sword. So, what I say is that this game has as a critic’s standpoint, great music. Yet, it’s out of my interest zone.

What could have used some polishing work is the sounds. I feel like the music is there to “cover up” the lack of sound effects. There were many moments where my mind added sound effects. Like in dialogue or walking sounds. That would have been amazing.

The story has been cut into two. I’m really curious to the rest of the story. Since this time it’s more than just a murder. It’s also a theft. And you are a prime suspect. Also, you can see that the characters moved with time. Some characters return, and they are as great as ever.

I have only finished 19% according to the achievement list, so I have a lot of left to play. And in my full review when I full beat this game, I’ll also talk about the options and more in depth of every aspect of this game. So, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this article. And now I’m going to enjoy myself a bit of Broken Sword 5! I have been waiting on it.