Everybody knows Mario and the typical story.
Mario and Luigi are hanging out, Princess Peach gets abducted, adventure ensues as Mario (and in this case his jelly-backbone brother Luigi) are there to save her. Only this time there's quite the twist.
It all starts in the past, baby Mario kicks the crap out of Baby Bowser as he tries to kidnap (le gasp) Baby Peach. Then aliens. They attack the castle, wreak havoc, and take over.
MEANWHILE, IN THE FUTURE! Mario and Luigi are hanging out with Peach, and she uses some new-fangled time machine to go into the past, when it returns it is trashed, and a monster comes out, leading to Mario kicking butt yet again. Peach is nowhere to be found! (le gasp). Also suddenly time portals to the past are opening up all over the castle, so Mario and Luigi jump on in to find Peach and end up in the Mushroom Kingdom of the past.
A few things happen, aliens attacking a village, Baby Bowser in his Airship, and Both generations of the Super Bros. end up together working as a 4 man...err...2 man, 2 baby team, roped into finding the shards of the Cobalt Star, and saving Peach, all while saving Mushroom Kingdom from the evil Princess Shroob. (what, spaceballs?)
Story is classic Mario fare, as you can see, and it works well, there's little bits of comedy here and there, and the occasional interplay between the two generations of SMB is somewhat funny. Though it usually starts or ends with Baby Luigi bawling like...well like a massive baby.
Gameplay is the game's true shining point.
Battles start off simple, teaching you the basic battle mechanics, which are extremely similar to Paper Mario from the ol' N64, which is great. There are 'Action Commands' that you use to deal extra damage, requiring well-timed button presses for maximum damage output. You can also avoid most, if not all enemy attacks with well-timed reactions as well. Adding further depth to the system, there are Bros. Items, such as the Power Flower or Green Shell. These items are like Dual-Moves between the two bros. and require more complex key presses, but also have much better damage, or can attack all enemies at once.
The stat and equipment system is also rather straightforward, yet offers quite a bit of customization to the four bros. Every level they gain a few points to some of their stats, and then you can choose which stat to give a bonus roulette number to. Also of note, this game's Luck stat is named "Stache" and gives you a better chance at getting a Lucky (crit) as well as lowering your price for bought goods, and causing sold goods to sell higher. Because we all give discounts to people with awesome Moustaches right?
Equipment is simple. Pants, and a Badge. The Pants are rather ordinary, stat changes as you'd expect from gear, though they don't just enhance your defense, which is nice. You can also get Badges which offer interesting changes to the characters' functions (like simplifying reaction commands on items), or end-battle goodies (such as extra money, or possibly getting back a Bros. Item that you used), so there's a fair amount you can do to make the team work for you.
Outside of battles, you have to utilize both teams to solve puzzles, such as hitting buttons to move a platform on the bottom screen with the Baby Bros. while the Big Bros. ride the platform across a pit of spikes. Or hitting a button with Baby Mario's hammer after digging underground using Baby Luigi's spin-hammer-drill (what?) move to get under a gate. As you can tell, the Babies are a key part of the problem solving with the game. Typically you move Piggyback, but you can break the tandem and move both groups independently (though not simultaneously, so watch your timing).
Music is good as well, the classic chords and tones and melodies of Mario that everyone knows is familiar, but modified enough to sound new and not just re-using the old sounds we've all heard before.
All in all, I simply have to return to Battles though. I have sank 3 hours into the game so far, and fought my first 'real' boss. I liked the game before, but this fight is what really hooked me in and convinced me of the game's quality. If you don't want the strategy spoiled, skip the section marked for spoilers, but needless to say I was quite impressed.
Spoiler for :
Basically, I was fighting a giant caterpillar with two little buddies, and every round or so he'd drink from a cup of juice and supply some saucers with power to shoot their lasers at me. I spent most of the fight trying to survive earthquake shocks, laser beams, and angry clouds of poison while trying to figure out how to actually beat the boss. I was having a tough time, doing minimal damage and basically getting slowly beaten down. That was, until I figured out that I could make the little shroob buddies drop their poison mushrooms (random chance of them spawning either that or a power shroom after they attack, when you hit them they drop it) into the cup of juice, making it poison and weakening the boss, stunning it (no counter-attack) and making it take extra damage. A few rounds later applying the strategy of watching out for those poison shrooms, and I had beaten the boss. It was awesome. The depth of strategy just really captured my attention, which is something you don't see in very many RPGs of late.
In the end, after 3 hours of play I have to give the game an A. The game just works, and it's fun, the gameplay very well making up for the flat and standard Mario Story. But let's be serious here, nobody plays Mario for the story, we play it for the interesting and quirky gameplay that somehow always makes its way into the newest generation of Nintendo's top franchise. If you like Mario, especially Paper Mario, you'll love "Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time".
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