Mario and Luigi are fighting some baddies inside of Bowser.

At its heart Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is an RPG in which one follows two connected stories in the Mushroom Kingdom. The main plot-line for most of the game stars Bowser as the protagonist. Fawful, a laughing, grammar-challenged roboticist has taken over Bowser’s castle, and plans to take over the entire Mushroom Kingdom with the help of Bowser’s converted army. As part of Fawful’s plan to debilitate Bowser, he causes Bowser to inhale things uncontrollably, including Mario, Luigi, Peach, and many residents of Toadtown. When the characters arrive in Bowser’s body, they find themselves shrunken, and able to navigate and adventure within his various bodily systems.

Mario and Luigi need to help Bowser defeat Fawful from the inside, and most of the plot alternates between Bowser adventuring and fighting, while Mario and Luigi help from the inside. When Bowser needs to lift something, Mario and Luigi help power his arms; when he needs to remember something, they help put together the pieces of his mind; and when he nearly dies, they return his spark from the inside, causing him to grow to enormous size, and enabling him to crush his giant enemies.

Pursuit

Much of the game is classic RPG-style exploration and menu-based combat. In true Mario fashion, individual attacks and defenses are perfected by well-timed button mashes. Attack values can be tripled or even quadrupled by pressing the button at just the right moment, and almost all enemy attacks can by nullified with the right timing; many of them can even be turned around into an offensive maneuver.

Mario and Luigi each have their own button, while Bowser has two different buttons for different move types, requiring the player to think about the timing and type of move necessary for each attack or defense. (more…)

A new trailer was released for Super Mario Bros Wii today.

CB and I got to play this game at E3, and trust me; it’s a blast.

We were on the scene at Nintendo’s E3 press conference, hoping beyond hope that they would announce an actual online service, or a Wii with an upgraded GPU for actual hi-def gaming.

We came away disappointed on both fronts, but at least we got to see some of their new game announcements. Lost in the sea of Even More Wii Sports and Fitness, we despaired of hearing of anything worthwhile.

Then, they showed Super Mario Galaxy 2. When the trailer began, an egg popped up, Mario jumped on it, and none other than Yoshi appeared. The crowd gasped in delight and a few ragged cheers arose from the tired journalists. Finally, hope.

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