Mario & Luigi - Les frères du temps

I had a lot of fun playing Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, but in the end it just proved to be too damn hard. Overall, there are more pros than cons but it's a close call.

Pros: Very cute, quite funny, gameplay is easy to get to grips with, nice graphics.

Cons: Too hard, loads of very, very long cut-scenes, not much to differentiate it from every other hand-held RPG out there, power-ups not so powerful, can get a bit repetitive, did I mention those cut-scenes?

I really must continue this gripe. It's something that is increasingly common in RPGs. I am sick to death of sitting through endless dialogue bubbles of generic dialogue. There should be a button that you can choose to press to skip by it all. But there's not. Even when you lose against a boss and have to try again you have to suffer the same crap over and over. I got completely sick of it. The worst part was when I spent 45 minutes killing a near-impossible boss only to be tortured with 15 minutes of unskippable dialogue crap. I was fighting against the clock as my DS was almost out of power. In the end I could not save it in time and I lost my game. If there was a way to skip the stupid dialogue I could have. It's at this point I gave up on M&L:PIT and I had to resist the urge of throwing my DS against a wall.

Man, writing this review has gotten me so angry again that I am seriously thinking about retracting my 7/10 score.

Graphics A Sound B- Gameplay B- Lasting Appeal B-

Although I never played Mario and Luigi, I know that it was released mainly out of necessity because there were no more Mario side-scrollers to port to the GBA. Its sequel, Partners in Time, also delivers the first new Mario adventure on the DS. The eponymous partners are actually AMrio and Luigi paired with their younger selves by means of E. Gadd's time travel device. Although the action commands prevent battle from being boring, they also seem a little unfair at times, with just average enemies being a one-hit kill if you don't dodge properly, rather than just shaving off a few points like they did in Papar MArio 1 and 2. Another problem I have is that you don't spend much time wandering around towns talking to the inhabitants, as that was one of the most fun parts of Paper Mario. Nevertheless, the story is funny and the gameplay is fun, so if you're a Paper Mariio fan, or a Mario and Luigi fan, this is definitely a must buy.

This is my first time playing Partner's in Time in July, 2024, and the game holds up extremely well, as most cartoon style Mario games generally do. I'm not generally a fan of RPGs, though I absolutely love the two Mario and Luigi games I have played, Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story. The observe/react based mechanics in battles makes combat much more exciting than a simple matter of grinding to win, and I found myself sweating during some of these boss battles. However, there are a few items you can find in this game that break most of the challenge. Namely, if you've played any other Mario and Luigi game, you know to be on the lookout for beans to get some sweet perks later in the game, but there's one particular badge you can trade your beans for that lets you be able to use any attack items you want for now cost. As soon as I got this item every single battle I could just use a mixing flower and end it instantly, and boss battles became far less challenging.

I don't recall any other Mario and Luigi games with game breaking items or perks like this. There were also plenty of other badges that felt like they were just making you incredibly overpowered rather than giving you aids to match your preferred playstyle.

Luckily this item isn't even something you're able to get until much later in the game if you get it at all, but I tend to feel a bit more down on a game when I figure out that the most efficient way to play it is also the least interesting.