Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for Nintendo DS

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a 2009 role-playing game for the Nintendo DS, made by AlphaDream and released by Nintendo. Metacritic shows a Metascore of 90, and Wikipedia says it is the top-selling Mario role-playing game.

Overview

It is the third game in the Mario & Luigi series after Partners in Time in 2005. Nintendo revealed it at a Tokyo press event on 2 October 2008 under the Japanese title Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!!, and the English name was announced at E3 2009. Yoko Shimomura wrote the music and Charles Martinet voiced the brothers.

The setup is that Bowser inhales Mario and Luigi. They end up in his body and must help him, unaware of them, fight Fawful, who has taken over the Mushroom Kingdom. The tone is almost entirely comic.

How it plays

The game alternates between three characters. Mario and Luigi are steered together on the bottom screen with the A and B buttons, and Bowser is controlled on the top screen with X and Y. The overworld is seen from above, while the world inside Bowser’s body scrolls sideways. Bowser moves between areas through portals called Chakroads, hidden beneath objects only he can smash, such as trees and boulders.

Battles use the series’ turn-based system with timing: each attack or dodge needs a well-timed button press. Bowser fights in a similar way, specialising in punches and fire, and can inhale enemies that then end up inside his body, where the brothers fight them. Special attacks cost SP, and Bowser’s use the touch screen. The three characters have ranks that unlock bonuses like extra equipment slots, and the badge system changed so that a meter is filled and touched to trigger an effect.

Minigames let the brothers help Bowser from inside: the Arm Center strengthens his arms, the Leg Outpost his legs, and the Gut Check helps digest food. In the Rump Command, the DS is held vertically for a giant battle in which attacks need both stylus and microphone.

Release and credits

Wikipedia lists release dates of 11 February 2009 in Japan, 15 September in North America, 9 October in Europe and 22 October in Australia. Metacritic gives 14 September 2009 for the North American date. A copy came with a $169.99 white DSi bundle launched on 25 April 2010. Both sources name AlphaDream and Nintendo.

Sales in Japan were 193,000 copies in the first week, making it the top seller there, and 717,940 for the year. In the United States, the NPD Group ranked it fourth for its month at 258,100 copies. By 2020 it had sold more than 4.56 million copies.

Reception

Metacritic’s Metascore is 90, from 58 critic reviews. Nintendo Power was the first North American outlet to review it and gave 9.5 out of 10. IGN also gave 9.5 and an Editors’ Choice Award, GameSpot gave 9.0, Game Informer 8.75, and Official Nintendo Magazine 92 percent. X-Play and Giant Bomb each gave 5 out of 5, and Giant Bomb later named it its DS game of 2009. Praise was aimed at the story, humour and Bowser as the lead.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences nominated it for three awards at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, including Portable Game of the Year.

Can you still play it?

A DS cartridge of this game runs on the DS, DS Lite and DSi, and on the Nintendo 3DS family in DS mode. A Wii U or a Switch will not take it. Because the card is not DSi-only, Wikipedia’s region lock page implies any region’s copy will start.

It is a single-player game with no online features, so nothing was lost when the Wi-Fi Connection ended on 20 May 2014. Those who prefer a newer version can look at the 3DS remake from January 2019, which is a separate release that Wikipedia says swaps microphone prompts for buttons. The 3DS family was discontinued on 16 September 2020.