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Reviews » Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time [DS]

Two years ago the newly-formed second-party Nintendo developer AlphaDream released their first game for the GBA. That game, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, was the start of the third Mario-based line of RPGs [preceded by Square's Super Mario RPG and Intelligent Systems' Paper Mario series]. AlphaDream took the aspects that made the previous series successful, such as merging RPG and platformer elements and having active battles that go beyond just queuing commands, and added a second dimension by allowing independent control of both Mario and Luigi during all parts of the game. The followup, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, manages to bring back everything that made the original great, including all the top-notch writing, and expands on the independent control aspect by introducing a second set of characters.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time starts off pretty much exactly as anyone who has played any Mario anything should expect. Welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom. Oh no, something has gone wrong. You need to go save the world/Princess/etc. The central theme this time around is Time. For reasons unknown, the Professor created some manner of time machine, which sent the Princess and some assorted servants back in time. Conveniently, at the same time, the Mushroom Kingdom was attacked in the past by some manner of aliens called the "Shroob". After all this occurs, time portals in the Mushroom Kingdom Castle in the present start opening up into the past, and Mario & Luigi are sent off to fix this situation. Along the way they find that their past-selves have managed to get caught up in this trainwreck, so all four [Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi] team up to set everything right.

Yes, this can lead to a wide variety of plot-holes and paradoxes. I suggest not thinking too hard about the plot or events that transpire, remember that this is just a game, you should really just relax. If you find yourself thinking "But wait, Mario should already know how to do this, because he's already done this, but he hasn't already done this, because I'm playing as Baby Mario right now . . but . . but . ." just stop. Leave all forms of critical analysis at the door. Did you over-analyze why eating mushrooms makes Mario big? Of course not, it's just a game.

The plot is really quite simple and irrelevant, but luckily the actual gameplay makes up for it completely. Sorta. The game is hub-based. The central hub of the game is the Mushroom Kingdom Castle in the present, the spokes that go outwards are the time portals to assorted areas around the kingdom in the past. In the Castle there's quite a bit to do, there are NPCs to talk to, gear to buy, secrets to figure out, but mostly it's just a hub. Once you head off into one of the time portals you end up in a very linear level, and you can see just how linear it is by looking at the top DS screen and examining the map. Generally rooms are one entrance / one exit, with very little reason to come back. Occasionally there are areas that are slightly more open, but only occasionally. Such areas usually just look open, when there's really a very straightforward and linear goal to be accomplished.

As you cruise around whatever level you've moved to, what needs to be done will generally be explained to you pretty openly. Go defeat this giant alien yoshi, shut down the evil factory, help a thwomp go on vacation, stuff like that. As you make your way through the area there will be puzzles to solve. Some are just navigation issues, like hopping across a set of platforms. Some require splitting up the team into two, and having the babies go off to the top screen to explore some tiny cave and flip a switch, so the normal bros. can progress. Sometimes you'll have to use special abilities, or combine special abilities from both teams. These puzzles are usually pretty innovative, but they're never really all that difficult.

Battles are similar to those in Superstar Saga and Paper Mario. Your team lines up on the left, enemies on the right. On your turn, pick a command and can perform a timed button combo for a slightly beefed up attack. On the enemy's turn, you can perform another timed button combo to dodge the attack or - even better - pull off a counter attack. Depending on how you're configured when you start a battle, you may have just the normal Bros, just the babies, or all four. In any case, each character gets their own button, and it stays that way the whole game. Mario is A, Baby Mario is X, Luigi is B, Baby Luigi is Y. Memorizing this comes in handy. It comes into play during battle because some attacks are only available to some characters. For instance, only the babies get hammers, so to use hammer attacks you have to use X/Y.

Bros. Attacks got a major retooling between Superstar Saga and Partners in Time. In Superstar Saga, Bros. Attacks were MP-based [well, ok, "BP-based"] special moves that required VERY precise button combos to pull off. If you managed to do them right, they'd be incredibly effective, but damn were they hard. In Partners in Time BP has been nixed entirely, the only stat to be concerned with is HP [but for four characters]. Instead, Bros. Attacks are now started by using special Bros. Items which can either be found out in the world or purchased from shops. There are 10 or so different Bros. Items, to give an idea of how they work, I'll explain some of them. One of the earliest Items is the Bro Flower, a standard Fire Flower that gets tossed back and forth between two teams. For whichever team [Marios or Luigis] has the flower, rapidly tap one of the buttons to attack. Choosing between Normal and Baby buttons to hit determines what kind of range you get. Normal Bros can only hit ground-based enemies, whereas Babies can hit flying ones. The flower gets tossed back and forth randomly, so you constantly have to switch back and forth between tapping A/X and B/Y.

Another early example is a green shell. If you just have two characters in your party, you'll kick the shell back and forth by hitting the associated buttons until you miss or the targeted enemy dies. If you have a party of four, the baby for the side using the Bros. Item will act as an extra added attack. So if you use a green shell as Luigi, you'll kick the shell back and forth using A and B, but right before the shell connects you can hit Y for an added attack. There are several more of these, each with their own attack styles and button combos, and once you get enough cash there really isn't much point left to normal attacks when you can whip out a Bros Item and do massive damage to all enemies. It's very easy to get very overpowered this way, but they aren't always 100% effective. It only takes a couple missed button presses to screw up an attack. It should be noted that even though there's a rather decent variety of Bros. Attacks, and they all have differing damage quantities, they're all usable. You won't run across any super esoteric ones that require you to memorize and perfectly time an 87 button combination to properly pull off like in Superstar Saga.

Experience and character levels are handled much as they were in Superstar Saga. After you gain enough experience from battles, you'll level. When you level-up all of your stats will increase slightly and you'll be given a chance to increase one stat a bit more than the others with a little slot machine. Don't underestimate that slot machine. It can easily help bring a stat up to speed with a bonus of +5 or +6. Stats are all pretty much self explanatory, except for "stache", which is kinda like luck and charisma smushed into one. It controls how easy it is to get a "Lucky Hit" damage modifier and controls your percent discount / resale markup at stores.

As you progress you'll get new weapons, new Bros. Items, new powerups, etc, but somehow none of these really fix the main problems with the game: It's small, linear, and overly simplified. The bulk of these problems can be seen in the whole hub aspect of the world. Hubs bother me. I like a game with an overworld, or at the very least, a really large hub so it doesn't feel like I keep getting sent back to a single room full of doors. Paper Mario 2 is a good example of a Hub game that doesn't feel like a Hub game. After every level you end up coming back to that first town, but it's ok because that first town is huge and keeps expanding, and once you get to your destination, those are mini-hubs too. In Partners in Time you go straight from a small hub to a small linear level, which you continue on through until you're done. There isn't even any chance to do stuff out of order, or even explore stuff out of order. And yet despite this, after a few levels all the portals open up. Sure, most of them lead you to a brick wall and make you turn around, but if you can't go forward, why even show them?

To further contribute to this cramped feeling, the main gimmick of the game - time travel - is very poorly used. There's only one place you get to see in both time frames and it's the castle. You can go to Yoshi's Island in the past, but can't go there in the present because the only ways out of the castle are through the time portals. This could have greatly expanded the length and depth of the game, and would have made perfect sense, but it wasn't even touched upon. Not even a simple "move something in the past so it's gone in the present" puzzle. Nothing. This was greatly disappointing, and because of this I think Partners in Time may feature the poorest use of time travel in any game I have ever played. They could have just as easily had the babies magically materialize in the present, and have you travel to these areas via normal pipes, and the game would have worked exactly the same.

Upon re-examining my Superstar Saga cartridge, it looks like the real problem is an increased feeling of compressed length. My actual complete times for both games were 15 hours for Superstar Saga and 17 hours for Partners in Time. So why does Partners in Time feel so short? I think there are a few factors that contribute to it. First, as previously touched-upon, the fact that it is a strict hub world makes the game feel short. It means that at any given time, you can take inventory and see just how little of a game there is left. Second is that there are very few spokes on the hub. In Superstar Saga there were many diverse places to visit, and since you traveled most everywhere on foot, the connecting bits felt like extra locations all their own. Third, there's a distinct lack of side quests. The only thing approaching a side-quest in Partners in Time is the bean collecting / bean shop, but that's so blatant that I'm not really sure I'd call it a side quest, it's just something else you do throughout the game. Fourth, the game feels like it abruptly wraps near the end. You spend the whole game collecting crystal star shards, and you collect them at a rather steady pace in the beginning, one per 'level'. But then, once you get to a certain point in the game before the logical conclusion of this process, you collect all the rest of the shards all of a sudden and the game starts wrapping up. It isn't the absolute worst rushed ending I've ever seen [sup, KOTOR 2?], but it's pretty apparent and jarring.

Finally, I think difficulty seriously contributed to the perceived short length of the game. Without powerleveling, and without mastering the more difficult Bros. Items it really isn't incredibly hard to finish any random battle within 2-3 rounds. By the time you get the Copy Flower Bros. Item it isn't hard to finish any random battle as soon as you get a chance to use the Copy Flower during the fight. Once you get some special equipment mid-to-late into the game, the difficulty goes completely through the floor, since you can have the ability to - for free - start every battle with a full powered Copy Flower attack. This kills everything. Instantly. Always. While I'm here complaining about difficulty, I'd also like to complain about bosses. In Partners in Time, every boss is gimmick-based. This isn't a normal RPG where bosses are always beaten by brute force alone, save for occasional bosses that are susceptible to cheap tactics [hurr, use a phoenix down on a zombie boss for an instant-kill]. Gimmicks are fine so long as you're still free to tackle the boss however you want, with varying degrees of success. The problem is that in Partners in Time, the gimmicks are often the only way to beat the bosses. The one exception is the final boss [ok, not the FINAL final boss, but the final normal boss], which you fight like a normal complex multi-formed RPG boss fight. And by "fight normally" I mean "Just constantly spam Copy Flower".

Despite these gripes about difficulty and perceived length [and lack of decent time travel utilization], Partners in Time is really still a good game. It's still very well written, funny, and quite pretty for a 2D RPG. It isn't game of the year material, but only because 2005 was a really good year for games, and there's just better stuff out there for the DS. But if you've already burned through all that other good stuff, definitely see about picking up a copy of Partners in Time. And if you liked any of its predecessors, put it at the top of your list.

Screenshots © Nintendo

M&L: Partners in Time - DS

Presentation

Another slick 2D handheld RPG from AlphaDream. If you appreciate such things, then super, good for you.

Gameplay

Though seemingly short and a bit too far on the easy side, gameplay is still solid. Just don't be looking for a traditional Final-Fantasy-esque RPG.

Replayability

I did nearly all there is to do on my first run-through. Lack of side quests and varying difficulties means I probably won't be coming back to it at all.

Value

I usually consider myself lucky if I can squeeze 20 hours of gameplay out of a $50 PC game. With Partners in Time I got 17h for $35. Not bad, but not amazing either.

Overall

Partners in Time is a quality game. If you've enjoyed any previous incarnations of Mario RPGs, it's definitely one to check out.