When I first came to Vizzed, it was especially for two games. One of them was Hamtaro Ham Ham Heartbreak, as I had played its prequel on a site called PlayR. The other game I wanted to play was this game, because around that time Bowser's Inside Story came out and discovered that there was this game as well and I could play it online. I asked my mom if I could download the plug in and after I had the allowance to do so, I played the game. However, I quit at some point because I didn't train enough and the last worlds were getting too tough for me.

I tried this game a second time but lost motivation halfway and quit again. But then I tried a third time, and recently I finally finished this game, 3-4 years after I tried this game for the first time and signed up for Vizzed.

This game is one of my all time favourites and it's really impressive, so I really am excited to make this review, let's get this started!



Story: 10
If you have played platfomers from Mario, then the story is very simple. Bowser kidnaps Peach and you rescue her. However, if you play a Mario RPG then you will be impressed by the various and interesting stories, this one is no exception.

The story starts at Peach's Castle, there are fireworks because the 'Goodwill Ambassador' from the neighbor Beanbean Kingdom arrives. Two people walk in, a long person with a yellow kind of cloak and a little person who is holding a small box. The long person says that she wishes to improve her kingdom's ties with the Mushroom Kingdom, and she brings a gift from Queen Bean. The little person walks up with the box, when suddenly a small jack in the box comes out and blows gas on Peach. The toads, who were standing as a guard of honor with blazons, are shocked. The long person reveals itself, and it turns out to be somebody else, and she casts lightning everywhere. The little person is also part of the plan, and sucks up the gas around Peach with some kind of vacuum helmet. Peach faints, and the two laugh as two evil persons would do and they fly out of the castle to some kind of thundercloud resembling the long person.

The story then goes to Mario & Luigi his house, and we see Luigi hanging up Mario his clothes outside on a line. A toad comes rushing in and he asks Luigi if he read the Kingdom Courier but Luigi shakes his head, meaning he hasn't and the toad runs inside the house to look for Mario. He finds Mario but he finds him naked (don't worry, we only know this because we hear him screaming behind a wall) in the shower and immediately runs out, heavily ashamed and runs against a closet. Mario comes out with a towel around his body, goes to the toad and jumps on his head. The toad mutters something about Princess Peach, rushes outside, jumps in his hanging clothes, gets dressed in one second and runs to the castle pulling behind him Luigi, strangling in the line.

When they enter the castle, they see Bowser and attack him on accident. A fight starts which Mario easily wins and the toads explain that Peach her voice is stolen. The perpetrator came from the Beanbean Kingdom. Bowser decides to take Mario along on his quest to rescue Peach her voice, so that he can kidnap her without causing his castle to blow up because of Peach her current voice, which are explosives.

Throughout their quest, a lot of things will happen. Luigi was originally planning to stay home but Bowser thinks he's a minion and takes him on board. They will meet the villains, the long Cackletta and her small pupil Fawful and Fawful will fight with the Mario Bros. He loses, but blows up the Koopa Cruiser, Bowser his airship, and the brothers crash down, trying to save Bowser but he gets shot off by a cannon, leaving the brothers alone on their quest. However, he returns later on. The bros also learn that Prince Peasley, the hero of the Beanbean Kingdom (like what Mario is for the Mushroom Kingdom) has disappeared, and was last seen talking with somebody who matches the
description of Fawful. They find Fawful and he blocks the brothers their part.

This story gets a lot of interesting plot twists later on, which I really would like to tell but then I would give away a lot of important spoilers. But let's say that this is one of the most weirdest and awesome stories ever.

The characters are also interesting. For the villains, we have Cackletta, a beanish (the Beanbean Kingdom race, like what toads are for the Mushroom Kingdom) witch who is capable of using lightning, makes evil jokes and is your typical baddie. Fawful on the other hand, speaks Engrish (bad English) and will often say weird stuff, like 'I have fury!' (which is his trademark line) and 'Since you won't make it in time I say it's better never than late...'. He's in fact so cool, that he is the main villain in Bowser's Inside Story (the third game in the Mario & Luigi series)!

But we also have another villain named Popple, who calls himself 'the Shadow Thief' and is often battled in the game as well. He's a really funny character and although he has a bit of a small role he appears in Dream Team Bros. (the 3DS game and newest in the Mario & Luigi series)

For the heroes, we have Prince Peasley who I already mentioned. Not only is he saved by the bros sometimes, he also saves the bros himself a few times. Although he's nice and brave he's a bit arrogant too, often showing of his hair (which can light the whole room) and tricking the bros with a competition for a lot of money. The Toadsworth is Lady Lima, and unlike Toadsworth who can faint very easily she will rather cry when she is scared. But she also is wise and helps the bros too. Cackletta was disguised as Lady Lima in the intro as well. And the ruler of this country is Queen Bean, a big and busty queen with a great heart and a big smile. Just like Peach, she is very nice, helps out in any way possible and is capable of making wise decisions.

The Mario bros also have different personalities. We know Mario as our all round hero. Luigi is a bit more of a coward but he's also very funny, for example drinking tea or poking somebody when Mario is talking seriously with somebody else. But he also has various moments in the game where he has to help Mario, showing off that he can be really brave on his own.

Throughout the game, you will meet a lot of people, like a soda creator, a yoshi fan, a girl who plays at an abandoned palace and many others. They're all very quirky, talk in a different manner and often they will fight you, showing off funny and interesting battle moves.



Graphics: 10
For a GBA game the graphics are amazing. Mario & Luigi have many sprites, a lot of characters come with different faces and expressions, enemies have unique battle sprites. There are the most colourful places, like the purple Stardust Fields, the blue Joke's End, yellow Teehee Valley and a lot of other places. You'll immediately understand what everything is, so you won't be surprised to see things like flames, shock waves or poisonous mushrooms. There are a lot of different races to be found in the Beanbean Kingdom, so there are many different looking people as well, you will see toads in Little Fungitown, Yoshis in the Yoshi Theater, but also Oho Jees on Oho Oasis, and the Hoohooligans in Hoohoo Village. You will also see people with shocked expressions, delighted expressions, happy expressions, just all kinds of different expressions.



Sound: 9
As for the sounds, there are a lot of unique sounds. Mario and Luigi talk in some fake Italian gibberish but they will also say things like 'oki dokey', 'mama mia', 'oh yeah!' and 'whoooaaaa!', so it's easy to understand them. When they talk in gibberish, the people who they are talking too almost repeat the same thing they are saying, so you'll know what they said. There is however one moment where somebody doesn't understand them and asks them to be more clear. Other important characters have sounds too. Prince Peasley will either laugh like 'Ha hahahaha!' or you will hear him saying 'hey!'. Queen Bean also can be heard laughing like 'Oh haw ha ha ha!'. Cackletta has two sounds, an evil laugh and a sound like 'hnnnn!' which she will make when she is irritated. Tolstar, the king of the Stardust Fields, has some kind of troll laugh. But the one with the most sounds is Fawful: He can laugh, make an angry sound, make a surprised/disappointed sound, or a sound that sounds like he is shocked, a bit like 'woo cha!'. There are a lot of other sounds as well of course, sound for opening gates, sounds for jumps, for coins, for fire, for thunder, for surfing, for talking, for hammers, so actually, where aren't there any sounds?

As for the music, there is a lot of new and interesting music. This game has 6 battle themes in total for example! Almost every place has an unique music, so you can easily recognize places. And one of the places in this game (Oho Oasis) has a music that is partly covered in a place called Driftwood Shore in Dream Team. The only reason that I wouldn't rate the music a 10 is because there are a lot music tracks that are just remixes of songs from other games, like the too-familiar Super Mario Bros theme, the over world theme from Super Mario World, the Starman Theme, the underground theme from Super Mario Bros and the Peach's Castle theme from Mario 64. They are nice too hear, but the game could have been more original in my opinion.


Gameplay: 10
Overworld:
Many games simply have a person blocking an important road, or just some place that has to be repaired before you can go there. But here it's different. Throughout the game, you'll have to learn new moves, or you will need hammers to continue somewhere. It also depends on who is walking in front. For example, if Mario is in front, you can use a jumping move called the High Jump (this move will be learned somewhere in the beginning) which allows you to jump higher than usual. But if Luigi is in front (this is the only game so far where you can walk with Luigi in front, Luigi for the win!) you can use a move called the Spin Jump (same with the High Jump, later learned), which allows you to fly over gaps and this move also returns in every other Mario & Luigi game. Mario is also the only one who can drink a lot of water, and when he does, Luigi has to jump on him, hit him with his hammer or he has to tickle him so that he'll spit it out, which is often required to solve some puzzles. 

There are also some parts where Mario has to enter a hole on his own because a hammer hit by Luigi made him small enough (this is a move that is also later learned later on) to go through that hole, and then you'll get some 2D jumping place and if you reach the end you'll be rewarded by a golden Monty Mole, often with strong clothes and badges.

But with I find most unique is how the brothers can travel when it comes to the sea. At first you will only learn how to travel underwater, where you have to jump to swim and where big gaps can be crossed with just swimming instead of using your moves. Everything also slows a bit down, just like in real life! There are still some battles, and for some weird reason it's possible for fire to burn underwater.
Near the end of the game however, you will learn how to surf! Luigi will function as a surfboard while Mario stands on his brother and you can use this to reach islands a lot faster than traveling underwater. And the coin blocks change to coin balloons instead!

Battles:
The battles in this game follow a simple turn-to-turn system, so that means that the Mario bros will attack, and then the monsters will attack. But if the monsters are faster, they might attack first. The Mario bros can use three solo actions: Jump, Hammer (later obtained in the game) or Hand (later obtained, and this is also the only game where you have Hand moves!). The jump move is simple, just before the brother hits the enemy you have to press A for Mario or B for Luigi. The bros can't jump on spiked enemies though, that will hurt themselves. When a hammer is used, A or B must be pressed when the hammer is swinging. Hammers can be used for spiked enemies, and sometimes you can get an enemy dizzy, so they won't attack then. The Hand powers will have to build up until they've reached a certain point to be strong enough, and then A or B has to be pressed. BUT, since Mario has a fire hand and Luigi a thunder hand, the effects might differ. Attacks can be critical, but you can also HEAL enemies. So you really need to watch out.

When the brothers will learn how to combine moves in the overworld, then they will learn bros moves to use in the battle. In all other games from the series, the brothers will use items, but in this game they will solely use their skills and hammers, how awesome is that? Using these moves costs points however, so when you don't have enough points anymore you can't use them. The moves come in three difficulty moves, the hardest one with normal speed and no button signs, the easiest one with slow mo and button signs. How harder the mode, how more damage can be dealt. Also, when an attack is done perfect for a certain amount in the hardest mode, an advanced version can be learned. In that way, the brothers will be able to continuously attack, to hit two enemies instead of one, do extra damage to spiked enemies and many other great benefits. 

Dodging and countering enemy attacks is not too hard. The bros can jump or hit something with their hammer to counter or dodge. For example, when Bowser spits flames, you'll have to jump to not get burned. When a spiked enemy walks in, you'll have to hit it with a hammer. The only tricky thing is, you will not always know which bro the enemies are going to attack, so you'll have to look for small hints they give away. Sometimes it's very easy, but it can be very difficult sometimes, so if you're not sure, then counter/dodge with both bros.

When you win a battle, you'll get experience points. If the bros have enough they will level up and their stats will increase a bit. But you also get to choose one stat that you will increase a little more! If your bros lack in one stat, you can give them fancy clothes or badges to make them stronger as well.



Addictiveness: 10
I have played this game about 3-4 times now, and every time I enjoyed myself. It's easy to pick this game up, and there things like boss battles or funny puzzles that will want you to play again. Even now I would love to play this game again (but I'm playing Partners in Time at the moment, its sequel). You can play this game for 5 minutes but also for an hour if you want, since you don't have to grind a lot.



Depth: 8
This game has a lot to offer: Many boss battles, sidequests, a lot of minigames, clothing and badges that can be stolen from enemies. But, if you would do the storyline only you can finish this game in less than 10 hours. It took me more than 17 hours to beat this game with sidequests and other small things done. Although it can be big for a Mario game, I'm sure there are games that will take a lot more time. I can't think of anything however that they could have done to make this game bigger, so maybe it's as big as it can get for a GBA game.



Difficulty: 7
Since there are a lot of tutorials and easy enemies, this game won't offer too much difficulty. The controls are simple, battles are easy to pick up, and you can quickly get the hang of minigames. The first time I really had trouble was near the end of the game where you visit a place called Joke's End, where you have split up with the brothers to progress, so that means you'll get difficult battles and difficult minigames. It also has a very difficult boss, that boss was the reason I quit this game the first try. The last world and bosses also are difficult, but the rest of the game didn't give me too much trouble.



Overall: 9.8
This is one of the best games I've ever played, and it comes close to some great DS games. You get the feeling from this game that they included everything that they could've think of and what they possible could have put in the game. I had a lot of fun with this game and I really recommend it to anyone who either likes Mario games, RPG's or GBA games in general. I looked around and couldn't find reviews about this game that rated the game low, which just shows how great this is.

I hope you liked my review, I really put my heart into this review as this is just one of the games I can't stop thinking about. This is as big as my reviews can get I guess

And yes, I turned off my layout since this is my biggest review so far

SUMMON TIME!!!
greenluigi : DeathMelon likes this game as well!
A user of this : As promised, I included you.
MattyIce : Since you said you don't mind to be summoned, there you go.
DylanMcKaig : Here is another one of my reviews! (I'm not sure if you want to be summoned again though)
gamerforlifeforever2 : You like reviews by no doubt.
ghostfishy : Here is the review you were looking forwards too!
Boxia : I'm not sure if you would like to be summoned, tell me if you don't want to anymore.
Zlinqx : Review master! Here is my review this time
Laian : I know you like reviews and walkthroughs, and you liked my last review.
Gamin'Gal: You liked my last review.
kramer4077 : You also liked my last review.
PixelBrick : I'm not sure if you will ever return, but if you do I hope you will read this review.
yoshirulez! : You liked my last review and you also wrote a review about this game I saw
TheJmsGamer : You wrote a review about this game so I thought you would like to see this.
patar4097 : Even though we're not officialy friends yet, I see you as a cool dude and want to show you this as you also wrote a review about this game.
pacman1755 : You also wrote a review about this game and I reacted on that one, I thought you might want to see this.

If I forgot anyone, I'm very sorry, tell me and I'll include you next time

juuldude : Thanks for the summon!! This is a great review too!! One thing is that you musn't reveal any spoiler to the game. Because I saw that when you were talking about it Story. It may be just me or U can include that in a review. Wow! DeathMelon sure loves this game!! He also sometimes loses to Cackletta XD!

greenluigi : You're welcome! Things I told in the story are things that only happen in the beginning of the game, I didn't reveal things that will happen later on. How comes DeathMelon loses against Cackletta? XD

Juul, i'm really angry now! You did not summon me!!!


Anyway, this is a great review! Most of the time, I dislike long reviews because they drag, But this one drags very little.


The grammar was great, and this review was really fun to read. 



And don't talk about other sites. But from reviewer to reviewer, Good job!

Much better without the layout. I'm not saying it's bad, it's just more convenient without the layout ^^

I'm glad you did review that game. Teehee Valley is my favorite place in this game. I just wish I could get a lasso and grab that damn Princess Peach walking peacefully around up, down, left and right like it was perfectly normal. At least, the music of this area is enjoyable xD

imamonster : I'm so sorry! Don't kill me! D:
I'll include you next time then

I'm not sure what makes this review easy to read even though it's so long, I guess it's because I divided a lot of several parts, I find that easy to read myself. And I won't talk about other sites then

wow... what an impressive review... is it your first one?!  I don't know that I've ever seen you write so well before. haha.  

I was actually going to mention, like the person several posts above.. that you place a spoiler warning at the top of your review. I know you say you only revealed things at the beginning of the game, but it sure seems like a lot more than that. XD Even if it IS only in the beginning... it's an awful lot of detail, and some people might prefer to discover it in game.  

juuldude : Dang a review over 3,300 words that's incredible! You have great attention to detail because you covered just about everything this game has to offer. Excellent job! Also I was wondering did the final boss give you a lot of trouble? For me that was a nightmare I kept dying and dying until finally I got lucky and won.

Thanks for the summon . You were one of the people who motivated me to get back to reviewing, actually.

BTW, this review is awesome. It was filled to the brim with detail (except for the graphics segment, which could do with a little more), and the formatting was excellent. Nice work! I can't wait to see your future work.

Why didn't you summon me? Nah, I don't really mind about summons. The Review is more important.

Great Review overall. Much words and an impressive grammar style.

The Review lacks on some points your own opinion, especially in the Gameplay battle part. I couldn't read anything what you think about Bro Moves, the turn-to-turn battle style etc.

A thing that stood out in your Review is the amount of detail and depth in the story and gameplay part. You told much about what stuff you can do in this game, actually almost everything!

Thanks to this Review, I remember everything about the game again and how I played and enjoyed this game. Same as you, I quit with the game at some points. Stupid Princess Peach and the Teehee Valley, that took me forever! I did not always enjoy the minigames, some of the minigames took me a long time to complete. :O Anyway, I can say that I beat this game at least once. I might try to complete this game again soon!

Same story with me about this game. First time when I first was using the VBA emulator back in 2010 I played this game and I stopped because I couldn't beat the DK barrel minigame which I still hate to this day. Then when I got my laptop in September that year I downloaded the rom again but didn't play it till around January 2012 and I stopped because my save state had an error so I had to restart from scratch which made me furious so i stopped for 2 month and then one day when I was bored I decided to redo it and I got back to the bit where I was which is when you are trying to get the Chuckocola thing. I then played through it and beat it. Because of the terrible time I had with this game it has led to me not liking it as much compared to the others. wow I didn't expect to type this much. th review was great and very long and detailed. The story was good for Mario standards but not outstanding though it was the way they gave the Bros actual personalities and they actually talked (yeah I know it isn't text speak) instead of repeating the same sound effect all the time or just not talking at all. The gameplay was good though I didn't enjoy quite a few of the minigames in the game such as the jump rope one and the DK barrel one I said earlier. I like how you have to use both of the bros in order to continue and it doesn't feel like one is overused than the other too. The villains were great as well and it is nice to see different villains other than Bowser for a change though in most Mario RPG's for some reason Bowser isn't the main villain which I like. Cackletta was ok. I found her interesting as she had quite the number of tricks under her sleeve but was just your typical villain. Fawful was cool as he was just insane and who can forget "I HAVE FURY" (best line in the game for me and he is important in the next two game in the Mario and Luigi series wink wink nudge nudge).

-dances to the battle theme music-

I feel like this game is one of the unique Mario games out of the whole Mario game franchise. The battle system and gameplay really brought unique and interesting touches to this game. Not to mention the catchy music has me dancing most of the time especially the battle theme music. I love how Luigi has his moments especially with humor.
I loved how you put a lot of specific details in your sections especially for others who have never played this game before. I thought that the graphics section was a bit iffy and not descriptive enough for me to picture the graphics as if I didn't play the game.  I like how you split the gameplay with overworld and battle as two separate sections which you didn't have to do. This is still a great game review from you despite of the graphics section being a little weak.

Too many summons! Too much power!

PS how did you type your review without your layout?

Laian : Yeah, I see your point. I was thinking the same.
Yeah, the music is catchy but the princess can be annoying. The first time I did that part I had a load of trouble, but recently I helped my little brother with that part! :O

Singelli : I'm not sure if I ever made a post this big
Well, okay then, next time I'll warn for the spoilers, I can see your point. Thanks!

gamerforlifeforever2 : Thanks! Since the style is so different compared to other Mario games I thought it would be wise to cover that. Well, it sure wasn't an easy boss, but I managed to beat it, even in my first try! But my bros were level 41, how strong were yours?

Boxia : You're welcome I really didn't know that actually, but that's great since I know you like to make reviews as well.
Thanks for the tips! Yeah, the graphics section lack, I'll try to improve that.

TornadoMudkip : Because I forgot you actually...
Now you mention it, I see I gave more of an explanation then my own opinion. I thought I had that covered as well, but looks like I didn't. 
Thanks! The story and gameplay are pretty unique and unlike any other game that I've played so far.
The princess walks pretty fast, and if those darn monsters weren't there as well... Did you have problems with Joke's End as well? That place is very hard and creepy. Which of the minigames took you a long time? The hardest ones in my opinion are Chuckola Bounce and designing with Splart. Well, good luck in that case

DylanMcKaig : I am pretty good at that game now, but I remember that I had more trouble with it. I like the gibberish (pototteepotato!) (anaratotoreparo) as it's nice to hear the voices from the mario bros. Indeed, each of the bros did get a lot of attention, and I like the parts where you have to split up to rescue the other bro. "I HAVE FURY" will always be remembered, and he was a great villain in the other games as well that Fawful.

ghostfishy : Out of all the Mario games for the Gameboy Advance, this was the most unique one. That's probably because this game started the series. Yeah, Luigi is really funny, but I had to laugh about Mario as well. 
I see you're also mentioning the graphics, I always find that a hard part to write. I think I am going to read more reviews to see how I can improve that. Thanks!
Wraaah, too many summons and power make me powerful!!
That ain't a hard thing to do, go to Edit Profile & Settings, go to Edit Layout, look for your layout in the layout list, and then click on Stop under your layout, you will STOP using your layout. That's all there is to it.


Thanks for the great tips everyone!

Yeah, graphics can be a bit tough to describe especially without pictures. I even have a tough time to put good specific details on that part myself. By the way, thank you for answering my question because my layout messed up the format of my previous game review. I appreciate the help!