I can describe the awesomeness of this game in one word, simply epic. I believe its one of the best DS titles to date. I had such a blast playing this game, not at one point was I ever bored of it. Its been awhile since I played such a good rpg, then again I don't play many cause I don't really care for them. In the RPG catagory I am hard to please. However, time and time again the Mario RPGs please. With a charming, funny, and sweet storyline making half of the game. If you don't care for Mario this game might not be as important to you.

Well heres the brief idea of the games story. Evil lord Fawful takes over Bowser's, and then Peach's castle. And in a series of rather unfortunate events... Bowsers vacuums up Mario, Luigi, the Princess, and some toads, landing them inside his body. It would take me all day to describe anymore of the story, but I can tell you it is great. There may be no dramatic twists and turns, but the charaters are a very lovable bunch. Especialy Bowser, who I believe was the star of this game. You really get an understanding of Bowser's personality, and you also get an understanding of his power. Bowser's personality is very lovable, he just won't quit no matter. He honestly thinks he is the greatest and most powerfull, nothing scares him. Its not that he is brave like Mario, he is just that nieve. Never in a Nintendo game have I loved Bowser this much. Never have I seen the extent to which his personality is, its rather cool.

You spend the game playing Bowser the most, and Mario and Luigi just a little less. Bowser spends his time wandering the world in a top down view. Mario and Lugi get a side scrolling platform view and spend most of thier time inside Bowser's body. Bowser is controlled by X and Y, while Mario is controled by A, and Luigi by B. This is for in and out of battle. Bowser uses X to punch and Y for fire. Mario and Luigi jump when pressing thier button. You can toggle what A and B do with the R button as you progress through the game. Learning new tricks that you can do outside of battle is the key to getting the job done, and usually an answer to a puzzle. The same goes with the Koopa King. You can switch between Mario, Luigi, and Bowser in an instant. If you are playing Bowser you press A or B, and now you're Mario and Luigi. By pressing X or Y when you are the bros, you switch to Bowser.

While inside Bowser's body you end up partaking in some unique little minigames with the most badass music to boot. If something happens to Bowser... Say like he decides to eat a very large amount of food, you end up helping him digest it via minigame. If Bowser needs to lift something waaaay heavy, you help pump the power to his muscles via minigame. Its a really fun addition to the game, and you will spend a decent amount of time playing Mario and Luigi doing such.

Bowser fights in a different style then Mario and Luigi, and he also fights different enimies. Bowser fights badies more his size. He has a lot more health then the Mario Bros. and he does a lot more damage. When in a fight Bowser can either punch, use fire breath, or vacuum up foes. Certain foes can be vacuumed up by Bowser and taken inside is body. When the badies get sucked in, they meet Mario and Luigi. From there you use Mario and Luigi to defeat the enemy. After that fight, it returns up to Bowser and what he is still fighting. You can also do what is known as a special attack, these take up the SP that you have. Bowser gains these by releasing caged minions that he finds on his adventure. All of Bowser's special attacks require you to use the stylus. They deffinitly add something past Mario rpgs have never had. Not only do the special attacks look cool they, are a load of fun.

Bowser also fights in an other way... As a really giant Bowser! You turn the DS on its side, and now its clash of the titans. You use the touchscreen to fight other really huge enemies. This was a really cool addition to the game. It rarely happens, but just enough to be fanastic everytime. Each battle also as a unique way to defeat your opponent, and the final giga battle will have you rather suprised.

Moving on to Mario and Luigi's combat system. In battle you can either use a jump attack or a hammer attack. Certain enemies can't be jumped on without hurting Mario or Luigi, so you will need the hammer. Just like Bowser, Mario and Luigi have special attacks. They have a lot more then Bowser does and are gained by collecting 10 objects called attack pieces. Mario and Luigi's are not touch based, but they are very unique and unexpected. One attack requires making Luigi eat too much food and becoming very obese. On top of that, these attacks are just darn cool looking and so much fun to preform. Each attack has a unique way to preform it, you end up really feeling like a part of the fight because of this. The same goes for Bowser, you don't just sit and watch. The entire success of the attack depends on your execution of it. The attack is rated from O.K to Excelent depending on how well you do.

One of my favorite things about the combat is being able to dodge and preform more efective attacks by pressing a button at a certain time. This removes a lot of the turn based feel and can make battles extremely intense. Timing is everything. You have to study your enemies to see thier attack paterns and base how you can avoid attacks from that. When it comes to attacking, it depends on the character. You jump on and enemy with Mario and you press A just before hitting its head, you will do a double jump. Right before the second one lands you press the button again and deal even more damage. Thats the basic idea behind all of the non special attacks. If you don't master the timing of doing this, you won't really be able to win one fight. And just like with special you get rated from O.K to Excelent. The better your timing the more damage you will end up doing. Getting an excelent on all your attacks can have pretty cool looking results as well.

There is nothing too special about the leveling system of this game. You level up, you get stronger. However, as you do level up you also go up in ranks. When you go up a rank you can equip more items that help boost whatever you please. Also for Mario and Luigi you need a certain rank to be able to buy equipment from a certain store. There are also badges for Mario and Luigi. They both wear one and are combined to do different things. One can raise your power, or can heal you. A bar is at the bottom right on your battle screen, and when you meet its conditions, the bar will fill a little. The conditions are based on if you get an O.K to Excelent while attacking foes. Some only raise with a Good or a Great, others only with an Excelent. Once the bar is full you can touch it to get your reward.

Musically this game is a solid stand out from most. The soundtrack is just really great. The battle music especially, Mario and Luigi's battle music is not the same from Bowser's, and theres also boss battle music. Its cool when you are wandering around as Bowser and switch to Mario and Luigi inside him, the music changes. As in, its the same, but just a different version of it. The way music sounds inside Bowser really suits the environment.

Visually the game is impresive. Its the cartoony style that the past Mario and Luigi games are. Everything is very bright and colorfull. Although the environments aren't particularly unique, they are beautifull. This game is polsihed to be the finest. As no suprise for Mario games, technical glitches do not exist. Thats the one thing I always loved about the Mario games, nothing looks cleaner or preforms better.

In the end this game was one hell of a blast and was as special as Mario games get. If I didn't have a DS, I would buy one just so I could play this game. I thought very hard if I have any complaints about this game, and I think I only got one. Only a few of the characters actually have voice acting. Thats Mario, Luigi, Princess, and Bowser. What you do get is great, Mario and Luigi's gibberish conversations are hallarious to listen too. Now heres my complaint... The sound that each character makes when their dialouge is appearing on the screen, is annoying as can be. Thats my only complaint, and in the end its not that big of a deal. If you want a fun loving Mario story with great gameplay mechanics, play this game... If you don't like Mario you shouldn't have been reading this in the first place!