I've been marathoning the series in preparation for Brothership. Unfortunately, I didn't quite hit the mark. Brothership released last week, and I still need to play Dream Team. While I didn't meet my goal in completing this beloved series, I am happy to have finally played Bowser's Inside Story. This is easily my favorite of the three I've played so far. Here's my review.

Everything here is perfect.

The combat continues to improve upon itself, while still holding onto the roots that make the series what it is. The combat is my favorite part of these games by far. The new addition of the rank system was cool to see as well. I like the additional bonuses you get to choose from when you rank up every 5 or so levels. There's really nothing else like it from what I've played. I could gush about the combat for hours. The new Bros attacks are awesome. I'm not sure which game has my favorite collection of Bros Attacks, but the ones here fit perfectly into the series. I spammed the barrel attack a lot, and the Star attack was OP, I loved it. The Bro Attacks here felt like a combination of the Bro Attacks in Superstar Saga and Bro Items in Partners in Time. Fun fun fun. I think this was probably the easiest in the series for me so far. I didn't go out of my way to avoid enemy encounters here like I mistakenly did in PIT, so that probably made a difference. The boss encounters felt better tuned here than PIT. I had to retry a couple of times on a few bosses, but for the most part this game was pretty tame. The series has yet to top Cackletta in terms of difficulty for me.

Don't ask me how, but I had no clue you played as Bowser in this game. How I remained unspoiled on this for 15 years is a mystery. A very welcomed surprise. HIs combat wasn't quite as in depth as Mario and Luigi's Bros Attacks, but it was still fun to punch and burn my way through enemies as King Koopa. I didn't LOVE the giant boss battles, but thankfully the game doesn't stuff them down your throat. Only 4-5 throughout the game. Kind of boring and simple if I'm being honest, but they're sparse enough that it doesn't effect the game overall.

What caught my attention very early on was the music. Now, the previous two games didn't have a terrible OST per say, but the OST in BIS is levels ahead. The previous two games had half a dozen or so tracks that I enjoyed, but that was about it. I was immediately pulled in with BIS OST upon hearing Toad Town for the first time. Such a relaxing tune for a starting area. Then I heard Fawful's snappy theme for the first time and was tapping my foot along to the snaps. SO GOOD. Cavil Cape, Plack Beach, Bumpsy Plains, and Deep Castle are amongst my favorite overworld themes. Not to mention we often get two renditions of each tune: One for the outside world and one for inside Bowser. Very creative. Now we can talk about boss/combat music. It's all great. Dark Star Battle, Dark Fawful, and yes, of course, the one and only, Dark Bowser fight. It deserves all the praise and hype. The one nitpick I'll throw out here is that I wasn't a fan of the intro music for each combat encounter. I'm sure if you've read this far you know what I mean. It feels like it lasted too long and got repetitive very quickly. I don't remember this occurring in the previous two games, but it stuck out to me here. Overall, Yoko Shimomura went crazy here on the OST. Easily my favorite soundtrack in the series.

Again, I don't play these games for the story. The story here is serviceable, but nothing that blew me away. Kind of average in terms of writing, but come on. This is Mario. I'm not expecting Elden Ring levels of story and lore here. I'm not knocking the score down here because of the story. It served its purpose for the expectations I had.

I think that's pretty much it for the main game. It took me around 30 hours to complete and I was satisfied with how much I progressed. I got both Mario and Luigi to the highest rank, and Bowser was just shy of his master rank. I was missing ONE Bros attack, but didn't feel like going out of my way to 100% the game. I got Gold on all the Bros Attacks Combat Challenges, and Bowser's Massage Challenges. I did a couple of the Challenge Bosses, but didn't complete all of them.

I'll keep the side mode's review, Bowser Jr's Journey, short here. It's pretty similar to the OG mode from Super Star Sage: Bowser's Minions. I didn't find it quite as difficult, and I felt more bored this time around. Don't get me wrong, I still think the foundation for something great is there. I'm glad something like this was included in the remaster. An entire game based around this strategy system could work. It just needs to be more fleshed out and engaging. The story here is once again fine. I've always liked Bowser Jr, he's one of my favorite characters in the series IDK why, so it was nice to see him in the spotlight here. The Koopalings also get good development here. The Best Fitness Friends (BFFs) are funny and appropriate villains for this mode. There's only like 4-5 music tracks in this mode, so that's a bummer, but they're all great! It took me 20 hours to get through, which seems too long. I forced myself to keep playing and see it through to the end. 20 hours for gameplay this passive is asking too much. I'm glad to have finished it, but man, was it a slog to get through at times.

Well, this marks the end of another Mario and Luigi. As I've stated, this one is easily my favorite. My original plan was to dive straight into Dream Team in order to finish that before Brothership. Since Brothershiip released already, I kind of don't feel the pressure or rush to necessarily start Dream Team right now. I might take a break from the series in order to cleanse my palate. I'm looking forward to experiencing Dream Team when I get around to it.