Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time

by Nintendo

Product Features

• Players use the top screen to study the land, keep track of the brothers not under their control, or maximize combo moves in battle
• Twice the Mario brothers and twice the laughs, with massive side-splitting adventure

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000B8J7K0
• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches ; 2.9 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 28, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #855 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #10 in Video Games > Nintendo DS > Action
  • #46 in Video Games > Nintendo DS > All Games

Product Description

Mario and Luigi: Partners In Time an insane sequel to the classic adventure starring the heroic brothers! In this sequel to Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, the brothers travel back in time to retrieve Princess Peach, only to come face to face with baby versions of themselves, the princess and Bowser. They'll team up with their younger selves for a quest of lunatic proportions!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nintendo hits another one out of the park, December 5, 2005

By 

E. David Swan (South Euclid, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time (Video Game)

The brothers Mario have been reunited again following the fantastic `Superstar Saga' and this time they're joined by their own baby versions. They may be tiny and they may occasionally cry fountains of tears but that doesn't stop them from being formable fighters who can hold their own with their adult counterparts. The hook in `Partners in Time' is the time traveling between the past and present versions of the Toadstool kingdom. The Kingdom of the past has been attacked by aliens, the adult princess has been kidnapped (shock) and the Cobalt Star (the McGuffin of the story) has been broken into various pieces that need to be retrieved.

`Partners in Time' carries on that tradition of legitimately funny scripting set by `Superstar Saga' and most of the play mechanics remain the same. Much like the RPG console versions the handheld games are all about timing. Fights are turn based affairs requiring the player to time out strikes and defends. Players with difficulty getting the rhythm down may find themselves having some difficulties. Each creature type has a slightly different pattern and sometimes multiple attack sequences. It can take some fast reflexes but like most Nintendo games `Partners in Time' is designed to be beaten even by players with modest skills. One of the issues I have is the fact that it can be very difficult to manage all four brothers during combat even after hours of practice. It's actually even harder when the adult and baby version are separated because the adults uses X and Y while the babies use B and A. I found it challenging to get used one set of buttons and suddenly switch to the other especially when you need to switch between adults and babies quickly.

The Mario RPG's have always taken an aesthetic minimalist approach. There are five adjustable character attributes including the enigmatic `Stache'. The brothers can wear one pair of overalls and one badge to help boost stats or give special bonus abilities. Like every RPG made since the dawn of time the brothers will have an ever increasing (and potent) selection of items to choose from as the game progresses. If complexity is your bag the Mario RPG's may disappoint. It's all about simplicity. If anything Partners simplifies the experience even more by creating a more linear experience over `Superstar Saga'. The various collectible bean types have now been eliminated in favor of the generic `bean' so no more bean drinks.

The DS system has been on such a roll of late and `Partners in Time' is just one more five star game in a growing library of great DS games. With this game and Mario Kart Nintendo has really had a great winter season.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome game!, December 13, 2006

By 

Mandi H. Wong "ooshortiegirloo" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time (Video Game)

I was a bit nervous to get this game because I am not really a big gamer and there are not two but four characters to control but I was pleasantly suprised but how informative the game was on how to control the players' different attacks.

The game also has a lot of funny parts that will definitely make you laugh and there is never a repetitive and dull moment.

The only drawback is that once you are done with the game, you can't go back and redo any of the levels.

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A hard game to rate, November 25, 2006

A Kid's Review

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time (Video Game)

Mario and Lugi Superstar Saga was a legendary GBA game, even though the graphics were a little grainy, me and my friend play that game almost daily at lunch time, being excited about the 2005 release, I bought it right away without thinking. Mario and Luigi Partners in Time is NOT, i repeat NOT a remake of the GBA game Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga, created in 2003. Which is a good thing, mainly.

The game has the second-most creative plots in a Mario game (The first goes to Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door), where Peach goes in a time machine back to the past, and this alien race called the Shroobs conquer the past Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi have to go save the past Kingdom from all the evil, but this time they have some... uh friends...

Their (ahem) "friends" are actually their own younger selves from the past when they were still babies (Toddlers, at least, since they can walk and jump). You will learn some moves for each team, they younger bros. will get hammers, which will work equal to the hammers in Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga.

A familar ability is in this game as well, stomping baddies before battles will give them extra damage, but if you jump on one with flames, spikes, etc. you'll actually take damage. If you've never played the GBA original, you can counter and dodge moves when foes attack, making this an actually exciting RPG, and not a boring one where it's 100% turn based.

The Bros. Points have been removed, MALSS (Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga) you had to use Bros. Points to operate special moves, which were quite tedious, since you had to get an extra power up called Syrup to recover them. MALPIT (Mario and Luigi Partners in Time) gives you Bros. Items which are like special moves, except you only need to use one thing instead of two.

The length of the game depends on how long it will take you, the game goes by faster if you actually fight enemies instead of running away (you lose coins every time you do this, quite a lot, actually, so it's not recommended) since you can level up. You can't run away from Mini-Boss or Boss fights, so fighting is recommended, since it's the easiest way to get money and the only way to get EXP to level up

You have Heart Points for health, Power for... duh, power, Defense for Defense, Speed for Speed, and wait, what's this Stache? What the (BLEEP) is Stache points? Well, Stache points are a % of how many Lucky hits you can land, Lucky hits do more damage, and Stache points also give you discounts on buying items and higher refunds for selling items.

To increase some stats, you can also buy clothes, this is a faster way, but it costs a lot of money. Only people that don't run and fight nearly every single battle will have a lot of money left over. Another thing to buy is badges, these let you do special things like recover health every turn.

Beans seem pretty useless, you dig into the ground, and pop up where there is an X mark to get one, until... you get to (SPOILER) Fawful's Badge N' Bean Shop, (Fawful was a major NPC character in MALSS) where you can trade them for badges. All of the badges (Even though they're RARE) really really suck... except for the Ulti-Free Badge, which lets you use infinite bro items, no matter what amount you have, even though it takes time to get more then 1, you can just play certain games for beans if you don't like to search.

Another issue is saving, one of the biggest complaints that I have. In order to save, you have to find something called a Save Album, you have to actually jump under it to go to the save menu, this is quite bad, if you think you don't have to save "yet" and get in a battle, lose and have to start over from your last save.
Even worse, if you run out of battery power. However, another alternative is to pause the game and put it in sleep mode (Charge it if you can) and play again when you can.

OK: Time for the comparisons

WHICH IS BETTER

MALSS: Better humor

MALPIT usually recycles old jokes, or inside jokes from the other game, i.e a really annoying character Prince Peasly is a poster on the wall. Some of the jokes are sometimes not even really funny, and just annoying (Babies crying, Baby Peach, Baby Mario, no sound jokes, where you just watch something with no music and few sound effects).
Also the dialouge is sometimes amazing, and a second later it just makes you think "What? Was that supposed to be funny?"

MALPIT: Better Action

MALSS is bland compared to MALPIT and that's a pretty bold statement. You actually control 4 guys in battle by using 4 buttons, and you need to switch frequently in some parts of the game between the pairs, doing special actions to get to secret areas, or required areas to progress through the game.

RECOMMENDATION:

I would actually getting the ORIGINAL first, so you can understand if this is your type of humor, the original is actually easier, since it's normal paced, even the fast battles, while this one is frantic, requiring you to press buttons for successive items, or skillful baddies.

TOTAL 9/10

The Bad: Some cutscenes are annoying, limited save feature, only 2 slots, no multiplayer, "fast" gameplay (not really bad after you get used to it)

if you arealdy have MALSS read a few other reviews before purchasing this excellent game to make your descision