Gonna be honest, I'm kinda just finishing up a playthrough I started when I was 11 years old but got about 50-60% of the way through before dropping all these years, so admittedly this review may not be totally accurate or in-depth but I remember most of the main plot points and my backlog is long enough as it is so I'm just going to base this from what I remember back then and my opinions beating the rest of it now lol

This game was a bit hard for me to rate (even with that aside) as I actually enjoyed going back to it more than I thought I would but at the same time I kind of understand, one, why I didn't beat this game back then despite beating Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team (the latter a bit later on ofc) and two, why some people consider this to be one of the weaker M&L titles.

On the more positive side, the core Mario & Luigi gameplay is there - the combat is still pretty fun with how you can counterattack the enemy by timing your jumps and hammer attacks just right, and there's a really good use of atmosphere in this game that's kind of unlike any of the other Mario & Luigi games or even Mario RPGs in general. There's this whole "mysterious" aura throughout the game that really sets a unique mood to it, and the plot definitely threw me for a loop at times - even just playing halfway to the end. And really, I think the core Mario & Luigi gameplay being there is what helped me a lot in just having fun with the game as well as exploring the game's different areas in it's map.

I really think the issues with the game come down to two big things - one slightly bigger than the other, so to start with the slightly smaller gripe I have, the game's main bosses kind of drag on in this game. Some of the later bosses in this game especially have pretty damn high HP, which on it's own isn't a surprise (obviously a 'boss' is going to have higher HP than a regular enemy), but I kind of feel like it's a bit... too much at times. The final boss in particular (not counting the Bowser fight which is basically just a series of attacks to counter) has three phases, two of which have 3000 HP, and the second having 3500. Maybe you can just chalk this up to a skill issue, but part of my issue is that some of these bosses don't really have much of a 'challenge' to them outside of just being ridiculously high HP. Obviously there are the attacks but a lot of them have fairly easy to understand attack patterns that are a bit challenging the first few times but after that become pretty predictable and easy to avoid if you're paying attention (and even then you can easily stock up on items - the last section is especially pretty generous with mushrooms, Bros items, and 1-ups). The result is that the bosses, especially later in the game, kind of just go on in a way that at times just made me feel "alright, is this going to be over soon?" Which to be honest I think is kind of an issue with the game in general, being pretty weirdly-paced at times, but I feel like the strong bosses only really add to that. And apparently it must have been an notable issue enough for the game's subsequent Japanese and European releases to give the enemies altered stats including lowered HP lmao.

The second major issue I had was that the whole system of having the 'baby' characters in addition to the 'adult' characters is something that is pretty neat on paper but at the same time a bit mixed in execution. There are certainly times where I think the game does interesting stuff with the idea (i.e. in the 'past' Peach's Castle towards the end, having each pair of brothers go to one room complimentary to another to connect a laser beam) but a lot of the time it feels sort of... tact on, like something they just did to utilize the DS' two extra face buttons over the GBA. A lot of the overworld puzzles either feel like simple puzzles that are pretty easy to solve but add up to, again, bog down the game's pacing at points, and others are just a complete slog in of themselves (basically, any of the areas where you're using the babies to control the adults standing on a moving platform over a pit of spikes). And in combat it's even more of a mixed bag since, while I like what they do with some of the Bros attacks (giving an extra challenge of pressing the right button with the Trampoline, for example), the babies each carry their own control scheme so to speak (being mapped to the X and Y buttons whereas adult Mario and Luigi are mapped to the A and B buttons) and I gotta say it really screws with your muscle memory at points. The hammer ability being tied to baby Mario and Luigi (and as such, the X and Y buttons) just felt kind of forced, especially in counterattacking where the game still only uses either the jump or hammer individually as different phases to counter enemy attacks. Plus I feel like it's especially kind of awkward if you have one adult brother down but the other still alive, since you're basically jumping your thumb between two buttons on the opposite side when either counterattacking or using a Bros item. It's something that really doesn't seem like it would be a huge issue but once you get into a certain rhythm of the enemy battles, it definitely sticks out when these slight changes in button mapping occur.

…oh yeah and there’s a moment where two hammer bros under mind control communicate in leetspeak which alone dates this game pretty significantly

While I have been kind of focusing on the negatives for most of this review, however, I still really enjoyed this game in general. Like I said, the core Mario & Luigi gameplay is still there, and it's still definitely fun - counterattacking enemies is challenging at times, the Bros items are still fun to use and add some good variety to the game's combat (though I kinda find it weird how the 'Bros' items/attacks are treated as individual items and don't use SP but whatever, I ended up just using the Ulti-Free badge in the late game anyway), and I really just enjoyed exploring the game's world and uncovering the story as it went on. And when the game does have good uses for it's buddy system, it does add some interesting ideas to the world design. Also Kylie Koopa might be my favorite ('original') character in this series of games ngl.

Gonna be honest, I'm kinda just finishing up a playthrough I started when I was 11 years old but got about 50-60% of the way through before dropping all these years, so admittedly this review may not be totally accurate or in-depth but I remember most of the main plot points and my backlog is long enough as it is so I'm just going to base this from what I remember back then and my opinions beating the rest of it now lol

This game was a bit hard for me to rate (even with that aside) as I actually enjoyed going back to it more than I thought I would but at the same time I kind of understand, one, why I didn't beat this game back then despite beating Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team (the latter a bit later on ofc) and two, why some people consider this to be one of the weaker M&L titles.

On the more positive side, the core Mario & Luigi gameplay is there - the combat is still pretty fun with how you can counterattack the enemy by timing your jumps and hammer attacks just right, and there's a really good use of atmosphere in this game that's kind of unlike any of the other Mario & Luigi games or even Mario RPGs in general. There's this whole "mysterious" aura throughout the game that really sets a unique mood to it, and the plot definitely threw me for a loop at times - even just playing halfway to the end. And really, I think the core Mario & Luigi gameplay being there is what helped me a lot in just having fun with the game as well as exploring the game's different areas in it's map.

I really think the issues with the game come down to two big things - one slightly bigger than the other, so to start with the slightly smaller gripe I have, the game's main bosses kind of drag on in this game. Some of the later bosses in this game especially have pretty damn high HP, which on it's own isn't a surprise (obviously a 'boss' is going to have higher HP than a regular enemy), but I kind of feel like it's a bit... too much at times. The final boss in particular (not counting the Bowser fight which is basically just a series of attacks to counter) has three phases, two of which have 3000 HP, and the second having 3500. Maybe you can just chalk this up to a skill issue, but part of my issue is that some of these bosses don't really have much of a 'challenge' to them outside of just being ridiculously high HP. Obviously there are the attacks but a lot of them have fairly easy to understand attack patterns that are a bit challenging the first few times but after that become pretty predictable and easy to avoid if you're paying attention (and even then you can easily stock up on items - the last section is especially pretty generous with mushrooms, Bros items, and 1-ups). The result is that the bosses, especially later in the game, kind of just go on in a way that at times just made me feel "alright, is this going to be over soon?" Which to be honest I think is kind of an issue with the game in general, being pretty weirdly-paced at times, but I feel like the strong bosses only really add to that. And apparently it must have been an notable issue enough for the game's subsequent Japanese and European releases to give the enemies altered stats including lowered HP lmao.

The second major issue I had was that the whole system of having the 'baby' characters in addition to the 'adult' characters is something that is pretty neat on paper but at the same time a bit mixed in execution. There are certainly times where I think the game does interesting stuff with the idea (i.e. in the 'past' Peach's Castle towards the end, having each pair of brothers go to one room complimentary to another to connect a laser beam) but a lot of the time it feels sort of... tact on, like something they just did to utilize the DS' two extra face buttons over the GBA. A lot of the overworld puzzles either feel like simple puzzles that are pretty easy to solve but add up to, again, bog down the game's pacing at points, and others are just a complete slog in of themselves (basically, any of the areas where you're using the babies to control the adults standing on a moving platform over a pit of spikes). And in combat it's even more of a mixed bag since, while I like what they do with some of the Bros attacks (giving an extra challenge of pressing the right button with the Trampoline, for example), the babies each carry their own control scheme so to speak (being mapped to the X and Y buttons whereas adult Mario and Luigi are mapped to the A and B buttons) and I gotta say it really screws with your muscle memory at points. The hammer ability being tied to baby Mario and Luigi (and as such, the X and Y buttons) just felt kind of forced, especially in counterattacking where the game still only uses either the jump or hammer individually as different phases to counter enemy attacks. Plus I feel like it's especially kind of awkward if you have one adult brother down but the other still alive, since you're basically jumping your thumb between two buttons on the opposite side when either counterattacking or using a Bros item. It's something that really doesn't seem like it would be a huge issue but once you get into a certain rhythm of the enemy battles, it definitely sticks out when these slight changes in button mapping occur.

…oh yeah and there’s a moment where two hammer bros under mind control communicate in leetspeak which alone dates this game pretty significantly

While I have been kind of focusing on the negatives for most of this review, however, I still really enjoyed this game in general. Like I said, the core Mario & Luigi gameplay is still there, and it's still definitely fun - counterattacking enemies is challenging at times, the Bros items are still fun to use and add some good variety to the game's combat (though I kinda find it weird how the 'Bros' items/attacks are treated as individual items and don't use SP but whatever, I ended up just using the Ulti-Free badge in the late game anyway), and I really just enjoyed exploring the game's world and uncovering the story as it went on. And when the game does have good uses for it's buddy system, it does add some interesting ideas to the world design. Also Kylie Koopa might be my favorite ('original') character in this series of games ngl.

I'm just gonna start out by saying that this game is definitely not for everyone. Spoiler alert but even for how much I liked the game, it does have a bit of a learning curve to it and it did take me a little while of playing for everything to really 'click'. I would definitely say that if you are at all interested in this game, it's one you are going to want to try the demo of before purchasing to really get a taste of the gameplay and determine whether you like it or not.

With that said... I can't deny I really liked this game lol. I was definitely interested in it since it was being developed by a studio comprised of the devs of Sonic Mania (including Christian Whitehead himself!) and after playing it, while I wouldn't say it feels any more like a 3D classic Sonic game than any of the, well, actual 3D Sonic games, I definitely see a lot of that 'style' here. The visuals and art style are really colorful, in a lot of ways feeling like a modern take on the Sega Saturn style (both in terms of the system's limitations and the kinds of games on it) with it's characters and environments. Everything just kinda 'pops' with color, and on top of that the occasional 2D animated cutscenes look quite nice as well. Plus there's some rather creative use of level theming here - the main example that stood out to me was Pengoville (the seventh 'world' in the game) which is sort of a run-of-the-mill snow level but also has this running background gag of a party going on between everything else and I can't help but love stuff like that.

Gameplay-wise, like I said, I wouldn't really describe as any more of a 3D 'classic Sonic' game than most 3D Sonic titles - if anything I found it pretty comparable to Super Mario 3D World with a higher emphasis on movement - but those classic Sonic elements are definitely there. The main 'gimmick' for lack of a better word is Penny's Yo-Yo abilities in which you have a pretty significant moveset to utilize throughout each stage that you can combine together to build up combos which adds towards your level score. Admittedly, at first, I did have a hard time understanding how the controls and moves worked (hence my whole spiel at the beginning of this review), but once it 'clicked', everything just felt satisfying between stacking up combos and utilizing the moveset to access different parts of the level to get collectibles, perform certain "missions" within levels to help the Denizens, or just traverse the level in faster ways. I think the level design generally compliments the movement in this game well, with elements like slopes and ramps to increase your speed and different paths you can take that often have collectibles that also add to your level score. And that's something the game emphasizes too, as getting a minimum score in each level rewards the player with a postcard containing concept art. Which admittedly isn't really that big of a deal on it's own but does feel like a nice little way to reward mastering the game's movement. Plus the giant coin tokens that unlock extra 'Star Globe' levels, again emphasizing replayability and mastering of the game's moveset.

Though, a lot of people have been pointing out that the game is somewhat janky and... yeah I do have to admit I did run into some weirdness on that front. There were definitely quite a few times where I found myself clipping through walls when especially when performing certain moves in rapid succession and while it wasn't necessarily a constant thing that I ran into in each level, it was definitely often enough to be noticeable as a major issue. Even outside of that there were moments of the penguin enemies photobombing the 'level complete' screen and, although it's possible this is just a certified skill issue on my part, I did feel like the targeting system (which was 'home in' on certain areas) felt pretty inconsistent at times with how it worked.

Other than a somewhat steep learning curve and some jankiness, I do have to say overall I just had a lot of fun with this title. Might be my favorite game of 2024 so far even if that's not a really high bar lol.

I'm just gonna start out by saying that this game is definitely not for everyone. Spoiler alert but even for how much I liked the game, it does have a bit of a learning curve to it and it did take me a little while of playing for everything to really 'click'. I would definitely say that if you are at all interested in this game, it's one you are going to want to try the demo of before purchasing to really get a taste of the gameplay and determine whether you like it or not.

With that said... I can't deny I really liked this game lol. I was definitely interested in it since it was being developed by a studio comprised of the devs of Sonic Mania (including Christian Whitehead himself!) and after playing it, while I wouldn't say it feels any more like a 3D classic Sonic game than any of the, well, actual 3D Sonic games, I definitely see a lot of that 'style' here. The visuals and art style are really colorful, in a lot of ways feeling like a modern take on the Sega Saturn style (both in terms of the system's limitations and the kinds of games on it) with it's characters and environments. Everything just kinda 'pops' with color, and on top of that the occasional 2D animated cutscenes look quite nice as well. Plus there's some rather creative use of level theming here - the main example that stood out to me was Pengoville (the seventh 'world' in the game) which is sort of a run-of-the-mill snow level but also has this running background gag of a party going on between everything else and I can't help but love stuff like that.

Gameplay-wise, like I said, I wouldn't really describe as any more of a 3D 'classic Sonic' game than most 3D Sonic titles - if anything I found it pretty comparable to Super Mario 3D World with a higher emphasis on movement - but those classic Sonic elements are definitely there. The main 'gimmick' for lack of a better word is Penny's Yo-Yo abilities in which you have a pretty significant moveset to utilize throughout each stage that you can combine together to build up combos which adds towards your level score. Admittedly, at first, I did have a hard time understanding how the controls and moves worked (hence my whole spiel at the beginning of this review), but once it 'clicked', everything just felt satisfying between stacking up combos and utilizing the moveset to access different parts of the level to get collectibles, perform certain "missions" within levels to help the Denizens, or just traverse the level in faster ways. I think the level design generally compliments the movement in this game well, with elements like slopes and ramps to increase your speed and different paths you can take that often have collectibles that also add to your level score. And that's something the game emphasizes too, as getting a minimum score in each level rewards the player with a postcard containing concept art. Which admittedly isn't really that big of a deal on it's own but does feel like a nice little way to reward mastering the game's movement. Plus the giant coin tokens that unlock extra 'Star Globe' levels, again emphasizing replayability and mastering of the game's moveset.

Though, a lot of people have been pointing out that the game is somewhat janky and... yeah I do have to admit I did run into some weirdness on that front. There were definitely quite a few times where I found myself clipping through walls when especially when performing certain moves in rapid succession and while it wasn't necessarily a constant thing that I ran into in each level, it was definitely often enough to be noticeable as a major issue. Even outside of that there were moments of the penguin enemies photobombing the 'level complete' screen and, although it's possible this is just a certified skill issue on my part, I did feel like the targeting system (which was 'home in' on certain areas) felt pretty inconsistent at times with how it worked.

Other than a somewhat steep learning curve and some jankiness, I do have to say overall I just had a lot of fun with this title. Might be my favorite game of 2024 so far even if that's not a really high bar lol.