Mario has been dabbling in light role-playing for more than a decade now, but for the most part his outings tend to be somewhat hit-or-miss. For every brilliant Paper Mario or Superstar Saga we see, his RPGs are just as likely to miss the mark. After his two most recent endeavors (Partners in Time and Super Paper Mario) left fans unsatisfied, I was perfectly content to write off the upcoming Mario & Luigi 3 — announced last year for a U.S. release, but still lacking an English title or in fact any details whatsoever — as a lost cause.
That is, until I picked up the import version and apathetically gave it a shot. Perhaps it’s simply the result of my having such low expectations for the game, but Mario & Luigi 3 pulled me right in, despite my skepticism and the usual import language barrier. What was supposed to be a quick glance at the game ended up rolling on into a five-hour play session that only ended when I came across an inexcusably stupid minigame. Ah well.
Don’t let that single creative misstep give you the wrong impression, though: M&L3 is great. It drops the overly fussy mechanics of Partners in Time, though not completely; rather than controlling two pairs of Mario brothers simultaneously, you’re controlling the brothers and their rival Bowser. It’s a modest change, sure, but it makes the dual-battle system more manageable — and there’s no denying that Bowser is a lot more fun to control than baby versions of Mario and Luigi.