Review: Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time
by John Walker on Dec.21, 2005, under The Rest
That’s all anyone wants to know.
It is every bit as good as Superstar Saga, and it is worth buying immediately. The next eighteen million words will be spent reassuring you of these truths.
If you have, as I once did, come late to the world of Mario’s RPG adventures, you’ll probably feel that sense of frustrating outsider-i-ness when you see intros like that. I remember when Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga came out two years ago, and everyone was explaining how it was a sequel to Super Mario RPG, and how it had never been released in the UK, and how wonderful it was and why you were bad for never having even heard of it, let alone played it nineteen times through. And I thought, hmmph, well then, this game won’t be for me.
I can’t remember why, but I bought it and played it anyway. Perhaps it was a desire to defy those smug insiders. And 34 hours and 36 minutes of game time later, I was one of them. You’ll understand when the next one comes out, because by then you’ll be all caught up and in on the deal.
Fantastic to review a game this good.
December 21st, 2005 on 10:38
Lovely stuff once again Mr Walker. Every review you do brings even the most cheapskate and miserly among us closer to getting a Nintendo DS.
December 21st, 2005 on 11:47
I would have said: fantastic review of a game this good.
December 21st, 2005 on 12:24
Thanks : )
December 21st, 2005 on 12:57
Yes, excellent stuff; that more than makes up for the dull and clunky BoPoP review.
December 21st, 2005 on 13:03
How dare you. That review was WELL FUNNY.
December 21st, 2005 on 15:15
lol. innit.
December 21st, 2005 on 16:33
I realize you’re, ya know, a games reviewer and all, but you really need a post in here for the non-gamer crowd. Say, a new Brian or something. ;) You don’t want to lose readership!
December 22nd, 2005 on 00:27
VP KM, how did you develop a habit to visit botherer.cream.org, if you are not a gamer yourself? as for the Partners in Time, this must be the very best review ever written by JWalker. witty, deep and funny, just as the game!
December 22nd, 2005 on 00:33
I’m sure this is a fantastic review! I just enjoy giving Mr. Walker a hard time.
December 22nd, 2005 on 01:20
monche – I exist outside of games reviewing, and this blog began long, long ago as something for friends from Real Life, before becoming my publicity medium.
Also, KM is the Vice President of this blog, Americaland and The Rules, so you’d better be showin’ her some ‘spect.
December 22nd, 2005 on 03:18
Wow, I didn’t know I had been upgraded to VP of The Rules, too. This calls for a celebration and perhaps a 2 week vacation.
December 22nd, 2005 on 17:17
The problem with that type of review is you lose people who were bored by the original after three sentances.
December 22nd, 2005 on 20:50
Good. People who were bored by the original are idiots.
Really – why is that a problem?
December 22nd, 2005 on 23:34
i will pay her my ‘spect, if time comes. and i’m monch.
December 23rd, 2005 on 19:40
I don’t think there’s anything idiotic about being bored by cutscenes or interactive events or whatever they’re called, it’s just a different opinion of what consitutes a good game, or a game.
Anyway, if you want people to read the whole review, I think that style presents a problem. It’s openly subjective which is the house style, and is perhaps more honest, but a more objective approach would probably carry dissenters onto the arguments I’m guessing you present later on. Thus giving you an opportunity to turn idiocy, or disagreement, into enlightenment and agreement, or something.
January 1st, 2006 on 20:09
Sorry to take so long to reply to this.
I’m particularly pleased with the beginning of that review because I believe it invites the unitiated in, while welcoming the veterans. Your comment seems to be that I don’t make an effort to convince people who’ve already decided they don’t like the game to read it. I really couldn’t care less – it’s not my job to change people’s minds – it’s my job to explain my mind. And in general, unless a game takes a massive change of direction, someone who doesn’t like the original is highly unlikely to like the sequel. I’m not going to spend the review trying to defend the game against an opinion I neither hold nor think justifiable.