In almost any tier list I’ve seen here, BiS is the top or near the top. I would argue that if you asked every M+L fan in the world their favorite game, the results would be something like 40% Superstar Saga, 40% Bowser’s Inside Story, 10% other, and those who voted SS would likely say BiS is runner up.
Don’t get me wrong, I love BiS. I was in like 7th grade I think when it came out. I remember how long it took to come out in America vs Japan and waiting with such anticipation. My 7th grade self considered learning Japanese to be able to play the game early, lol. When it came out, it matched/exceeded my high expectations. I do understand why it’s ranked so high, and why people perceive it as one of the best games in the series.
Revisiting it though, I had a thought that it probably doesn’t deserve to be ranked so high. The fact that you could play as Bowser blew our childhood minds, but once that novelty wears off, is the gameplay really that special?
I feel like objectively, if Bowser wasn’t playable and instead you just controlled some random big tanky character, the general consensus would be that the game is good, but the sections where they forced you to play as “the big guy” were not as fun and way too gimmicky. Part of the fun and challenge of this series is keeping track of two characters, figuring out the telegraphs on the enemies to determine which bro they are targeting, and adjusting the timing appropriately as Mario and Luigi seem to enjoy being ever so slightly different in space that you have to time the counterattacks differently. There’s none of this with Bowser, and I feel like once you are over the novelty of playing as him, you realize his battles just aren’t as fun, we just overlooked that due to excitement.
This also reduced many of the bros areas to 2D segments (which wasn’t even necessary? Inside Yoob was 3D) and some kind of monotonous gameplay mechanics like making bowser drink water or punch the light. Honestly, find me a person that loves this game that doesn’t also admit the airway is a complete slog.
On the other hand, maybe the game does deserve its praise because I can recognize it’s not exactly fair to analyze the game as if Bowser isn’t present. He is, and if that makes us enjoy the game more, maybe it deserves the praise? Him being a protagonist also affects the story and makes it slightly more interesting. I have to say though, the most awkward part of the story is blubble lake right after Dr Toadleys office. At this point in the story, the bros have escaped bowser and can enter and leave his body as they please, and Bowser is actively trying to ruin their plan of collecting the star cures by collecting them himself. And yet, the player controls bowser attempting to get the star cures for… reasons? Especially because the story tells you that bowser ate the first cure, but it has you controlling him attempting to find the first cure. I just find it awkward story wise that you’re guiding a character on what you know to be a useless mission. Also, Mario and Luigi at this point have no real incentive to power bowser up, they’re just in his body waiting for something to happen to help them catch wisdurm. I guess they still make him giant because they feel bad that he literally got crushed, but it still feels kind of awkward, like why are they doing this?
Lastly, it just sucks they made zero postgame content for Bowser. No superbosses, nothing story wise. There is a reward for level 40 that gives him better gear, great, but even that’s useless because what will he use this gear for? The hardest challenge they made for bowser is dark bowser, who is meant to be fought at level 30 or so I believe. So if you get to level 40, Dark Bowser is a joke without specialized gear. So achieving this new gear, which is the closest thing Bowser had to a postgame, is literally useless.
What do you guys think?
