(WARNING: This review will contain spoilers for the game Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story.)
Video Games are a new frontier—relatively speaking—to the tried-and-true TV Show, Film, Art Piece, or Book, but no less significant to our development as culturally involved rational beings. How can I be sure? Well, the excitement I felt when I booted up my Nintendo DS in 2023 during Spring Break to replay Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story knows no depth.
The game first came into my possession one snowy winter day around 2010, when I received a Gamestop gift card for Christmas. What should I buy? What should I play? My brain was enraptured by the different roads I could walk down. The possibilities were endless, and I was in control.
However, only one caught my eye when my family arrived at the Gamestop. The box art was minimalistic. Just a block of white with cartoon images of Mario, Luigi, and a Bowser side-view poking out from the right side. A daisy in a field of roses. The light switch inside my brain flicked—and I bought the game, pressing it close against my puffy green coat. My skin was red and flaky, my skin felt cold and brittle, but I felt reinvigorated. I loved Mario—like most, I had dabbled in a few of the brave plumber’s adventures. But this game seemed different than the others. I just had to dive in, though I still wonder why.
The next decade went by in a blur. The next thing I knew, I was on a train home from Baltimore Penn Station for Spring Break. Another just-average vacation at home….Right? Like that, my mind nose-dived into the depths of my memory, where I remembered that game I played as a child. I never did beat it.
Later that night, I entered the front door. In a flash, I scurried downstairs and started rummaging through piles of old cords, pillows, and blankets all stuffed away inside a black drawer. I hadn’t felt this determined, so focused on a task in a while. After a few minutes, I found it. My Nintendo DS—and my copy of Bowser’s Inside Story with it. I stifled a gasp. My heart started racing.
Upon starting the game again at 19, I was 7 again. In the initial cutscene, the iconic baddie Bowser is tricked into eating a particular mushroom, which takes over his mind and causes him to develop a voracious thirst for Italian. Stumbling into Peach’s Castle and hoping to get some take-out, Bowser binge eats the Mario Brothers, Princess Peach, and several other characters.
Regardless of their torment, I felt delighted! The instrumentation playing over those initial scenes is bouncy, with pianos and violins dancing around my brain. But the charm didn’t stop at the starting gate. In a proceeding scene with the Mario Brothers as they reunite in the aptly named “Trash Pit,” I’m treated to “dialogue,” actual gibberish that pumps out from the tiny speakers on the DS in beeps. It’s supposed to be Italian, and Mario and Luigi exclusively converse with it. Though some may find this quirk odd, I found it charming.
But in the belly of the beast, the game truly begins. The meat and potatoes of it all is cooperation—Mario and Luigi explore Bowser’s body and help him move forward, and Bowser explores the wider world, the “Mushroom Kingdom,” to assist the brothers (unknowingly). Throughout the experience, players help each character level up and get stronger by exploring the different areas. Inside Bowser’s body, certain biomes are explorable 2-D platformer landscapes with enemies; some have minigames. Meanwhile, Bowser explores top-down areas where one can go in eight directions.
Every area inside Bowser is unique. In one, “Rump Command,” I giggled. I bounced on flesh-pink muscles against a dark purple sky and fought against googly-eyed meat on the bone. In “The Flame Pipe,” I maneuvered around and on top of dark-red and pink platforms. At the end of it? A giant bug I had to squash. Of course!
Though exploring inside Bowser was a big draw, exploring the calming white beaches with Bowser or the line-green plains filled with giant mechanical weather stations and killer crocodiles was engaging too. And with every hour that passed, I made progress, saw new sights, and heard new sounds (listen to the soundtrack). Truly, I had a purpose there.
Finally, I’m at the end of the game. Now, Mario, Luigi, and Bowser must work together one final time to defeat the final boss. The clouds are dark. The rip of thunder left my skin tingling. Back in 2010, I failed to conquer this weather. Even back then, I felt a thick rope wrapped around my shoulders, tugging at me. “Focus on your studies!” “Just take a break for 2 hours!” “The game will always be there!”
But it wasn’t.
Until now. As the final boss began, I heard one of the best video game songs ever. The piano, typically bouncy and fun, was now spliced with notes in a lower register—giving the environment a dangerous and climactic feel. And as the battle commenced, the gibberish language from Mario and Luigi became my primary language. I felt fond of them, and Bowser – I mean, I’ve helped them get stronger along the way. Being part of the team was good—an equal power in facing this ultimate evil force.
The battle commences, though I knew all my foes’ attacks. I’ve seen videos. I’ve played against the thing before. My past and present collide! My hands may be shaky, my palms sweaty—but I feel it. I am accomplishing something. Every callus and bright red irritation in my palm proves that I lived. That I am. And when I pressed the A Button one last time to connect that final hit, my 9-year-old self and I smiled–-fulfilled at last. It may have been a decade in the making, but I couldn’t help feeling good inside.