Review cover Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time GBAtemp review
Retro

Product Information:

  • Release Date (NA): November 28, 2005
  • Release Date (EU): January 27, 2006
  • Release Date (JP): December 29, 2005
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Developer: AlphaDream
  • Genres: Turn-Based Action RPG

Game Features:

Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative

Review Approach:

Game played on the Odin 2 Mini using the "MelonDS DS" RetroArch core.
We jump into the Time Hole to see whether the brothers’ second outing is one worth coming back to almost 20 years later!

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Now before starting the review, I imagine some people will be confused to see an almost-20 year old game on the front page of the site. After the recent user survey we saw a good chunk of people wanting more retro content, and suddenly I remembered that it wasn’t just users that could post reviews in the Retro section; naturally we could too! I don’t know how regular this kind of review will be, but having recently picked up a new retro handheld in the Odin 2 Mini, I’ll personally be going back to play a decent number of older games. Where they make an impression, expect a review!

With that out of the way though, let’s talk Mario. The Mario & Luigi series is pretty well-loved at this point, with it dating back to 2003 on the GBA. Side-stepping the plumber’s usual platforming peril, the series slaps the titular brothers in a much more story-driven RPG setting, complete with turn-based battles and puzzles to solve on their adventure. Of the five games currently available (plus two 3DS remakes), Partners in Time is the only one with any real sense of nostalgia for me, being the first game I bought for my DS all those years ago. Having not touched it since then, I was curious to see just how well it had aged, and whether it was still worth checking out in 2024 with a new game just on the horizon.

Into the Time Hole!

The central plot of Partners in Time is a fun one, if a little confusing on the surface. In a not-so-distant past, the Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by a hostile alien species known as the Shroobs. The kingdom of that time seemed to win the day, with the Shroobs all but extinct in future Mario & Luigi titles outside of one or two stragglers. Why are the Shroobs important? Outside of their very fun to say names, they manage to find themselves as the central antagonists to this story as Princess Peach and two of her assistants unknowingly end up in the midst of the original invasion as they travel into the past using E. Gadd’s latest invention: a time machine. This sets off a new series of events as Peach is captured, and our favourite red and green duo follow along into the past to get her back.

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I like this setup, though it did leave me with some questions. Why send the princess on something that doesn’t appear to have been tested with people beforehand? And worse yet, why send her to the start of a coming invasion? The latter question I’ve seen get some decent speculation online, and the theory I quite like is that E. Gadd just didn’t know, having been something of a hermit professor living in a place that wasn’t really hit by the invasion at the time. Beyond that, you can just assume all the major players that would have remembered didn’t know what time period E. Gadd had set the machine to, and you have a roundabout explanation for things. Was it still stupid to send the princess either way? Oh absolutely, but this is the Mario universe. We generally let these things slide.

From that starting point the brothers meet their childhood selves and team up in order to rescue the princess and save the kingdom. There’s a few more details, but they’re not entirely important. You get to meet and interact with a really great cast throughout the adventure, with the plot and its various turns really being one of the high points of the game for me, even if it is quite the short story.

Time is Linear?

The gameplay loop is quick to form around the plot. Your goal is to collect the fragments of the Cobalt Star, the time machine’s source of power. Though you don’t know all the details out of the gate, it seems it was shattered as Peach used it to defend herself against the Shroobs, with its power being your best bet for beating them once and for all. In Partners in Time Peach’s Castle serves as a hub to the various locations in the game, utilising Time Holes that appeared shortly after things went badly to venture to set places in the past.

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Hub areas are a bit of a sticking point for me. They can have great potential, especially in games where progression isn’t strictly linear. In games like Mario 64 and Galaxy, the hub areas work really well for letting you pick and choose the stars you want to tackle, while giving you easy access to go back to earlier levels to revisit areas or pick up things you’ve missed. Hubs can also act as a point of development, anchoring you in one place to see it evolve as the game progresses, naturally either opening up new areas or developing because you’ve visited a new area. Peach’s Castle really falls short on what I think makes a hub great, being a remarkably static map that opens up in a set way without it really feeling like your progress is the reason for it. Instead, it opens up because it has to in order for you to progress.

It’s a missed opportunity. After finishing an area, you’ll return to the present, find a new skill that just so happens to be ready for you to learn, and then use it to reach another area of the castle that houses a new Time Hole. With how little the events of one Time Hole impacts another for the first few Cobalt Star fragments, this really would’ve benefited from giving the player more choice in the order they're visited. Where there are skills that need to be learned to progress in the areas, they could have been taught within the areas themselves, perhaps also being a means of accessing secrets in the other areas if tackled in a certain order. This kind of tweak would have gone a long way in making you as the player more involved in the plot, and really could’ve helped in the larger absence of side content throughout.

In Partners in Time you’re given next to no reason to go anywhere beyond your target destination, with your target destination often communicated really quite well to you in-world. You have no zany side-quests, and areas that are off the beaten path really don’t reward you with anything outside of a few coins. For the first half of the game I would fight every enemy I saw, and go down every path in hopes of seeing everything. After a certain point though I really just realised it wasn’t worth the effort. The best the game has in terms of extra content is collecting beans for a familiar face, but even these are just something you trade for unique badges.

Though I did find myself wanting more in places, I have to give credit and say that each area does feel well-paced. For those who are just going from Point A to Point B, the puzzles are often simple to follow but satisfying all the same, with no one map outstaying its welcome. It feels as though some attention clearly went into the main path, with the Shroob’s influence quite thoughtfully weaved throughout. It’s really just a shame it didn’t go all too far beyond that, especially when the game can be beaten in around ten hours casually.

Turn-Based Trauma

Combat in the game is really simple to pick up, utilising a turn-based system with attacks that need to be timed for the most damage. Your basic moveset is a jumping attack and a hammer attack, both of which getting a boost in power if you use both the baby and adult character. These attacks do a good job in clearing out basic enemies but for those wanting to speed things up, especially in boss fights, you’ll be left wanting a little more oomph. And that oomph comes in the form of “Bros Items”.

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Bros Items can either be found in question mark blocks or bought at Peach’s Castle, with more items unlocking as you progress through the game. As their name might suggest, each item relies on you having a minimal number of bros, with some needing two, and others needing all four to be active in combat. These items are really the key to unlocking your higher damage numbers, each having their own timings and inputs to learn to get the most out of them. I can appreciate the variety on offer, and certain items really do act as a skill test for their ability to go on infinitely if you can keep up with the increasingly-tight windows for pressing the right button. Being somewhat poor at these kinds of timing-based actions myself, I usually just kept a healthy stock of Canonballers on hand; they’re relatively cheap, only require four easily communicated inputs, and do around four times a regular jump. I never really felt incentivised to try some of the riskier items knowing that if I messed up early, I could do less damage than a basic jump.

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This came back to bite me later in the game as bosses in particular got bulkier, leading to long drawn-out battles. On paper these fights were actually quite interesting, with the majority of them having a puzzle element to solve to have a shot at hitting a boss’s weak point. The weak point might be communicated visually like with a bandage over a certain part of the boss, or sometimes quite organically through knowledge you’ve gained in the areas prior. After a certain point in the game I did find myself starting to hit a wall with bosses, with my lower damage meaning it would take multiple cycles of getting the boss into their vulnerable state. The first time you do it you get the satisfaction of solving a puzzle. If like me you manage to get onto a third or fourth time though, you really just want the fight to end. This isn’t going to be something that’s an issue for everybody; if you’re proficient with timing-based inputs I can imagine you’ll get on well here. For those like me it’s something you should be prepared for.

A Standout Soundtrack

Though I do have my issues with Partners in Time, one area I can’t fault in the slightest is the game’s soundtrack, and to some extent the graphics too. I’m no expert in music theory or anything like that, but every time I got to a new area I would hear a track start and just think to myself “yep, that is the perfect fit”. You have older themes getting new arrangements in the case of Yoshi’s Island, and others just standing out on their own merit. This is a game to play with the volume on for sure.

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The graphics aren’t necessarily anything that stand out, but the smaller details are things I do appreciate. You have warp pipes with their destination drawn far-off in the background, the maps on the top screen being fantastic renditions and simplifications of the areas you’re working through and their points of interest. It’s not pushing any boundaries, but it comes together in an incredibly cohesive way that just works really nicely. It’s something worth mentioning in my books.

Accessibility & Emulation

For these retro reviews, I also wanted to take a moment to talk about the larger availability of the games being covered, as well as any quirks to expect should you want to emulate them. Partners in Time did actually see one re-release on the Wii U’s Virtual Console at £8.99. If that option were still available, I can see it being a pretty solid way to experience the game. Obviously that isn’t the case with the doors to the Wii U’s library now solidly shut, meaning your only real options are between eBay and emulation, and my lord was I surprised to check eBay.

In the UK the situation isn’t dire. If you’re happy with just the cartridge, there are currently a number of listings between £15 and £25, and based on my time playing it I do feel it’s worth that much. If you’re wanting it with a box though I don’t see anything below £42, with the situation only worsening for Americans. I don’t know when it happened, but you folks seem to be looking at $60 for just the cartridge, which is more than twice as much as the cheapest I could find in the UK. At that price, other options may be advisable.

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If you are wanting to emulate, you’ll be happy to know that Partners in Time doesn’t use the touch screen at all during gameplay. Where you might run into problems though is in the game’s reliance on using both screens at the same time, notably in combat. This isn’t something you could feasibly get away with on a smaller single-screened device like the RG35XX SP; you need both screens, and you need them to be stacked to best keep track of characters moving between screens. I personally played through the game using the “MelonDS DS” core of RetroArch on the Odin 2 Mini, utilising the core’s hybrid display mode. What this does is give you one large screen, and puts both displays to the right stacked on top of each other, as you've probably seen from the screenshots. Adding to this a hotkey that swaps which the large screen is, you end up with a really comfortable way to play the game. You do still need to get used to the fact that the game expects a gap between screens, but it’s definitely manageable. I’m certain that a DSi XL will be the best way to play this, or any of the 3DS models if you don’t mind the blurry filter that’s forced when in DS mode, but I certainly enjoyed emulating all the same.

An Adventure for the Ages?

Playing Partners in Time in 2024 has opened my eyes a little to the game’s shortcomings. I can understand why it’s regarded as one of the weaker games in the Mario & Luigi series, even without playing the other games yet. Having said that, I can still appreciate it for what it is. What we have is a short game that’s a straight path. You’ve got a fun story with great writing and characters, paired with a battle system that while tiring at times, did manage to keep me engaged throughout. This isn’t a perfect game, but if you’ve perhaps played the other games in the series and skipped over this one thanks to some of the bad press it’s got in recent years, I’ll say it’s one worth visiting.

Verdict

What We Liked ...
  • Fun plot to follow
  • Great cast of characters
  • Well-designed areas and puzzles
  • Easy to pick up combat
  • Interesting boss mechanics
  • Stellar soundtrack
  • Relatively easy to emulate
What We Didn't Like ...
  • Entirely linear storyline
  • No side content to engage with
  • Battles can drag on, especially in the later game
7
Gameplay
While nothing revolutionary, the gameplay in Partners in Time is well-designed and feels good to engage with.
8
Presentation
This is a game that both looks and sounds great. Every new track fits the scene perfectly, with graphics including a bunch of small details that you'll likely enjoy spotting.
4
Lasting Appeal
With so little to see beyond the main path of the story, there's very little reason to come back to this game after you've gone through it once.
6.8
out of 10

Overall

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is a game I've genuinely enjoyed coming back to all these years later. While I can appreciate some of its shortcomings with age, it's still a game I can recommend checking out.
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There should be more to come from me at least. If you've any game recommendations I'm open to hear them too. Plenty of storage left on my Odin lol
Hmm.. I don't have any off the top of my head, atleast not right now. Thanks though.
If you have a selection of games already and you're wondering what to go with, i could chime in if you want?
 
Hmm.. I don't have any off the top of my head, atleast not right now. Thanks though.
If you have a selection of games already and you're wondering what to go with, i could chime in if you want?
I've got no formal list or anything, I've just thrown a bunch of things onto my handheld and am just playing what I feel like. Definitely gonna come back to another Mario & Luigi game in the near future, but I think the next one I'm fancying is Fortune Street. Picked it up for ten minutes a few times but never really given it the chance I think it deserves.
Action 52 review incoming?
Thaaaaaaaat doesn't look like something I'd enjoy, assuming the NES thing is what you mean. I don't think I'll be playing anything older than SNES unless it's something particularly standout lol
 
Action 52 is outstanding. Well, probably not like you meant lol.

Btw, nice review. I'd love to see more retro games here. ^^
 
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I can't believe you got the guts to review something that was released in 2005, only now.

Also, this was the first actual RPG I've ever played. Not Final Fantasy or whatelse, THIS was my first role-play!
 
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First Mario & Luigi game i got when i was 7. I beated it 15 years later this year. I love the difficulty. BIS was too easy but had a fun story, this is the opposite. But also quite fun imo.
 
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I actually own this game, but I took years to finish it because I consider it worse that the first game. I have replayed the first game and Bowser Inside Story more that once but I only took the effort to beat this game once.

On an actual Nintendo DS or in a 2DS/3DS the game is okay to play. In emulation? You want a big screen.
 
Great review as always @Scarlet .

Would love to see reviews of really old stuff from the 80s preferably ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 tile's especially a review of my all time favourite game from Ultimate/Rare Jetpac.
 
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Great review as always @Scarlet .

Would love to see reviews of really old stuff from the 80s preferably ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 tile's especially a review of my all time favourite game from Ultimate/Rare Jetpac.
I don’t think I’d be able to give those kinds of games a decent review sadly. I’ve gone back to the NES a few times and I just don’t have fun; going to older stuff definitely won’t be great lol
 
I don’t think I’d be able to give those kinds of games a decent review sadly. I’ve gone back to the NES a few times and I just don’t have fun; going to older stuff definitely won’t be great lol
It's ok I guess it's an age thing us oldies love the classics. Must suck to be young and to not enjoy the awesome games we had back then:rofl2:
 
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Played it back in the day on the DS (still have the game) and later, emulated on Wii U and Switch. Great game. Falls a bit short compared to the first one, but it is a great game nonetheless. So fun and just keeps you coming back for more.
 
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I still have Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time game that's what I bought from GameStop store long time ago for my Nintendo DS. It's my favorite and enjoy with it. So fun time. :yay:
 
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Definitively never will understand the score system of GBATemp, what we liked: almost everything, what we disliked: one or two small things, total score: 6.8 of 10.

What we liked: almost nothing, what we disliked: practically everything, total score 9.9 of 10

I don't know if payment has anything to do, but never make sense to me.
 
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Definitively never will understand the score system of GBATemp, what we liked: almost everything, what we disliked: one or two small things, total score: 6.8 of 10.

What we liked: almost nothing, what we disliked: practically everything, total score 9.9 of 10

I don't know if payment has anything to do, but never make sense to me.
Definitely sounds like some hidden rpg mechanics now that you mention it lol :lol:
Regardless, I also enjoyed this review of an old school RPG* game. Please do more! :toot:
 
I've replayed PiT a few times. I felt the replay value was frightfully pale compared to Superstar Saga.
Still delightful.
 
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Definitively never will understand the score system of GBATemp, what we liked: almost everything, what we disliked: one or two small things, total score: 6.8 of 10.

What we liked: almost nothing, what we disliked: practically everything, total score 9.9 of 10

I don't know if payment has anything to do, but never make sense to me.
I’ll always say I hate scoring things. It’s just a number I pull out of the air that feels right to me. For this game the lack of any side content and replay value are a large part of the score. The linearity hurts the game as well for the fact that the linear structure wasn’t really used to better the game, more just to keep the player on a set path for the sake of simplicity.

It’s still a fun game that I can recommend playing through once, but the flaws are evident.
 
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I really loved PiT, also because it was my childhood game. I replay it almost every year, recently I also replayed Superstar Saga and I have to admit that the latter is superior to it. Superstar is more fun, much more enjoyable and overall it is really well balanced, PiT, although it has an interesting story, in my opinion has really TOO MANY battles to do, it is inevitable that you get tired after not even half the game
 
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The linearity hurts the game as well for the fact that the linear structure wasn’t really used to better the game, more just to keep the player on a set path for the sake of simplicity.

Just a personal observation:
The point of JRPGs is usually a single time linear experience. If it succeeds on telling the story it wants to tell, it's a great game.
Of course, if it wasn't linear, replayability would improve, but is the dev time trade-off for such open choices worth it?
Linear plots are much easier to ensure consistency.

I'd love for branching paths and multiple endings to be a thing in all JRPGs though, but I know that's not the norm.
Shoutouts to Radiant Historia and even BlazBlue, to some extent, even if it's not a RPG, for being great on that regard.

That said, I don't think being fully linear makes the game any worse, so that huge scoring deduction due to it is, in my humble opinion, uncalled for.

Finally, great review overall.
 
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Just a personal observation:
The point of JRPGs is usually a single time linear experience. If it succeeds on telling the story it wants to tell, it's a great game.
Of course, if it wasn't linear, replayability would improve, but is the dev time trade-off for such open choices worth it?
Linear plots are much easier to ensure consistency.

I'd love for branching paths and multiple endings to be a thing in all JRPGs though, but I know that's not the norm.
Shoutouts to Radiant Historia and even BlazBlue, to some extent, even if it's not a RPG, for being great on that regard.

That said, I don't think being fully linear makes the game any worse, so that huge scoring deduction due to it is, in my humble opinion, uncalled for.

Finally, great review overall.
I completely respect where you’re coming from. The score may indeed be a little harsh, I think I’m trying to find justification after the fact when in reality not as much thought went into it in the first place. It’s just a number to me, the more significant point is the fact I would recommend playing it to those who haven’t before.
 
Partners in Time...I've got no history with this game, unlike Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team, but I have watched chuggaaconroy's LP of it from several years ago.
It's a decent enough game for what it is, but yeah it really doesn't have much to offer; not only is it fairly short, but as you mention there's no "stuffing" to this. It's...I dunno, anorexic maybe?

Makes sense AlphaDream skipped remaking this one before they failed; making BIS their swansong was a smart choice, it's just too bad that decent remake didn't sell well. And that Paper Jam sucked ass, too.
 
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There should be more to come from me at least. If you've any game recommendations I'm open to hear them too. Plenty of storage left on my Odin lol
If you like Pokemon games, I can recommend Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness, both on the GameCube. They're two of my favorites, especially with how different they are from the usual Pokemon format.
I'd also love to see reviews of the Gen V Pokemon games.
 
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If you like Pokemon games, I can recommend Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness, both on the GameCube. They're two of my favorites, especially with how different they are from the usual Pokemon format.
I'd also love to see reviews of the Gen V Pokemon games.
Gen 5 is a stellar shout, especially with how good those games look emulated. It feels like 2D-HD before that was even a thing.
 
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Review cover
Product Information:
  • Release Date (NA): November 28, 2005
  • Release Date (EU): January 27, 2006
  • Release Date (JP): December 29, 2005
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Developer: AlphaDream
  • Genres: Turn-Based Action RPG
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative

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