This is a game every Mario and RPG fan should play! Great use of DS capabilities including the microphone.
I really enjoyed playing Bowser's Inside Story. It was a very creative game that really utilized everything the Nintendo DS has to offer. You play as either Bowser or Mario and Luigi. When you are playing as Mario and Luigi you are mostly playing in different areas of Bowser's body to either eradicate evil intruders or help Bowser heal in one way or another. When you are playing as Bowser you are playing in the regular game world where you have Peach's Castle, Bowser's Castle, and a few places in between.
The storyline is typical Mario fashion where you have to save the Princess, but this time she is taken by another evil dude named Fawful. Fawful is sort of like a magician who is very smart. The object of the game is to save the princess and take down Fawful using Bowser with the help of Mario and Luigi inside his body.
The gameplay is and always will be what makes Mario games so much fun to play. This game utilizes a lot of functions that the Nintendo DS has like the touch screen, the microphone, both top and bottom screen visuals, and even has sections where you rotate the DS sideways. Bowser is controlled using the "X" and "Y" buttons on the controller. The main battle menu options for Bowser are punching, fire, special attack, and items. The main battle menu options for Mario and Luigi are jumping, hammer, special attack, and items. One of the more interesting attacks is with Bowser when you blow into the microphone to blow fire on enemies. This was just too cool.
The graphics are great and are what you would expect for a DS game. The colors are crisp and vibrant. The character animations look good on the small DS screens. The artwork is very detailed and the characters look good.
The game music is nice and goes with the flow of the game very well. You don't ever get to the point where you think the music gets old. The character voices are good, but mostly you get funny noises followed by conversations in text boxes. Mario and Luigi make funny sounds when they are talking, but it is not translated.
I highly recommend this game to anyone who is a Mario fan and a RPG fan. I do not know how this game compares to previous Mario RPG games, but I really enjoyed playing through it. There are some extra items you can seek out if you want to, but there is only minimal gain to those extras from what I found.