Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story -- Initial Impression.

This wasn't the initial impression I intended for today. With it being the release date of Halo 3: ODST and all. Because of some mechanical issues the UPS plane carrying my copy was delayed to the point of I'll be getting the game tomorrow. And with Scribblenauts being rather pick up and play in spurts instead of a concentrated effort, I've decided to start Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. The game was developed by Alpha Dream Corporation and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. Alpha Dream are responsible for the previous two titles in the Mario & Luigi series as well as a couple of Japanese only Hamtaro titles and Tomato Adventure. The Mario & Luigi games are a series of RPGs that feature menu driven battle sequences based on action and timing and decidedly comic stories and presentation. I've barely messed around with Bowser's Inside Story but I can tell that the comic nature of the series is at the forefront of this particular title. I've already laughed out loud a few times and I'm not even through the tutorial. The game seems to initially have great graphics and a strong sound design. With arguably the clearest voice sound samples on the system. The gameplay seems to be right in line with the series. Instead of controlling Mario and Luigi along with Baby Mario and Baby Luigi from the last title, this time Bowser takes the place of the babies. They've also changed the mechanic in that Mario and Luigi are on the bottom screen with Bowser on the top screen. And you're able to switch between them on the fly. The puzzles and obstacles are based around this switching between the top and bottom screens to help each side advance. Bowser's Inside Story is off to a strong start that I really hope maintains throughout the entire game. And I'm hoping the game is a tad more balanced and has better pacing as the last game of the series tended to drag through to the end. As always the answer is on the other side...