Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

Because two characters just weren't enough, Superstar Saga's follow-up adds two more: baby versions of the plumber brothers. That crazy old Professor E. Gadd has built a time machine, and through a series of predictably zany circumstances, Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi must rescue Princess Peach (Baby Peach is safe, at least for now) from invading alien mushrooms.

As with its predecessor, the plot and storytelling in M&L2 is brilliantly humorous, and just watching dialogue play out is a real hoot. As for the gameplay, I haven't gotten far enough to get all of the bros' abilities, but it's still fun - and, given that there are four timing-intensive buttons now, coordinating big attacks can be quite a challenge.

Of course the game looks and sounds great. The characters' animations are particularly well done, especially when an adult character will perform some wacky hijinks to entertain a baby counterpart. This coupled with the pseudo-Italian jibberish sound effects the brothers have really makes the presentation shine.

Progress: Level 8, two shards