Thursday, June 13, 2013

Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time -- Part 13: An Unexpected Battle

After you've made your preparations, stocked up on items, optimized gear, saved, and fully healed, proceed through the door in the statue. Peach is ahead, surrounded by an energy field. She's glad the bros reached her safely. Mario explains that they recovered the Cobalt Star shards. This upsets Peach greatly. As Peach is about to explain, the Shroob mother ship appears and fires at the statue. Princess Shroob is on board, directing the attack. Peach directs the bros to a saucer port upstairs. Go to the left to find the doorway.

There's a Save Book ahead. Stuffwell can send you back in time to the previous Save Book if you'd like. When you're ready, go on ahead. The top of Princess Shroob's statue's head is a flying saucer as well. Control it the same way as the mother ship. Hit the smaller flying saucers to knock them into the mother ship. Four hits will shoot it down for good. The smaller flying saucers will move towards you and you'll take damage if they hit you. Four hits will sink your ship. Once you defeat the mother ship, it crashes into the side of the statue.

Go back downstairs and the energy field around Peach is gone. The impact from the crash knocked it out. The bros and Peach check out the crash site and a door from the mother ship opens. The babies push the bros to check it out. Princess Shroob descends from the ship on a throne. She's fuming. We can understand what she's saying. Peach is useless, so Princess Shroob will finish her off. The kingdom is hers and there is no escape.

At the start of the battle, Princess Shroob will be surrounded by a barrier. It will take multiple hits to break, so use an attack like Copy Flowers or Trampolines. When the barrier starts turning red, it will break soon. She'll land on the ground and throw energy balls at the bros. She'll also aim stars at the bros. After a while, she'll put up the barrier again, and attack from a robot. Jump through the rings, then knock her back with a hammer. She will also aim lasers above and below the bros. After she takes enough damage, she'll start glowing. She'll get more attacks per turn. She's almost out of health.

Once you defeat her, Peach suggests getting out of there. The Cobalt Star floats in. Peach shows off the center shard she's been holding onto. She won't allow it to reform. At the most inopportune time, Baby Bowser drops in and grabs the shard. He's been hiding to get back his "treasure". He lets the Cobalt Star reform, despite Peach's protests. Princess Shroob crawls in, saying it's her sister's turn. The Cobalt Star shoots lightning everywhere, turning Baby Bowser into a mushroom. Peach explains that the Cobalt Star contains another Shroob Princess, the twin sister of Princess Shroob. She was attacked when the time machine arrived in the past. Peach trapped Princess Shroob in the Cobalt Star and shattered it. The younger Princess Shroob (the one the bros just defeated) attacked Peach. Reforming the Cobalt Star gave the elder Princess Shroob all her power back. Elder Princess Shroob frees herself from the Cobalt Star and speaks clearly to the bros. She taunts them for gathering the shards and not knowing the truth. She was also the Star Sprite that spoke to the bros on Star Hill. She's going to avenge her sister. The platform they are all standing on rises high into the sky.

Some flying saucers appear. Peach, who's hiding behind the throne, will help by throwing a star to knock away the flying saucers. The elder Princess Shroob will charge the bros. If any saucers remain in the sky, they'll give Elder Princess Shroob a large rock to hit the bros with. Counter with a hammer, repeatedly. The saucers can also bring her a drink to heal herself and can lead a Chomp around to attack the bros. After a while, it will seem like she's been defeated. She'll touch her crown, releasing purple gas. She'll transform into a creature with tentacles. She'll send an energy ball at the bros and try to trip them with her tentacles. She'll also spit poison gas. Peach is unconscious, so she can't help. Her crown is too pointy to jump on, so use other attacks. You'll have to get rid of her arms and damage her legs. Mix Flowers are great for this. Once her arm and legs are gone, take care of the crown. Once it is dull, you can use jump attacks. She'll summon flying saucers and hit them with an energy ball. Some will crackle with electricity and other burn. The burning ones are aimed at Mario and the electrified ones are aimed at Luigi. Once she regrows her arms, she'll try to stab the bros with them. As you battle, her arms and legs will periodically regenerate, and her crown will become active. Use Mix Flowers to deal damage to her head and all other parts. She'll use more and more flying saucers to attack as the battle wears on. Keep using Bros. Items and heal when you need to. Eventually, you'll do enough damage to her, and she'll be defeated. She says she may have been defeated, but the Shroobs will live on and one day, dance on the remains of the Mushroom Kingdom. She'll explode into a plain old mushroom, which Baby Luigi picks up.

The platform lands back in the statue and Peach thanks the bros. The babies are having fun bouncing on the mushroom that is Baby Bowser. Peach wonders how to get rid of the mushrooms. Baby Mario jumps on Baby Luigi, making him cry. The mushroom turns back into Baby Bowser. Peach thinks that baby tears will turn things back to normal. Gadd gets the message and fires up the Hydrogush and sends babies tears into all of the time holes. Toadiko, Kylie, and Toadbert return to normal and the mushrooms disappear. Gadd can't believe the cure is baby tears. Kamek's got Baby Bowser in tow, who's still upset about his "treasure". Kamek tells him to let it go. Gadd goes to Peach's castle of the past in a restored time machine. It's running off the energy of the time holes, since the elder Princess Shroob destroyed the Cobalt Star. Everyone returns to the present in the time machine.

In the present's castle, Gadd mentions that he found something interesting, but will talk to the bros later. Toadsworth is relieved that Peach is safe. She says they owe Mario and the babies a great debt, leaving Luigi out of the equation. The Toads cheer Mario's victory. One lone Toad cheers Luigi, saying it was nice of him to go into the past to greet Mario, but tells him he can't shirk his house-sitting duties. He's only kidding. The other Toads cheer Luigi. One Toad tells the bros to follow him. You can't wander around the castle anymore, as Toads block your path. Go north to the throne room.

The Toadsworths thank the bros. Toadsworth the Elder must bid farewell to his younger self. Before that happens, the bros must deal with the fact that Bowser has collapsed in the throne room. He fell from high up into a time hole and landed in the back yard of the castle. Baby Mario tries to wake him up by jumping on him. The mushroom Baby Luigi was holding onto appears, speaks, and feeds itself to Bowser. He wakes up, spewing purple gas. Peach and the Toadsworths evacuate. Bowser feels reborn with a power burning in his belly. The bros are ready to team up one last time against Bowser. He promises to show no mercy. Bowser spews purple gas into the air, reforming the spirit of the elder Princess Shroob. 10 Shroob heads form the health meter. Bowser says the bros won't get a chance to attack, as he'll barrage the bros with attacks. He'll shoot energy balls and fireballs. Dodging or deflecting the attacks will make them hit and damage Princess Shroob, reducing her health meter. Watch which bro she points at to know who will receive the attack. After all of her health has been depleted, they both explode. Victory at last!

The Toadsworths bid each other farewell, and entertain Baby Peach with a Toadsworth Twist. Peach thanks the babies, telling them to look after her younger self and Toadsworth. Baby Mario gives Mario his hammer. Baby Luigi doesn't want to leave and tries to ride piggyback. Luigi give Baby Luigi a Yoshi cookie and he gives Luigi his hammer. The time machine takes off as everyone waves goodbye. We're done here! Roll Credits!

I had fun playing this game again. The controls took a little getting used to, but once I got into the rhythm, everything was fine. I highly recommend getting Ulti-Free Badges as early on as possible, one for Mario and Luigi. The babies will be alright with the stash of Bros. Items you pick up from item blocks. With that chapter out of the way, I think you can figure out what I'm going to play next. Stay tuned!

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