Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

• Be prepared for a lot of in-battle tutorials. Don't mindlessly press the A button during the first 1-2 hours of battles, or you'll be in for long and boring battle tutorials.

• Some monster attacks are easy to predict and avoid, but some are ridiculous (i.e. the monster raises its left or right leg), so if you're unsure just have both brothers jump or defend with their hammers at the same time.

• On level ups, getting a bonus on a stat makes the possible bonuses next time around fewer, so switch things up and show all the stats some love.

• When Koopa grows into a giant, his attacks are timed just as in normal battles. It doesn't matter how hard you blow into the mic for fire or how smoothly you slide the stylus across the screen for a punc - ust practice the timing so you breathe fire when his face is red and slide for the punch when he's wound up his fist far back.

• Collect the Blitties. DO NOT QUESTION THIS. It may seem inane, but all you have to do is use Vaccuum on a few enemy groups every time you enter a new area. The reward seems silly at first, but it's actually a special attack.

A special attack that I found incredibly easy to pull off, and one that will knock the top-screen final boss down to his second form in TWO HITS, from my experience. Yes, it is awesome. Unfortunately, you can only really finish off the Blitty-collecting in the endgame. Also, if you use it on the second form of the top-screen boss, you will end up in an endless loop until your brain finally kicks in and goes, "HEY MAYBE I SHOULD DO THIS NORMAL ATTACK ON THAT TARGET, SO IT'LL COUGH UP THE HEALING PLOT DEVICE." Still... COLLECT THOSE BLITTIES.

• 70% of Save Blocks are actually a blatant message that a boss fight is coming up. Use them and heal yourself before moving on. This is an especially important habit to get into, because one boss fight comes from out of nowhere, INSIDE A BUILDING. You have to go inside that building to further the plot, and there's no reason to suspect anything other than a typical "I need information GIMME" visit. Your only hint there is that there is a save block outside. Don't do what I did and end up going through the entire town again because you have no health to beat the boss with.

• Likewise, if the game is telling you to save, do it. Seriously.

• On a somewhat related note, most fights are hard the first time around and become hilariously easy every time thereafter, once you learn how to dodge that particular monster's attacks. This is probably why there are save points so close to most bosses. Don't be afraid to just mess around and figure things out on your first try against a boss.

• Yes, normal monster mobs are probably supposed to get pathetically easy after your first level up in the area. Between your new knowledge of dodging and counters for those groups, and the fact that your attack power always seems to have gone up a LOT more than the numbers would suggest, you will most likely only have trouble in the very beginning of any area.

• The bottom screen town has full healing for 10 coins, which is a mere pittance of what you get from your average monster encounter. Use it every time you're going back to using the top screen for any length of time; the game can abruptly require you to use the bottom screen in a battle, and if your characters down there are injured, this could prove problematic.

• You do not need to buy any equipment for pretty much the whole first half of the game, as long as you explore each area fairly thoroughly. Seriously, you'll just end up spending most of your money only to find something much better in a box. Save the money for healing items, you shouldn't need TOO many of those either, but it's good to have a lot of them.

• Grinding is not necessary for most of the game, but there is something a little special for those of you who insist on leveling up to crazy levels. Just a heads-up. (I don't actually know myself what the special something is, though. It was only hinted at at the very end of the game, when I couldn't do anything about it... Yeah, I love you too, Nintendo.)