History VideoGame / MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime

* SoundtrackDissonance:
** You'd expect a happy Christmas-themed music track from a place called Hollijolli Village, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb4bz4kkNhM but it actually sounds extremely depressing once you do get there after it was razed to the ground by the Shroobs]].
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujQwJdykk68 ending credits theme]], which sounds downright ''sinister'' compared to what you'd expect from an ending theme in a video game.
* SpannerInTheWorks:
** [[spoiler:Like in [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga the prequel]], Bowser causes everyone a headache by choosing to kidnap Princess Peach at the worst possible moment. This time it turns out to be a ''good'' thing however, as "Princess Peach" was actually a disguised ''[[BigBad Princess Shroob]]''.]]
** [[spoiler:Baby Bowser plays this trope in a much worse fashion, suddenly appearing in Shroob Castle to assemble the Cobalt Star after the Bros. were told not to. Cue FinalBoss.]]

* ThatLiarLies: The Star Gate accuses [[spoiler:Luigi of this when Luigi was only given three options instead of 4: Everyone! The Star Gate is the true liar but it's all part of a test.]]

* VileVillainSaccharineShow: The Shroobs. Murderous invaders who attack innocent civilians, entrap Toads and drain their [[LifeEnergy vim]] for ''UFO fuel'', and turn the entire world into {{Mordor}}. They express no concern for the concept of innocents and are quite happy to attack even Baby Mario and Luigi. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And they attack Hollijolli Village right on Christmas Eve.]]

* HateSink: Apparently, the Star Gate. If [=AlphaDream=] was intending to make players want to hate him for putting down Luigi, then they've succeeded.

* WhatTheHellHero: Princess Peach basically ignores Luigi most of the time even when he's directly trying to get her attention. After defeating the FinalBoss and everyone is back in the present, Peach thanks Mario and the babies but doesn't mention Luigi, ''[[DudeWheresMyRespect even though Luigi is stood right there!]].''

%%* SequelDifficultyDrop

* ShoutOut: There are various references, such as the opening, the mothership crash, and Princess Shroob's chair, that pretty much make the game a Mushroom Kingdom [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds War of the Worlds]]. [[spoiler:Complete with the alien invaders having a WeaksauceWeakness.]]

* HateSink: Apparently, the Star Gate. If AlphaDream was intending to make players want to hate him for putting down Luigi, then they've succeeded.

* AndIMustScream: The fate of some Toads early in the game. [[spoiler:Poor Toadiko and later Toadbert. Fortunately, they are revived at the end, but that doesn't make it any less scary.]] [[spoiler:Also, [[SealedEvilInACan Elder Princess Shroob.]]]]

* AliensAreBastards: The Shroobs in general.

* SadBattleMusic: The FinalBoss music.

* MyNameIsQuestionMarks: In the Japanese and European versions, the Junior Shrooboid is labeled as "????" in battle.

* UniqueEnemy: The Guardian Shroobs in the Shroob Mother Ship; Only two appear in the overworld, with a total of nine appearing in the whole game. After the Mario Bros. fall out of the Shroob Mother Ship, Guardian Shroobs cannot be battled again.

-->'''Baby Luigi''': Mario!
-->'''Baby Mario''': Luigi!
-->'''Adult Luigi''': Mario!
-->'''Adult Mario''': Luigi!

* OneTimeDungeon: You can only explore the Shroob Mothership once. After that, you can't return to it.

* DummiedOut: The "Scoot-Bloop" enemy, which would have originally appeared in the Vim Factory.

* WeaksauceWeakness: How to dispose of evil toxic fungal life-sucking AlienKidzu? [[spoiler:Cry on them.]]

** When the Trampoline attack item is being used, the entire ground briefly ripples and jiggles for every successful stomp preformed, ''even if the current target is floating in midair''.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/partners_in_time.jpg]]

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Commander Shroob shows up right out of nowhere solely to provide the Toad Town/Star Hill area with a boss fight. Unlike every other boss in the game, there is no foreshadowing to this fight, and he never gets mentioned again.

* MarathonBoss: A lot of bosses have a ton of HP, and thus they're very long, [[{{Padding}} to the point that they can feel like they drag on for too long.]] The biggest example of this might be the FinalBoss battle, where you fight the BigBad [[spoiler:and then her older sister, the latter of which has two forms, which is shortly followed by a PostFinalBoss fight against Bowser]]. It's common for boss fights to take easily about ten minutes, but the final boss battle can easily take over an ''hour,'' especially if you didn't grind a lot.

* {{Plothole}}: Unfortunately for the game's reputation, the incident that kicks everything off is one. Princess Peach and a small retinue of Toads embark on the inaugural voyage into the past with Professor E. Gadd's time machine... only to get kidnapped because they traveled to a date ''in the middle of an AlienInvasion that nobody remembers at all''.

* FriendlyFranchiseSomberSpinoff: Continuing the trend that ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' started, this game manages to be even darker than ''Thousand-Year Door'' and ''far'' darker than any main series ''Mario'' games.

* GroundWave:
** During the Swiggler boss fight, the boss will counter with several [[ShockwaveStomp damaging shockwaves]] that take the form of the ground rippling if attacked head on.
** When the Trampoline attack item is being used, the entire ground briefly ripples and jiggles for every successful stomp preformed, ''even if the current target is floating in midair''.

* NoOntologicalInertia: Zig-Zagged. [[spoiler:Defeating the Princess Shroobs does ''not'' undo the damage the Shroobs have done to the Mushroom Kingdom of the past, and Elder Princess Shroob’s dying words heavily imply that the invasion is far from over. However, Baby Luigi’s crying reverses the [[BalefulPolymorph Shroobification]] of Baby Bowser. Professor E. Gadd then uses the Hydrogush 4000 to spray a solution identical to baby tears through the [[PortalToThePast time holes]], all over the past Mushroom Kingdom, which destroys the Shroobs' AlienKudzu and cures those turned into mushrooms. But even that doesn't reverse all the destruction over the kingdom, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse which the story oddly glosses over]].

* DeadlyDodging: How you beat [[spoiler:Shrowser]].

* NoOntologicalInertia: The end of the game has a DoubleSubversion. [[spoiler:Defeating the Princess Shroobs does ''not'' undo the damage the Shroobs have done to the Mushroom Kingdom of the past, and Elder Princess Shroob’s dying words heavily imply that the invasion is far from over. However, Baby Luigi’s crying reverses the [[BalefulPolymorph Shroobification]] of Baby Bowser. Professor E. Gadd then uses the Hydrogush 4000 to spray a solution identical to baby tears through the [[PortalToThePast time holes]], all over the past Mushroom Kingdom, which somehow reverses not only the Shroobification, but ''all'' of the damage and mundane repainting the Shroobs inflicted on the Mushroom Kingdom’s inhabitants and infrastructure during their invasion. (Negating the Shroobification is understandable, as it had just been established that babies’ tears could do that, but repairing the damage caused by laser bombardments? Really?)]]

* WeaksauceWeakness: How to dispose of evil toxic fungal life-sucking alien Bio-Weapons? [[spoiler:Cry on them.]]