Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

GBA

Nintendo - 2003

Ok, I know I shouldn't do this, but I am starting the review out with a quote from the game: "Your lives that I spit upon are now but a caricature of a cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid!" - Fawful. I think that sums up the game enough, but if you want more, read on:

What can I say about this game. Well, first of all, if anyone has ever played Mario RPG or (supposedly) Paper Mario, they know the greatness that is the Mario RPG series. With simple controls, great graphics, humor geared towards slight jests at the Mario world, and interactive fights, what more could you want from a game? Especially if you are a Mario fan, or even a Nintendo fan at all. Mario and Luigi has all this in spades. Everything you could possibly think of that would refrence a previous Mario game is present. From Yoshis who watch a movie: "the Kirby Story" to whacking Mario with a hammer to make him smaller, to Donkey Kong barrel jumps, to mini games involving side-scrolling jumping levels, this game has it all, and they were all very well done. No controller problems here folks.

Impressed yet? You should be. Now let's talk about the plot. The neighboring kingdom, BeanBean, has sent a present to Princess Peach. But instead it is a trick, where the evil witch, Cackletta, has stolen Peach's voice and replaced it with explosives. She and her servant, the king of comedy, Fawful, then flee with the princess' voicebox. Or voice in a box. Or something. It is up to Mario to go save the day. Bowser even helps out, barely, because he doesn't want to steal the princess when her voice is explosive. So Bowser accompanies Mario to BeanBean land in his Bowser Cruiser. Meanwhile, that other guy, Luigi, is staying on the home front, waving bye-bye. But Bowser thinks instead that the green-fellow (No one ever knows who Luigi is in this game, refering to him as "Greeny" or "Fake-Mario" or "Zombie-Mario.") wants to work for Bowser. So Luigi is forced onto the ship and made to come along. So Mario and the reluctant Luigi have to team up together to find the Princess and rescue her.

The controls of the game are very interesting, and something I worried about when I first heard of the game. You control both brothers at once. The way it works, and after a few minutes comes quite naturally, is that you move them around, one following the other, and A controls the front brother, B the back. Start rotates them and L and R switch their actions. Mario can jump on Luigi to spin jump long gaps, and Luigi can high jump atop Mario's back. They also get hammers, and hand powers later. It is a very fun setup and leads to some clever puzzles. The battles are very fun, and have a very great addition. You CAN dodge EVERY attack in the game. Can being the big word, because some are very hard, but if you can time the button right, you can either hammer or jump over any attack, even the final boss' most powerful. This leads to having to always pay attention to the game, which some are quite unused to in RPGs.

What else do I need to mention? The world isn't that big, but one must venture into each area many times over and again. It feels very much like a certain SNES Zelda game, the way the world is setup and the different actions to get to new areas. Plus you power up your hammers twice, just like the Master Sword. But that's just me comparing.

What liked: Basically everything. This game was heaven for me. What I liked most was Fawful, the evil assistant though. I sure hope he stays around in the Mario universe for quite some time. Fawful goes solo game, please?

What disliked: One minigame was awful, the barrel one. You know it. But other than that, nothing really.

What to expect: Mario RPG. Zelda with turn-based battles. Mario refrences everywhere.

What not to expect: Final Fantasy. Nowhere near that complex, with spells and such. The brothers never even learn "cure." It is mushrooms all the time for them.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It is very well done, like all Nintendo games. It has too many Mario jokes to remember them all. Fawful, the best villian ever.

Ratings on:

Control: 9 - They are almost perfectly made, except sometimes I just can't get a jump and I cry myself to sleep that night because of it. But still, that only happened...once... yeah once.

Graphics: 10 - I don't know if graphics can get better on the GBA. Not grainy at all on the big screen due to GBplayer. Strong and Vibrant and bright. I love it all.

Sound: 9 - Lots of great, catchy songs. The Bros. have only a limited amount of noises they make, but they all work in the context. This is one game I always kept the sound on the entire way through. It had all the classic Mario songs as well.

Style: 10 - Fawful himself gets a 10. (just for the line: "I HAVE FURY!") But the game is just oozing with amazing refrences, and new ideas to boot.

1st hour: I'm in heaven.

5th hour: I can't put this down. I know I have laundry to change, but screw that, Mario comes first!

1st week: Have I put this game down yet? 'Fraid Not.

5th week: Beat and double beat. Only 20 hours isn't that bad. The final boss is a bit of a challenge, the first real challenge in the game. But it was all worth it to see Luigi in a dress. Yes in a dress.

#1 reason why I hate this game: Not enough Fawful. Or that mini-game with the barrels. Or even the mini-game with Ludwig Von Koopa. Both were the pits.

by Hawke