Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Review)

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars gave birth to further adventures for Mario in the RPG genre. While Legend of the Seven Stars essentially evolved into the Paper Mario series on later home consoles, it also gave way for a rather interesting and enjoyable handheld outing in 2003. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is the first Mario game to legitimately feature Luigi as an important character and equal contributor to an adventure as it seems fair to state that he only really existed in the classic games if there were two players. The game sees Princess Peach visited by an ambassador from the Beanbean Kingdom, but instead it turns out to be a witch named Cackletta. She steals Peach's voice, which she needs for some nefarious purpose and heads back to Beanbean Kingdom. Mario and Bowser (and Luigi, who accidentally gets dragged along) decide to temporarily team up and head off to figure out what Cackletta's up to. The story may not be that in depth, but the way it plays out is fantastic. The cast of characters are highly amusing (especially Cackletta's underling Fawful, whose every line is pure gold) and there are even a few appearances from characters who have missing for a while.

What sets Superstar Saga apart from the other Mario RPGs or games in general is that Mario & Luigi work in tandem both in and out of battle like they were joined at the hip. Oftentimes you will need to utilize the two in synchrony to solve puzzles and unlock new areas. Even as they walk around the screen normally, if Mario or Luigi jumps up a step and the other brother is still on the lower level, the two won't advance any farther. I found that this does tend to get rather annoying at some points when one of the brothers refuse to jump properly forcing them to repeat a long jumping sequence. There are a lot of mini-games and obstacles that require extensive use of all Mario & Luigi's somewhat amusing abilities. For instance, Mario can drink a bunch of water and have Luigi hit him with a hammer to squirt it out on a fire or Mario can set Luigi on fire and send him running through an obstacle course. While these inclusions are refreshing to see and break up the "battle after battle" formula, some bits start to feel a tad overdone and a couple "mini-games" that occur in the final location really grate on the nerves

Fights are done in a hybrid of real-time and turn-based. In battle the brothers attack separately, apart from special moves that use both of them. Like Legend of the Seven Stars, you have to time button presses just right to increase attack damage, perform special moves and avoid attacks, but Superstar Saga adds the ability to counterattack. When enemies attack, depending on how they move or what their facial expression is, they'll attack either Mario or Luigi and you have to react accordingly with either a hammer strike or jump attack. Learning their patterns to dodge or counter them adds an extra bit of interaction to battle that most RPGs lack. The battles really aren't that hard. A few bosses will have you struggle, but I found that the special attacks (which don't cost much energy to use) takes them down in no time at all. Overall the game is generally pretty easy, but a lot of fun. It's unique and it's one of the most original RPG games out there. I'd say give it a try if you can find it.