Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
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| Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga | ||||||||||||||||
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Mario: Let's-a-go!
Luigi: Okie-dookie! | ||||||||||||||||
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Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a role-playing game developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo in November 2003 for the Game Boy Advance. It is the first installment in the Mario & Luigi series.
A remake of the game, called Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in October 2017.
Plot
In the game's intro, two villains named Cackletta and Fawful visit Princess Peach in her castle to steal her voice, causing Toad to tell Mario and Luigi about it, which is later revealed that Peach's voice wasn't stolen and it was Birdo. Bowser then attempts to capture the "princess", but due to her explosive dialogue, he decides not to as she could destroy his castle with such dialogue. After Fawful destroys Bowser's airship, he, along with Mario and Luigi land in the Beanbean Kingdom, where they must later get the stolen Beanstar back and defeat Cackletta and Fawful.
Why It's a Superstar
- For starters, the graphics are colorful and vivid, with the backgrounds having a great design, and especially the sprites looking awesome with fluid and smooth animations. Interestingly, the game has slightly different designs for Mario and Luigi, as seen in the box, and they look great too, with them being well imported into the GBA. The sprites can be also considered iconic as they were used notably for various animations.
- Incredible soundtrack, as expected from a Mario game. Some themes notably want you to explore the area more just to listen to the music, while the battle theme does an awesome job at making the player feel like they wanted to make Mario or Luigi dance to the music before performing a move. The boss themes are also fitting as they do sound like you would be in something tougher, as long as you remember their attacks.
- The plot is very interesting. Instead of Bowser capturing Peach, she is captured by Cackletta before being rescued by Mario and Luigi, as well as Cackletta trying to take over the Beanbean Kingdom. Bowser also has some role not as a boss, as he's only a boss at the beginning of the game, and later he feels like some protagonist, much before Bowser's Inside Story.
- The main gameplay is very great and simple, much like in other RPGs. By default, your main option of attacking is by jumping on an enemy, and pressing the A button for Mario and the B button for Luigi at the right time will make the attack stronger. As the game progresses, you unlock new ways of attacking, such as with hammers.
- Lots of great humor that just makes you want to smile or just laugh if something funny happens.
- In the game's prologue, Princess Peach, after having her voice stolen, literally drops bombs whenever she speaks. It becomes even funnier when it's revealed her voice was never stolen in the first place, and that the Peach you traveled with was Birdo in disguise.
- After Luigi eats the Invincishroom, he starts thinking he's Mario and moving slowly in fear.
- Towards the end of the game, Luigi disguises himself as Princess Peach and even imitates her voice, before being exposed by Cackletta and Fawful, the game's antagonists.
- When you escape Bowser's Castle, near the end of the game, there's a cutscene where Bowser gets blown away from his castle, before crashing to the screen, breaking the fourth wall.
- Similar to Super Mario World's Dinosaur Land, instead of the game taking place in the Mushroom Kingdom, it takes place in the Beanbean Kingdom. This Kingdom has some great areas to visit, such as Chucklehuck Woods, Joke's End, Oho Oasis, Beanbean Mountain, and Teehee Valley, and features some great characters, such as Prince Peasley, who has some funny moments.
- Professor E. Gadd has a funny supporting role in the Starbeans Cafe. Not to mention, his role makes some references to Luigi's Mansion such as his theme from the game playing, and his using the Poltergust 3000, which is also used later by Luigi.
- The Bros Attacks have a very interesting gimmick, which is three modes. Mode 1 consists of slow motion and visual button commands appearing when the command needs to be pressed, acting as a guideline for players. Mode 2 removes the slow motion but retains the visual button commands. Mode 3 removes both the slow motion and visual button commands. Mode 3 also uses less Bros. Points, while Modes 1 and 2 use more.
- There are a lot of great bosses who are overall fun to fight against, notably Cackletta in Woohoo Hooniversity, Trunker, Hermie III, and Fawful as the penultimate boss in the game.
- When the brothers visit Oho Oasis, they can enter two temples where they can respectively learn the Firebrand and Thunderhand techniques. The thunder ability is especially unique to Luigi, and it only gives the bros. more attacks on their arsenal.
- The Yoshi Theater has four interesting movie posters, especially in the GBA version. The M & L is arguably a movie version of the game, Wario is a movie poster based on the Japanese cover art for WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, Kirby Story is a pun to Mario Story, an alternative name for Paper Mario, and Legend of Stafy is based on The Legendary Starfy series. In the 3DS remake, they were replaced by posters related to the game, with them being a War of the Worlds-esque movie featuring Shroob-like alien invaders, a love story starring Broque Monsieur and Broque Madame, a Raiders of the Lost Ark-esque movie featuring Prince Dreambert, and an underwater movie featuring Cheep-cheep.
- Notably, this is the very first time Starfy from The Legendary Starfy series made an appearance overseas, which caught the interest of some Western players. Starfy would eventually get his first game overseas (but not in Europe, unfortunately) in 2009 for the DS, which was released in 2008 in Japan and is so far the last Starfy game.
3DS Remake
- The 3DS remake contains an additional mode called Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser, a tactical RPG that utilizes touch controls and army management to its fullest. Additionally, this story also takes place during the main game's events but makes a few changes and explains certain events, such as why Starlow was absent in Superstar Saga and Partners in Time.
- It has a theme around discrimination and poverty about Bowser's minions themselves: at first they are weak as they are easily defeated by Mario and Luigi, but when the story progresses, they become stronger by saving the Koopalings from Fawful gas and rescuing Bowser, and it handles the execution well.
- It also features separate Bros. Attacks that can make executions easier compared to the GBA port, with the super variants being placed after the normal variants instead of combining it.
- The map in certain areas has been replaced with a digital map on the bottom screen where players can see the navigation on where players go, thus making it easier to understand and observe instead of backtracking all the way.
- It features pins where they can be used for your favorite spots.
- While the Mario Bros. abilities has been placed on the top screen, they are also featured bottom screen so that players can use them without pressing the buttons.
- The emergency guard has been added in the battle and it functions the same, similar to the one used in Paper Jam.
- Players can fast forward cutscenes, especially when they are long.
- When players have Amiibos, they can go to the Toad in Beanbean Castle Town to use them to stamp so that players can get rewards.
- In the case of Minion Quest, any of the minions Amiibo can make themselves golden.
- Heart Blocks appear more often, making payers easier to finish the quest without using recovery items.
- It adds music players, where players can listen to both original and remake musics. However, players have to find music players in the Beanbean Kingdom to unlock them.
- Despite Cackletta's soul having a scary yet intimidating design, she has color-coded arms to signify the elements, making it easier to finish off.
- The save feature has also been added on the bottom screen, making players easier to finish the game instead of restarting it again.
- After the final boss, the game is saved, this is due to Minion Quest being inherited in the menu instead of before the main game starts.
Bad Qualities
- In the 3DS remake, the Mush Badge A and Mush Badge AA deal less damage than they did in the original game.
- The final boss, Cackletta's Soul, while awesome, is notorious for its brutal and unfair difficulty, as well as only a sudden death round for the remainder of the battle. Fortunately, she was made slightly easier in the remake but still does not fix the major issues like sudden deaths.
- While the game does have Heart Blocks, they are only available in the Japanese GBA version, meaning Western players will have to rely on restoration items in the original GBA release. Fortunately, they appeared in all versions of the 3DS remake.
- There are a few problems with the characters in the game:
- Prince Peasley, despite being a great character, can feel annoying at times.
- Bowser is a huge butt-monkey in this game, especially towards the end when Cackletta possesses him. Not even Luigi was such a butt-monkey.
- Swimming in the Oasis is hard since the player has to repeatedly press A and B to make the Bros. swim together.
Reception
Upon release, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga received critical acclaim from both critics and players, scoring a 90/100 on Metacritic[1]. The game was praised for the graphics, gameplay, soundtrack, and various other things. To this day, Superstar Saga is considered not only to be one of the best games of the GBA but also a classic.
The remake was also positively received, with Nintendo Life giving it a 9/10 and scoring a 81/100 on Metacritic[2].
Videos
Trivia
- The game takes heavy inspiration from Tomato Adventure, AlphaDream's second RPG prior to this game. There are even two unused themes in the game that are remixes of the former's title theme.
- Originally, some characters from other franchises were supposed to appear in Starbeans Cafe, before being replaced by E. Gadd. These replaced characters were Wario, Fox McCloud, Captain Olimar, Samus Aran, Toon Link, and an Excitebike Racer. Each had a different dialogue.
- Geno from Super Mario RPG makes a cameo appearance in the GBA remake, although, in the 3DS remake, he doesn't, arguably due to licensing issues due to being owned by Square Enix. In the remake, he was replaced by simple text boxes.
References
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