Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
Game Boy Advance
Nostalgia Factor:
I've been interested in the Mario & Luigi RPG series for a long time, but I have never had the means to play any of the games. All of that changed a few years ago when I obtained a fully loaded RetroPie. When I noticed this game and its sequels were on there, I made a mental note to check them out someday.
A few years passed, but I have finally circled around to this game. I've always been a bit lukewarm on Super Mario RPG and the Paper Mario games, but I've heard so many good things about this. A lot of people on the internet hype it up as the best Mario RPG out there. Why not give it a shot?
How would I feel about this game? Would it live up to the hype? Let's find out.
Story:
This game's storyline is ridiculous. But is it ridiculous in a good way or a bad way? To me, it is in a bad way. I didn't even know what the heck was going on half the time. I don't like games with "cutesy" characters and lots of cheesy comedy. The storyline plays second fiddle to bad jokes and obnoxious characters who talk too much. It annoyed me in Undertale, Sea of Stars, Super Paper Mario, Ni no Kuni, and it annoyed me in this game right here. I stopped caring and paying attention after a while. Just shut the hell up already and either let me play, or introduce an entertaining story that makes me want to push forward to see what happens next. Neither thing happens here.
Maybe the point of the game isn't to entertain you with a great story, but simply use the story as a vessel to advance the gameplay? This seems more likely, as I was never invested in the story at any point whatsoever. But people online seem to like it, so I don't really know.
What is the storyline about? It take place in the Bean Kingdom, which I guess is adjacent to the Mushroom Kingdom. The Princess's voice is stolen by a witch named Cackletta. Mario and Luigi rush in to help. Hijinks ensue between Mario and Luigi and the people of the Bean Kingdom. Get ready for a bunch of fetch quests.
Oh, the bad witch is after a powerful artifact known as the Beanstar. You have to get it before she does. Ope, it broke into a bunch of pieces. Get ready for more fetch quests! Hey look, the witch has possessed Bowser. Cackletta is now Bowletta! You must defeat Bowletta.
Nothing is interesting here. Nothing. So if you are coming into this expecting a great story: don't. The game is not even funny, either, and they try so hard to make you laugh. I don't know how they managed to take the fun, vibrant world of Mario and make it dry and boring as fuck, but they did.
Congratulations, I guess?
Gameplay:
Okay, I am going to be nicer now, I promise. To me, the game's storyline is the worst thing about it. But we are moving on now. The gameplay is a bit better.
Action takes place from an isometric perspective. Outside of battle, things operate more like an action RPG than a regular RPG. You can jump, push things around, use your hammer, and smash question mark blocks. There is a lot of puzzle solving involved.
Each Mario brother has a special move that can be used on the map. You can switch back and forth between the two characters. Luigi has a special high jump you can use to climb up to high ledges. Mario had a corkscrew move that floats you across long gaps. Later on in the game, the players get magical powers that give them special abilities, such as a speed boost and an electric shock move you need in order to navigate some platforming challenges.
You're going to spend a lot of time in combat. Combat is fairly simple to get a hang of. It's turn based. You pick your attacks off of a menu. What makes this game unique is that you must actively press buttons in sync with your character as you are attacking in order to unleash a more powerful attack. For example, if you are jumping on an enemy's head, you want to tap the action button just as your butt is hitting the top of his head for maximum damage.
I like how you are able to defend yourself. When enemies attack you can either jump at the right time to avoid the attack, or swing your hammer to counterattack. Almost every enemy attack can be dodged if you know what the enemy is doing and you have your timing down right. Easier said than done, though. Some of the game's boss battles can be brutally difficult. If you screw up your defense strategy you can find yourself dead in no time. I've read online that many people feel this game is very easy, but I didn't come away with that impression at all. I struggled a bit with this.
The last boss in particular is very tough. He does an attack that takes you down to 1 health, and then you have to basically play "jump rope" with his big tail as it swings around the screen. This is about halfway through the boss battle. If you get hit even once, you die and have to do the entire thing over again.
No.Thanks.
Luckily I was on my RetroPie and using save states to cheese my way through some of these tougher battles. I can't imagine playing this normally. I would have died so many times and gotten so frustrated with the game. I would have absolutely hated it. I'm already not too big of a fan, even using save states. That is not a good sign.
Graphics:
This game looks good. The graphics are bright and colorful. Pixel Mario and Luigi are very charming. Heck, all the characters in the game look really nice. So do some of the areas on the game map. Part of the fun of playing the game is seeing what environments you are going to encounter next.
That said, even with the nice visuals, the game still feels a bit dry and stiff. I can't quite put my finger on it. It's lacking personality somehow. I don't know if it is a visual issue or more of a writing issue, but I found it really hard to immerse myself in the world of this game. I feel as if this should not have been a problem with how nice the game looks. There's a disconnect somewhere. Like I said, I can't quite put my finger on it.
Sound:
The game sounds awesome. Many of your favorite Mario tunes make an appearance in some way or the other. The original music ain't too shabby either.
The sound effects are equally as good. Gotta love the sound it makes when you pick up a coin. The sounds of battle, like when you hit someone with a hammer or jump on their head, is spot-on as well. Expect to hear some other famous Mario sounds, like the Yoshi noise and the jump noise. One of the few things I did find funny in the game is when Mario and Luigi would babble to one another, and it would just be nonsense jibberish words in the characters' Italian accents.
Overall:
I wish I liked this game more. I truly do. I came into it with high expectations which were not met. The game was an absolute drag to play through, especially in the middle of it. Even though I finished the game in fewer than 20 hours, it still took me months and months to do so. I hated turning this game on. It felt like such an absolute chore to play through. I'd go days or even weeks between playing sessions sometimes.
I'll admit, there are good things about the game. It looks and sounds good. The battle mechanics can be fun sometimes. If you are just looking at videos or screenshots, this looks like it would be an awesome Mario RPG. But it really isn't. Maybe that's being too harsh. It's not a bad game. It's just not one that really did anything for me. At all. Maybe if I had cared about the storyline, even just a tiny bit, I would have liked it a lot more. But I didn't.
If you are reading this and you are one of the Superstar Saga fanatics out there, I apologize for this poor review. I guess you can take comfort in the fact that it is one of the only negative reviews out there for this game. It's refreshing to see a different viewpoint from time to time, right?
Right?
THE GRADE:
C-
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