Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Reviewed by Pirate Yoshi

Over-view: After Super Mario RPG, Nintendo was certain it could create another role-playing adventure that would be just as good and every bit as popular. However, with the loss of Squaresoft, Nintendo's role-playing abilities suffered, and when Paper Mario hit stores, it proved that there was a strong portion of Mario RPG that was credited solely to Square: gameplay. Paper Mario was funny, innovative, and fun, but it lacked some of the depth and intensity that had made Super Mario RPG such a hit. Now, years later, Nintendo is at it again, this time on the GameBoy Advance. Mario's no longer paper, but he's brought along brother Luigi for the ride. The question is...will Luigi thank him for it later, or wish he had stayed at home? We'll soon find out!

Graphics: 9.1/10
For a GameBoy Advance, these graphics are great! Heck, for a Super NES, these are good! Mario & Luigi is very polished and has the same funny, light-hearted feel in its animation that Paper Mario had, and if the graphics were any different, I'd question just how much Mario there is to this game. However, that said, I have certainly seen better out of the GameBoy Advance. The comic-book characters and cartoony-surroundings are fascinating and clever, but perhaps just a little sharper graphics could have been squeezed out.

Sound: 8/10
Disappointment abounds here. Mario & Luigi was a bit lacking on sound, and while the voices were a great effect to add to the game, they really weren't so clear and so amusing that it was worth hearing them EVERY THREE SECONDS. The music is fair, but I really expect better out of a Mario game. With so much potential, I guess it's no surprise that I'd be a little quick to condemn this title's sound department, but I really did hope for the best after two solid titles preceding. A decent score, but not soundtrack-worthy.

Controls: 9.3
Simple controls and easy-to-navigate menus make Mario & Luigi's controls catagory fairly solid, but the real issues I have with it are the toggle-shifting with L and R, each controlling one of the brothers. In addition, the Star and Select buttons are used to switch spots between the brothers on the fly, but I often forget which is for pausing and which is for switching, or even accidentally switch just walking places. Having to jump both brothers up ledges is a pain, also. However, minus these few shortcomings, Mario & Luigi actually performs very well, as far as controls go.

Gameplay: 7/10
The major fault in Mario & Luigi. I'm not even sure why the gamplay fell flat on its face like it did, the concept seems pretty good: jumping and hammering commands in battle to block and reverse attacks, and a similar system to that of past Mario RPGs. Some clever tie ins, the usual Mario-style humor, and the witty dialogue every Mario game seems to have. And yet, the quests just seemed tedious, the battles seemed unnecessary, and the game, as a whole, felt detatched from what I'm used to for a Mario game. Perhaps it was the absence of the familiar characters (even Toads as a general population, or the Mushroom Kingdom as a location!) Disappointing, but that all said, still a reasonable gameplay experience, with a fair amount of fun intertwined.

Replay: 4/10
There's really not much fun here for a second trip through, but if anything seemed particularly fun, it'd be some of the sporatic, random mini-games that you eventually get caught up in. Fun also are some of the battles, although there is, in general, not much here to entertain someone for a second ride. Also, whereas past Mario RPGs emphasized on steady progress in battle and careful timing to blunt damage, THIS RPG play a much looser game, more like "all-or-nothing," where missing a command could mean immediate death, and ONE mistake in an entire battle can cause the player to lose--very "cheap," and very unfun, particularly when the rest of the battle has so far been going absolutely splendid. Sorry, Nintendo, but something just didn't work in the conversion to portability. Better luck next time.

**Story: .9/1
Because of the originality here, you've got to give Mario & Luigi some credit. They've taken an overused plot from the ages of Mario games, and managed to refresh it with a new location and new characters. Unfortunately, the story seemed just a little *too* unfamiliar, and even a bit twisted from the usual Mario mold. This could easily have starred any other two video game icons other than the Mario Brothers, and not lost much of anything.

**Multiplayer: .2/1
Again, you can enjoy the original Mario Bros. arcade game with a friend, but this game is MADE for co-op, but it doesn't allow for such a great idea... And, I grew tired of playing the classic Mario Bros. arcade game with friends back the second time they used it for a GBA Mario multiplayer mode...

Graphics: 9.1/10
Sound: 8/10
Controls: 9.3/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Replay: 4/10

**Story: .9/1
**Multiplayer: .2/1

Total Mathematical Score: 7.7
Total Assigned Score: 5.1

Final Score: 6.4

Score Explanation: I'm not surprised, I think this is a very reasonable score for a title of this caliber. What disappoints me is that a GBA Mario RPG had so much potential, but there was just something in the air of this title, and it was something I didn't like and couldn't get past. I think the 'traversing other grounds' idea was a bit much for me, as a classic Mario fan and an immense fan of the original Super Mario RPG. Fortunately, Nintendo has done better since with its RPGs; please see my review of Paper Mario 2, a game I was very impressed with!