Nintendo’s plump plumber has appeared in virtually every type of game known to man. He’s raced in Mario Kart, played both Golf and Tennis professionally, entered the fighting circuit in the Super Smash Bros. games, and even hosted a Party (or five). He’s less known for appearing in RPGs, however, despite the fact that he’s appeared in two: Super Mario RPG for the SNES, and Paper Mario for the N64, which have easily been some of the most accessible and whimsical console RPGs ever made. While the games had deep stories and engaging battle systems similar to the best traditional RPGs, they still managed to stay simple and active enough for those who typically shy away from that particular genre.
Of course, Luigi, the eternal understudy, always got left behind. Other than a sub-par outing in 2001’s Luigi’s Mansion, the younger, greener brother seemed to always be the bridesmaid, but never the bride. This all changed in the newest Mario RPG outing, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. This time around, Luigi is along for the ride, reluctantly to be sure, and the two brothers need to work together in order to save the world, and the princess, yet again.
This particular adventure begins with Princess Peach receiving a delegation from the neighboring BeanBean Kingdom. Much to her horror, however, the delegation turns out to be an evil BeanBean witch named Cackletta, who steals the Princess’s beautiful voice (she apparently had never heard Peach speak in Super Mario Sunshine, or else she would have realized that her particular princess was in another castle), and replaced it with a more explosive vocabulary. It is so explosive, in fact, that it is dangerous to be anywhere near the Princess when she speaks. In an outrageous turn of events, even Bowser lends a helping hand, as kidnapping the Princess in her resulting state would only result in damage to his castle. So, following the maxim that the enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend, Bowser gives Mario and Luigi a lift in his airship to the BeanBean Kingdom, to find Cackletta and generally kick (or jump on, as the case may be) some ass.
As it progresses, the story is a bit predictable, but is entertaining just the same. Mario and Luigi is filled with familiar characters and references to Mario’s earlier adventures, and that’s really what gives the game its charm. One running joke in particular is that most people recognize Mario on sight (although he sometimes has to demonstrate his famous jump in order to prove his identity), but Luigi is known as the guy in green who follows Mario around. The designers clearly went out of their way to throw in references that only long-time Mario fans would pick up on, and, as a long-time Mario fan myself, the extra effort is much appreciated.
The actual gameplay system is rather unique, mixing a lot of the conventions of Paper Mario with some elements that strongly resemble Golden Sun, and resulting in a game that seems to play as much like a platform game as an RPG at times. The two brothers are the only characters who the player controls through the duration of the game, and they both are controlled individually as you traverse the game’s world. Specifically, one brother always leads the other, and the brother in front is controlled with the A button, while the brother following is controlled with the B button. Each brother has different moves that he can do, and they have different effects depending on whether he is in front or behind. For example, Luigi can jump on Mario’s head when he follows to do a high jump to reach tall ledges, while Mario can jump on Luigi’s head to do a spin jump to cross wide chasms. Variants of all these moves can be used in battle, which makes the system very reminiscent of Golden Sun’s Psynergy system.
Speaking of battle, following the tradition of the other Mario RPGs, Mario and Luigi’s battle system is much more interactive than the battle systems of most RPGs. Each brother has a set of regular attacks, as well as “Bros. Attacks”, which are essentially special moves akin to spells that use up Bros Points. Each attack can be enhanced by pressing the appropriate button (A always controls Mario, and B controls Luigi) as your attack strikes. The brothers can also use the same moves they use for attacks on defense, jumping or using their hammers at the right moment to avoid or deflect attacks. Bros Attacks are more complicated, as they all require a series of perfectly timed button presses on the part of both brothers, and one missed button press results in the attack doing either the same amount of damage as a normal attack, or none at all. Bros Attacks actually come in three levels; the first actually slows the game down to give the player leeway, and prominently displays the necessary button press on the screen, while the second and third levels move at normal speed and remove the button prompts, respectively, while dealing more damage and requiring fewer Bros. Points. Bros. Attacks, when used often, can be upgraded to Advanced versions, which require a different series of button presses for more spectacular results, but since the game gives you no help in determining the new button sequences and the manual is intentionally vague on the subject, the Advanced system is unlikely to be particularly significant unless you have a lot of patience for trial and error or play with a strategy guide in front of you at all times.
The system is actually very engaging; instead of just pressing A over and over again in battles, the player is actively engaged in every battle, and learning enemy maneuvers is even more important, as you need to figure out the right moment for the brothers to defend. However, there is a flipside to these engaging battles, which is that battles, due to their need for constant concentration, can get extremely tiresome. This is especially true with boss battles, some of which can drag on for quite a while; it simply gets tiring and rather tedious to go through round after round of these battles, since you need to be paying attention constantly. Normally, it’s not all that bad, especially since there are no random encounters in the game, but it does get quite noticeable, especially toward the end of the game where the battles are longer and more difficult.
This tedium is exacerbated by the fact that there is no pause button and no way to do a one-time save, like you can in the Super Mario Advance games. There are save points scattered fairly liberally around the game world, but there are times that there is no easily accessible save point, and for whatever reason, you need to turn the game off, but you need to keep playing in order to keep the progress you’ve made. You can put the game into Sleep Mode, but that still drains the batteries, and it’s no substitute for being able to simply save and turn the game off. Similarly, just being able to save during battles and mini-games is a feature that I’m surprised slipped under the radar; so much can happen around you as you play games on the GBA that you sometimes need to take your eyes away from the screen momentarily, and that can spell doom (or, at the very least, frustration) for you in certain situations.
My biggest complaint about Mario and Luigi by far, however, was the amount of time the game took to really suck me in and get me interested. The game starts so slowly, introducing each individual move in its own sequence of events, that it took me a good five or six hours of gameplay to really get to the point where I wasn’t forcing myself to play in order to justify my purchase. Given that the game only lasts between fifteen and twenty hours total, Mario and Luigi really felt like it was over too soon. It’s not that it’s particularly short, as that game length is very good for a GBA game, but considering that the game takes so long to get going, the game feels somewhat shorter than it really is.
Graphically, the game keeps the cartoony style of the other Mario RPGs and, while it doesn’t have the unique flat style of Paper Mario, the characters are all animated extremely well. The brothers, in particular, manage to convey a great range of emotions, from happy, to sad, to dead tired, and there’s rarely any mistaking what they are trying to convey. In fact, some of the expressions and interactions between the brothers were so funny that they made me laugh out loud at times. Battle animations are done nicely also, and while they’re not done with flashy Mode 7 effects like they are in the Golden Sun games, they’re still quite impressive at times, while still clear enough that you can know at what point to dodge. The only complaint that I have in terms of the graphics is that some of the overworld areas are a bit bland, and it’s occasionally difficult to tell how high certain ledges are. Other than that, though, Mario and Luigi is a joy to look at.
The game’s sound is also done very well, keeping with the theme of evoking feelings of Mario games past. The brothers’ speech is less annoying than it was in the Mario Advance games, and actually fits where it is applied; most of the time, they mutter incomprehensibly, except when they yell out the other’s name, which comes out loud and clear. (It’s a nice touch that the brothers don’t actually speak in English, but just kind of mutter in what’s presumably supposed to be Italian, and the rest of the characters just understand them.) Classic Mario sound effects are here as well, from the “Boing!” of a jump to the classic mushroom sounds when a power-up is used in battle. The music is really where the game shines, though, providing remixes of classic Mario tunes. Particularly noticeable is the underworld theme from the original Super Mario Bros., which accompanies you in most of the game’s dungeons, and the original Super Mario Bros. overworld theme, which plays only in a town in the BeanBean Kingdom reserved for immigrants from the Mushroom Kingdom. Classic tunes from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World sneak their way in at times as well. Some music is new for this game, but the remixes are really what is fun to listen to, and really adds that extra touch of nostalgia to the game.
I was honestly prepared, about five hours into playing Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, to give it a much lower score than I’d originally hoped to. The first few hours of the game can be extremely tedious, and thus the game may not be for players who have limited time for games and really can’t dedicate a good amount of play time to the game. After those first few hours, though, I really appreciated how good the game can be, given time. That said, for dedicated Mario fans or anyone who’s looking to become a dedicated Mario fan, however, Mario and Luigi really is a delightful game once you get into it. It may not be quite as deep or involved as some diehard RPG fans might like, but for that reason, it’s easily accessible and worth your money and time to experience.
