Published
- 2 min read
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga on Game Boy Advance is one of my favorite game ever and my introduction to the Mario “RPGs” series (Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario’s series…). This usually was my summer games that I was completing during the car trip to the south of France.
This is a colorful game that takes place in the Mario’s universe. The introduction begins in the Mushroom Kingdom, but scenario happens in the Beanbean Kingdom. Mario and Luigi will explore the Beanbean Kingdom to try to retrieve Princess Peach’s voice that has been stolen. The story is deeper than the traditional “Bowser has kidnaped Peach” plot of the main Mario series. And one of its strong point is its comedy and their well written characters.
The gameplay is original, during exploration it’s a mix of platform and puzzle game. You control both Mario and Luigi at the same time and they both have their dedicated action input and the leader can be switched. (A will make Mario jumps while B is for Luigi). That’s for the basics, but during the adventure you will unlock duo commands and special powers / objects. For example, if Mario is in the lead, pressing the action button of Luigi will jump on Mario’s shoulder, and the brothers will spin on themselves to be able to “fly” for a short period of time and reach platform that are far away. If you switch Luigi to be the leader and trigger the same action, Mario will jump on Luigi that will act as a “bumper” to let hem reach higher platforms. Even “normal” movement through the game requires multiple jumps. This give the game its very own dynamic.
The fighting gameplay is also very good. It is turns based, but are more dynamic that the traditional turn based rpgs. Like for the exploration part, each input control one of the brothers. during the attack phase, timing the action touch at the right moment will cause extra damage. And during the defence phase, pressing the button at the right moment will either trigger a jump action that can avoid or cause damages to the adversary.
It’s part of the most beautiful game of the GBA, it is colorful, there are lots of different assets and they’ve managed to well transcribe the character expressions and emotions despite the 240x160 pixel screen of the handheld.
The musics are as good as the graphisme; with dynamic tempo and really good remix of the original Mario’s themes.
The game series had a few more opus on DS and 3DS, and almost 10 years after the last non-remake title, Mario & Luigi: Borthership has been released in 2024 on Switch. I need to find time to play it. I hope it will be as good as this original GBA game, and that they kept the same humor.