Luigi Mario

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga   

Developer: Alpha Dream     Publisher: Nintendo

Introduction:

Well Nintendo has released quite a few RPG's huh? Jump to the year 2003. Nintendo hired Alpha Dream to devleop a Mario RPG game. The result was what is possibly the best Mario RPG of all time or RPG's in general...Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga! The game became widely popular and famous for it's addictive gameplay, colorful visuals, great music, and downright hilarious humor! Princess Peach's voice has been stolen from the evil Cackletta and it's up to Mario and his younger but cautious brother Luigi to help get it back! They'll even team up with long time nemesis Bowser...! Yes, that Bowser who constantly kidnaps the Princess.  

Reviewed by: Legend

Graphics: A+

 Where to start. The graphics in this game are very unique! At first glance it would look like a pop-up book or kind of like the Paper Mario series. However, the characters are not paper flat (they actually kind of have the 3D sprite thing going on). The worlds are very colorful and have very much detail. Pretty much everything is interactive. The character movements are very well animated and move at a very fluid pace...even by GBA standards! Make no mistake...this is one of the best...if not the best looking games on the GBA. And I dare you to put it in your GBA player to experience it on a bigger and better screen to see the jaw dropping detail up close!

Sound: A

 Well this shouldn't really be a surprise! The Mario series always had what is probably one of the most memorable video game soundtracks of all time. And this is no exception! The music starting from the battle sequence  to the Little Fungi Town theme will have you humming a couple of the tunes during the day. Half of the songs are remixed classic Mario Brothers music...but done way better! It can be very cheerful and happy to being very sinister and dramatic. The speech in this game only make it better as Mario and Luigi actually say quite a few things. As a matter of fact, the game is quite hilarious as there are alot of jokes that even adults will laugh at such as people not knowing what Luigi's name is (referring to him as "that green guy!" or "the other Mario Brother!" lol). Though I was a bit disappointed that during their interaction with other characters they just do alot of mumbling.. But overall, the speech is great! Mario and Luigi also yell the commands of the moves they perform. The sound effects are good too. It's your standard Mario fare, You'll here the traditional koopa shell *blookup* noise, and the popular *boing* noise whenever they jump. Great stuff here!

Control: A-

  Another strong point in the Mario franchise! Controlling the characters is easy as pie. You press the start button at anytime to switch between the two brothers. You also use the A button for the first character and the B button for the second one behind you. At first I found this to be a bit confusing at times but quickly adapted to it. As the game progresses you'll be given more powers to use during battles and to help you on your quest. Without spoiling too much, the brothers will sometimes use these attacks on each other to help each other advance further into the game. The front player uses the R button and the back player uses the L button. Again, I found this a bit confusing at times and sometimes would get frustrated abit. And finally there's the battle sequences. Now I'm not a huge fan of RPG's at all but I do like how the game's battle system is timed/action based. Meaning that whenever an enemy is about to attack, you can look closely at his pattern and use that to your advantage. For example:if you fight a Bommerang Bro he'll somtimes twinkle his right eye. And since Luigi's on the right hand side, that obviously means he's going to throw it at him. So as Luigi, you've got to quickly push B to jump over it and wait for it to go back to the enemy before it's your turn to attack. There's also this thing called the Bros Ataack in which you can have both of the Mario Bros team up and press a certain button combination on the enemy to do twice the damage. The more you do this, they will talk to each other and say it's time to upgrade! Their moves will eventually be upgraded and will have an additional option so you can perform the same move, but with a different twist and just as much damage!

Gameplay: A

 Well there's not much to say about the gameplay other than it's action packed with alot of exploring (which is a good thing btw). I did however, have a couple of issues. For one, some of the enemies can be just plain ol' easy to just plain ol' cheap! And I mean CHEAP! Trunkle is a perfect example of this as when he's getting a beatdown he'll just constantly restore his HP by 30 until he's fully healthy again (though I've heard in some versions he only restores by 10 HP)! AAAAARRRRGGGHHH! And I also really ended up gettin frustrated with the Eite Troopeas (basically koopa troopas) as they will constantly spray themselves to regain alot of HP...and even spray defeated foes to revive them...therefore making the battle longer and harder! I mean don't get me wrong, I'm up for a good challenge and all...but this is just ridiculous sometimes! And sometimes when one of the Mario Bros ends up getting knocked out, the surviving one will have to take the duty by picking the knocked out one up and try to jump avoiding enemy attacks. Well since this obviously makes it harder to jump, it can be downright cheap and pretty much impossible to avoid enemy attacks! So make sure you have alot of 1-up mushrooms and other health items on hand! Speaking of health items, you can go through the many town stores in the game to purchase your health items, clothes, and badges (which can give your character better HP or abilities). Long time Mario fans won't be disappointed as there are quite a few old school platforming elements in the game! Overall...the gameplay is top notch and possibly one of the best I've seen in recent years...and that's saying alot!

Overall: A+

 Make no mistake, Nintendo took it's time with this game...and it shows! I'm not a fan of RPG's at all, but this game ended up getting me hooked (though I still question if it's a full fledged RPG)! The characters, the music, the humor all made me wanna come back for more! This is possibly one of the best RPG's out there, and by far the best GBA game out there right now! Mario games never really disappointed and this game is no exception! It also pushed Mario out of the limelight for once so he could share it with his younger (and cooler) brother Luigi...who's pretty much been doing nothing but watching the house as Mario goes off to adventure until now. So hopefully by now Luigi will finally have the respect long due to him. You owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this gem! Even if you have a DS...still buy this game!