Reader Reviews

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)

by Tiger_Walts

With winter 2003 approaching I found myself without a GBA title that was both fresh and engaging. The instant hit provided by Wario Ware had dulled. Though the perfect pick up and play title for commuting, the games are all too familiar and so the draw was gone. Unhelpfully, the recent releases at that time were either not to my liking or just pitiful. Sim City 2000 and Pokémon Pinball I knew to be sound investments, but alas my heart at the time was not up for them. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance appeared to be too much party management and not enough adventure, Golden Sun 2 had the story but I had yet to defeat the 'Final Boss of Disproportional Difficulty' FBoDD(TM) in the first instalment, and this brought fears of yet another trek through random encounters and unbalanced levelling up. Purists may believe that RPGs must have boss encounters that take 20+ attempts to defeat, but people who enjoy that level of masochism have too much time on their hands and belong in a gimp suit.

Me? I want soft ambient music, baby oil, a feather duster and a Twister bedspread. So I played safe, went for the ol' faithful of videogaming, a Mario title, "Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga" to be exact. But this game differs from the traditional antics of the Brooklyn plumber and his sibling. The clasical elements are all there, jumping, some more jumping, a little bit of jumping and a few coins but this is an RPG. It's not the first time the red wrench wrangler has been in an RPG, but I've never played Mario RPG or Paper Mario so this was new to me.

The genius of this game lies in how both Mario and Luigi are both controlled at the same time. Within the world section movement is controlled via the D-pad, with one brother following the other and the leader of the pair swapped with the Start button. Actions are performed using the main face buttons, the default and single starting action is to jump, A is assigned to the lead brother and B to the other. As you progress you will gain access to new actions, which, in true Nintendo adventure fashion, allow you to solve puzzles and access new locations along your tour of the Bean Bean Kingdom. It is skill development straight from the Metroid and Zelda games, and certainly no bad thing.

The battle mode is engaged by bumping into the baddies within the world, but it is also possible to use one of your actions (mostly jumping) on a baddie to ensure yourself a head start in the battle by damaging or stunning your foes. However, if you fluff this and the following brother makes contact, then he will take damage instead and may be stunned during the opening of the battle. The battle mode follows standard turn-based RPG conventions, the numbers behind attacking and defending are determined by the player and enemy stats, but there is a twist here that allows the player to interact with proceedings rather than just watch your commands play themselves out while you wait for the input menu to appear. The player has two types of attack - Solo Attacks are available from the outset while Bros. Attacks are learnt later on. Once you've selected an attack from the menu (most involve jumping) the plumber will perform it immediately and the player can use timed button presses to increase the damage dealt, with the A button always used for Mario and B always for Luigi. With Bros. Attacks both characters are involved and these require a timed three-button combination to cause the most pain, as well as using up syrup points (the game's magical currency). Defending uses the same button assignments to initiate actions (the greatest frequency to which is jumping) that will either dodge or counter your assailant's attacks. It is joyous to play, possible to finish a battle with your health intact and even if there were random encounters you wouldn't mind. I looked forward to every single battle.

Your enemies are comprised of the usual supporting cast plus a good deal of new ones, they also have differing attacks and weaknesses. You will relish every new baddie you meet because it's a new challenge, new attacks to learn and counter. However the general difficulty is on the easy side. After entering a new area and defeating the fresh locals (with some jumping) a few times you'll either be too levelled up for them to pose a threat or too wise to their attack patterns. But this gets turned on its head when you encounter the final boss (Yes, another FBoDD(TM)), which I only defeated by purposefully levelling up.