Das zweite Mario RPG, das ich gespielt habe, war im Gegensatz zu Paper Mario 2 ein Spiel, das ich ohne Vorwissen durchging. Im Allgemeinen entsprach es meinen Erwartungen: ein entspanntes RPG mit teilweise witzigen Szenen, charmanten Charakteren (der Bohnenprinz war goated, und Luigi war auch super) und toller Musik. Die Rätsel waren größtenteils einfach, aber es gab auch ein paar wirklich clevere (bis auf 2-3 Stellen, wie im Boot oder im Eisdungeon). Dennoch war es genau das, was ich wollte - ein entspanntes RPG ohne allzu viel Stress.

Was mir besonders gefallen hat, war, dass man gut leveln konnte, ohne wirklich zu grinden. Die Quick Time Events hielten das rundenbasierte Kampfsystem aktiv, ohne wirklich zu nerven, selbst wenn ich manchmal Schwierigkeiten hatte, etwas zu erkennen.

Man konnte viele verschiedene Gebiete erkunden, ohne wirklich backtracking betreiben zu müssen und dennoch ist die Map gewachsen mit neu erlernten Fähigkeiten (es sei denn, man ist verrückt und macht die 100%).

Bowsers Festung hat sich jedoch wirklich in die Länge gezogen. Ich wusste, dass das Spiel bald endet, und plötzlich musste ich 7 Koopalinge besiegen, von denen einige innerhalb von 5-9 Runden besiegt werden mussten. Das muss echt nicht sein, naja. So schlimm war es im Endeffekt auch nicht.

Insgesamt hat es erfüllt, was ich wollte: ein charmantes, süßes, entspanntes RPG. Ich hatte meinen Spaß.

After the commercial flop that was Paper Jam, where does AlphaDream go from here? Well why not remake a game that isn't playable on the 3DS? Thus, we have Superstar Saga DX. It's called this in Japan and its a better name than "+ Bowsers Minions" cause lets be real it rolls off the tongue easier. Plus the new Bowsers Minions just sucks, it's too slow and uninteresting to be its own mode. I think its cool that we get some context for what was happening behind the scenes of the main plot but the mode feels tacked on and not really worth going through. Nah what were here for is the base game being remade in the modern engine, and boy is this game beautiful. I still have a bias towards the sprite based worlds the GBA/DS had but this game keeps the 2.5D map traversal but enhances it with superb lighting that makes each area feel distinct. There were some major and minor tweaks made to the combat but it still roughly plays like a Mario and Luigi game, this time more closely resembling Inside Story which is not bad. It still keeps the things that makes Superstar Saga have its own identity so that's most important. It's a pretty faithful remake and if you somehow missed out on the original Superstar Saga then this is a great alternative. It just goes a little lower because of the Bowsers Minions mode.

People hated it because it wasn't pixel art
It's actually pretty good
I prefer it to the original
And Bowser actually looks like Bowser unlike the GBA version
And the gameplay stays intact

... I didn't bother with Bowser's Minions

One criticism I do have (which also applies to the GBA version) is with the overworld abilities the brothers get. There's WAY too many of them. Having to sift through them through button inputs interrupts exploration, the 3DS version at least having the option to select them via the touch screen, though it's still cumbersome.

This Remake is actually really good. It feels fast and in line with modern Mario & Luigi. I can get that with the new graphics the game looses a bit of it's goofiness , but it's still fine. playng this however made me realize how the game actually aged in terms of item management and exploration. Lots of gears just feel useless. Overall a good way to play the Superstar Saga , definitely reccomended.
The only real downside is the side mode " Minion Quest ". There isn't that much depth to explore in a mode that's just Auto-Battle and endless grind. Strategy sometimes feels useless and it's the same old story with Rock/Paper/Scissor mechanics that don't go that far outside of that. Add some RNG to shake up the battles and we are done. Something that i didn't enjoy that much. The story was pretty though.

[ 7.5 / 10 ]

(This is a review of the Superstar Saga part of the game. I did not try out Bowser's Minions and am not interested in doing so either due to what I've heard from it)

Aw hell yeah baby. Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga is my absolute favorite GBA game. It's such a wonderful time that oozes a vibe like no other, with it's simple yet addicting battle system, phenomenal soundtrack specially considering the soundfont of the console it was on, beautiful spritework and memorable characters, there really is no other game like it on that system. So seeing as I recently got myself a 3DS, I decided "Screw it why not?" and played the remake of the game released back in 2017, as well as adding the other Mario and Luigi games onto my list of to-do's.

Now, before I get into my review proper, I'd just like to say right out of the gate that this is a phenomenal remake for the most part. The sprites have been remade to match the 3DS' power and look absolutely gorgeous, as does the rest of the game with it's lighting really helping bring the already alive world of the Bean Bean Kingdom to the fullest of it's visual potential. My only real complain was how they changed that one storage facility in Chuckula Woods from purple to blue but it's such a small area that it doesn't bother me enough to hinder the graphics as a whole.

This next point might be a bit controversial, but I actually prefer the music in the remake to the original. That's not to slander the original tracks of course, most of them are still great and that unique crunch definitely adds quite a bit of style, but the cleaner compositions and more fitting music placements like putting Cackletta's theme on Fawful's rematch rather than Popple's ultimately just lead to a better OST.

Gameplay wise, there are some things I don't like that much. FIrst of all, while I understand why the double jump from the later Mario and Luigi games was integrated into this one, it ends up feeling like the extra hit makes some of the early-game fights way to easy. They also changed the way Knockback Bros. Advance functions to make it so that it can't go on forever and targets multiple enemies rather than just one which is stinky but whatever. However my biggest issue here, is how you can only switch brothers when using abilities, which like, yeah I get why that was cut, but at the same time being able to switch from Mario to Luigi at any time was just a nice little feature in the original that is lacking here, plus you end up losing some of the little animations of the bros getting mad at each other when trying to execute hammer/hand moves from behind without unlocking them, which again, small detail, but the fact they bothered to add something like that at all really just helped to enhance the charm of Superstar Saga.

But I'm willing to take those sacrifices for all the other enhancements on display. From the extra warp pipes, to the separating the normal and advanced bros. moves (which feels a little odd for Cyclone Bros. specifically but whatever), to making the bosses more challenging, to having the map actually be useful for once, all the way up to being able to run away like a little bitch without losing coins are all more than welcome additions that help improve the game significantly, specially for new-comers.

However, probably my biggest gripe with this remake and the thing that ultimately prevents me from liking it more than the original, is the loss of some of that charm. Not having the unique designs for Koopas and Hammer Bros; replacing Binky with just a normal skeleton, taking out the uniquely colored Toads in Little Fungi-Town. Stuff like that that, while yes, ultimately insignificant and nitpickly on it's own, adds up into feeling much less unique, which kinda sucks when that's a big part of what makes me love Superstar Saga so much.

Overall however, this 3DS remake is a must-play. It may not be the version I'll be going with by default in the future, but if your new to Mario and Luigi, this is the way to go. I wish that this game got the Majora's Mask 3D treatment and recieved a restoration mod in order to iron out those little quirks here and there, but oh well, most of this really just comes down to my own personal preferences.

This game is quite charming, and funny at times. The prince's hair flick had me chuckling every time.

I had to knock a point off for the difficulty curve of the game, especially with the final boss. I found a lot of the early bosses quite easy to beat, and I began slowing my pace with leveling a little to make up for that. I found the remaining fights a good difficulty after that, especially the koopalings. After this though, the final final boss was insane. I reached the fight at about level 31, later finding that something more like level 40 was expected for the fight. This was a huge knock to my motivation and I ended up doing the fight on easy mode, and despite the huge upgrades this gives I still found the fight to be a reasonable challenge.

Prenant son ADN dans Super Mario RPG, Superstar Saga emmène les deux plombiers au royaume chatoyant de Végésia.
On embarque pour sauver la voix de la Princesse Peach et arrêter Graguémona, à travers des zones qui renferment des tonnes de secrets, au service d'une histoire mignone, rigolote et qu'on suit sans déplaisir.
Côté gameplay, le jeu va au plus simple avec sa partie RPG, et c'est pas plus mal ça le rend très facile d'accès (et une option facile supplémentaire dans les paramètres). Le jeu varie même tecniques en combat et dans le monde où Mario et Luigi évoluent, avec parfois quelques moments un peu techniques.

Concernant Bowser's Minions, on suit un Goomba qui va tenter de rallier tout les sbires possibles et d'aller chercher leur boss disparu.
Là encore, assez simple d'utilisation, tout est quasiment automatique, sauf les pouvoirs sur l'écran tactile qu'on peut activer. Il suffit juste d'avoir une équipe élaborée par rapport aux ennemis qu'on va affronter.
On est pas bousculés par le gameplay, mais côté histoire, c'est un peu plus drôle que le jeu de base ! Du coup on s'attache à un petit Goomba et voir jusqu'où on peut l'amener pour réaliser son but...

Au final, une aventure sympa, colorée, assez drôle, technique mais super accessible, et tout ça rythmé avec les notes de Yoko Shimomura (parce que oui il fallait bien mentionner la Daronne des compositeur/trices de jeux vidéo !).

Been a while since I've played the original so I played the remake. Putting aside the fact it's a remake I just had more fun with the first Super Mario RPG. That could just be me, but I much prefer the traditional style of the latter. I was underleveled so fights in this one took a really, REALLY long time, at least way longer than generic enemies should. And it's weird I was underleveled, because I fought a lot of enemies and even grinded for around half an hour with the bonus EXP item... still ended up underleveled.

Cackletta's Soul is a weird difficulty spike and I had to rematch her on Easy to beat her because I was 5 levels under, went Stache most of the way (abandoned challenge, since it wasn't worth it) and was using the Triforce. If it wasn't for that fucking arm attack everything would've been fine. I remember when I was younger and figured out how to do that perfectly but I didn't feel like learning now, especially with the Mush Badge being nerfed; no training wheels this time bucko. It's like fighting Culex without the Lazy Shell, except I at least felt like doing that.

I honestly don't remember that many tracks from this game. Maybe they were just better in the original, I dunno. Popple and Fawful both had great themes back in the day and they're fine now, and I like the theme of the desert and the beach, but I don't remember anything else much. I know of quite a few tracks from SMRPG, though.

I'm sure many might be wondering, so I'll say it. I think this remake plays things too safe, even compared to the new remake of SMRPG. In the latter, there's rematches, and they aren't too exciting but they're there. There's added cutscenes, a chain mechanic, and of course there's also the Triple Moves. This game has some QoL, and it does look pretty nice, but looks and QoL are all it really has. Admittedly I have not played Bowser's Minions, nor do I plan to, but I haven't heard much good about it so I'll leave it out of this. It's supposed to be the other half but I'm here for Superstar Saga.

All in all this one's kind of just the original with new graphics. And that's fine, but more may have been possible on the Switch, and if this and the BiS remake were on there instead of the 3DS, maybe a particular event wouldn't have happened. Like you can already play this game on the 3DS with Virtual Console and the Ambassador Program, and for BiS it's even easier because the game is native to the DS. On Switch you can now play the original on the GBA app if you decided to get scammed. I don't even think the remakes are bad, they just do little to justify a purchase and most who played the originals were probably fine with how they looked. It kind of feels like this wasn't supposed to be the definitive version, but instead a redo of a game most probably played 10 years before at the latest.