Mario & Luigi Superstar saga is the first of a long lineage of Mario & Luigi RPGs that were both faithful sequels to Super Mario RPG on SNES, but also a variation of the Paper Mario RPG series that took concepts from both. Since Mario & Luigi games were always released on handheld consoles, it's reasonable to assume M&L as I'll refer to it from here on, was meant as the portable RPG series, while Paper Mario would be the home console series... at least until Sticker Star. With that in mind, M&L might come off as an afterthought or not nearly as ambitious or high quality comparatively, but not only does it succeed expectations, it's incredibly transformative of the Mario world and really sets itself apart from its contemporaries.
M&L Superstar Saga is as ambitious as it is transformative. The emphasis of Superstar saga is the simultaneous control of Mario & Luigi, and how they put their skills together to traverse and clear puzzles, or separate and tackle objectives with their own more limited skillsets. While ultimately the pacing can be reduced to a crawl in many sections requiring constant "Bros. Moves", the level design is very proactive to keep these capabilities in mind which allows for more creative concepts in level design to keep it interesting and unique. Cycling through the Bros. Moves can be a chore, and swapping the positions of Mario & Luigi grows tiresome especially when it's required to do multiple times in one section, which is probably why the next few entries do away with it, to remove intrusive requirements for progression. With that said, all the animations and interactions Mario & Luigi have with each other using these abilities are incredibly charming and pretty funny, especially if you don't have a specific ability yet and attempt to use the action combination, you can see Mario or Luigi get rather angry with the other, which I really like.
The story and general world building of Superstar Saga are simple, but present some very interesting ideas. A neighboring kingdom of the Mushroom Kingdom, BeanBean Kingdom pays Princess Peach a visit in an attempt to enforce relations and presumably peace. All for it to be a ploy for Cackletta, a rather infamous individual in BeanBean Kingdom, to steal Princess Peach's voice for undisclosed reasons at the start. It's incredibly interesting to have a villain other than Bowser to be the catalyst for Mario & Luigi's adventure, even having Bowser take on a supporting role much like in Mario RPG, unfortunately not playable this time around. While I could tear apart the inciting incident about how the implication of a neighboring kingdom harming another that could easily lead to misunderstandings, war, and many other ugly consequences, I won't because Mario isn't that deep of a franchise, nor would it exactly fit with Mario's upbeat energy and vibe, so we'll continue on. Mario, Luigi (against his will), and Bowser set out for BeanBean Kingdom to stop Cackletta and retrieve Princess Peach's voice, this all goes awry when Fawful, Cackletta's... understudy? Minion? Friend? I don't know, but anyway, Fawful stops them in their tracks, and the real adventure begins from there. While I won't delve into everything here, the story presents a lot of concepts the Mario series has never tackled before which I liked. One thing that really stood out to me is the rather dark undertones this game has, there's definitely a few settings and incidents that come off rather grim or disturbing which was a fantastic subversion for Mario and how the game itself is presented.
Exploring BeanBean Kingdom is great since it presents a lot of settings that haven't been in a Mario game before, but do play it safe with staple environments like a desert and some woods, though the history and purpose of these settings is fleshed out enough and significant enough to Beanbean Kingdom to make them stand out and feel justified. There's also some interesting concepts of Mushroom Kingdom immigration which I find particularly fascinating and wish they delved into that more, but I'm glad it was there at all. As I mentioned, BeanBean Kingdom has extensive history, and you get to go through many historical areas such as ruins, castles, and forgotten structures it really helps the setting of BeanBean Kingdom feel like it's existed for a long time, and has significance in the Mario World without ever being acknowledged or explorable until this game. While it can get a bit repetitive at times, I very much enjoyed exploring these areas and gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation for the setting, since the developers really tried to do everything they could to accomplish that, and I think they definitely did it well.
Combat is very creative while taking notes from other Mario RPG's. Contrary to Mario RPG and Paper Mario that give player input on lowering damage by guarding at the right time, Mario & Luigi takes this concept and expands upon it. In M&L you can potentially avoid taking a single hit of damage through the entire game if you understand enemy moves, timings, and patterns well enough. Rather than guard, Maro & Luigi can avoid damage by jumping, and remove projectiles or other obstructions with hammers, they can even attack the enemy during their turn by jumping on them or smashing them with your hammer during some of their attacks. Not only does this keep combat constantly engaging and forces you to always pay attention, but it rewards mastery and skill remarkably well which is a huge plus. It could inadvertently do the opposite as well though, where the game can come off as too easy and be incredibly unengaging because there's no stake or risk in fights if you never take damage. This is remedied a bit by the fact most enemies in Superstar Saga hit like trucks, especially later on, and attacks become harder to react to with odd timings, wind-ups, and difficult visual tells you need to pay attention to or else you're in a world of trouble. Not to mention the status effects in this game like tripping prevent you from dodging the next incoming attack, which can be devastating depending on the circumstance. It's... an odd system, but I think Superstar Saga does a great job at balancing it and gradually increasing the difficulty overtime to not make it feel inconsequential.
M&L has a big emphasis on timing with both counterattacks, but also regular attacking. This is very much like Mario RPG and Paper Mario where just before landing an attack, pressing the corresponding button will ensure your attack goes off correctly. Which, once again ensures the player is always focused and engaged with combat encounters so they can get through it quickly or optimally so they can progress the game. M&L takes it a step further with Bros. Attacks. While you're learning different traversal techniques outside of battles, those same techniques can be used in combat to perform very powerful attacks that require multiple different button inputs to pull off for a huge payoff of damage. Bros. Attacks require both Mario & Luigi, and each have different button combinations and timings you need to learn and master before utilizing them properly. The game does a fantastic job with the ability to make the Bros. Attacks easier to perform, but cost more BP (Bros. Points) to use, by slowing down the animation and showing the button prompts on screen. You can increase the difficulty of these moves which will decrease the amount of BP used, but the attack will move at normal speed and with/without button prompts depending on the difficulty you selected for it. I love this idea a lot since it feels like a tutorial while still giving the player's a reward with a higher cost, while mastery of the move only increases the rewards with a lower cost. There's an additional layer to all this as well, if you use a specific Bros. Attack enough times, the move will gain an "advanced" variation which is much harder to perform, but have additional benefits like stealing items, giving status elements, or simply doing more damage. No other M&L game does this, or really any other Mario RPG, so its exclusivity, while sad, is a huge boon this game has going for it. The amount of learning and mastery of these moves only to become harder and more rewarding is an incredible idea that never feels impossible to implement in your gameplay, but you also don't necessarily need to if you want to stick to the normal versions. To be frank, there's specific Bros. Attacks that are so over-tuned anyway, you'll probably end up using them the entire playthrough, which is unfortunate because it sort of defeats the point of all the variety and evolving moves, but it's still a very much welcomed addition.
Sound design and music are phenomenal here as well. There's a ton of upbeat tracks, a good amount of ambiance, good climactic music, everything you need is here. Nothing really stands out in a bad way except a few voice lines that sound a bit off, but other than that, nothing really stood out as bad or distracting.
Superstar saga impresses me as the first outing for this series. A lot of my criticisms are either fixed or at least addressed in later entries, the prospect of a new kingdom, characters, antagonists, and concepts for the Mario world are very much welcome and executed incredibly well while feeling very creative. BeanBean Kingdom feels like it really belongs with an extensive history that is fleshed out throughout the game while exploring it, while also slightly dipping its toes into Mushroom Kingdom immigration and general relations enough to satisfy me as well even if I did want a bit more of that. The combat is very innovative with a strong emphasis of mastery that rewards players constantly and feels very satisfying to master. Bros. Attacks having built-in tutorials for a higher resource cost so you can familiarize yourself with it to increase the difficulty while lowering the cost is great, it gets even better when those attacks get harder variations later with even more rewards to further encourage mastery is honestly something I want to see more of in RPG's 100%. I highly recommend this game since it's very creative and has a lot of unique concepts that you won't really find anywhere else. My largest criticism is really just some of the level design involving Bros. Moves to progress, and constantly having to switch positions to use certain ones can be annoying, but otherwise, everything here is very well done. I suppose my next review will be Mario Wonder in a week or two depending how long it takes, so please look forward to that as well. Thank you all for reading!
M&L Superstar Saga is as ambitious as it is transformative. The emphasis of Superstar saga is the simultaneous control of Mario & Luigi, and how they put their skills together to traverse and clear puzzles, or separate and tackle objectives with their own more limited skillsets. While ultimately the pacing can be reduced to a crawl in many sections requiring constant "Bros. Moves", the level design is very proactive to keep these capabilities in mind which allows for more creative concepts in level design to keep it interesting and unique. Cycling through the Bros. Moves can be a chore, and swapping the positions of Mario & Luigi grows tiresome especially when it's required to do multiple times in one section, which is probably why the next few entries do away with it, to remove intrusive requirements for progression. With that said, all the animations and interactions Mario & Luigi have with each other using these abilities are incredibly charming and pretty funny, especially if you don't have a specific ability yet and attempt to use the action combination, you can see Mario or Luigi get rather angry with the other, which I really like.
The story and general world building of Superstar Saga are simple, but present some very interesting ideas. A neighboring kingdom of the Mushroom Kingdom, BeanBean Kingdom pays Princess Peach a visit in an attempt to enforce relations and presumably peace. All for it to be a ploy for Cackletta, a rather infamous individual in BeanBean Kingdom, to steal Princess Peach's voice for undisclosed reasons at the start. It's incredibly interesting to have a villain other than Bowser to be the catalyst for Mario & Luigi's adventure, even having Bowser take on a supporting role much like in Mario RPG, unfortunately not playable this time around. While I could tear apart the inciting incident about how the implication of a neighboring kingdom harming another that could easily lead to misunderstandings, war, and many other ugly consequences, I won't because Mario isn't that deep of a franchise, nor would it exactly fit with Mario's upbeat energy and vibe, so we'll continue on. Mario, Luigi (against his will), and Bowser set out for BeanBean Kingdom to stop Cackletta and retrieve Princess Peach's voice, this all goes awry when Fawful, Cackletta's... understudy? Minion? Friend? I don't know, but anyway, Fawful stops them in their tracks, and the real adventure begins from there. While I won't delve into everything here, the story presents a lot of concepts the Mario series has never tackled before which I liked. One thing that really stood out to me is the rather dark undertones this game has, there's definitely a few settings and incidents that come off rather grim or disturbing which was a fantastic subversion for Mario and how the game itself is presented.
Exploring BeanBean Kingdom is great since it presents a lot of settings that haven't been in a Mario game before, but do play it safe with staple environments like a desert and some woods, though the history and purpose of these settings is fleshed out enough and significant enough to Beanbean Kingdom to make them stand out and feel justified. There's also some interesting concepts of Mushroom Kingdom immigration which I find particularly fascinating and wish they delved into that more, but I'm glad it was there at all. As I mentioned, BeanBean Kingdom has extensive history, and you get to go through many historical areas such as ruins, castles, and forgotten structures it really helps the setting of BeanBean Kingdom feel like it's existed for a long time, and has significance in the Mario World without ever being acknowledged or explorable until this game. While it can get a bit repetitive at times, I very much enjoyed exploring these areas and gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation for the setting, since the developers really tried to do everything they could to accomplish that, and I think they definitely did it well.
Combat is very creative while taking notes from other Mario RPG's. Contrary to Mario RPG and Paper Mario that give player input on lowering damage by guarding at the right time, Mario & Luigi takes this concept and expands upon it. In M&L you can potentially avoid taking a single hit of damage through the entire game if you understand enemy moves, timings, and patterns well enough. Rather than guard, Maro & Luigi can avoid damage by jumping, and remove projectiles or other obstructions with hammers, they can even attack the enemy during their turn by jumping on them or smashing them with your hammer during some of their attacks. Not only does this keep combat constantly engaging and forces you to always pay attention, but it rewards mastery and skill remarkably well which is a huge plus. It could inadvertently do the opposite as well though, where the game can come off as too easy and be incredibly unengaging because there's no stake or risk in fights if you never take damage. This is remedied a bit by the fact most enemies in Superstar Saga hit like trucks, especially later on, and attacks become harder to react to with odd timings, wind-ups, and difficult visual tells you need to pay attention to or else you're in a world of trouble. Not to mention the status effects in this game like tripping prevent you from dodging the next incoming attack, which can be devastating depending on the circumstance. It's... an odd system, but I think Superstar Saga does a great job at balancing it and gradually increasing the difficulty overtime to not make it feel inconsequential.
M&L has a big emphasis on timing with both counterattacks, but also regular attacking. This is very much like Mario RPG and Paper Mario where just before landing an attack, pressing the corresponding button will ensure your attack goes off correctly. Which, once again ensures the player is always focused and engaged with combat encounters so they can get through it quickly or optimally so they can progress the game. M&L takes it a step further with Bros. Attacks. While you're learning different traversal techniques outside of battles, those same techniques can be used in combat to perform very powerful attacks that require multiple different button inputs to pull off for a huge payoff of damage. Bros. Attacks require both Mario & Luigi, and each have different button combinations and timings you need to learn and master before utilizing them properly. The game does a fantastic job with the ability to make the Bros. Attacks easier to perform, but cost more BP (Bros. Points) to use, by slowing down the animation and showing the button prompts on screen. You can increase the difficulty of these moves which will decrease the amount of BP used, but the attack will move at normal speed and with/without button prompts depending on the difficulty you selected for it. I love this idea a lot since it feels like a tutorial while still giving the player's a reward with a higher cost, while mastery of the move only increases the rewards with a lower cost. There's an additional layer to all this as well, if you use a specific Bros. Attack enough times, the move will gain an "advanced" variation which is much harder to perform, but have additional benefits like stealing items, giving status elements, or simply doing more damage. No other M&L game does this, or really any other Mario RPG, so its exclusivity, while sad, is a huge boon this game has going for it. The amount of learning and mastery of these moves only to become harder and more rewarding is an incredible idea that never feels impossible to implement in your gameplay, but you also don't necessarily need to if you want to stick to the normal versions. To be frank, there's specific Bros. Attacks that are so over-tuned anyway, you'll probably end up using them the entire playthrough, which is unfortunate because it sort of defeats the point of all the variety and evolving moves, but it's still a very much welcomed addition.
Sound design and music are phenomenal here as well. There's a ton of upbeat tracks, a good amount of ambiance, good climactic music, everything you need is here. Nothing really stands out in a bad way except a few voice lines that sound a bit off, but other than that, nothing really stood out as bad or distracting.
Superstar saga impresses me as the first outing for this series. A lot of my criticisms are either fixed or at least addressed in later entries, the prospect of a new kingdom, characters, antagonists, and concepts for the Mario world are very much welcome and executed incredibly well while feeling very creative. BeanBean Kingdom feels like it really belongs with an extensive history that is fleshed out throughout the game while exploring it, while also slightly dipping its toes into Mushroom Kingdom immigration and general relations enough to satisfy me as well even if I did want a bit more of that. The combat is very innovative with a strong emphasis of mastery that rewards players constantly and feels very satisfying to master. Bros. Attacks having built-in tutorials for a higher resource cost so you can familiarize yourself with it to increase the difficulty while lowering the cost is great, it gets even better when those attacks get harder variations later with even more rewards to further encourage mastery is honestly something I want to see more of in RPG's 100%. I highly recommend this game since it's very creative and has a lot of unique concepts that you won't really find anywhere else. My largest criticism is really just some of the level design involving Bros. Moves to progress, and constantly having to switch positions to use certain ones can be annoying, but otherwise, everything here is very well done. I suppose my next review will be Mario Wonder in a week or two depending how long it takes, so please look forward to that as well. Thank you all for reading!
5 Comments
One of the most impressive things to me, and this applies to nearly every Mario RPG and usually only them for some reason, is how much the world and characters reacts to the player progression. Each NPC has something new to say after each major event, some new activities may be unlocked such as new poses that can be pulled off at the guy who takes passport photos. Each replay always surprises me with just how much dialogue there is.
@NOWITSREYNTIME17 Oh, I'll be sure to keep that in mind, thanks for the heads up, really appreciate that!
No prob
@werty800 I couldn't agree more and thank you for the great response, I forgot to cover that stuff, but it really helps the world progression a lot for sure. I also can't think of many examples of games where the NPC's progress with events that transpire in the game unless it's incredibly significant of course. You brought up some great points, thank you for that!
NOWITSREYNTIME17
6 months ago