I’m so split on this game, because I feel like I’d like it more if Platinum didn’t exist.

I’m gonna open with the negatives first, because they’re glaring. The dex in this game is genuinely atrocious. You really don’t get many options for your team, team building just feels so limited. Words genuinely cannot describe how rough the Pokedex is. Two fire types in the game are the infamous examples, but it is so much worse than that. The steel type gym’s trainers have a grand total of 3 steel types, all of which are Steelix (the other mons were 6 Onixes, 1 Skorupi (which kills me), and an Azumarill), and Steelix ALSO shows up in the ice gym and the electric gym. So many fishermen have Gyarados. Focusing exclusively on Pearl (aka no Diamond exclusives), there are three electric types, one dragon type, two ice types, three dark types (one of which is SPIRITOMB, which is a pain to get), 4 ghost types (including Spiritomb), 4 rock types including Onix, and a grand total of 151 Pokemon between both games. Within those 151 Pokemon, only 4 are the new final evolutions added (Roserade, Ambipom, Mismagius (Honchkrow if Diamond), and Weavile). Oh, and let’s not forget that DP level up moves can be kinda scuffed. Two examples I can think of is that Prinplup gets Bubblebeam at level 24, you’re stuck with Bubble (20 power) before then, and Ponyta, the only non-starter fire type, doesn’t get a single physical fire move until LEVEL 48 if you delay its evolution.

This straight up sucks. You can have a smaller dex and make it work, gen 1 and gen 5 feel far less miserable to make a team for and feel more balanced. And the moveset thing isn’t too big of a deal, especially because gen 4 massively improved learnsets as a whole, but it’s still annoying at the best of times. Not having all the new evolutions available to use is genuinely baffling to me. Introducing Pokemon, especially evolutions of older Pokemon, and restricting them to postgame genuinely sucks. Gen 2 does something similar, but at least for that you get to explore all of Kanto. I guess it’s to incentivize Pokeradar, but it feels really terrible not being able to use a ton of new Pokemon.

As well, after playing Platinum, some areas just feel… bland. The Galactic HQ in Eterna, Amity Square, the Elite 4’s chambers, they all feel so basic in their design in a lot of small ways. This isn’t an issue I’d have if Platinum didn’t do a solid amount of minor redesigns, My point is that in a lot of small ways, DP’s visual design and, by extension, atmosphere is lacking. Cynthia’s champion fight loses some of its punch when the actual room the fight takes place in is so plain. I know this is a nitpick, but it continuously bothered me throughout my playthrough after seeing what Platinum did for Sinnoh as a whole.

And last but not least, the pace. Dear god, this game is slow. Battles feel slow, unlike the snappy pace of battles in other entries. The problem is in almost every crevice of battles: the time it takes for a turn to actually start due to small delays between moves, the animations often take their sweet time (ESPECIALLY multi-hit moves), and dear god the speed that HP drains at when you’re against a Pokemon with high HP. Overworld travel feels slow, with snow routes and mud patches forcing you to move at a crawl, surfing going at a snail’s pace, and even smaller things like having to get off your bike during every gate between areas. Even the story’s pacing was slow at times, such as the gap between badge 2 and 3 being WAY too long. This is the problem DP are infamous for, and it’s definitely frustrating.

But, despite all of its flaws, I still had a great time. I think the best way to put it is that DP get fucked over by a lot of its design choices. Because DP are fun games that bring a lot of great stuff to the table. Sinnoh in general is a lovely region, with great environments, an iconic OST and visual style, and a lot of cool new Pokemon (…even if some of them didn’t make it into the game). It felt like there was so much I could explore and find, and it was a great feeling. Contests and the Underground are neat, and I like how DP expanded on gen 3’s contests. The physical/special split is the best change ever made to Pokemon (I think the old system has its charms but the split gives so much more variety to Pokemon and lets so many Pokemon shine) and despite my criticisms, level up movesets in this game are SO much better and expansive than in prior games. The groundwork is there, it’s so close to being a great game, but it has so many bad design choices that hold it back.

Last time I’ll bring up Platinum as a form of critique, but I think it proves my point. Platinum is a game that receives a ton of praise from the fanbase in general for a lot of reasons. However, Platinum is building off of what DP set up. And it’s not like Platinum completely deconstructed the original games, hell most of Platinum is incredibly similar to DP. Most of its changes were with the game’s design, like with the dex, the visual design, the pace, and most of my issues with DP as a whole. It’s DP’s mechanical design and pacing that makes it so meh, at least to me. But god these games are so close to being great.

Look, if you want to play a Sinnoh game, play Platinum. DP are deeply flawed games that can really suck to get through at times. They’re the only Pokemon games that truly feel replaceable to me gameplay-wise. And for me, its flaws define it more than its strengths, especially when Platinum exists with the very same strengths as DP without many of its flaws. But these games were so close to being good, held back from greatness by those very flaws. That’s why its weaknesses were the majority of what I talked about. But it’s important to acknowledge that what’s hidden by those weaknesses is something genuinely good, and I had a fun time playing through Pearl. Probably never gonna replay it over Platinum, but eh, whatever.

This was my childhood flash game, and it’s still a fun one to return to. The game is HUGE (kind of to a fault), with a ton of levels, a wide variety of characters (kinda), interesting map layouts, and even achievements! I enjoy the simple platforming loop, not doing anything crazy but still offering a fun time. It’s the kind of game you can pick up and put back down easily, a good time killer that gives you a lot of content to mess with. The game’s infinite mode also helps with that “good time killer that’s easy to pick up” feel, though I never played it much. With that said, most of the characters feel like you need to grind infinite mode to unlock them, which… isn’t really my thing. Achievements help get you currency to use for new characters, but still, I don’t really like this. Not to mention, I think different characters are able to unlock entirely new tunnels (which opens up a whole can of worms about just how goddamn big this game is), which just exasperates the issue a lot. Fun game overall, and probably my favorite flash game (both for nostalgia reasons and bc i find it fun). But I think it’s a little too ambitious; the size is fun, but it almost feels like there’s too much that’s too tedious to reach. Run 3 is a classic flash game worth trying a little bit of regardless of it’s issue, it’s an iconic game for a damn good reason.

I’ve kind of put off writing this because I don’t really know how to articulate my thoughts. Sorry if this is kind of messy. I’d also like to note that I don’t know much about what the remake changed about Superstar Saga, so some of these might have been improved upon. I liked the game a lot, it’s really fun and charming, but it really felt like there was a lot for it to improve on.

The battles were fun, but it felt like there was potential for more. Controlling the two brothers with different buttons made for an interesting and unique experience that was fun in execution and led to engaging with fights in a more unique way (finding the tells from enemies for who they’ll attack was super neat). With that said, I wish there were more bros attacks or ways to engage with the player phase differently. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot to love. I think advanced bros attacks are cool, some of the gear you can get alters how you fight during your turn (such as badges that let you jump on spiny enemies or pants that give small HP recovery for using a certain type of attack), and I think critical attacks are a cool way to use hand attacks. But I found myself wishing there were more bros attacks, more ways to mix up your strategy, more options. The core of combat is great, I just wanted the smallest bit more.

I think exploration is handled relatively well. The world is charming in its atmosphere (even excluding the great sense of humor this game has and how much fun the dialogue is), the graphics are definitely a little aged but still look great today, the puzzles are fun (most of the time), and the environments you see and people you meet are varied. Hell, the various minigames you get to play, the secret puzzles you can find for a neat reward, the different ways the game engages you, they’re all pretty fun! But oh my god, I wish there was a decent overworld map. Having small maps in dungeons is helpful, but sometimes it felt easy to get lost in the overworld areas that DIDN’T have those maps. Somewhat related, Superstar Saga has a great and iconic soundtrack, but in all honesty it’s not really for me. Not something I’m taking points away for or anything, because end of the day it’s just personal taste and regardless of it not standing out for me personally, I still think it has a strong ost.

I think this goes without saying, but Superstar Saga is genuinely hilarious. The game is goofy, and it fully embraces that fact. The dialogue is witty, Mario and Luigi manage to be goofy despite not having a single line of dialogue, small moments like the passport photos and hitting Luigi as small Mario giving you coins for each tick of HP Luigi loses are really fucking funny, there’s such a fun atmosphere throughout the game that genuinely kept me hooked. I don’t think the overarching plot is anything crazy, but I never felt like it was trying to be and I don’t dock points for that. It was the smaller moments, the characters, the interactions that made the story engaging.

I do have a relatively small gripe I want to talk about but can’t really fit into anywhere else. This is something I do know the remake changed, but the Bean Juices felt a bit too expensive, especially when one type of bean you find heavily through hidden blocks. To my knowledge, drinks cost fewer beans (albeit for a smaller stat boost), and one of the items for it lets you see hidden blocks, but the cost being so high made me only want to use it for the special items. Like I said, it’s a small complaint, but the fact that this is something I know the remake changed makes me want to mention it here.

I know I opened more negatively, but the good HEAVILY outweighs the bad. Once I got into it, the game had me hooked. It’s a great experience and a great game! And it tried a lot of new things that largely worked out! But it’s the first entry of the Mario and Luigi series, and you can feel it. There’s a great foundation, and it builds on that foundation in a lot of great ways, but there’s also a lot of room for the game to be expanded on. Superstar Saga feels like it’s setting a lot of groundwork for later entries, basically. It’s a great game and it’s a classic for a reason, hell it got me wanting to try out other games in the series, but there’s room for it to grow. Definitely worth trying it out!