There's just nothing quite like a Mario RPG. Whether it's the brilliant SNES title, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, or the bafflingly charming and fun Paper Mario franchise, it's always a good time being able to more deeply explore the Mario universe, completing quests and adventuring through towns and the wilderness. In 2003, we received the incredibly underrated Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, which pulled inspiration from both Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG to create something wholly new.
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| Graphical Comparison: GBA version (Left) vs 3DS version (Right) |
I've played both the 2003 Game Boy Advance version of Superstar Saga and this 3DS remake. I never finished the original version of the game, though so I'm going to base my review off the 3DS iteration, which I played and completed a few years back. The biggest difference between these two versions is the art style change in the 3DS remake, which was an effort to unify the game's aesthetic with some of the subsequent Mario & Luigi titles, like Dream Team and Paper Jam. I'll admit that I greatly prefer the stunning, vibrant pixel art from the GBA version to the art used in this remake. They also used the opportunity to remake the game to add in some quality-of-life improvements, like being able to skip through cutscenes or saving the game at any time.
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| Hoohooligans (this is a screenshot from the GBA version) |
The overall world design in Superstar Saga contains some of my very favorite aesthetics I've ever seen in the wider Mario franchise. The in-game universe and its myriad denizens that you encounter through the course of the game are just top notch. Given that the majority of the game takes place in another land, the Beanbean Kingdom, we're treated to loads of brand new enemy types and fascinating looking characters from races and species that we've never seen before. Many of the NPCs in the Beanbean Kingdom are sentient beans of some sort, which is a cute sort of nod to the Mushroom Kingdom's Toadstool folks. My personal favorite race that you encounter is that of the Hoohooligans, a people who look sort of like sentient cacti mixed with a traditional Japanese Haniwa sculpture. I'd love to see these cute little guys show up in a future Mario game.
The story is about the evil witch Cackletta and her henchman Fawful, who travel from the Beanbean Kingdom to the Mushroom Kingdom to steal Princess Peach's voice. Mario and Luigi are recruited to come help and are surprisingly joined by Bowser, who team up to travel to the Beanbean Kingdom to find Cackletta and retrieve Princess Peach's voice. I won't spoil anything, but I was really pleasantly surprised by the game's plot. It struck a nice balance between being cute and funny. Really all of the writing in Superstar Saga was charming. Cackletta was a delightfully devious villain, and the Beanbean Kingdom was really fun to explore. It honestly felt like a more properly realized kingdom than the Mushroom Kingdom. It would be neat to see a return to these lands someday.
While the story, characters and art style are all wonderful, the gameplay itself really reigns supreme in Superstar Saga. In the overworld, Mario and Luigi are walking around, talking to NPCs, and doing a surprising amount of platforming and puzzle-solving. Mario and Luigi walk in tandem, and they're able to use various abilities while navigating around the area. On top of being able to jump and use their hammers, both brothers have access to myriad special moves to get around certain obstacles. They both have unique elemental attacks: Mario having fire abilities and Luigi having electric moves. They can also jump on top of each other to reach greater heights, and use their hammers to smash each other, so that they can crawl under certain terrain or through small holes.
Still on the gameplay topic, the combat is excellent, and a standout feature of Superstar Saga. The game functions as a turn-based JRPG like we've seen before, but the cooperative moves that Mario and Luigi utilize are so distinctive and fun that I genuinely enjoyed every enemy encounter that I had throughout my time with the game. Similarly to Paper Mario, the brothers have their jump attacks and hammer attacks to handle the various enemy types that you encounter, as well as their respective elemental abilities as well. Both brothers also have access to special "Bros. Attacks," where they team up to do extra damage, often in really cool or funny displays. One of my favorite of these attacks has Luigi smashing Mario with his hammer, so that Mario becomes a small ball. Then Luigi cracks the hammer into Mario, like a golf ball and sends him flying at the chosen enemy.
This 3DS remake of Superstar Saga includes a bonus mini-campaign called Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser. I don't have any experience with this game mode, but it sounds totally delightful. I've always been a fan of the awesome enemies from the Mario franchise, and from what I gather Minion Quest is something akin to a real-time strategy game, which would be something very suited to my tastes. Again, I haven't played this mode, so I can't offer any criticism or feedback on it, but I'll have to try it out someday, because I think I'd really like it, and from what I've read about it, it seems like a sizable, extra bit of content.
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a great time throughout. The game has a breezy, lighthearted tone to it that I couldn't get enough of. The cute art style, awesome story and locations and perfect combat system kept me easily engaged the whole way through. I think if you're curious about turn-based RPGs, or the Mario & Luigi sub-series, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better time.
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