Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Video Game — Nintendo Game Boy Advance
(1 or 1-4 players with link cable)
Nintendo, $34.99
This game for the Game Boy Advance, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, presents a hilarious action roleplaying game featuring two characters that have been on Nintendo gaming systems for many years now. With these two characters, you explore the rather large and strange BeanBean Kingdom using a new and unique control setup that allows a player to control both Mario and Luigi together as they traverse this adventure game.
There is actually more than one game on this cartridge, but I'll start with the main game, Superstar Saga. This adventure game, which really can't be summarized in a short review (but I'll try), revolves around our two heroes, and the enemies and friends they meet in the vast BeanBean Kingdom. The game starts out with Mario and Luigi trying to rescue Princess Peach's voice, which has been stolen by an evil witch. From here, the game goes on for some time, with the two main characters having to travel far and wide across and under the vast BeanBean Kingdom, not just to complete this first mission, but the many adventures that come afterwards. I personally played this game for over 50 hours, and had not yet finished the game (there is a timer in the game that keeps track of the time played, which is how I know how long I was at it).
When I first bought this game, I was a bit apprehensive, as I've never really been a fan of this type of roleplaying video game. I took a chance on what I heard about the game being really good, and don't regret it one bit. This game is simply fantastic, with stunning graphics and sound, which is amazing coming from a little handheld system. Character animation is outstanding, and much if it is rather hilarious too, with plenty of humor throughout the game. As for gameplay, Superstar Saga is a strange mixture of platform, turn-based fighting mixed in with elements of a roleplaying game such as healing and equipping the two characters to be the best they can in the game. They even threw in some mini-games within the main game, which basically act as breaks from the main action, but are a challenge in and of themselves.
As for the controls on the Game Boy, they were very responsive and accurate. I didn't have any problems at all moving Mario and Luigi around the screen, or even using the unique button combos you need to learn to do well at higher levels of combat. The combat was something to enjoy, as most RPG style video game combat can get boring after awhile. Here, with the constant updating of your combat skills, combined with different and more powerful enemies as you advance in the game, make the combat almost always fun and refreshing. This in itself shows that this game has what it takes to be a classic. About the only complaint I have with Superstar Saga is that there are a few spots in the game where you have to very dexterous to get past some challenging puzzles. There were two places in the game that drove me nuts for hours until I could get the hang of the precise timing needed in these specific areas of the game. Luckily, these really tough areas are few, and most of the game can be gotten through with time and a little brain power.
If you are an old Nintendo fan, you'll like the cameos that some classic Nintendo characters have in this adventure, along with some music from past Mario Brothers games that has been updated and put into this one. Most of these characters I remember by sight, but since I'm not an old Nintendo fan, they didn't have that special meaning for me. Nevertheless, they would have that meaning for true Nintendo fans of old.
With all this, they still had room on this cartridge to include the Mario Brothers Classic arcade game. This was a special treat, as I loved this game years ago in the arcade, and on the Atari 5200. Now the exact graphics and play of the arcade game are here for all to enjoy. This is definitely one of the best jumping platform games I have every played, with beautiful graphics straight from the arcade. The arcade game can be played by more than one player if you can find a friend who has this game and a link cable.
There is also Mario Brothers Battle, in which linked up players fight against each other for points and prizes. However I was unable to test this game, as I don't have any friends at the moment who have a Game Boy and this game cart. Too bad!
A truly classic game that any Game Boy owner should add to his collection. Addictive gameplay along with a fun and sometime hilarious plot. Gaming has never been better on the Game Boy!
(review (c) June 2004 / David Flemming)