Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)

[ARCHIVE: This video game review follows the OldSchoolGamers website formatting.]

Content:
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a simple platform-RPG hybrid. Objectionable material is limited to cartoony violence, the worst of which involves swinging oversized hammers around. Fine viewing for all ages, although the challenge level may be a little too much for the youngest of gamers.

Suggested Age Level: 5+

Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Review:
From Jumping to... Jumping
Mario, perennial mascot of the Nintendo company, and his sometimes-forgotten younger brother Luigi make another run at the role-playing genre of video games. Not to disappoint its fans, the game once again revolves around kidnapping, Princess Peach Toadstool and jumping on stuff. The twist comes in the same of a new villainess, the sorceress Cackletta, who steals Peach's voice and replaces it with (literally) explosive language. With a little help from a miffed Bowser, Mario and Luigi must travel to the neighboring kingdom of Beanbean to get Peach's voice back.

Gameplay
Play is centered around platform gaming and RPG combat. While traveling around the Beanbean Kingdom you control the both Mario Brothers, walking and jumping around the terrain as well as switching lead characters. By talking to key individuals, you'll gain combo moves that the Mario brothers can do together. For instance, have Luigi jump on Mario's head and you'll do a high jump. But have Mario jump on Luigi's head and they'll perform a helicopter floating-type jump. You gain more moves and combos as the game progresses, opening up more and more of the world. At certain times you'll even seperate the two brothers and switch between them to progess. The Mario Brothers have an incredible sense of self-preservsation and won't go past the cliff of a bottomless pit, so you never have to worry that. Running around the screen will be enemies, which you can either run around and avoid or make contact with and switch to the battle screen.

This is when the RPG elements come to the foreground. Combat is basically your typical turn-based system, where people move according to order. When its a brother's turn you can choose to do a normal attack, use an item, run away or (if Mario and Luigi are both present) perform a special "Brothers Attack" where our heroes combine their talents to do devastating attacks for the cost of a few Brothers Points (essentially mana points). Defeat enough enemies and you'll gain enough experience to level up, boosting your stats, making you stronger so you can defeat tougher enemies, getting you more experience, etc.

You can also walk around towns and buy different equipment, items for health and perform a number of different sidequests.

If you have a GBA link cable and either this game or any Mario Advance cartridge you can link up to play classic Mario Bros, either co-op or battle. If you only have one game pak you can still play battle mode with your friends.

Graphics and sound
Graphically, Superstar Saga is really cute and kid-friendly. The characters are all streamlined and simple. Even the antagonists are drawn with relaxing curves and rounded corners. The colors chemes are all pleasent to the eye, and the different objects are always easy to identify. The game makes good use of it resources; objects spin, twist and change sizes smoothly and seemlessly. Nothing to give awards for but they achieve the effect and atmosphere they strive for. There are classic foes like goombas and koopas as well as new enemies and even hybrids (the goomba-with-a-tail tanoomba comes to mind). If you look closely there are even cameos by past characters, including Professor E. Gad, Geno the doll and a barrel-chucking ape skeleton...

The sound in the game also does its job. There are a lot of familiar sound effects, from the jumping noise to the coin sound to the recognizable phrases of the Mario Brothers. The music is average midi fare. It sounds synthesized, and it is, which can add to the nostalgia effect. Nevertheless there isn't anything that sticks out as unpleasant.

Control
The overhead map is easy to figure out, although it may take a little getting used to. Essentially the A button will control the lead brother while the B button controls the back one. Pressing start will switch whomever is in the lead. In this way you can interact with the enviroment and perform combo moves. How you encounter enemies can have an effect on the battle as well. Walk into them and combat preceeds normally. But if the back brother is struck they will be unable to dodge or counter attack until its their turn. Jump on an enemy and they'll start off with a little damage (except for spiked enemies). Hit them with your hammer and they'll be stunned.

Superstar Saga takes a page from its predessesor, Super Mario RPG, and riddles the combat system with a large amount of trigger points. Hit the attack button again right before you strike to do more damage. Press the correct button sequence at the proper times and you'll increase the power of a Bros Attack. When the enemies attack, you can dodge and sometimes even counterattack by pressing the appropriate button. The high level of player involvement in combat helps to keep the game interesting.

Flaws
From playing the game I got the impression that there were two ways to win. You could level up really high and just plough your way through, but if you have good-to-exceptional timing you could probably beat the game in half the time. The difficulty of the game is simple but relies heavily on the fact that during combat you hit the precise button combinations when you need to. Otherwise the player will do significantly less damage and take significantly more. I'm not sure if this is within the abilities of the game's target audience (demographically speaking).

Lasting appeal
Although shorter than most RPGs, the game takes a decent amount of time to complete. The fact that it rests on a portable system is a plus as one can turn it on during a break, gain some experience and then turn it off (although not quite as save-friendly as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance). Like most RPGs, Superstar Saga has a unique demand life. While one may not feel the immediate need to pick the game up after completing it, there will be a lingering taste that another replay further down the line will still yield entertaining results. This is dependant of course on whether or not you're an RPG gamer.

The added GBA connect bonuses are great, especially the one-game-pak-to-play. Making the game compatable with any Mario Advance game is a great move as well.

Kiddie play
The game is good, but may seem too young for someone who can handle the difficulty level. Don't be against buying this game for your kids but be careful and well-informed as well. This is an RPG, which is very easy for younger (and older) gamers to become obsessed over so be wary if you notice a large change in attitude, scheduling or large amounts of time hiding away by themself. Otherwise, have no fear. The game is an excellent introduction into RPGs and the combat system can help your child develop their planning skills and reaction speeds.

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Excerpt from Every Hour Wounds (2005)

[ARCHIVE: I think this was the first proto-blogprove I wrote. I just came up with starting sentence and went from there. If memory serves me right, I got it from Scrubs. Michael J. Fox was guesting as a doctor who suffered from OCD, and this coin thing came up as habit he used to help focus his mind and hone his hand coordination. In retrospect, it was ballsy of me to title the short after a fictional book written so soon in its near-future.]

Bruce passed the coin between his hands, keeping himself busy. He found that he didn't like the in-between moments, so he would always find something to occupy his mind. He had wondered before if it was a form of ADHD, but he his mind wasn't at all like they showed in the commercials. There was no rapid uncontrollable change in thought, no constant channel changing. He just didn't like to feel like he waas doing nothing.

When he was younger he would people-watch, if there were enough people passing by. He would just stare across the street, barely focusing on what was really happening, and think Barbara Adams, age fifty-nine. Married once, right out of high school. On the way to pick up cat-food for the two baby strays she found on her back porch... Leon "Less-Than-Jake" Jacobson, age seventeen. bassist for the unnamed five-man garage band on his block. Walking to the mall, hoping to run into gril from his English class there 'on accident.' and so forth. But after fifteen years of his average desk job, receiving average pay for average work, Bruce had lost the map to his imagination. He no longer had strong opinions about politics or religion, never saw ads for a movie that would make him want to go to the multiplex, didn't give a thought to the teenage punks that would joyously cause a ruckus and cut in line at the Orange Julius because really, it wasn't worth the effort. Something in his soul, something that was vivid and saturated had been beated into submission and paved over with dull grey concrete.

When he lost the ability to think up his own stories, he read others' instead. So he would open up a dog-eared, browning paperback and whittle away the hours. Then he lost interest in these stories as well. True, humanity had been around for only several tens of thousands of years, but already it seemed to have run out of ideas, and really every John Grisham novel was the same when you boiled it down. So Bruce began buying little mind puzzles to fiddle with. The two pieces of metal rod, bent into each other, but the package said they could be removed from each other, so it must be possible. When he fould that he had stopped even paying attention to what movements his hands were making, he stopped buying the doo-dads. A quarter did a fine job of that, and he didn't have to spent five dollars to get one.

So Bruce stared vacantly ahead, passing the coin between his hands.

[There was another "future excerpt" story before this one, but it was only a single paragraph.]

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