A fantastic addition to the Mario RPG franchise and best to have come out on the Gameboy Advance.
The story begins with Princess Peach losing her voice from the evil Cackletta from the Beanbean Kingdom when she came to visit Princess Peach at her castle. The news spread quickly and Toad came and alerted Mario about this disaster, this is where the game begins. Original characters are there such as Professor E.Gadd, Toadsworth and our Princess Kidnapper Bowser with some new faces including The Queen Bean, Prince Peasley and Fawful, Cackletta's apprentice. Throughout Mario & Luigi's journey they face a number of obstacles they must go must to get the Princess voice back and defeat Cackletta once and for all, though with a number of twist and turns the game never gets dull.
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga has the same game play as most RPGs. It has a turn-based combat system, solving different puzzles, going through dungeons, exploring the world with the use of the map system. Mario and Luigi is different from other action RPGs though as the unique game play is experienced when you have to move both characters differently. Using the A and B button simultaneously to make them both jump as the A button allows the front player to jump and B for the back. A player must get a handle of this feeling as there's a number of obstacles you must face with having Mario and Luigi hit different blocks in different places at the same time.
The move sets for the brother's change throughout the game. They both have their jump and hammer ability but then the game changes when Luigi gains Thunder ability from his hands and Mario gains the Fire ability. This helps through different sections of the game to go through obstacles where Luigi can Zap Mario so they become stuck together or Mario ignites Luigi to go dashing from one place to another extremely fast. When the Mario bros. Get the Hammer ability they can also use it to get past another set of obstacles, this including Mario striking Luigi putting him underground and when Luigi hitting Mario, he becomes miniature.
All these different abilities help the Mario brothers go through many obstacles to get through the Beanbean Kingdom.
In combat The Mario brothers have 4 options:
Solo – Where they perform a solo attack of Jump, Hammer, Hand abilities
Bros. – Where they perform together a Bro attack which takes up Bro points and deals serious damage to an enemy. When performing a Bro attack the buttons must be pressed in the right order at the right time for it to be successful.
Items – Where items can be to heal or gain more Bro Points.
Run – Run away from certain enemies you wish not to face, The A and B button will have to be pressed really fast as they are losing a lot of coins when running and can trip over thus losing a lot more.
Through the battles Mario and Luigi will be gaining Coins and Items. The coins are used for helpful hints, buying items or buying clothes and badges for the brothers. Some of the items that drop from combat include Mushrooms which help heal and beans where you can go to Beanbean Kingdom and mix beans into a drink which in the end increases stats for the brothers.
After each combat is over Mario and Luigi gain experience which helps them level up. Throughout leveling up they gain different stat, the stats are:
Health, Bro Points, Power, Speed, Defense, and Stache. When the points are being put through the stats you also have a choice of an extra stat you wish to boost and a number wheel will roll and whatever number it lands on, the stat is increased by that much.
The audio tracks for Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga is one of the most original soundtracks to come out for a Mario game on the Gameboy Advance. The audio clips often are found to be looping but fit all the areas which it's being played in. Though the tracks are looping they are so uniquely done and set up well that no one could get sick of it. Along with the music the audio clips for voice acting is well done with all voices fitting in at perfecting timing, With Luigi saying goodbye and shaking profusely to Bowser getting angry to even Prince Peasley's laugh.
The game graphics are nicely put together and rather detailed. The environments are done to allow a player to experience the full potential of the experience Mario and Luigi are going through when exploring. The graphics also allow a player to experience the humor the brothers have, such as when Mario gets zapped and becomes dazed to Luigi becoming frightened. All areas are rich with personality and allow all to have the full experience with such detailed appearances. Some problems facing these graphics are going behind walls and not being able to see enemies or boxes, this being the one major flaw in the graphics design but a lot more pros then cons.
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga is an amazing new addition that Nintendo has added to the plumber's franchise. With at least 20hours worth of game play to be played, Astonishing graphics, humorous story this is a great single player game that is not to be missed on the Gameboy Advance.