Making its debut on November 17th, 2003, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga marks the Super Mario license's 3rd foray into the world of RPG's. While the Paper Mario games would serve as home for additional Mario RPG's on the home consoles, the soon to be Mario & Luigi series would offer a unique flavor of Mario role-playing goodness for the GBA and other handheld systems to come. The two brothers feature a distinct and elongated art style as they explore strange new lands of the Bean Bean Kingdom, on a hilarious quest to rescue Princess Peach's voice that has been replaced with explosive vocabulary (quite literally explosive). The narrative and characters that take stage in this wacky adventure all feature such rich and delightfully tickling dialog that is certain to leave a smile on your face. I adore how almost all the locations and characters are named after a form of laughter, like Hoohoo Mountain, Chucklehuck Woods, or the main villainess, Cackletta. And there is something just so mesmerizing and charming about the animation in this game, the way the two brothers dance and bob in battle, or how you can see Luigi's colorful striped socks because he's just that much taller than his stout brother. But where the game really stands apart from its other Mario RPG counterparts is the clever brotherly interactions that is used both for means of exploration and combat.
Throughout the course of the adventure, players control the actions of both Mario and Luigi simultaneously, with each brother having a dedicated button for their jumps, hammer swings and the likes. For traversal, one brother can act as the leader in which the other follows, but players must still press the jump button for both accordingly, which requires a certain 1-2 delayed button press to clear gaps properly and has a very unique, satisfying feel to its rhythm once accustomed. Players will also learn various interactions, such as drilling one brother into the ground to act as a mole or climbing atop each other to form a spinning tornado. These special moves allow for some fun puzzles and means of navigation, while also translating into battle in the form of special, powerful new attacks. Like the other Mario RPG's, players can still time their actions in battle to deal extra damage and string along combos. However, unique to Mario & Luigi is that much like the main game, players control both brothers at the same time when attempting to defend. More so, players cannot only attempt to defend, but also outright avoid or counter the attacks of enemies. This creative combat system becomes a intriguing game of identifying enemy attack patterns, figuring out which brother is being targeted, and mastering the means to react / counter. The further you get into the game, the more intricate and wonderfully complicated these enemy attacks become, which makes for ever more gratifying and thrilling bouts.
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| Concept art from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. |
Thanks to the positive reception and success of Superstar Saga, the Mario & Luigi series continued on with several more sequels. Partners in Time released for the Nintendo DS in 2005 featured Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, for even more involved combos now making a bigger spectacle across the two screens of the DS. Bowser's Inside Story released in 2009 has the Mario Bros explore and control facets of Bower's insides, which in turn players can use to explore and battle as Bowser. 2013 saw the release of Dream Team, in which the Mario Bros explored the many worlds of Luigi's dreams. And most recently, Paper Jam featured a unique crossover between Mario, Luigi, and Paper Mario. Aside from the disappointing Paper Jam which fell flat (no pun intended) from a lack of any sort of originality, each game in the Mario & Luigi series offers a fun, silly adventure with stupendous writing and satisfying combat mechanics poised to impress casual and hardcore RPG players alike. If I were to personally recommend my favorites in the series, I highly recommend the likes of Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story. And it seems like Nintendo agrees, seeing as both these two titles are the only of the series' entries to see remakes for the Nintendo 3DS (Bowser's Inside Story slated for sometime in 2019). No matter the platform, if you haven't played any of these classics, do yourself a favor and enjoy a chuckle or hoo with these beloved brothers and other colorful characters.
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