GBA Preview: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Review by: AxemRed (axemred@sm128c.com)

  printer-friendly view

Previewed on: September 15, 2003

The story of this new game is odd to say the least. Princess Peach's voice has been stolen by an evil witch and replaced with explosives. Mario and Luigi meet up in the Mushroom Kingdom with Bowser, who was just about to capture the princess. After they discover what has happened, they all join together and follow the witch into a nearby kingdom using a ship. However, their ship crashes and separates Bowser from the two brothers. Now Mario and Luigi must go find the witch's castle on their own, and combine their unique abilities to do so.

The graphics of this game are completely different from the previous Mario RPG games. It has some elements of the Paper Mario graphics in it, while at the same time having a trace of similarity to Super Mario RPG's graphics. The game's palette is filled with bright colors, which gives a lively presentation of the new kingdom that Mario and Luigi find themselves in. The game's graphics definitely take more advantage of the Gameboy Advance's capabilities than Paper Mario did of the Nintendo 64's capabilities, but they do not seem to be as great as the graphics in Super Mario RPG.

The battle system is turn-based, just as in the previous two Mario RPG titles. However, battles in this game are unique to any other RPG. Instead of magic attacks and magic points, there are combo attacks and combo points, known as "Bros. Points". A combo requires the brothers to combine their abilities to do a special attack, and different combos will cost different amounts of points. This is somewhat similar to the "Twin" command used by Palom and Porom in Final Fantasy II (FFIV in Japan). As well as the combo attacks, there are different weapons used for normal attacks, such as the legendary Hammer. Just as in the previous Mario RPG games, battles can be avoided if a player chooses not to approach an enemy during play.

The game allows a player to control both brothers at the same time. This is done because the A button is assigned as the jump button for Mario, and the B button is used to make Luigi jump. The two brothers' jumps are different from each other, and must be used strategically to solve certain puzzles in the game. As well, one brother can hop on the shoulders of the other to reach areas that are too far or high to normally reach. This characteristic of the game adds both more strategy and more fun to the game at the same time. For a player to be successful in this game, they will have to have complete awareness of both brothers throughout the adventure.

This game seems to have what it takes to be a big hit when it comes out in November. Fans of the Super Mario RPG series will probably enjoy the game, as well as any fan of the Mario series in general. Although it will most likely be a very entertaining game, it will have to have a lot of great things in it to beat out the quality of the original Super Mario RPG. The best part about this new title is the creativeness of having Mario and Luigi truly working together. There have already been a few great RPG titles on the GBA port, and this game seems to have the attributes to be another one.

-- AxemRed (axemred@sm128c.com)