In an Apollonian blend of the familiar and the foreign, the sacred and the profane, Nintendo has crafted a unique gaming experience in the recently released role-playing game Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
First off, Mario & Luigi is just that: It’s the first Mario game in a long, long time to feature both brothers (with the exception of racers like Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and the Super Smash Brothers fighting game series). And the game reaches much deeper than controlling two identical and separate characters: Players use the pair in tandem, utilizing each brother’s unique abilities to surmount obstacles. Need to get to a high ledge? Use Luigi’s high jump. Need to light a fire? Use Mario’s firebrand (fire elemental) power. The combinations of abilities are robust, and players will have to learn and use all of them throughout the game.
The convoluted but enjoyable plot is definitely a variant on a familiar theme. During the introduction, on an otherwise idle day in the Mushroom Kingdom’s court, an emissary from the neighboring BeanBean Kingdom — presumably, these non-democratic governments haven’t faced regime change — visits under the guise of diplomacy, only to steal Princess Peach’s voice and disappear, replacing it with an “explosive vocabulary.” Mario and Luigi set out to the BeanBean Kingdom (with perennial Mario villain Bowser, who briefly teams up with the duo) to steal it back. Once there, they get entangled in an offbeat, epic opera of good versus evil, entertaining side games, goomba-smashing and occasional cross-dressing, all centered around control of the powerful Beanstar artifact.
Combat in the game mostly follows the generic RPG formula: During each battle, Mario, Luigi and their enemies take turns attacking, until one side’s characters all run out of hit points (health). Nintendo affords small, very welcome breaks from the traditional turn-based formula: By pressing buttons at just the right moment, the brothers can do more damage with their attacks and avoid (or even counter) their enemies’ attacks. And by expending so-called Brothers points, the two brothers can team up and execute a powerful attack that requires precise button timing. As Mario and Luigi fight more battles, they gain experience points, paving the way for increased power, defense, speed and more. The game proceeds at the perfect pace, too; the brothers pick up skills speedily enough to keep play fresh, but not so quickly the player can’t keep pace. Players can customize their heroes, too, by purchasing various clothes and “badges,” each of which offer various offensive and defensive benefits.
For those familiar with the expansive Mario canon, exploring the BeanBean Kingdom and spotting similarities to the more familiar Mushroom Kingdom proves very rewarding. Familiar enemies, like bob-ombs, spinies and cheep-cheeps, roam the land and seascapes, but so do tanoombas (goombas with raccoon-like ears and tails, a la Super Mario Bros. 3’s tanooki suit) and troopeas (variants of the Mushroom Kingdom’s koopa troopas).
Great cameos and nods to earlier Mario games are ubiquitous, too: A mission has Mario and Luigi collect beanfruits to feed to yoshis (dinosaurs who first appeared in Super Mario World), Birdo of Super Mario Bros. 2 lore shows up in side-splitting plot-twists, and even primary-colored viruses from the sublime puzzle game Dr. Mario make an appearance.
The recommended Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, which was released in November, makes an excellent addition to a Game Boy Advance collection, even for RPG greenhorns.