The game that I have played more than I ever should have. This is Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The game itself is quite amazing, since it is the first RPG element that isn't Paper since Super Mario RPG, which needed a sequel that was long overdue. The game itself is not what you expect from a regular Mario game either, just like Mario RPG. You face a different threat that isn't Bowser whatsoever. Cackletta, the Beanish Witch, threatens the Mushroom Kingdom by stealing Princess Peach's voice, not Peach herself. But that's plot, and we'll get into that later. So now, let's get right into the game with all of the details in between. Here we go!

Difficulty: 5
The difficulty is what you would expect from a Mario game in general. The game's puzzles are not too tough to figure out, the game's enemy attack patterns aren't ridiculous to figure out, and overall, the difficulty is very comfortable. The game isn't too tough that it'll kill the fun of it, and you won't breeze through it without thinking twice, either. This all depends on how you rank in the RPG element. You can be underpowered for the situation, or overpowered for the situation. It all depends on how you deal with the enemies you encounter throughout your journey. If you fight them, you'll get more powerful in one way or another, or you can ignore them, and try to plow through the area to get to the plot. It's up to you.

Depth: 7
The game is anything BUT a game that you can beat overnight. It's a pretty lengthy game, and has a few false finishes as well, if you know what I mean. The game makes you think it should end, but it doesn't. More plot. Anyway, the game's length in full is probably worth about 3 or so days, if you play it non-stop. Maybe 2 days if you know what you're doing. This is an RPG after all, folks. You won't get it done overnight, it never works like that. We have a lot of worlds, a lot of bosses, and a lot of side-missions as well located in the BeanBean Kingdom. (yeah, not Mushroom Kingdom for 99% of the game, imagine that) Overall, we're going through the entire BeanBean Kingdom, in full.

Story: 8
The story is as it follows, Princess Peach is welcome the Ambassador of the BeanBean Kingdom, since they happen to be neighboring Kingdoms, and before they offer their peace treaty of some sort, it becomes a trap! The Ambassador wasn't the ambassador at all, only the evil witch Cackletta and her minion Fawful, and spray Peach with some gas that absorbs her voice, and puts it in a box, replacing her voice with explosive text, with kind of a break in the 4th wall. While the Mario Bros show up, they find Bowser attempting to steal her before realizing the exploding curse, and they put their differences aside, and Mario, Luigi, and Bowser team up momentarily to travel to the BeanBean Kingdom to take back Peach's voice, and return her to normal. Only when they board the Koopa Cruiser towards the neighboring Kingdom, around the border between Mushroom and BeanBean, they are ambushed by Cackletta and Fawful, and they send the Cruiser to their demise, and everyone scatters. Bowser is launched from the Mario Bros after they fight a con monster, and they are on their own. And this is only the beginning, but I won't spoil everything from the game, but there are a LOT of plot twists, and characters. The game is definitely different from a regular Mario game.

Addictiveness: 10!
The game is SO addicting! I can literally tell you that I can play this about 20 times in a row without even stopping. I believe that's what I did too. I've deleted and restarted perfect files from all 3 file locations just to play the game all over again. It's really addicting in every aspect. The gameplay, the sprites, and everything in between keeps me intrigued, and sometimes the puns inside the game is pretty cool too.

Sound: 8
The sound effects and the music is really good in this game. I can say that it is pretty cool to listen to each significant sound byte and soundrack. Of course, nobody really has a voice, especially Mario and Luigi, who just talk gibberish to each other and the other characters, and nobody else has voices, besides their laugh, like Queen Bean, Cackletta, Fawful, and Bowser. Each area in the game has a significant soundtrack, and it fits every area with the atmospheric music. Desert music, underwater music, deserted island, even a castle theme. They did a magnificent job on this part.

Graphics: 10
The sprite quality in this freaking game is amazing. Everyone transitions right into the actions they do quite beautifully, and they are as clean as a whistle. Beyond the character models, the areas have their own good qualitites as well, especially in desert areas, you can see dusty winds blow by the area you walk in, I believe, and it is quite intriguing. Besides that, everything in the game is perfect.

Overall: 9.2
To look over each and every aspect I put into this game, I must say, this game is one of THE best Gameboy Advance games out there, or at least in the top 5. Games like this not only make me want to go back and play this over and over again, but continue to play the series of Mario & Luigi from Superstar Saga, to Partners in Time, to Bowser's Inside Story, to Dream Team. All of the games here keep the same charm I fell in love with, and I really hope that you can fall in love with it as well, and possibly even buy the real copy of this game, or at the very least, a game from the series. Anything in the game of Mario and Luigi, is amazing to me.

Great review I am not a fan of the mario games but this is the only mario game I own a copy of and the only reason that I played it in the first place is because it was a rpg and it turned out to be a good game.

I really liked this review. You broke it down very nicely and talked about the game a lot.
 
I like superstar saga. I actually have two copies of this game because me and my brother wanted to play 2 player. I also have bowser's inside story. I think I have beat superstar saga 5 times. Since I was little it took me a while to beat it each time. Reading this review makes me want to play it again.

Really nice review! :3
I owned Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga but something weird happened, I was playing the game on my DS Lite and yeah, my father took the DS Lite so I went to sleep. The next day I woke up, the game was nowhere to find, it wasn't in my DS Lite... I was pissed.. I loved playing the game
Oh well, I did also own Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story though, that game was also very awesome, but the dogs sort of destroyed the game... When I found that out, I was pretty mad..
And then I now own Mario & Luigi Dream Team Bros... I really liked Dream Team Bros, But for some reason it wasn't that addictive... I only completed it twice. :/
Oh well, I was here to say that it's a really good review!
And I'm gonna go again. ~James

If I remember right, you wrote this in what.... an hour?  I have to say I'm super impressed. I don't think I could write 1000 words in an hour...AND do it so well.... And that's coming from someone who rambles quite a bit. lol  I think the fact that you did it so well certainly supports your very first sentence. haha!

Your love for this game really shows through in your writing. Great job!

A review I didn't want to quickly skim through at all. This is worded perfectly and it kept me interested the whole time. I love a good rpg, reading this makes me want to try the game.



You know what made this review perfect to me ?

The emotions and your personal experience with the game. That was just pure gold in my eyes.


- I read this review twice cause it was that awesome -

pacman1755 : I own every game in the Mario & Luigi series and this one is my favorite. With that said I think your review is great!

I keep finding myself starting this game but not finishing. I haven't ever really gotten very far, honestly. It is pretty easy, and I enjoy it. But for some reason, I don't get very far before something comes up, I put it off to the side, and forget to get back to it again.

I reread it again, and I find it a really good review.
You've put a lot of effort in the review (And if you didn't, great job on making the review!) and it's just amazing.
I really enjoyed reading it!
From my last post... I don't even remember if I actually read it or not...
Oh well, I read it now! And I love the review! Relly nice job on it!

A great review of a great game! This was the second RPG style Mario game that I played with the first being Super Mario RPG. I wondered at the time if it would be good without Square developing it and I was happy to see that it was!

This is probably the only game I have never owned, yet have beaten twice. I didn't like it much when I was younger (I thought it to be bland and difficult), but now that my brain has developed a bit, I enjoy it and all the other games in the series a lot! For younger folks (in general), the difficulty is much higher, since they will struggle with the timing of attacks, counterattacks, and dodges. And those digs on Luigi...gotta feel sorry for the guy. He deserves some cred, too.

Love your review. I agree so much with it.

Ah, I have such good memories of this games. It's one of the games which brought me here and also the game which enjoyed me so much, that I have Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story now, and I also would love to get Dream Team. I have never finished, but I started again on it recently (but accidentally deleted it after the Harhall minigame, you know what that is, I was pretty far and it happened just yesterday so now I'm doing the Stardust Fields again) so I hope to finish it this time. I'm even thinking about making a boss guide, since not even the Mariowiki has all the info about those dudes.

You really made a good review. You don't use too difficult words, you spend a good amount of detail to every section, you tell about your personal experience and I can see your writing style back. I can see you enjoyed this game as much as I do, which is something nice to see in a review. Keep up the good work! 

pacman1755 : This is a great review for a fantastic game. Great job on the review. I enjoyed reading it.

I really loved playing this game when I first played it. This game had really catchy music while I was playing. I mean who cannot fight and dance to the soundtrack in this game?

I really like this game review and keep up with the good work! The sections of a game are there and you described every one of them in your point of view and gave good reasons on your opinions.