Mario and Luigi was the first Mario RPG to make it to a handheld console, and the first of the Mario and Luigi series. Superstar saga is the only one to be on the Gameboy Advance, and was also packed in with the classic Mario Bros, just like most of the GBA Mario games. 

   If you haven’t played one of the Mario and Luigi games, it has battles that use turn by turn gameplay. But unlike the Paper Mario series, you have the ability to avoid the opponents’ attacks all together. But you control both Mario and Luigi at the same time, so you also have to figure out which bro the enemy is going to attack. You can upgrade badges, pants, and bonus items, which can either strengthen up the bros, give them a special ability, or even both. This adds an extra bit of strategy. For instance, a powerup can give you the power to jump on spiky enemies, but does not give your power much extra strength. It makes you think which equipment would be best in each situation.



   Story: 9.5 – The story is nice, because it changes the normal Mario formula. This time, some new enemies, Cackletta and Fawful steal Peach’s voice, and replace it with an exploding vocabulary. This causes panic in the kingdom, so Mario is called to look at the scene. By this time, Bowser was already there. He was originally going to kidnap Peach, but after he learned that Peach’s words explode, decided to help Mario and Luigi get her voice back, so THEN he could kidnap her. So you go off the Beanbean kingdom, the neighbor to the Mushroom kingdom to defeat Cackletta, and get Peach’s voice back.


   The rest of the story is pretty good as well. Has some twists, and doesn’t really get stale. But this is just the start of it. The best part about the story is the comedy. This game has great moments. There is some great dialogue, funny animations, and just genius in every way. Mario and Luigi talk in fake Italian gibberish. They also have tons of great poses and movements, and really feel like characters; something that hasn’t really been accomplished with a Mario game before. But best of all is Fawful. Throughout the game, he insults toward Mario and Luigi are hilarious. Such as the classic “Fink-rats!” and "I drizzled rage dressing on the country next door. Rage dressing on a salad of evil!" He’s such a great character, he has been in the first three Mario and Luigi games, and the main villain in the third.




   Gameplay: 8 – Like I said before, it reminds me a lot of Paper Mario. But in Mario and Luigi, you feel more involved in the battles. Plus, the bro moves, which are like the special moves in this game, are fun to use. If you push the right button combos at the right times, you will be rewarded with a much better attack, and you can eventually get advanced versions, making them stronger. It is really fun finding all of these different moves. Now, like most RPGs, the level grinding can be tedious, but if you are skilled enough, you can move on without grinding.




   Sound: 8.5 – There is tons of great music in this game. There are some classics as usual, but they all get fresh remixes that match the game perfectly. This is one of those games where I end up humming the tunes constantly. The one downfall for the music is the battle music. There are only two different songs that you will come upon, besides the final boss; normal battles and boss battles. Although I love both of these tracks, the normal battle music gets repetitive. Some different music for different zones would be a nice change.




   Graphics: 9 – This game looks great. The backgrounds are all bright and beautiful, the enemies all look pretty good, and the animations are near perfection. Another cool thing is when Mario or Luigi get to low health, they look tired. This is much better than something like Pokémon, where low health is noticed by annoying beeping. And it makes you feel like you need to heal them.




   Difficulty: 4 – To be honest, this game is very easy. If you battle all the enemies that you encounter without running away, you should have no problem. The only part where it could be hard is in the final area. There are some puzzles that may take a second to get, and some nice platforming, but it never reaches the point of unplayable, and almost never frustrating. But some of the mini games can be hard to finish on the last level, such as the barrel game, and the mine karts. But the parts that are necessary for these games are never too hard.




   Addictiveness: 9 – This is one of those games that kept hold of me until the end. I always wanted to see what’s next, and kept on thinking “just one more battle”. And by the time I was done, I wanted to get to level 100 (although I never got there) just because I didn’t want to stop. It grabs hold of you with its great graphics, amazing dialogue and overall comedy, and that old Mario charm.




   Depth: 9 – The game will take about 20 to 25 hours to complete. The main problem I have with the depth is that there is nothing to do after the game. Once you beat the game, you go back to the last save state. The fact that you can’t even roam the Beanbean kingdom to see what people say to you for saving the world is a little disappointing. I feel almost like the final battle isn’t as good if nothing happens after.




   Overall: 9.4 – This game has it all; great battle system, great design, and tons of humor. The game still holds up with the other games in the series, and is one of the best games on the entire system. There are some fun minigames that you might come back to, and one of the best stories for a Mario game. If you like Pokémon, Paper Mario, or the Mother series, you should play this game.



Thanks for reading my review! Please rate, and if you want, comment on it. Criticism is accepted. Thanks, and God bless!

I really like the review, patar! Yep, superstar saga is a great game, i've only played a little bit of it on here, but your review makes me wanna take another crack at it!

Wow I have to say that was a pretty good review. You must of worked hard make this review. I hope you do more reviews and keep this good job up.

hardcoregamer2 : Thanks. I've been trying, and finally was able to finish one. More are on the way.



D1998 : Thanks for the feedback. What is weird is I owned this game for almost a year and a half before finally playing it through. One of the best games on the system for sure.

Well, even if its the only Mario game on game boy advance ,it's still kind a great to make a rpg game where you can dodge the attacks by jumping or using the hammer. Also the bosses were exciting to fight even with the boss theme.its great to make a review of the Nintendo mascot

I love this game as well! I ended up buying one off of Amazon. It was a new copy, and for some reason was sold as Used and came from somewhere in China. I'm close to the end, it's totally worth playing!

This review was very well done, this is one of those games that I started when it first came out but never finished. This review may be enough for me to give it another chance. Thanks!