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GBA | Action | Mario & Luigi

Boxart for Mario & Luigi
Mario & Luigi 3 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.5
  • CONTROL: 3.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.5
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.0

Review: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Review by STARDINGO | 11/18/2003 | 12:38:54 PM PST

The Mario Bros. star in an RPG with a great combat system and an awesome sense of humor.

Do inside jokes make good video games? If Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is any indication, then the answer is yes. It?s an insane, joyous RPG ode to the Bros. history and future, lunacy with a knowing wink and a smile. Too bad there?s not just a wee bit more wisdom to go with the madness.

Mario and the Legumes
Mario & Luigi?s presentation is joyous, among the most ludicrous, vivid, and bizarrely hypnotic you?ll ever come across on the Game Boy Advance screen. Kudos go out to the artists for envisioning a Mario World that?s different from what you?ve seen before while remaining faithful to the characters? roots in the Mushroom Kingdom. Playing through the game is almost like taking a tour through Mario history as all sorts of characters and moments make cameos in the scenery and dialogue, and Mario and Luigi?s meaningless audio exclamations make a good punch line to almost any joke.

The combat system is superb. Unlike that of many menu-driven RPGs, the combat is actually active rather than purely passive, and it?s fun and fast to boot. It?s made surprisingly un-tedious by the inclusion of timing-based counters, dodges, and character combos; and every weird enemy has a unique set of attacks and captivating dance-clues to study and learn.

A Hill of Beans
The only thing holding back Mario & Luigi is that there?s not much to the adventure itself. It?s big and superficially Zelda-like, but the dungeons? puzzles and dual-brother mechanizations become repetitive too quickly, and the constant swapping of characters and buttoning through icons is confusing. Compared to other RPGs in the universe, there?s just not all that much interesting to uncover: a few side-quests, minimal equipment and upgrades, and a whole lot of beans. Quest shallowness aside, the quirky sense of humor and the weird-and-fun combat system set Mario & Luigi apart from other RPGs. A collection of mighty Mushroom moments, if not a big fungal picture.


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