Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: Simplified Super Mario RPG with Counterattacks and a lack of Square Enix.
Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time: It’s all about the Goddamn infants.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story: Bowser with the ability to Falcon-Punch as his standard attack.
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Mario & Luigi started off as “Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga,” a game only for the GameBoy Advance. My brother got it, played it, and I never really noticed until he laughed incredibly loudly when an utterly beyond-awesome hilarious joke came on the screen.
My interest was piqued right off the bat… Well, not really, since I’ve gotten used to my brother’s easily-satiable tastes that usually ended up directed towards stuff that’s either A: Overrated, or B: Crap.
This time was not one of those times, but it was rather “C: Something actually pretty kick-ass.”
That’s Mario & Luigi, the RPGs that serve as successors to the always-cool, always-nostalgic “Super Mario RPG” for the SNES and emulators across the galaxy.
I recently got the third one, and I have beaten them all, so I figured “Hey! I’ll review them all at once in a Super-Duper-Review! LIEK A BAUSS!”
Not really, but it does give me more practice in writing large review pieces that end up as being too big for newspapers… Not that I’m saying I’ll ever have my name on a newspaper… I want opinions, and facts. Not generalized crap that doesn’t tell the whole story.
That’s one reason why I like Vloggers and dudes who write stuff like I do. While I get no profit or practically no views (irony) I still have the pleasure of spending my time writing this stuff.
Anyway, Mario & Luigi- currently a trilogy.
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MARIO & LUIGI: SUPERSTAR SAGA
The first of the games, for the Gameboy Advance. As you can tell, there are really only six buttons and a D-pad. Despite that, you ultimately get a large slew of abilities that’s ultimately tied in the L and R buttons, and the A and B buttons.
It’s an RPG, definitely. You progress through a story, touch miniature baddies in a World Map scenario, slaughter some bishes, and continue with the story, repeating those same steps as you go, except with newer abilities, more puzzles to solve, more difficult baddies to bounce, and more knowledge.
The story is pretty simple- and in a certain way, generic. In other ways, it certainly tries to be original- what with its jokes during most cutscenes, and the variety of characters who are given life even through simple text.
Maybe it was just me imagining myself as said characters and making them all seem like complete assholes whose only way of greeting someone was “Whuddup, mofo? PERHAPS!”
The generic part comes from two things: First off, the general plot device of “Great power that should never fall in teh wrong hands” is a star called the Beanstar. To quote a certain Australian: “AND IT IS ALWAYS STARS.”
The second piece of generic stuff is that “Peach and ONLY Peach, and NO ONE ELSE, has the ability to awaken the Wish-granter, thus unlocking the powers for the baddies to abuse.”
At this point, it’s good to get used to the usage of both Mario and Luigi.
Mario is the shorter, chubbier guy in red whom is a fearless hero who knows exactly what to do. Why? Well, face it: Mario’s been doing this since… when, 1984? I forget exactly when the first Mario game came out.
Luigi, the lean, mean, green machine, is anything but mean. It’s something that kind of bothered me since Luigi’s Mansion. Ever since that game, Luigi is always depicted as a comical coward whom is the butt of every joke, and even dubbed by the Metal Gear Solid Colonel as “The King of Second Bananas.”
Although on the other hand, if Luigi didn’t have that, he’d just be a Mario Re-color, just like before Luigi’s Mansion. At least it differentiates the Mario Bros.
I just wish that Luigi really wasn’t THAT much of a frickin’ pansy. Seriously, he’s a better death machine than Mario, in my opinion.
The bad guys consist primarily of a duo: Cackletta, and Fawful. The latter of whom becomes a kind of icon for the Mario world. And I agree. Fawful is an awesome character, whom resembles the tasty butter spread across a sandwich of great characterization. Said butter came from the sacred milk from a golden cow made of jewels of deep awesome.
… No really, he DOES talk like that. His over-the-top metaphors are almost always entertaining to read.
The combat system itself is pretty simple, and easy to get used to. It still retains a bit of difficulty along the way, but if you found SMRPG easy, you’ll find this easy as well.
(Disclaimer: I personally found SMRPG to be pretty difficult, but that was mainly because I didn’t know I could time my guards as well as my attacks. I still won anyway… eventually.)
A controls Mario, B controls Luigi. They can learn special attacks that you can later “upgrade” as you use your current special moves more and more. The attacks themselves become incredibly ridiculous, or even flat-out kick-ass.
For instance, Mario burrows Luigi into the ground using his hammer, jumped beside the enemy while Luigi tunnels under. Luigi jumps out of the ground, propelling Mario into the air, who then proceeds to swing his hammer like a rotor blade, dealing massive damage, which is only for those who are good at the attacks.
My only complaint is that there’s not enough variety in the attacks. Luigi is the only one with multi-baddy attacks, but there’s only three of sorts. One’s a lightning-based one that only affects multiple ground targets. Another’s a relatively weak bounce attack that can hit up to two guys. The third one- the only one worth a damn, while the only one worth using, is not effective against those whom are resistant to hammer attacks.
More variety is needed, maybe a fifth one per bro. That’s just pissing in the wind, however. It’s been out since… what, 2003?
Its music is enjoyable, as is its story, its minigames, side quests, among other stuff. Simple as an RPG can get, when you think about it.
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MARIO & LUIGI: PARTNERS IN TIME
They gave way too much good moves to the Babies, and they gave them way too much credit as well.
The Regular Mario and Luigi seemed like John Does who just serve as sandbags for the Babies to command while on piggy-back.
Oh yeah, the combat system, while made more complex, is ultimately easier.
However, if you’re fighting a bad guy as only the Babies or the Adults, you are frickin’ screwed most of the time, because some baddies only the Babies can take on, and some baddies are just too strong for the Babies to effectively fight.
And the worst part is: you’re often separated throughout the first number of Time Holes.
Always, and I mean ALWAYS keep the group together as four. You’re most effective then.
The plot itself, while still fun, is the weirdest one out of the three. Trust me, if you’re looking for realism and believability, funking drop your science to the side and just accept the game as it is.
Why? It involves time travel and time-based manipulation in general. It IS fucked up, but ONLY if you over-think things.
It is the past. Baby Mario and Baby Luigi (Whom is depicted as a serious crybaby, and yet had greater courage potential than Adult Luigi) visit the castle to be Baby Peache’s playmates.
Sudden,t the Mushroom Kingdom is attacked by Baby Bowser, and later on, aliens.
That’s right: ALIENS
Meanwhile, in the present, Mario and Luigi wait at the castle for Peach to return. Professor E. Gadd pulls another FLUDD on us and develops a plot-centered object, a Time Machine, which is powered by a Cobalt Star.
AND IT IS ALWAYS STARS.
Long-story-short. Peach and her two bodyguards enter the Past, where the aliens have already taken over, and Peach is kidnapped.
AGAIN.
Hey, at least it ain’t Bowser.
Then it falls to Mario and Luigi (Whom meet with their infant selves, inevitably soon) and together, the power of four go out to collect pieces of the Cobalt Star, which has been shattered into a number of pieces.
I’m reminded of the Beanstar…
Combat is generally the same as the first one, except this game is for the Nintendo DS. You may be asking: What will the X and Y buttons do?
Those two control the infant Mario & Luigi, while A and B control the adults. There are puzzles that utilize the abilities learned by both the kids and the dudes, and there are enemies only babies could take on, and some that only a…dults…
Did I say this already? I believe I did.
TIME PARADOX! DAMNIT!
They have a jumping attack, Babies get a hammer attack, and then there are the Bros. Items. They’re like special attacks, but EVERYONE can use them. It kind of removes all feeling of identity, save for individual stats.
Mario is always the Courageous Powerhouse, while Luigi is the Cowardly Support Tank. That goes the same for the babies. There’s really not much change save for a graphical uplift, more hilarious jokes, and more different kinds of baddies.
If there was something I would commend in regards to this game, it’s the music. I liked the music from this one. Maybe above all three.
But generally, if you liked the first Mario & Luigi, or even the third (If you played that one first) then you’ll like this one because it’s generally more of the same, and provides a little challenge in itself for when you have the group split up.
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MARIO & LUIGI: BOWSER’S INSIDE STORY
This one is one that I have mixed feelings about, but all of them are overcome by just how kick-ass certain elements are that you barely notice anything worth criticising.
Fortunately, I still kept my eyes open, and found things that seemed a little bothering. The irony is: the biggest bother was AS AN ALMOST DIRECT RESULT OF THE CERTAIN KICK-ASS ELEMENTS.
Although I am thankful that the annoying little shits that are Baby Mario and Weegee are not in this game.
However, instead of Baby Mario and Weegee, you get to use Bowser, whom is controlled via the X and Y buttons, while Mario and Luigi- again- are controlled with A and B respectively.
It’s basically the same formula, but it only retains the basics.
The combat system in general has been incredibly polished up.
Instead of simply timing pressing the A button to choose whether you do either a not-so-powerful attack, or a high-hitter, you now have to time it more specifically through four distinct categories: Good, Great, Excellent, or Miss.
Miss is pretty straightforward. It’s been kept throughout the entire series. It does damage, but minimal.
Good is pretty standard. You simply don’t miss, and you do good damage.
Great deals higher damage than Good.
Excellent does even greater damage than Great.
You need to be pretty damn good if you can hit Excellent every time. It’s recommended that you try for Excellent every time.
The same thing goes for Bowser as well, but I’ll get into him later.
Mario and Luigi have Jump Attacks, which must be timed, and Hammer attacks, which need to be timed. For defense, they use their jumping or their hammers and such.
The Bros. also get to use special attacks. You may recognize most of them from Partners In Time. (Fire Flower, Green Shell, etc.) but this time around, they’re actual “Spells” that take “Bros. Points” – which calls back to the first game. That is one reason why I find this one superior to Partner’s In Time.
If a Bro is down on one end, the other bro- while on defense- hops to the downed bro’s side, picks him up, and does the defense from there. However, the timing is significantly different- due to the added mass. It may take a split-second extra to jump, and hammers would take a while longer to prep up and swing. It is hugely recommended that you avoid letting a Bro die at all costs.
It’s simple. If you’ve played earlier Mario & Luigis, you’ll find this one almost just like the first one. Graphical uplifts tend to give a different feel to things as well.
Now for Bowser- whom became the sole reason as to why this game can possibly become one of the most bad-ass games ever released on the Nintendo DS.
Bowser stands alone. He’s got no bros to help him or anything, but he’s got massive health, and he gets healing items that heal a good portion of health.
For standard attack, Bowser can punch bishes. Again, there’s the “Miss, Good, Great, Excellent” scale, but no matter what you hit, Bowser hits the bad guy in an incredibly epic way. Good, he just punches a guy through the face. Great, he soul-punches a guy off-screen. Excellent, he Falcon-Punches a bad guy fifty miles away or something- and the screen FOLLOWS.
For his defense, he can either punch baddies that come at him from the front, or duck and use his spikey shell to block incoming attacks from above. Some enemy attacks require a punch to block, but can break through the shell-block, and vice-versa. It’s important to know which to use in battle.
Later on, Bowser obtains the ability to “Inhale enemies” which is used for a certain miniquest, as well as getting Bowser healed without using items (depending on the enemy) or simply sucking in enemies for Mario and Luigi to finish off.
Later on from THAT, Bowser learns the ability to breathe fire in combat. Again, there’s the MGGE scale, but no matter what, you’ll be dealing damage to a group of enemies at once. Really deadly, but it’s quick to hit Miss if you’re not experienced. But seriously, can you really argue over killing it with fire?
If THAT wasn’t enough, Bowser can obtain special attacks when he frees cohorts of his minions. Those special attacks are incredibly destructive if done correctly.
But wait! That’s not all! Some points in the game, you cause Bowser to grow to titanic proportions, and you have epic Godzilla-like battles against giant robots, and you can send them sliding miles across terrain using powerful punches, or blasting through waves of attacks using fire.
Those sections utilize the touch screen and the mic on the DS. I found it really fun to do- albeit easy as heck.
Generally, the game is easy- just like the other two- but ONLY if you grind XP like you should. If you skip over enemies to try to speedrun, you’ll find your ass on the grass more times than you’ve had hot meals.
I’m currently about half-way through, but the plot centers around something called the “Dark Star”
AND IT IS ALWAYS STARS.
And the Big Cheese whom tries to destroy/conquer the world is not Cackletta, not an alien invasion from Shroobs.
It’s Fawful, the kick-ass guy whom gives over-the-top metaphors and analogies.
That’s all I really have at the moment, but fighting as both Bowser and the Mario Brothers is a very satisfying experience.
It makes me want to play the first two Paper Marios- the only Mario-based RPGs that I haven’t played yet.
-HolyJunkie.
