Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
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Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
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| Developer(s) | AlphaDream
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Nintendo</td></tr> |
| Release date(s) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg November 17, 2003 Image:Flag of Japan.svg Image:European flag.svg November 21, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>ESRB: E (Everyone) |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media</th><td>64-Megabit cartridge</td></tr> |
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (マリオ＆ルイージRPG Mario & Ruīji Ārupījī?) is a role-playing video game developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. Superstar Saga is the third Mario role-playing game, following Paper Mario for the N64.
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[edit] Development
After the release of Koto Battle and Tomato Adventure (both Japan-Only), Nintendo combined their idea of Mario RPG series with AlphaDream's customized RPG engine used in their two previous titles to develop the next of the Mario RPG series.
The music in this game was composed by Yoko Shimomura, whose other projects include Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and Kingdom Hearts.
[edit] Plot
In the introductory sequence, the evil witch Cackletta, aided by her (intentionally) Engrish-speaking henchman Fawful, steals Princess Peach's voice, replacing it with a literally explosive vocabulary. Mario is then told that the Princess is in danger. In his haste to save the Princess, Mario unknowingly drags Luigi to the castle. It is there that they find Bowser who wanted to kidnap the Princess Peach, but does not want to anymore because kidnapping the princess in her condition would ruin his castle. Bowser then demands that Mario accompany him to the neighboring Beanbean Kingdom to retrieve Princess Peach's voice. Bowser informs Mario that they can take his Koopa Cruiser, which is parked in Toadtown square.
Mario then heads to Toadtown square, where he meets up again with Luigi. Luigi is there to see Mario off on his journey. He informs Mario that he has no intention of going with Mario on his new adventure. However, Bowser mistakes Luigi for one of his Bowser Baddie Troops, and when Luigi tries to "desert" the Bowser Baddies, Bowser forces Luigi to come along for the ride. Then the fully boarded Koopa Cruiser departs for the Beanbean Kingdom.
However, Before the Koopa Cruiser can reach the Beanbean Kingdom, it is attacked by Cackletta and Fawful in the sky above the Beanbean Kingdom/Mushroom Kingdom border. It is here that the Mario Brothers get into a short skirmish with Fawful. At first, Fawful attempts to Defeat the Mario Brothers, but he fails to do so. So then Fawful turns his attacks on the Koopa Cruiser itself and manages to destroy it. In the resulting crash, Bowser and the Mario Brothers get separated.
The Mario Brothers then make their way to Beanbean Castle. It is here that Cackletta tricks the Brothers into helping her get the Beanstar, a relic native to the Beanbean Kingdom that has the power to grant any wish. After Cackletta attains the Beanstar, She reveals that she turned The ruler of the Beanbean Kingdom, Queen Bean, into a Monster. This triggers a short fight between Queen Bean and the Mario Brothers. After the Brothers Defeat Queen Bean, the Queen's assistant, Lady Lima, tells the Brothers of the Beanstar's true power. The Brothers learn that the Beanstar has been put to sleep and Peach's voice is the only thing that can wake the Beanstar up. They figure out that Cackletta is attempting to wake the Beanstar up so that she can use its power to rule the world.
While at the castle the Brothers also learn that in order to cure Queen Bean they need to obtain some Chucklehuck Reserve from the Chucklehuck Woods. On their way to get the Chucklehuck Reserve, the Brothers encounter Bowser. They find out that Bowser has amnesia and has associated himself with a self-proclaimed master shadow thief named Popple. Popple attempts to take the Chucklehuck Reserve for himself, but in the end is unsuccessful. The Brothers then obtain the Reserve, take it back to Beanbean Castle, and use it to cure Queen Bean.
It is then that Queen Bean tells the Brothers that she has expected Cackletta to attempt to wake the Beanstar for some time. She also tells them that Cackletta can most likely be found in Whoohoo Hooniversity. The Queen also hints that things are not as bad as they seem and that things are going to plan.
Meanwhile, at Whoohoo Hooniversity, Cackletta and Fawful attempts to awaken the Beanstar with several "Peachbots" that they have loaded with Princess Peach's voice. However, during the attempt, something goes wrong and the Beanstar goes berserk. The Beanstar punches a hole in the Hooniversity's floor, then drops into the basement just as the Mario Brothers arrive on the scene. It is then that the Brothers confront and Defeat Cackletta. However, before Cackletta dies, Fawful uses his helmet to suck up Cackletta's remaining energy, thus saving Cackletta's life.
After defeating Cackletta, the Brothers then attempt to retrieve the Beanstar from the Hooniversity's basement. It is here that they meet up with Popple and Bowser again. It turns out that Popple wants the Beanstar and is willing to fight the Mario Brothers for it, but Popple is soundly defeated by the Mario Brothers. Shortly thereafter one of the Peachbots falls down from the floor above and starts speaking. The voice from the Peachbot causes the Beanstar to go crazy again. At that time, Popple, Bowser, and the Mario Brothers grab onto the Beanstar to prevent it from flying away. However, despite everyone's efforts, the Beanstar manages to shoot up into sky, taking everyone along with it. Eventually, everyone hanging onto the Beanstar fall off one by one, then the Beanstar itself splits into four pieces and falls back to earth.
After their success at defeating Cackletta, the Mario Brothers make their way to Beanbean Castle, where they learn that Princess Peach is arriving at Beanbean International Airport. When the Brothers greet the Princess, they find out that she can speak. It is here that they learn that Queen Bean had sent out the prince of the Beanbean Kingdom, Prince Peasly, to warn the Princess of Cackletta. This had given enough time for the Mushroom Kingdom arrange for a body double (A Birdo that was dressed like the Princess) to greet Cackletta on the day that Cackletta attacked. Therefore it was the Birdo's voice that Cackletta stole at the beginning of the game, not Princess Peach's voice. The Brothers learn that this is why the Beanstar got angry when it heard the voice of the Peachbots.
While all this is going on, Fawful finds the dazed Bowser and takes the opportunity to release the incorporeal Cackletta into him, transforming the Koopa King into Bowletta, a twisted new form of Cackletta. Bowletta then forms a new plan for awakening the Beanstar. This time, instead of stealing Princess Peach's voice, Bowletta manages to kidnap the princess altogether. She then demands that the Brothers find the four pieces of the Beanstar and give them to her in exchange for the Princess's life.
When the brothers find the four pieces of the Beanstar, Bowletta sends them another message telling them to bring the Beanstar to Joke's End (the name being a possible homage to Land's End from Super Mario RPG). Our Heroes then devise a plan to give Bowletta a Fake Beanstar instead of the real Beanstar. Before the Brothers leave for Jokes End, Toadsworth also gives them a spare dress for Princess Peach. When the Mario brothers reach Joke's End, the two plumbers meet up with Fawful, and try to give him the fake Beanstar. But Fawful is sees through the ruse and tells them to meet him on the roof with the real Beanstar. It is then that Mario comes up with a plan.
The Mario brothers then use the Princess's extra dress and dress Luigi up like Princess Peach. When Mario and what appears to be Princess Peach arrive on the Joke's End roof, Bowletta and Fawful think that they have been tricked into kidnapping the wrong princess. They ditch the real Princess Peach and capture Luigi instead. They then grab the Beanstar and quickly make their escape on board the rebuilt Koopa Cruiser. Peach is left unconscious on the ground, until Mario checks to see if she is alright. Peach then gets up, thanks Mario, and rewards him with a kiss.
Back on the Koopa Cruiser, Bowletta and Fawful soon figure out that Luigi is not the real Princess Peach. It is then that Luigi grabs the Beanstar and escapes from the Koopa Cruiser by jumping into Teehee Valley below. Once Luigi lands in Teehee Valley he is kidnapped by Popple and his new rookie, Birdo. Soon thereafter, Mario finds and rescues Luigi, and the brothers return to Beanbean Castle Town to find it in ruins.
It turns out that Bowletta, furious that she had her schemes foiled twice by our heroes, has taken control of Bowser's flying Castle and has used it to destroy Beanbean Castle town. Bowletta has apparently also taken control of the Koopa army and is intent on using it to conquer the Beanbean Kingdom and, eventually, the Mushroom Kingdom as well. It is soon realized that the ones who know the most about defeating Bowser in his own castle are the Mario Brothers. So, the brothers fly to Bowser's castle, defeat Bowser's seven children, and defeat Fawful. Finally, they fight Bowletta and apparently defeat her. However, just when the evil witch is about to be destroyed, a Bomb-omb sneaks up behind the Brothers and explodes near them, knocking them unconscious.
Bowletta then sucks the brothers into her belly, where the Brothers fight and destroy the spirit of Cackletta. The Brothers then escape from Bowletta's stomach and Bowser (still unconscious) returns to normal. Prince Peasley arrives and tells them that he has planted a bomb on Bowser's castle. As the Mario brothers make their escape, Bowser wakes up and remembers who he is. However, a few seconds later the bomb detonates. The castle explodes and then falls into the Oho Ocean. The explosion catapults Bowser a startling distance up into the air before he crashes into the camera screen, then falls back down to Earth.
After peace has been restored to the Beanbean Kingdom, the Mario Brothers, Toadsworth, and Princess Peach decide to head back to the Mushroom Kingdom. Before they leave, they are given a present by Prince Peasly. (The present is revealed to be Bowser during the credits.) Peach's jet then takes off into the sunset and the credits roll. After the credits, it is revealed that everything is being projected onto a movie screen. It turns out that the whole adventure was shown at the Yoshi Theater. The movie then ends to wild applause by the movie audience.
The main appeal of the plot is its subversion of the traditional Mario storyline: Bowser is Mario's ally rather than his nemesis, and the game doesn't begin with the Princess being kidnapped. By the end of the game, however, the status quo has been restored - Bowser has become Mario's enemy and kidnapped the Princess, and thus the game ends on a familiar note.
[edit] Gameplay
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga features a unique battle system similar to Super Mario RPG's and Paper Mario's in which timed button presses are crucial to both increasing damage of party attacks and reducing the damage of enemy attacks. This system, however, is even more important in Superstar Saga, as well-timed button presses can not only increase damage done by your attacks, but also completely avoid or even counter enemy attacks as well.
Furthermore, Superstar Saga is unique as both Mario and Luigi are utilized to battle enemies, solve puzzles, and reach new areas. The brothers accomplish this with a mixture of jumping, using hand powers, and utilizing a variety of unorthodox partner techniques such as having Mario burn Luigi's pants to make both brothers run at very high speeds,but they can't do any thing but steer.
[edit] Sequel
Nintendo released Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, the sequel to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, on November 28th, 2005 for the Nintendo DS system. Even though both Superstar Saga and Partners in Time are RPGs, the majority of the content in the sequel contains new gameplay. However, there are a few elements from Superstar Saga in Partners in Time, such as the inclusion of Fawful in Princess Peach's castle in the Partners in Time game.
There are also bros moves in both games, but these differ between the two games because in Partners in Time, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi are involved some bros moves. As a result, some moves require more than two protagonists. Furthermore, the bros. moves in Partners in Time are actually items and do not use the Bros. Points system that Superstar Saga does.
[edit] Trivia
- The RPG engine used in Mario & Luigi: Superstar was previously used in Koto Battle and Tomato Adventure.
- A couple of Tomato Adventure (or perhaps its prototype, Gimmick Land) soundtracks were found hidden in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga after people dumped its entire track list into GSF files.
- Geno, a playable character from Super Mario RPG, makes a cameo in one of the arcade games in Little Fungi Town.
- When the player gets his first set of Hammers from the Hammerhead bros., Sledge says "Now you're playing with power!" This is a reference to Nintendo's old NES slogan.
- This is the first Mario game to depict a female villain as the last boss character. Previous last boss characters (Bowser, Wart, Smithy, etc.) in the Mario games were males.
- Chuckola Cola is a parody of Coca-Cola. It would later be mentioned several times in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.
- This is the first Mario RPG game where Luigi accompanies Mario as a playable partner.
[edit] External links
nl:Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga ja:マリオ&ルイージRPG no:Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga fi:Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga sv:Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
