Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Game Boy Advance) Reader Review

Mario is found in many genres. Sports games, kart games, platformers and adventures. Among these genres is RPGs, which Mario seems to fit very well with. Mario RPGs have been going on since Mario RPG: Legend of the seven stars on the SNES, and the mario rpgs still have golden gameplay. Superstar saga carries on this tradition. The gameplay is addictive and will hook you from when you turn on. So the main story? Well, as in most mario games (or i think it's all...), the story is based around Princess Peach (sigh). An evil witch named Cackletta has stolen peaches voice and replaced it with explosive vocablary! (It sounds stupid I know...). Cackletta has taken Peache's voice to awaken the Beanstar, a star that can grant any wish. So Mario and Luigi must get the beanstar, before Cackletta does, and recover Peach's voice! That is the main story, not exactly interesting, but teaming up with Bowser certainly is! Bowser wants to get rid of Cackletta so he can take Princess Peach and kidnap her, but Peach's new voice will destroy his castle! So he sets out with Mario to recover Peach's voice. The main game is like most other rpgs. You attack, defend etc. But there are many different features. First of all, there are "Bros" attacks, which are Mario and Luigi attacking together, where you have to press the buttons are certain times to take more damage. Secondly, the ways you can attack, are jumping on enemies (for flying creatures), using your hammer (for spiked creatures) and elemental attacks, like thunder and fire beams (good on different creature types). Also defending is different. You can defend with either your hammer or by jumping and dodging the enemy. However you always have to be concentrating! So enemies are harder to defend from and others cannot be dodged! You must dodge yourself, so this rpg means your always moving and don't have the time to be distracted! The game is fast paced. And there are of course levels, atk, def etc, like most rpgs and of course stats. But there is not all rpg element. There is adventure and platform genre fitted in which makes Superstar Saga even more unique to other rpgs. You go through levels, climb mountains, go inside secret labs and castles. Much more on top of that. You have to use Mario and Luigis abilities to pass through levels. Some times they have to work together to pass levels as well. The game is also very strategy based. Just by attacking over and over, won't get you anywhere. You must attack different parts of bosses, or use different attacks each turn to beat certain bosses and creatures. The game can be very hard, some bosses are very hard to beat and you could be facing the "Game Over" screen a couple of times. Don't let this annoy you though, second time, once you know the Boss's strategy, is when you can put a strategy together to beat that boss.

Graphics: The graphics suit the game perfectly. Very colorful and bright. Fantastic. (9)

Sound: It's hard to have a good GBA game with great sound. The sound fits the levels perfectly and adds to the feel. (9)

Fun: It'll hook you from the start. It's enjoyable throughout and the tasks you have to complete are fun. (10)

Lifespan: This game is over 30 hours worth at the very least. (10)

Overall: 9.5

Final Comment: The game is a hook and won't let you go until you complete the game, even with it's hard parts. The gameplay is gold, and cannot be found in many other games.