Trying out Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga - A compact adventure where you control both plumbers [ENG/ESP]
Published on HivePostify by @acstriker · Mon Jul 20 2026
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If Super Mario RPG was Square's shot at making a Mario-styled RPG with their knowledge, and Paper Mario had Nintendo task Intelligent Systems (from Fire Emblem Fame) with the mission of making something much simpler with Nintendo flair, then Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga was a small developer's take with doing yet another spin on the RPG formula that's unique from the previous two, with great results.
Considering one of Alphadream's few games before M&L was a GBA RPG (japan only Tomato Adventure) also published by Nintendo, it seems they earned the right to try making a Mario RPG - and the fun twist they got was to FINALLY involve Luigi in a major way, not just as a silly NPC as in Paper Mario, but as a playable character that justifies this game's gameplay gimmick to add variety.
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Now its both Mario Brothers jumping!
Or well, eventually. But it doesnt take that long to have both as playable.
The game starts with Mario entering to fight Bowser at Peach's Castle as always (with Luigi watching on the side), and while the classic "press A before landing to deal more damage" when using the jump attack is still present as in the other Mario RPGs, here you DON'T block attacks - you dodge them.
Yeah, Mario can finally try and jump out of danger, although this will become a bit more complex later. But it is the first immediate difference as you are encouraged to avoid enemy attacks like a platformer as you don't get a way to block and reduce damage from attacks.
However, the story starts off with two villains showing up to do something to Princess Peach, and the reveal after Mario beats Bowser being that her voice was stolen and now she can only speak in explosive speech. Literally - anything she tries to say will be gibberish that drops out of the speech bubble and explodes.
So essentially Mario tries to find the culprits with Bowser by riding his ship, with Mario and Luigi (who did NOT want to come along but got pushed in by accident) being put through some training. And from there onwards you'll see that now Luigi is also there, not just using the B button for his commands instead of the A button, but also is present when enemies attack.
And that's basically the second twist of Mario and Luigi: You control both Mario and Luigi not just in battles (having to make them jump separately or even both at once to dodge) but also in the overworld for platforming moments.
And breaking down every story event so far would require a bit of a lengthy explanation, so I'll instead focus on the abilities you get and are tasked to use as you make progress.
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Spin Jump, High Jump, Bros Attacks, Hammer Attacks...a lot for walking and a lot for fighting
If there's something else that separates Mario and Luigi's gameplay from the (classic) Paper Mario overworld formula, is that instead of having partners with specific abilities for combat + overworld, you'll get separate abilities for overworld and battles that all work with just the two plumbers.
For example, the Spin and High Jump are given to you pretty early in the game and are key to progressing through platforms on that area onwards, High Jump used for high platforms (duh), and Spin Jump used for gliding mid-air to reach platforms out of reach for the normal jump.
On the next area, after scaling up a mountain (using those abilities) and...one second...
Doing this minigame of reaching tokens with the Spin Jump, which has some RNG on whether the spawns are lucky to catch quickly or not - AND a boss fight after the minigame, you should eventually reach a boss (the dragon on the thumbnail), and be able to get the Hammer - which let's you break rocks, but while initially there's no use for your partner to hammer the brother on the front...
(besides a silly animation of them angry at you)
Later on you'll receive the ability to turn Mario small or sink Luigi into the ground by making the brother on the back use the Hammer, which once again, ends up being enforced by the overworld to progress, but is neat that the game recontextualizes a previously useless prank into an actual overworld ability.
And on the note of abilities, while these don't carry over to battle, as you get abilities like the Hammer and elemental attacks, you also get new Bros Attacks, which are basically your high damage magic that requires well timed button presses for optimal damage, and has "levels" that slow down the animation or show the buttons to press, but the highest (Lv3) will require less Bros Points to use, totally worth going for as you learn their timing without the lower level assists.
Bros Attacks definitely are one of the two most interactive aspects in battle, which is pretty fun for attacking, as the other one is the aforementioned enemy attacks requiring your input to dodge - or if they require the hammer, briefly hold and let go to swing it, although those are trickier (hold too little and it won't work, hold too long and the hammer breaks harmlessly).
And you'll surely have to learn how to fight away boss attacks while nailing the Bros Attacks if you want to progress without chewing through too many heals, as bosses are surprisingly durable even to repeated Bros Attacks, so there's no escaping having to learn dodging bosses. Although there's always some attacks that give an easy tell on which of the bros will be attacked.
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Conclusion for now
...Who needs context for this screenshot anyways?
Similar to Paper Mario TTYD, the charm of the presentation and humor definitely add to the fun of playing through the game, which is already something good for an RPG to have (if that's the tone needed), but that on top of the gameplay really shows why it was a hit even on the small but also well received Game Boy Advance.
I remembered trying to start this game many times years ago, but always getting carried into other games (even one of those being the sequel on DS, Partners in Time....which I also never completed), so it's great to finally see more of it now, and know there's even more awaiting.
And a bit late to mention this, but it's pretty funny there's Dr. Mario virus enemies that also work like in that game - dying if you make all the virus become the same color by attacking them.
While it is a bit tragic to think that a good run of games in this saga (Partners in Time, Bowser Inside Story, Dream Team) crashed into hiatus with the Paper Jam crossover, and currently Brothership seeming pretty divisive of a release after such a long wait. But hey, even if future games don't make the cut, there's always something to find a new even in old games like this if you haven't tried them before.
...Which also reminds me that it's funny they made a remake of this game for the 3DS when it was on its way out. But at this point even that seems old when it was released in 2017...so that's approaching to be 10 years ago next year.
But oh well.
Thanks for reading, and see you next time.
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Spanish translation with [DeepL](https://www.deepl.com/translator). All screenshots were captured by myself.
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Español
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Si Super Mario RPG fue el intento de Square de crear un juego de rol al estilo Mario aprovechando sus conocimientos, y Paper Mario fue el proyecto en el que Nintendo le encargó a Intelligent Systems (conocida por Fire Emblem) la misión de crear algo mucho más sencillo con el toque característico de Nintendo, entonces Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga fue el intento de un pequeño desarrollador de dar otra vuelta de tuerca a la fórmula de los juegos de rol, diferenciándose de los dos anteriores y logrando excelentes resultados.
Teniendo en cuenta que uno de los pocos juegos de Alphadream antes de M&L fue un RPG para GBA (Tomato Adventure, solo en Japón) también publicado por Nintendo, parece que se ganaron el derecho a intentar crear un RPG de Mario; y el giro divertido que le dieron fue incluir POR FIN a Luigi de manera significativa, no solo como un NPC tonto como en Paper Mario, sino como un personaje jugable que justifica el recurso de jugabilidad de este juego para agregar variedad.
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¡Ahora saltan los dos hermanos Mario!
O bueno, eventualmente. Pero no tarda mucho en que ambos sean jugables.
El juego comienza con Mario entrando a luchar contra Bowser en el Castillo de Peach, como siempre (con Luigi observando desde un lado), y aunque el clásico «presiona A antes de aterrizar para infligir más daño» al usar el ataque de salto sigue presente como en los otros RPG de Mario, aquí NO bloqueas los ataques, sino que los esquivas.
Sí, Mario por fin puede intentar saltar para escapar del peligro, aunque esto se volverá un poco más complejo más adelante. Pero es la primera diferencia inmediata, ya que se te anima a esquivar los ataques enemigos como en un juego de plataformas, ya que no tienes forma de bloquear ni de reducir el daño de los ataques.
Sin embargo, la historia comienza con la aparición de dos villanos que quieren hacerle algo a la Princesa Peach, y la revelación, después de que Mario derrota a Bowser, es que le robaron la voz y ahora solo puede hablar con frases explosivas. Literalmente: cualquier cosa que intente decir será un galimatías que sale disparado de la burbuja de diálogo y explota.
Así que, básicamente, Mario intenta encontrar a los culpables junto con Bowser a bordo de su nave, mientras que Mario y Luigi (quien NO quería venir, pero fue empujado por accidente) deben pasar por un entrenamiento. Y a partir de ahí verás que ahora Luigi también está presente, no solo usando el botón B para sus comandos en lugar del botón A, sino que también participa cuando los enemigos atacan.
Y ese es, básicamente, el segundo giro de Mario y Luigi: controlas tanto a Mario como a Luigi no solo en las batallas (donde tienes que hacerlos saltar por separado o incluso a los dos a la vez para esquivar), sino también en el mundo abierto durante los momentos de plataformas.
Tags: #gaming#marioandluigi#rpg#mario#spanish#gba#gameboyadvance