"One of Mario's best, and Luigi's all time best!"

Mario and Luigi: SuperStar Saga is an excellent game, worthy of the Mario name. When it was shown at e3 2003, I was skeptical about what to think about it. I had never played Super Mario RPG, but I loved Paper Mario to death, so I figured that Mario and Luigi would also be high quality. However, the idea of the A button controlling Mario and the B button controlling Luigi made me a little concerned. I felt it would be awkward and hurt the game. When I got the game, however, my fears were put to rest as I played one of the best GBA games of 2003.

Mario and Luigi wastes no time in kicking things off. As soon as the game begins, you see a witch draining Princess Peach's voice and replacing it with explosives. The witch, who is known as Cackletta, flees with the voice of the princess. Bowser soon shows up with plans to capture Peach, but stops when he learns of her new voice. Since he can't capture her when her voice will destroy a room, he decides to team up with Mario to stop Cackletta. Luigi does not wish to go on this quest, but Bowser figures he needs a lot of firepower to take the witch down, so he kidnaps Luigi.
Throughout the course of the game, you will meet several colorful characters, and even the return of some old ones. You'll see Birdo (Super Mario Bros. 2), professor E. Gadd (Luigi's Mansion), Yoshi, as well as the many baddies from the Mario universe. The story is wonderfully told, with some great plot twists to excel the plot. The story is quite goofy, and you will be laughing the entire game. You wouldn't think a Mario game would have a top-quality story, but M&L does.

Gameplay: 9/10
When I first played this game, it felt awkward. Using each of the buttons to control each character was a chore, and using the L and R buttons to switch between abilities was just awkward. At the beginning of the game, the only thing you can do is jump. Soon into the game, you can high-jump and spin-jump. After you get hammers, there are all sorts of crazy shenanigans to do. When you finally gain the powers of fire and thunder (hope I didn't spoil anything for you), you will have every trick in the book at your disposal. Concerning combat, I had different feelings about it as I played on. Early on, I figured the game was way too easy. Dodging attacks was very simple, and boss fights were no problem either. Selecting the proper attack to fight an enemy was fun, but I hardly found it interesting. You can't sidestep attacks, which is kind of annoying, but you can deflect them with your hammer. Still, jumping is the most common way of dodging attacks. You can't select whether you want to defend with your hammer or your jump. Instead the game does that, which is kind of annoying. There are a few times I would rather be defending the opposite way. After I put a couple of hours into the game, I played another RPG (Skies of Arcadia, to be specific), and I was surprised to find the I wished the battle system in SoA was more like M&L. Upon this discovery, I went back to M&L and the world began to open up. The Bros. attacks you receive are difficult to pull off, but well worth it. Every enemy in the game had a different way of fighting, so the combat was constantly interesting. Boss fights were very difficult, and not because they are cheap. In fact, you can dodge every single one of their attacks, so if you die, it's your own fault. If the game sounds easy to you, you are going to have your rear handed to you when you fight one of the various bosses (especially the uber-difficult final boss). Trust me, you'll never get bored.

Graphics and Sound: 9/10
Mario and Luigi has some very well-detailed technical qualities. Everything in the game is very detailed. There are all sorts of designs in ever level, and you never feel like you've done something before. Everything's so new and fresh. The characters also look great. There are a large variety of sprites and animations that the creators should be applauded for. My only real complaint about the graphics is that in some battles, it may be hard to tell when an attack is going to hit you. The sound quality is also great. Believe it or not, Nintendo managed to cram voice acting into this game! It's not a lot, but there are a lot of sound bits besides the beep-beep-beep of text rolling. M&L also has a wonderfully soundtrack which always keeps the mood fresh. I love this game.

Longetivity: 9/10
M&L is a good 20 hours long, and you will enjoy every second of it. I admit, there were a few times where I got stuck, and didn't play it for a while, but the guides here at GameFAQs are pretty good. After beating the game, there's no real incentive to play it again, but I'm sure hardcore RPG fanatics will find a reason. This game will keep you occupied for a good while, that's for sure.

Fun Factor: 9/10
If you think this game is boring, you should be slapped upside the head. I could go on for hours about how great this game is. Well, maybe not, since I'm running out of material for this review. If you think that you're too old or ''cool'' to be playing these ''kiddy'' Mario games, then that's fine with me. You'll just be missing one of Mario's best, and Luigi's all time best! If you have a Game Boy Advance, do yourself a favor and pick this up. The game also works great in the Game Boy Player for Gamecube, if you have that. Just remember to set the filter for ''soft''. Makes for a much better game. In my opinion, anyway.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/01/04