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Siontix — My Top 5 Mario Games - #1 Mario and Luigi: SS
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Published: 2015-05-29 20:48:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 3476; Favourites: 47; Downloads: 5
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Description
Alright, time to finally end this. I've been prolonging this My Top 5 long enough.So, I'm finally doing another "My Top 5". And despite how random this may be, I have chosen to do Mario as the topic.
What are my five favorite Mario games? Well, all of them come from my childhood, so don't expect any games from the Nintendo DS/Wii era and beyond.
And to set the record straight, I love a lot of Mario games. These five, in particular, though, are my favorite, from least to greatest.
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My #1 all time favorite Mario game goes to Mario & Luigi: SuperStar Saga (2003) for Gameboy Advance.
This game has always been my favorite for many reasons. Primarily, it's a Mario RPG, and everyone likes to play games where you're given freedom to explore. But I also loved this game because Luigi played just as much of a role as Mario did, never again would this happen (excluding the other Mario & Luigi titles). I, like many Super Mario fans, have always been a fan of Luigi over Mario. Throughout my childhood I've liked Luigi because of his cowardice and goofy behavior; especially in the TV series. Mario was just... too bland for me. He's a brave hero and that's about all I can ever get out of him. Nothing against Mario, I just think he lacks character; even in this game, all he ever seems to do is shrug and hum 24/7, while Luigi constantly steals the show with goofy moments. Now I could finally play as him in a Paper Mario styled game.
This was the main attraction for my friends when I used to play games out at recess. Everyone wanted to watch me play this game for some reason, most of my friends were very tuned in with the plot; while I did care about the plot, I cared a whole lot more about the gameplay and jokes. In the end, at age 18, I can safely say that this game has been unchallenged ever since 2003, when it came out. While it's true that I no longer buy any Mario games, I sure still play this game every now and then. And don't get me wrong, up until about 2008, I bought just about every Mario game there was--nothing came remotely close to this game, in my opinion.
So, here we go!
Plot: ★★★★★
Entertaining: ★★★★★
Replay value: ★★★★★
Length: ★★★★★
Total: ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ 20/20
Like Yoshi's Island, I give this one a 20/20. However, respectively, I would should give it a 30/20.
You'll notice that there's a lot of biased behavior toward this game, but I'll criticize it as I see fit.
Plot
For a 6 year old at the time, the plot was pretty jaw dropping. The supposed ambassador from the Bean Kingdom arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom for a diplomatic meeting with Princess Peach, it is revealed, though, that the ambassador is actually a mischievous small minion named "Fawful", who proceeds to steal Peach's voice. Fawful works under the rule of "Cackletta", respectively, the Bean Kingdom's equivalent of Bowser. Cackletta takes off and the Mario Bros. are requested to the castle pronto.
Coincidentally, as the Mario Bros. arrive, Bowser is present inside the castle preparing to kidnap the princess, however, he is surprised to learn that Peach's voice has been stolen and replaced with a very disturbing one (the words in her speech bubbles comically fall out and explode). Bowser, irate, fights Mario for a brief time before coming to the ultimate conclusion that he has no need for someone with such a horrid voice. Through quick negotiations and a surprising twist, Bowser and the Mario Bros. (or at least Mario) agreed to work together and fly to the monarchic Bean Kingdom. Bowser, of course, simply wants to return Peach's voice so he'll have incentive again to kidnap her.
Mario tags along with the Koopa legion and board Bowser's ship, Luigi happily sees Mario off, but is then forcibly brought along by Bowser. The group takes off, but mid flight, Fawful attacks the ship and has it sent down. The ship crashes in Stardust Fields, the bordering land between the two kingdoms, Mario and Luigi thus set off on foot.
Throughout their adventures they meet good and bad bean people, and as they journey toward the castle town, they learn new moves, powers, and general abilities.
I think this plot is very well thought out for many reasons. For kids, the plot is frightening enough--a beautiful and kind woman has lost the ability to speak and may very well live the entirety of her life destroying castles with her explosive words (lol). But even today, I have to really credit the game for gearing toward an adult crowd as well. The game constantly exposes you to embassies, monarchies, ambassadors, economy, and basically a new race/culture.
Entertaining
This game never failed to bore me. During recess, I was always ecstatic to keep going, though sometimes you'd get stuck, which could be horridly frustrating considering the map size. The map size itself is partially what makes this game amazing, there's so much to do, so much to explore. And it's one of those games where you can find special buried items throughout the map. In this case, you could search the map for special types of beans, which could then be brought to a cafe for experimentation. If an experiment was successful, a new type of coffee would be available to purchase--coffee served as items.
On the note of items, God, this game was so great with the items. You could tell that this game borrowed a ton of concepts from Paper Mario, and they did a superb job at doing it. The only shame was that Mario & Luigi didn't contain any combat items you could use in combat, like the POW block or thunder cloud. Items more so centered around buffs (power-ups), energy, and health. One of the great things on the topic of energy was the "Bros." moves. This was where Mario and Luigi could both come together and deliver some kind of combo attack. To perform the combo, you had to press certain buttons accordingly. I used one combo so much, I can still remember the buttons you had to press for one. A, B, A, with about two seconds between each. The Bros. attacks were very crucial to the game and always cool, though, I'd love to see someone do a Let's Play where they don't use Bros. attacks, that'd be interesting.
The adventure that the game brought was the true entertainment, but there were also many mini games to play. My favorite was up in the Mushroom Kingdom embassy of the Bean Kingdom, there was a very arcade-like game as I recall, but I don't quite remember what it was. Upgrades could be bought in the form of clothing, which could be both looted and purchased--but the best clothing came from purchasing. Unfortunately, the clothes had no actual graphical change on the characters. I admit, I fail to understand why they couldn't at least have made it so the color of your clothing changes--that would have been awesome.
I liked pretty much liked everything about this game, except, that is was another game where you had to find a save block--like in Paper Mario. I admit to hating these kind of games, because sometimes you just really need to save, whether it be for real life or because you're in trouble. I do think, though, that this game had more save blocks than Paper Mario did. Paper Mario didn't have enough.
Replay value
I replay this game all the time, but only on console. I no longer have this game on Gameboy Advance, nor do I even own a Gameboy anymore. Mario and Luigi can be purchased on Wii U and possibly 3DS (I'm not sure about that).
The size of the map and many things to do is very attractive. Even long after having beaten this game I'd play it because there's more to do. Admittedly, they could have done better on the side quests--side quests were lacking. The game itself was fun in the sense that you could keep progressing, like in any RPG. If something is too hard, you just gotta get out there and obtain more experience points. Even after beating the game I much enjoyed leveling up, because I wanted to reach that final level where everything is mincemeat compared to you, including the final boss. I never got to the maximum level, though.
Aside from leveling up, it's just a fun game in general. Kind of interesting travelling around the map and fighting enemies that once gave you bad struggles. The leveling system was probably the lasso for the game, other than that, you just kept playing to come closer to 100% completion. Considering it has side quests, it's one of those games where you would normally beat the game with 75-89% completion.
Length
It's an RPG, whether you beat it quickly or not is solely dependent on how skilled you are at these kind of games. There's the combat mechanics of the game that keep you back, and then there's the puzzle solving. Both things, combined with the massive map and side quests, should keep you busy for many days. For me, I'm a casual RPG gamer, so this game took me about a year to beat when I was a kid. I have recently played this game again and did nearly beat the game in 3 days, though.
I think that the length is also dependent on your patience. If you try and evade every enemy in the game, simply wanting to reach the boss of each stage... good luck on that. You'll be playing this game for quite a while. If you're great at dodging and such, maybe you'll be capable of doing this. Most likely, though, the fights will be extraordinarily difficult and prolonged due to lacking HP, stamina, and power. You should fight your way to the end, and by doing this, the game will last longer.
The length of the game is fully dependent on skill (fighting/puzzle solving) and strategy (knowing when to move on). I believe that this game should last a week, at the least.
Total
Now, there is something else I'm not telling you, one of the biggest reasons for my love of this game. This may confuse you... but would you believe me when I say that this is one of the greatest multiplayer RPGs of its time?
: Hold on a minute, dumb idiot, Mario & Luigi isn't multiplayer!
This is true, but also false, to an extent. This game can be multiplayer, and no, I'm not talking about sharing a Gameboy Advance. If you have a friend who can handle it, this can be one of the funnest multiplayer Mario games out here, and here's what you need:
1. Nintendo Gamecube
2. Gamecube Gameboy Player (it's really cheap nowadays)
3. Mario & Luigi: SuperStar Saga
4. Two Gamecube controllers
If you own these four things, you're in luck! Perhaps you didn't know, but since this is a Gameboy game, there's no configuration set to make a distinction between the Player 1 and 2 controller. Henceforth, both controllers act as Player 1. Here's the thing, all of Mario's moves are executed with the 'A' button and Right trigger; Luigi is controlled with the 'B' button and Left trigger.
Henceforth, you can play this game on a TV and work together with two separate controllers. You control Mario, your friend controls Luigi. This style of playing almost guarantees perfect combat, because each player only has the duty of pressing one button. Both players play equal roles in combat, it's all good.
The only reason I never got to experience this to the fullest is because I only had one friend who was willing to do this with me, and he had a form of autism that, well... basically, he didn't trust that I'd press the 'B' button when needed, so he often did it for me--essentially playing single-player. If you have a friend who'll keep their damn finger off of your designated button, you're set! This is, in fact, why I think Mario & Luigi: SS is the greatest Mario game of all time, because if you have a friend and all four of the above mentioned things, this is quite possibly the greatest teamwork game Nintendo has ever made, rivaling with Mario Party titles.
Alright, to conclude this My Top 5, let me be very clear on something. Do not humiliate yourself by commenting:
: Oh, what!? Are you serious!? Are you an idiot or something!? You didn't list Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, or Super Mario Bros. 3 ANYWHERE in this list! Those games came first and are nostalgiac, therefore the best! What's wrong with you!?
Don't give me that. Seriously. Just because I didn't list any of those original games on my list doesn't mean that I hate them, I love those old games. But seriously, now, are the original games the best? Well, here's how I see it...
Super Mario Bros.: Die. Die. Die. Run out of time. Die. Die. Die. Win. Die. Win. Win. Die. Die. Die. Run out of time. Die. Run out of time. Die. Win.
Super Mario Sunshine: Explore, laugh, progress.
Super Mario World: Die. Die. Die. Run out of time. Die. Die. Die. Win. Die. Win. Win. Die. Die. Die. Run out of time. Die. Run out of time. Die. Win.
Luigi's Mansion: Explore, laugh, progress. ...and die to Boolossus ಠ_ಠ ...
Super Mario 3.: Die. Die. Die. Run out of time. Die. Die. Die. Win. Die. Win. Win. Die. Die. Die. Run out of time. Die. Run out of time. Die. Win.
Mario & Luigi: SS: Explore, laugh, progress.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that the original games were great because of the challenge; but I just didn't find that fun. Too many times in those old games I find myself saying "Oh boy, here we go..." with lacking enthusiasm before entering a level; in the games I've listed under My Top 5, none of these games do that. The old games are stressful and I rank them poorly, I don't care about nostalgia. If you grew up with those games and like them for nostalgia reasons, that's fine, I've been there with Crash Bandicoot. But just because the games came first doesn't make them better.
Same could be said for F-Zero, and all of you know me for being obsessive with F-Zero. I don't much care for the original game, F-Zero, why? There's little incentive for winning, no interesting characters, no action (compared to X and GX), and just frustration of running into everything. I don't care if it was the first, the newer F-Zero games are better in my opinion and it has absolutely nothing to do with graphics, it has to do with overall content. Back then, these games couldn't handle so much content; I understand that F-Zero in the day would've never been able to handle thirty-some racers on the track. Again, I'm not saying F-Zero is a bad game, I just don't enjoy it like I do the newer ones--it's boring in comparison.
As for Mario games, why should I be forced to include these older games in my list of favorites? As I recall, no one cared when I played these games out in recess, and all I did was get frustrated with the constant failure of the later levels. These games all used the system of needing to memorize where obstacles/enemies are, otherwise you died. And how frustrating was it for me when the other Mario games implemented the concept of a moving screen to force you forward, pretty damn frustrated!
I do play all those older games still, and I usually have a grand time, but as a kid, they were nightmares for me and lacking in entertainment. It's true that nostalgia played a big role in my decisions for this My Top 5, but oh well, at least it's a unique list.
I apologize if I offended anyone there, many of my friends love the original games, but I just don't see how either of those games compete with more modern games. It's my opinion and I hold that opinion up with pride.
So that was My Top 5 Mario games, stick around, F-Zero: Seppuku readers, for my upcoming My Top 5: Least memorable FZ:S rivalries
Oh, and this game did feature the Yoshi tribe. ...you didn't actually think my #1 Mario game would leave out the Yoshis, did you?
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Comments: 7
That's my favorite too. so many good memories.
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I had no idea you could have a second person join in. I think I might try this with my boyfriend someday. It seems like fun! ^_^
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The trick is: You gotta make sure the second person stays off the A or B button. Player 1 controls A (or B) and the other player controls the other. I had a friend who always pressed my button anyway and that would often times screw it up.
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I used to watch my little bro play this from start to end. I agree that the plot is immense, but this was the one RPG he took very seriously. He and I got a few laughs from his journey, but I will say this: this game was crucial to developing Luigi. Why do I say this? In the olden days, neither of the two brothers had much of a personality. They were basically two adventurers who were tasked with saving the princess, and once they were done, they went on their merry way until it happened again.
Well, Luigi really had a more defined personality (I think more so than Luigi's Mansion). I know he was silent here, but seriously, he showed a lot, and as a result, he told us a lot. If you recall the scene where Mario suffers from a bean illness, Luigi is told by the doctor that he has to go to Guffawa Canyon (forgot its name), and get the cure. It was riddled with nightmares, and Luigi was basically cringing. The cowering Luigi was without Mario for a while, but going through that, I think, solidified the reason for The Year of Luigi (2013).
Luigi is just so much more engaging than Mario is. Heck, even Super Sports Star Mario has more personality than him (and that is still just Mario, just in sports).
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I think I've also always been a fan of Luigi because of the randomness of his color. When looking at the Mario Bros., you would've thought Luigi would have been blue, to go with Mario's red; but instead he's green. That's something about Luigi I'll never understand, but I've always loved it.
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Even in side games, Luigi is more interesting. In Mario Kart, for example, Luigi is proven to have a faster kart, one that handles either better or worse, and feels like it has many benefits rather than Mario, who seems indifferent to everything.
Even a Goomba has more personality than our red-capped hero.
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