Mario & Luigi Review: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Henchmen

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is one of the best RPGs released on SNES (also present in the roster of mini snes which is grinding large numbers) and is the first example of a turn-based Mariesco game. Seven years (and a Paper Mario) after the baton is passed to Alphadream.

Alphadream makes the hybrid gameplay between turn-based j-rpg and action portable Paper Mario adding pixel art graphics and a new game world called Bean Town. Thus was born the first chapter of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Henchmen is an improved remake of the first chapter of the saga.

Peach the defenseless.

The incipit is always in the kingdom of mushrooms: the voice of the princess Peach was stolen, in its place there are explosive expletives capable of evacuating the castle. The blame for once does not fall on the turtle Bowser but about a witch and her followers, coming from the neighboring kingdom of Fagiolandia.

Guess who will have the pleasure of recovering the voice of Peach?

There really isn't much to discuss about the story: the plot is classically Nintendo, simple and very similar to an excuse to explore the explorable. The storyline hasn't undergone any major changes from the original and features with doubled brilliance the same funny characters that animated the original on Gameboy Advance.

Additions to this release are represented by Easter Eggs e small quotes towards new chapters of the brand. Some characters have been visually updated with the models created for the latest chapters of the saga Mario & Luigi thus recreating narrative and visual coherence with the one seen previously.

Mario and his brother will find themselves having to deal with beans, dragons, hammerheads and nobles of all stature; characters practically irresistible despite the not particularly deep dialogues that demonstrate, once again, how it is possible to obtain a good game world without having to exaggerate with pomposity and introspection.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Henchmen replaces the original game's stunning pixel art with an equally beautiful 3D-like makeover. The original style has remained unchanged in colors and shapes, returning a pastel and truly Nintendo world in every nook and cranny.

The sound department, which in the original was struggling a bit due to the hardware of the G, has been updated thanks to the chip of the 3DS. The soundtrack shines with its own light thanks to song e rhythms memorable to say the least, yet another proof of the boundless talent of Yoko Shinomura.

The fine-tuning operation does not stop at the surface of the technique: the gameplay has been adjusted and adapted to the new generations of players with small ideas and aids of the case without however going to affect the fun.

First of all it is worth mentioning a function that allows you to speed up all cutscenes according to your tastes; this is a good choice as it helps both the player who does not want to waste time and the player who has already experienced the adventure once.

Skip that passes you.

Like any self-respecting role-playing game too Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Henchmen is split between combat, exploration and minigames. The user experience and interfaces in this remake are significantly improved thanks to a careful use of the double screen of the Nintendo console.

In both cases in fact it is upper screen is used to show the actual gameplay, the touch screen instead it is dedicated to navigating the menus and choosing the exploratory skills of our dynamic duo.

The original, in fact, was characterized and penalized by an interesting but cumbersome exploration. In the original game the navigation between the environmental abilities was relegated to the L and R backbones, the characters had to be sorted correctly by pressing the SELECT button.

In the remake via the touch screen it will be possible to directly select your own skill without even having to change the order of the characters. Another useful simplification can be found in the X key, used for jump at the same time of the two brothers which makes the exploratory phases more affordable.

The battles maintain 99% of the basic mechanics presented in the original: being successful against your enemies will be a matter of timing and reflexes since attacks, techniques and defenses will depend on the timing with which we press the keys that appear on the screen. You will also need to understand the type of attack necessary to defeat a certain enemy.

For example, if in front of us we have an enemy resembling a hedgehog it will be inconvenient to try to jump on him since we will receive damage, it will be much more effective to use the hammer!

The additions are mainly two: the emergency defense that with the comfortable pressure of a button allows you to halve the damage (mechanics taken on an equal footing from Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam) and the mode training with which you can experiment with your moves endless times to have a clear timing.

The icing on the cake technical brothers they have been further subdivided according to their normal / super versions with relative cost in Brothers points (The MPs of the game).

Run like a goomba, jump like Mario!

The latest addition is directly mentioned on the cover of the game. The Bowser's henchmen in fact they are the protagonists of an entire sidestory.

The protagonist of the minigame will be a Goomba, self-proclaimed captain, in search of the most famous turtle in the mushroom kingdom. On his way, he will have to resort to the help of many of his comrades, divided by categories and races to form an army capable of facing any type of threat.

It gameplay del title in fact here it turns on clashes between armies by virtue of a balance of the rock-paper-scissors type: the three categories present (melee units, remote units, flying units) in fact cancel each other out, requiring the player to find his own style of play and a balance. Each unit can be upgraded through the accumulation of experience points and has statistics to check to guide its strategy. The commands must be entered by pressing specific keys quick time events.

Unfortunately this huge side-event fails in its intent to entertain due to the rather confusing nature, not touching the peaks of genuine fun of the main adventure. The whole mini adventure lasts half a dozen hours, thus helping the explosiveness of a game that is good not to dilute too much.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Henchmen he has aged well and has been properly made up for dusting off. The flaws of the original title have been smoothed out through the use of dual screens and new dedicated buttons that lighten the woodiness. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Henchmen is the perhaps unnecessary remake of an already very beautiful title originally, the additions made embellish the exceptional work of Alphaware by delivering the title to a new audience, able to appreciate it for the simplicity and fun it is able to give to players of every age.

The game was reviewed on 3DS thanks to a Key from Nintendo Italia