Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Overview

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a 2003 role-playing video game developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the first game in the Mario & Luigi series. The story follows Mario and Luigi as they travel to the Beanbean Kingdom in order to combat Cackletta and Fawful, who stole Princess Peach's voice for the purpose of harnessing the power of a special artifact called the Beanstar.

Superstar Saga is the third role-playing game in the Mario franchise, following Super Mario RPG (1996) and Paper Mario (2000), and features a lighthearted, whimsical script with a greater emphasis on comedy than earlier titles. The player controls Mario and Luigi simultaneously as they traverse the overworld, fight enemies, gain experience points, and find new items and gear. The battle system differs from traditional role-playing games, with more emphasis on timing and elaborate attacks called Action Commands. Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, Tetsuo Mizuno, and Satoru Iwata, the game was announced at E3 2003, later releasing the same year.

Superstar Saga was critically acclaimed, with reviewers praising the game's writing, tone and battle system, though its gameplay and top-down perspective received mixed reactions. Critics have since ranked it among the best games on the Game Boy Advance. It was a commercial success, with over 2 million copies sold, and it became a Player's Choice title. A follow-up, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2005. An enhanced remake with additional story content, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2017. The original game was rereleased for the Wii U's Virtual Console in 2014, and the Nintendo Classics service in 2023.

Official trailer

Trailer. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Game Boy Advance Longplay [064] Mario & Luigi - Superstar Saga (Part 1 of 3), World-of-Longplays. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Role-playing (RPG), Adventure

Developer

AlphaDream, Vanpool

Publisher

Nintendo, iQue

Series

Mario & Luigi

Platforms

Wii U, Game Boy Advance

Age rating

ESRB E

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Co op

No

Age ratings

CERO

A

USK

0

ACB

G

PEGI

3

ESRB

E

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Space and patches

Update patchNo patch

DLC

No DLC. Game Boy Advance games had no downloadable content.

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

No online features; the cartridge runs on any Game Boy Advance, and the game is on Nintendo Switch Online.

Online

Plays offlineYes

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Game Boy Advance	90	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Famitsu	37	40
GameSpot	9.2	10
IGN	9	10
Game Informer	9.5	10
Nintendo World Report	9.5	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Developer	AlphaDream
Publisher	Nintendo
Director	Yoshihiko Maekawa
Producers	Shigeru Miyamoto, Tetsuo Mizuno
Designer	Hiroyuki Kubota
Programmer	Masashi Haraki
Artists	Masanori Sato, Toshizo Morikawa
Writer	Hiroyuki Kubota
Composer	Yoko Shimomura

Notes for collectors

• You control Mario and Luigi at once: A works the front brother and B the one behind.
• Cackletta and Fawful steal Princess Peach's voice, and the brothers chase them into the Beanbean Kingdom.
• Sold over two million copies and became a Player's Choice title.
• Remade for the 3DS in 2017 as Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions.

Credits

Publisher

Nintendo, iQue

Developer

AlphaDream, Vanpool

Director

Yoshihiko Maekawa

Released

2003-11-17

Age rating

ESRB E

Region

US

Time to beat

about 18.6 hours