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[Miker]

With Dream Team coming out in a few weeks in the US, I decided to dust off my DS lite and order Superstar Saga off eBay to start the series at the very beginning. And if I'm to be honest, as good as it is, I'm finding it to be as good as it is annoying.

I'm about halfway through (so please use spoiler tags for plot points), and the game is kind of wearing me down. I love the humor, I adore the nonstop Nintendo references (Super Border Jump Sunshine), and the cameos (

Spoiler

E. Gadd!

), but I find myself getting frustrated with something every hour or so. Some complaints I have:

- Dungeons that consist of rooms connected by hallways, and little in the way of clever puzzling or a sense of place (I'd consider Paper Mario 64/TTYD to have legitimately great dungeons)
- Long enemy attack animations that make battles seem longer than necessary
- The Peach Teehee Valley kidnapping section
- Very little explanation in the way of Advanced Bros attacks - I don't think the game ever explained how to use one at all
- Bosses that heal themselves a bit too often (a pet peeve of mine)

And some other stuff that I've probably lost track of. It's a solid game, but I just can't play for too long at a time. And this might just be me, but it seems a bit on the challenging side, too - there's a lot more trial and error involved than I expected. I hear that Bowser's Inside Story smoothed over a lot of these parts, but was also a less interesting game in a lot of respects.

Other thoughts on Superstar Saga?

 

[JeffGrubb]

I was too busy professing my love to this game when I first played it to remember if I had any serious gripes with it. One of my all-time faves.

 

[Chrom]

I absolutely love this game.

 

[DonMigs85]

It was okay, and funnier than Partners in Time. The latter also seemed shorter.

 

[kittens]

It was cool. I didn't love it, but I also can't think of any major negative elements.

 

[Immaculate]

I never finished it since my younger cousin overwrote my file that I had 10 hours years ago

lost all interest after that :/

 

[phanboy4]

Absolutely brilliant masterwork. Probably my favorite GBA game.

 

[Jelle]

I really loved the humour in this game, as well as the animations, sprite work and freshness of a new Mario adventure

 

[Miker]

Wow, nobody has anything negative to say regarding the game? Huh.

 

[Defect]

Awesome game. Liked the sequel more.

 

[Volotaire]

I loved this game. I had a blast!

 

[Mac the KNife]

Wow, nobody has anything negative to say regarding the game? Huh.

It ended.

 

[Sapphire Dreams]

This guy made the game, he is one of Mario series' best characters:

Seriously though, this game is fantastic and has great sense of humor, though I think Partners in Time and Bowser's inside Story were better.

 

[El Odio]

Wow, nobody has anything negative to say regarding the game? Huh.

While I find it to overall be a solid game, as you pointed out it does have some noticeable flaws. This game easily got close to the difficulty in PiT just a little bit before (late game location spoilers)

Spoiler

Joke's end

. I also didn't like how most of the bosses in this game either as you said before healed too often or first had certain things to attack first, like the statue's hiding pillars, Queen beans arms etc, etc. It made them drag on far longer than they should've and added a lot of unnecessary difficulty. There's also quite a bit of backtracking near the end but that can be lessened if you managed to find all the warp pipes.
I also found it a little dumb how the BeanBean Kingdom has it's own special star that for some reason can only be activated by Peach of all people who isn't even from there.
So yeah, it does have some problems but I still give it a 8/10. Like 7 of them all because of Fawful.

 

[Mory Dunz]

- Dungeons that consist of rooms connected by hallways, and little in the way of clever puzzling or a sense of place (I'd consider Paper Mario 64/TTYD to have legitimately great dungeons)

I can agree with that. (I love the PMs)

- Long enemy attack animations that make battles seem longer than necessary

You really think so? For an rpg game...?
You probably shouldn't play any more games in the ML series then...at all. They only get longer I believe.

- Very little explanation in the way of Advanced Bros attacks - I don't think the game ever explained how to use one at all

Well, I can't remember how well it was explained, but if you do a bro attack. At the point where it can become "advanced", they both light up. So you can press A or B there to do the advanced or the normal one.

People have been complaining about handholding recently in Mario RPGs and now there's a complaint about the lack of tutorial. Balance, I guess...

 

[Murrah]

Fights can last a while against new enemies/bosses, but it never got to the point where it annoyed me. But yeah, that and how long it took to save are my only nitpicks

Now if you want loooooong, arduous and repetitive boss battles, get ready for Partners in Time, aka the worst Mario RPG (still worth playing though)

 

[ramoisdead]

Probably still my favorite entry in the M&L RPG series, though Bowser's Inside Story came really close to dethroning it. It was a fun, bite-sized adventure with lots of humor and the introduction of Fawful. I should replay this game as well now that Dream Team is releasing soon here.

 

[Chronoja]

Wow, nobody has anything negative to say regarding the game? Huh.

Gotta love that taste of that thread backfire, bet it tastes like the MUSTARD OF YOUR DOOM!

in all seriousness, Superstar Saga is awesome, I disagree with your points, respectfully of course.

 

[tinders]

- Dungeons that consist of rooms connected by hallways, and little in the way of clever puzzling or a sense of place (I'd consider Paper Mario 64/TTYD to have legitimately great dungeons)
- Long enemy attack animations that make battles seem longer than necessary
- The Peach Teehee Valley kidnapping section
- Very little explanation in the way of Advanced Bros attacks - I don't think the game ever explained how to use one at all
- Bosses that heal themselves a bit too often (a pet peeve of mine)

The bolded were my biggest gripes during my first playthrough too. It is extremely worthwhile, and almost a necessity that you learn how yo use these effectively. It will make your boss battles much more manageable.

Fantastic game however.
Unfortunately my copy no longer saves. I've got a feeling that I may have been sold a bootleg (purchased from ebay in my poor uni days). Hopefully Nintendo release this on the eShop, so I can play through it again.

 

[Miker]

Gotta love that taste of that thread backfire, bet it tastes like the MUSTARD OF YOUR DOOM!

in all seriousness, Superstar Saga is awesome, I disagree with your points, respectfully of course.

Haha, I know that Superstar Saga is well-regarded, but I at least expected some people to agree with one of the points I brought up in my OP. I just thought people might have played this game when they were younger (it's 10 years old this Nov) and forgotten about some of the more frustrating parts.

Well, I can't remember how well it was explained, but if you do a bro attack. At the point where it can become "advanced", they both light up. So you can press A or B there to do the advanced or the normal one.

People have been complaining about handholding recently in Mario RPGs and now there's a complaint about the lack of tutorial. Balance, I guess...

I think the advanced bro attacks is a legitimate complaint - I looked it up on gamefaqs and apparently when the exclamation mark appears, you press the opposite button (A instead of B) to continue the bros. attack as an advanced move instead of a normal move. I don't think that was ever explained (ignore this if it was somewhere), which is a bit of a bummer.

 

[airblade]

One of my favorite GBA games.