Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Japan: Mario & Luigi RPG)was released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance, an RPG starring the famous Mario Bros., Mario and Luigi. The game's sequel is Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS, with another sequel called Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the Nintendo DS.

A remake of the Mario Bros. arcade game was also included with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

Story
The Goodwill Ambassador from the Beanbean Kingdom and his assistant come to the Mushroom Kingdom to bring a gift from Queen Bean, for Princess Peach. However, it turned out to be a surprise attack of magic smoke. The ambassador and assistant were really an evil witch named Cackletta, and her assistant, Fawful. Fawful uses his headgear to suck up the smoke, which had Peach's voice trapped inside. They escape with Peach's voice into the dark sky, and replace it with an explosive vocabulary.

Meanwhile, Mario and Luigi are at their house. Luigi is hanging up clothes when Toad comes by asking where Mario is. Luigi is too busy to help, so Toad rushes into the house to find Mario. As he searches the inside, he hears Mario singing in the bathroom. He enters and finds Mario taking a shower. Toad rushes out of there in total embarrassment, running into a wall. Mario gets out of the shower with a bath robe on, and finds Toad out cold on the floor. He jumps on him to wake him up, but all he hears is Toad groaning about the princess. Mario realizes that she is in trouble again, and quickly goes outside to put his clothes on and heads to the castle, not realizing that he's dragging Luigi by the clothesline.

Bowser visits the castle soon after, in an attempt to kidnap Princess Peach. When Mario comes, he screeches to a halt, but Luigi flies off and runs into Bowser. He becomes enraged and fights Mario. After getting defeated, Bowser stops the fight, saying that this is not the time to do so. A Toad then tells them that Peach's voice was replaced with bombs. Bowser worries that if he kidnaps Peach now, she'll wreck his castle. So Bowser agrees to help Mario get back Peach's voice.

Mario and Bowser get ready to leave in the Koopa Cruiser, along with Bowser's underlings. As they are about to leave, Luigi comes to say his final goodbye. Bowser mistakenly thinks Luigi wants to join them so they take him along. Then the Koopa Cruiser leaves to the Beanbean Kingdom.

That night, while Bowser and the Mario Bros. are on deck, Luigi, as a lookout, spots something coming their way. It was Cakletta and Fawful. Bowser and the brothers are angry at what she did to Peach, but she answers by sending Fawful in to fight them. Fawful takes out Bowser easily, but is taken down by Mario and Luigi. Despite this loss, Fawful uses his headgear to inviolate the cruiser. Everybody falls down to the ground below.

Mario and Luigi land in the Beanbean Borderlands. After a brief chat, they decide to go the building on the left. Inside, they find the Border Bros., who wants them to do a jumping game to pass through. They succeed, and are given passage to go to Stardust Fields, as well as a Map of the Beanbean Kingdom to help them out. As the brothers wander around the premises, they find Bowser stuck in cannon. A fat flying creature named Tolstar then appears to mock Bowser. He also bribes those coins so that he won't tell this incident to anyone else. Mario gives Tolstar the 100 coins he brought along, but that wasn't enough to satisfy him. So, Mario and Luigi wander around Stardust Field to look for more coins. With the help of the Starshade Bros. along the way, they manage to get enough coins to surprise Tolstar's bribe. But instead of helping out, Tolstar decides to attack the brothers instead. They defeat Tolstar, but then one of the Starshade Brothers comes and fires Bowser out of the cannon. This leaves Mario and Luigi on their own.

A while afterwards, the brothers make it to Hoohoo Village where some Beanish soldiers mistake them for foes. Tolstar comes to prove that they are the Mario Bros., giving them safe passage to the village. After a look around, they leave to find Fawful blasting a soldier away. He then mocks the brothers by throwing a rock statue in front of them, blocking their path to Beanbean Castle. They decide to visit the Hammerhead Bros. back at the village to make Hammers for them. But they need a Hoohoo Stone to do that, so they go up to Hoohoo Mountain. When the plumbers finally reach the top of the mountain, they find a Hoohoo Stone, but kick it by accident. This awakens Blablanadon, mad at what they did, but apologizes after their explanation. The petradon explains that he has been sitting on this strange egg for some time, which is why he had not been around for the Hoohooligans' travel problems. Suddenly, the egg hatches, revealing Dragohoho. The creature knocks Blablanadon away, and fights the brothers. They defeat the monster, which then turns into Prince Peasley, the prince of the kingdom. He thanks them for freeing him of that form, and before leaving gives them a rose to assure their entrance to the castle. Blablanadon takes the plumbers back to Hoohoo Village, where they come back to the Hammerhead Bros. and get new hammers made from a Hoohoo Stone.

Using their new hammers, they crushed the statue in the way and went down Hoohoo Mountain towards Beanbean Castle Town. Along the way, they found a cave. Inside was an old man and his beanish dog. He tells the bros. that to cross through the cave they must play his minigame, where they ride in mine carts to collect 10 cans. Afterwards, the Mario Bros. finish their journey to Beanbean Castle Town. But they find the town in ruins, as Cackletta and Fawful had recently attacked. The brothers quickly come to Beanbean Castle and gained entry by showing Peasley's rose to the guards. Once inside, they met up with Lady Lima, the kingdom's ambassador. They tell her what's going on, but she does not believe the story, or that they are the Mario Bros. So, she sends them down to the castle sewer to fix their leaking pipe problem. When they got all the pipes fixed, the brothers met up with the real Lady Lima and some servants. The Lima Mario and Luigi met before was Cackletta in disguise, trying to get the Beanstar. The brothers caught up with her, but it was too late-Cackletta took the Beanstar away, and sent Queen Bean to attack them. The queen was a muscular monster at the time, because she ate a Belly Blech Worm before-hand. Mario and Luigi toppled the tyrant, and were then sent out to get the antidote for the queen-Chuckola Cola.

Later, the Mario Bros. made it to Château de Chucklehuck to find the drink. They ended up in a fight with Popple the master thief, and his partner, Rookie. They were defeated, and ran off into Chucklehuck Woods. The brothers then found Cork and Cask, the owners of the brewery. They taught the brothers moves with the hammers that soon helped them out in the Chucklehuck Woods. It was because they used those skills to get three different kinds of Chuckola Fruit to give to Chuckleroot in order for them to proceed onward to Mother Chuckola (the giant tree at the end). When they got there, they found the creator of Chuckola Cola, Bubbles. He was busy telling jokes to the Chuckola Reserve, his most precious brew of soda, while Rookie and Popple were tied up in barrels. Then, the soda transformed into the Chuckolator, which sent the thieves flying, and attacked Mario and Luigi. They prevailed, and it reverted back to normal soda. Bubbles were not happy about it, and caused a tremor sending the brothers and the soda underground. Mario landed in the soda, and Luigi landed away from his brother. Eventually, he found his way back to Mario, still in the barrel, so he did a barrel run on the water going back to the Castle.

Back at the castle, Luigi jumped on Mario to squirt out the Chuckola Cola into Queen Bean. She spat out Belly Blech worm, returned to normal. At that moment, Peasly came to report to the queen about some sort of progress. It appeared that Cackletta was hiding out in the Woohoo Hooniversity, so the Mario Brothers were sent there to investigate. There, they had to fight weird experiments, solve puzzles, and reunite each other (after they got separated) in order to unlock the Sun Door, leading to a very hi-technical room. There, Cackletta (and Fawful) was about to awaken the Beanstar using Peach Bots that were installed with Peach's voice. But when she activated them, they made a strange noise that drove the Beanstar crazy! It caused a tremor sending the robots and it downward. Cackletta and Fawful were confused about what had just happened, and the sudden appearance of the Mario Bros. did not help the situation. Luigi bashed Fawful into the ground, leaving Cackletta to fight them alone. Her powers were great, but were no match for Mario and Luigi.

After the battle, Fawful got back up, and seeing that his mistress was at the point of dying, he used his headgear to suck up her essence, dissolving her body. He was about to give the brothers a good thrashing, but Peasly then came and threw him out of the building. He was curious about the incident with the Peach Bots and the Beanstar, but looked as if he knew what was going on. He departed, leaving the brothers to go down to the basement. There they found Popple and Rookie with the Beanstar and fought them for it. But after the battle, a Peach Bot head fell down and made that noise again, causing the Beanstar to go nuts again. Mario, Luigi, Popple, and Rookie grabbed onto it, eventually were sent flying in different directions, as was the Beanstar itself when it broke into four pieces.

Mario and Luigi landed at the Oho Oasis, and managed to get out of there by learning the Firehand and Thunderhand in the Fire, and Thunder temples. After they made through the Oho Ocean, they met Peasly again, saying that Princess Peach is arriving at the Beanbean International Airport, and asks they come at once. They do, and find that Piranha Plants are everywhere on the airport. They take care of this problem quickly, and the Toad Express safely lands down.

Back at the castle, the Mario Brothers find out that Peach's voice was never stolen. It was really Birdo disguised as the princess at the time. Peach knew about this all along, because Peasly came and told them about Cackletta's plan before hand. With that crisis settled, Peach decides to visit Little Fungitown, with the Mario Bros. escorting her of course.

They come to the only known route to Little Fungitown, Teehee Valley. There, the Princess gets captured by Gritty Goombas a few times, and then confronted by the rock creature, Trunkle. The brothers bested all of them, and made it to Little Fungitown. There, Peach leaves the brothers to go about the town on their own. They decide to go to the arcade, where Mario plays one of the games there, and wins an Invincishroom. He eats it; but ends up in the hospital, where he has contracted Bean Fever. The only cure for this is Crabbie Grass from Guffawha Ruins. Luigi accepts to do this task, but losses his nerve when he finds out about a bone-crushing monster lives there. To try and calm himself, he goes to Psycho Kamek, who hypnotizes him into thinking that he's Mario.

With his new found courage, Luigi goes to Guffawa Ruins. After doing some puzzles and confronting the "monster," which was actually just a stone head whishing people would stop making stupid rumors about him, Luigi finds some Crabbie Grass. He goes back to the Little Fungitown hospital, but is then struck by lightning, and regains his original consciousness. Luigi then comes halfway to the hospital when he spots Peach in a Koopa Clown Car. Angry, Luigi tells Bowser to let her go. But it's not Bowser - it's Cakletta, who has possessed Bowser's body to become Bowletta. She makes off with Peach in tow, and Luigi rushes into the hospital to revive Mario. Luigi then tells Mario what had just happened, and both of them return to Beanbean Castle.

Back at the castle, everybody is flustered about Cackletta's surprise comeback, trying to figure out what to do next. Lady Lima then comes with a message from Bowletta. The sinister fusion has requested that they get the four pieces of the broken Beanstar to her in exchange for the princess. The Mario Bros. and Prince Peasly agree to do this task (Peasly is so confident, that he'll give the brothers 99,999,999,999 mushroom coins if they get them all first).

So, Mario and Luigi set out to get the first Beanstar piece, which was in the S.S. Chuckola back at Teehee Valley. In the ship of skeletal crewmen, they do a barrel game, and then free a fat skeleton from a crack in the wall, but that causes the ship to be sent into the Oho Ocean, where it sinks. The Mario Brothers then follows the floating Beanstar all over the seabed, until they make it to Gwarhar Lagoon. Here, they got new abilities for their hand powers thanks to the Jellyfish Sisters, and used them to get to the Hermie Club. They were using the Beanstar piece as the main ornament for Hermie III. The brothers eventually got the piece after battling Hermie and explaining about the crisis.

The next piece was from the fashion stylist Harhall, who gave Mario and Luigi the piece after they colored fabric with design bombs. Another piece came from Boddle, after they got Neon Eggs for his Yoshi Theater sign. The bros were able to get neon eggs by feeding the Yoshies Bean Fruit from deep underground. The last piece was back at Chucklehuck Woods. They had to play a game in the Winkle Colosseum and surpass the Winkles. But when they got to the area where the Beanstar piece had fallen, they found Popple there, and had already took it. They defeated the partner-less thief, and got all the pieces of the Beanstar back.

They returned to the castle, where Lima had brought another message from Bowletta. She now wanted them to bring the Beanstar to her at Joke's End. Prince Peasly gave them a Fake Beanstar to try and fool the villains, as well as the coins from the bet, which were really only 99 beanbean coins. Eventually, Mario and Luigi found a thin slot near the ocean. Seeing that there was no was to get to Joke's End by underwater, Mario decided to hammer Luigi into the slot, turning him into a surfboard.

He used Luigi to surf across the ocean all the way to Joke's End. Once there, they had to solve tricky puzzles, involving them having to split up for the most part. During their trials, the fairy-like girl named Jojora appeared from time to time, just toss how they were doing. Eventually, the brothers made it to Jojora's room at the top floor, where she was having a tea party. She requested that the brothers invite one of her friends over. Her, "friend" turned out to be a female snow puppet that attacked Mario and Luigi (with the help of Jojora). They her, and she melted, leaving Jojora to flee from the scene, and was never seen again. Finally, Mario and Luigi found Fawful, who was waiting for them to hand over the Beanstar. Luigi approached him, and gave him the fake one. But unlike most Mario enemies, Fawful was not fooled. He blasted Luigi and took the real Beanstar. Mario then comes up with a plan involving the extra dress Toadsworth gave them before they went to Joke's End. Bowletta (with Peach) was complementing Fawful for seeing through that ruse, but their rejoicing is interrupted when they see Mario with ANOTHER Peach. The other Peach says that the one they have is fake. Angered, Bowletta tosses the "fake" Peach overboard, and takes the "real" one back to the repaired Koopa Crusier.

Back at the Cruiser, Bowletta and Fawful are celebrating their success, but then Bowletta wonders why Peach is covering her mouth. She decides to scare her, revealing that it's really Luigi. Fawful chases him around, followed by Bowletta, until Luigi hits a switch dropping a crate to block the twosome's way. With his Thunderhand powers, Luigi managed to escape the cruiser with the Beanstar. Upset at having a double failure, Bowletta decides for her and Fawful go to the Mushroom Kingdom for something...

Back at Teehee Valley, Mario, Peach, and Toadsworth are on the lookout for Luigi. They sent him crash-land into a sand pit, and sinks in. Mario manages to find him underground, but the end up fighting Popple again, with his new partner, Birdo. They beat them both, and head back to the Castle Town.

Unfortunately, the brothers find that the town is under fire...again! It appears that Bowletta is using Bowser's Castle to attack the town. At the castle, Queen Bean explains this, and Mario and Luigi decide to help out. Lima suggests that since the castle is in the sky, they should try and find something to help them fly up there. The brothers head back to Hoohoo Village to ask for Blablanadon's help. He accepts, and takes them up to Bowser's Castle.

There, Mario and Luigi uses every technique that they have learned to get pass all the puzzles, enemies, the dreaded Koopalings, and even a new-and-improved Fawful, until they finally made it to Bowletta. They fought her, and supposedly won, until a countdown Bob-omb came and took out almost all the entire HP the brothers had. Apparently, Bowletta was only faking her defeat, and then decided to do Mario and Luigi in by eaten them alive. It looked like Cackletta had totally new renovations, in the insides of Bowser looked like the outside of a castle with a storm raging in the background. The Mario Bros. ended up fighting Cackletta again, in her spirit form. It was long, it was hard, but Mario and Luigi managed to defeat Cackletta once and for all. She spewed out of Bowser's body, and vanished, never to be seen again. Bowser also returned to normal, unconscious on the floor. Pealsy then came to address the brothers, saying that he has planted a detonator in the castle, and will explode shortly. The brothers managed to escape the castle via Blablanadon. Bowser crashes into Oho Ocean and was rescued by Prince Peasly.

Later on, while everyone was saying their goodbyes, Peasly dropped by with a huge present for the brothers. And so, the heroes went back to the Mushroom Kingdom via Peach's airplane. As Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toadsworth were laughing about the adventure, they flew over the ocean as the sun set, and got to the Mushroom Kingdom at night. Peasley's present turned out to be Bowser, who was dropped off at his other castle during the credits. The plane then landed in Peach's castle, and fireworks erupted. Then, it is shown that a movie of the adventure was shown in Yoshi Theater, when the screen zooms out to show the Yoshis sitting in the theater and applauding.

Battle Techniques
Mario and Luigi both have techniques that they can use in battle in the game. Note that all of these techniques listed below must be learned by progressing through the game except for Mario and Luigi's Jump.

Solo Techniques

 * Mario's Solo Techniques
 * Jump - Mario uses his famous jump to squash enemies.
 * Hammer - Mario can use his hammer to hit enemies.
 * Fire - Mario can use his Firebrand ability to burn enemies.


 * Luigi's Solo Techniques
 * Jump - Luigi can use his jumping ability to crush enemies.
 * Hammer - Luigi can use his hammer to hit enemies.
 * Thunder - Luigi can use his Thunderhand ability to zap enemies.

Bros. Attacks
Bros. Attacks are attacks that Mario and Luigi can use in battle by working together to deliver more damage.


 * Mario's Bros. Attacks
 * Splash Bros.
 * Chopper Bros.
 * Fire Bros.
 * Swing Bros. (secret)


 * Luigi's Bros. Attacks
 * Bounce Bros.
 * Knockback Bros.
 * Thunder Bros.
 * Cyclone Bros. (secret)

Out-of-Battle Techniques
Mario and Luigi can also use some techniques out of battle. Once again, all of the following techniques must be learned by progressing in the game, except for jumping.

Techniques When in the Front

 * Mario and Luigi can both jump.
 * Mario and Luigi can both whack their hammers.
 * Mario can burn things up using his Firebrand ability.
 * Luigi can zap things using his Thunderhand ability.

Techniques When in the Back

 * Mario and Luigi can both jump.
 * Mario can do a "Spin Jump," by jumping on top of Luigi and spinning through the air. This is necessary for crossing large gaps.
 * Luigi can do a "High Jump," by jumping on top of Mario and bouncing up high. This is necessary for getting higher up.
 * Mario can hit Luigi with his hammer, knocking him into the ground. Luigi can move under fences using this technique; and if he comes up under suspicious spots of ground he'll get a bean.
 * Luigi can hit Mario with his hammer, squishing him tiny. Mario can move into small openings using this technique.
 * Mario can set Luigi on fire. Luigi will panic, and start running fast. This technique can use this to knock heavy things, such as Ankoopas blocking paths.
 * Luigi can electrocute Mario. Mario and Luigi will be joined together, and they can walk side-to-side. This can be used to move the mysterious Boo statues, which disappear when anyone looks directly at them.

Main Characters

 * Mario - An extremely well-known hero.
 * Luigi - The not-as-famous brother of Mario.
 * Cackletta - The main villain.
 * Fawful - Cackletta's helper.
 * Princess Peach - Needs rescuing.
 * Popple - Secondary villain.
 * Bowser/Rookie- Secondary villain.
 * Prince Peasley - Secondary hero.
 * Queen Bean - The Queen of the Beanbean Kingdom.

Locations
Mario and Luigi visit many locations in the game. Here is a list of them:
 * Mushroom Kingdom
 * Stardust Fields
 * Hoohoo Village
 * Hoohoo Mountain
 * Beanbean Castle Town
 * Beanbean Castle
 * Chucklehuck Woods
 * Woohoo Hooniversity
 * Teehee Valley
 * Little Fungitown
 * Oho Oasis
 * Oho Ocean
 * Oho Ocean Seabed
 * Gwarhar Lagoon
 * Yoshi Theater
 * Joke's End
 * Bowser's Castle

The game also has several secret caves which could only be visited by one brother at a time, which start a 2-dimensional, sidescrolling level, in the traditional platforming style. A rare item could be obtained from a Monty Mole if the cave is completed.

Bosses

 * Bowser
 * Fawful
 * Tolstar
 * Hoohooros
 * Dragohoho
 * Queen Bean
 * Popple & Rookie/Bowser
 * Wiggler
 * Chuckolator
 * Cackletta
 * Popple & Rookie/Bowser
 * Mom Piranha
 * Trunkle
 * Hermie III
 * Popple
 * Piranha Bean
 * Jojora and her Friend
 * Popple & Birdo
 * The Koopalings
 * Fawful
 * Bowletta
 * Cackletta's Soul

Enemies

 * Goomba
 * Fighter Fly
 * Bill Blaster
 * Beanie
 * Dry Bones
 * Rex
 * Sharpea
 * Sworm
 * Tanoomba
 * Troopea
 * Paratroopea
 * Bob-omb
 * Parabeanie
 * Lakipea
 * Spiny
 * Super Fly
 * Pestnut
 * Gold Beanie
 * Chuck Guy
 * Fuzzbush
 * Laser Snifit
 * Virus
 * Yo Bro
 * Eeker
 * Mecha-Chomp
 * Oho Jee
 * Goomdiver
 * Blooper
 * Piranha Plant
 * Gritty Goomba
 * Spiky Snifit
 * Limbo Bro
 * Oucher Glass
 * Mecha-Blooper
 * Starkiss
 * Cheep-Cheep
 * Puffer Cheep
 * Malibut
 * Elite Troopea
 * Boomerang Bro.
 * ????
 * Ice Snifit
 * Glurp
 * Clumph
 * Scaratroopea
 * Anuboo
 * Boo
 * Chomp Bro
 * Magikoopa
 * Gunner Guy
 * Sniper Bill
 * Hammer Bro.

Items

 * Mushroom - Heals 25 HP
 * Super Mushroom - Heals 50 HP
 * Ultra Mushroom - Heals 120 HP
 * Max Mushroom - Heals All HP
 * Nuts - Heals 20 HP for both characters
 * Super Nuts - Heals 40 HP for both characters
 * Ultra Nuts - Heals 100 HP for both characters
 * Max Nuts - Heals ALL HP for both characters
 * Syrup - Recovers 20 BP
 * Super Syrup - Recovers 40 BP
 * Ultra Syrup - Recovers 100 BP
 * Max Syrup - Recovers All BP
 * Golden Mushroom - Recovers ALL HP and BP
 * Refreshing Herb - Cures status ailments
 * 1-Up Mushroom - Recovers half of the character's HP when defeated
 * 1-Up Super - Recovers all of the character's HP when defeated
 * Red Pepper - Boosts POW and makes the character heavier
 * Green Pepper - Boosts DEF and makes the character lighter

References in later games

 * Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door- Admiral Bobbery's final request was to have Chuckola Cola.
 * Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time- Prince Peasley appears on a poster about beans in the Castle's item shop.
 * Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story- Fawful returns as the Main Villain.

Trivia

 * This is Mario and Luigi's first adventure together since Super Mario World; there was a twelve year gap between the two games' release dates.
 * In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Mario whistled the Super Mario Bros. theme while showering in the Marrymore Suite. Similarly, Mario is briefly seen humming the theme while showering in the opening to this game.
 * Captain Olimar, Samus Aran, Fox McCloud, Wario and an Excitebike Racer were due to make appearances, but they were all replaced by Professor Elvin Gadd.
 * A company, named WIN-tendo is mentioned during the course of the game, in the instructions to a mini-game. Due to the word play on Nintendo, it's assumed that WIN-tendo makes games.
 * The theme when fighting Cackletta in Woohoo Hooniversity is a remix of the Koopa Baddies Arrive (theme which is also known as the Danger theme) and Cackletta Theme (the theme that plays when Cackletta is present).
 * The Koopalings appear in the game as bosses, after a long time of absence. Curiously, none of them had any dialogue. Also, they appeared in the same order as Mario faced them in Super Mario World.
 * Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga is one of the few Game Boy Advance game to make use of the rumble effect when played on the Nintendo GameCube's GBA player.
 * Mario and Luigi's M and L emblems on their hats are both black instead of red and green. Their eyes are also black and make them cartoonish. This also was used in the sequels, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
 * Like the original Paper Mario, this game doesn't have "endless" play, in which the player can return to playing the game after they've beaten the final boss. Instead, the game returns to the last save point the player made after defeating Cackletta's Ghost if the file is selected.
 * This is the only game in the Mario and Luigi series where the tutorial music can be played in some early battles.