Mario & Luigi (series)

The Mario & Luigi Series is a trilogy of Role Playing Games released for Nintendo's handhelds, starting in 2003 with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance. Each title has Mario and Luigi team up for a meandering quest in which they must battle evil, all the while completing various and often banal side-quests. More playable characters were introduced in the latter two Mario & Luigi games. The series is renowned for its inventive plots and humorous dialogue, and is notable for maintaining continuity between the three installations (particularly the development of fan-favorite villain, Fawful).

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
The first game in the series was Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, released 2003 for the Game Boy Advance. In the game, two new villains, Cackletta and Fawful, steal Princess Peach's voice. Mario and Luigi, of course, jump into the action and travel to to the Beanbean Kingdom to stop them. It is later found out that Cackletta had stolen Peach's voice to awaken the Beanstar, a powerful star that can grant all wishes, such as letting Cackletta rule the world, that is only awakened by a pure voice. Princess Peach happened to be the one with the "Pure" voice. However, after a series of events, Cackletta and Fawful had really stolen Birdo's voice, which irritated the Beanstar and made it break into four pieces. Before Mari oand Luigi searched for the pieces, they took Peach to a safe place, in Little Fungitown. While in little Fungitown, Cackletta was revealed to become Bowletta, who was Bowser being possessed by Cackletta. Bowletta had captured Peach and told the Mario Bros. to collect all four pieces of the Beanstar, or never get the Princess back. As told, Mario and Luigi found both pieces and after more events, stole back Princess Peach without losing the Beanstar. Afterwords, Mario and Luigi defeated Bowletta and brought back peace to the Beanbean and Mushroom Kingdoms. Unlike previous Mario games, it took place in the neighboring Beanbean Kingdom. Superstar Saga was Mario and Luigi's first adventure together since Super Mario World twelve years previously.

Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time
A sequel to Superstar Saga was made for the Nintendo DS in 2005, called Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. This game centered on the Mushroom Kingdom of the past, during the invasion of an alien race known as the Shroobs. Unaware of the danger, Princess Peach uses a Time Machine build by Professor E. Gadd to travel into the past, where she was promptly captured by the alien leader, Princess Shroob. Teaming up with Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, the adult Mario bros. set off to defeat the Shroobs and save Peach, using Time Holes created by the malfunctioning Time Machine to travel back and forth through time. On their adventure, Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi collect all the pieces of the Cobalt Star Shards and get into Shroob Castle. The four heroes go through many obstacles and finally find Princess Peach and fight Princess Shroob.

Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
The third installment, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, was announced at Nintendo's Fall Press Conference on October 2nd, 2008. While Mario and Luigi are still playable, Bowser becomes the central protagonist in this game as he attempts to reclaim both the Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms from Fawful, who used an outbreak of a disease known as the Blorbs as an opportunity to launch his own evil plot for world domination. Bowser is aided by the Mario bros., who spend most of their time travelling around inside his body, having been inadvertently ingested by the Koopa King's new vacuum ability (bestowed upon him by Fawful as a part of his plan). Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story was released in Japan on the DS in February 2009, and will come to the US on September 14, 2009.

Super Smash Bros: Brawl
Artwork from the Mario & Luigi series appeared as stickers in Super Smash Bros Brawl: Cackletta, Luigi with Baby Luigi, Luigi, Mario with Luigi, Prince Peasley, a Shroob, Stuffwell, and Toadsworth. The absence of Fawful was surprising, considering his prominence in the series. However, one of the random names in Brawl is FWFUL, obviously referencing Fawful.

Similarities Between the Games

 * The Mario bros. have been inside someone's body in the three games (Bowletta's belly in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Yoob's belly in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Bowser's body in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story).
 * The three games have their own version of the Mushroom Kingdom enemies (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga have bean-related enemies, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time have Shroobified enemies and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story have Fawful-themed and organ-themed ennemies).
 * All three games have similarities between the boss fights, starting with the fact that Bowser is always the first boss.
 * During the initial Bowser fights, Mario learns the action command while Luigi is occupied with something else (watching in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, playing in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and sleeping in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story).
 * In all three games, Bowser or a similar being must be battled (Bowser, Rookie and Bowletta in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Baby Bowser, Bowser and Shrowser in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Bowser, Bowser X and Dark Bowser in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story).
 * All three games have at least one boss that only gives the player a limited number of turns to defeat before Game Over, the bosses are: Roy Koopa, Wendy O. Koopa, and Larry Koopa in Superstar Saga, three Shroobs in Hollijolli Village, and Elder Shrooboid in his larger form in Partners in Time, and Fawful Express in Bowser's Inside Story.
 * In all three games, there is at least one Wiggler boss.
 * The first two games have one character that is stuck and needs help, but as soon as they are rescued, something bad would happen and are not seen for the remainder of the game. In Superstar Saga, Bloat is stuck in a gap, and after he is rescued, the S.S. Chuckola starts to move out to the Oho Ocean, and sinks. In Partners in Time, the Hollijolli Mayor is stuck in a chimney, and after he is rescued, Shroob UFOs come and kidnap him.
 * All three games' storyline is about collecting the pieces of a Star or another magic item (the Beanstar in Superstar Saga, the Cobalt Star in Partners in Time and the Miracle Vaccine in Bowser's Inside Story).
 * The Final Bosses of all three games are defeated by eliminating parts of the bosses body to conceal a weak point: Cackletta's arms, legs, and head must be destroyed to make attacking her heart easier, the Elder Princess Shroob's tentacles must be destroyed to conceal her crown, which after being de-activated will drop the bosses defence, and finally, the Dark Fawful Bug needs it's arms, legs and glasses to be destroyed so the player can attack the Dark Star.

Trivia

 * This is the only Mario RPG series that is for handheld consoles.
 * In this series, Mario's "M" and Luigi's "L" are black, unlike their other appearances.