3.5/5 ★ – jkrgamer's review of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

A surprisingly difficult but immensely charming RPG. I haven't played the Mario&Luigi series apart from Bowser's Inside Story, which was excellent, so I owed it to myself to see where the series got its start. I'm happy to report that it still holds up in many ways: Gorgeous and expressive pixel art, fun action commands in combat, and some decent dungeon / overworld puzzles. By far the strongest aspect of this game is its humor and charm. I laughed out loud a number of times seeing the over-the-top weirdo characters. Mario and Luigi's interactions are also just the best. It's the first time we see them having a sweet and humorous relationship, and their animations are so expressive and hilarious. Some late-game difficulty spikes did hurt my enjoyment. The final boss took me 3+ hours, all told, but I suppose it's my fault for not wanting to look up anything, not wanting to grind, and not realizing I had equipped something that messed up the timing on the action commands. The final stretch of the game felt pretty brutal to me, and I kinda wanted it breezier since it's aimed at kids. Similarly, I prefer the combat of Paper Mario, where you really have to carefully consider what moves to use in the situation, instead of just using the highest-damage ones over and over, but that's a minor nitpick. Happy this franchise exists, and is still surviving! We all need more Mario RPGs in our lives.