I have fury! Let's play Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga!

BIS is the only one of the series I've played, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. So I guess people have wrong opinions!

Kala you have to update before this thread explodes into a which game was best debate.

Believe me, I'd like to! I've sent Talon the update (which accidentally sat in their junk mail for days, because I'm a hotmail-using doof), and I'm just waiting on their commentary.

Ooh, Kala's doing something else!

I loved SS. Never got around to playing the others.

Hooray! I'll definitely be following this one. I very recently replayed the game myself, and it's just as good as I remembered.
Going along with the debate, though: Of the 2 I've played, Superstar Saga is definitely the best. I didn't get Partners in Time (I will soon, though), mainly because I saw what the baby bros. were like in Mario Kart: Double Dash, and there they're the most annoying and useless characters.
As for Bowser's Inside Story, I did kinda enjoy the gameplay, but the story elements and some of the minigames just felt... preachy. It felt like I was playing some bizarre edutainment game trying to teach me about nutrition. Wasn't a huge fan of it.

what

You know, if Talon's not responding or something, I'd be fine with doing commentary for the first chapter if it means that the LP will actually start.

♪Mushroom Kingdom Hall♪

Welcome, one and all, to the majestic palace of the Mushroom Kingdom. Either there's some kind of celebration going on today, or these are just the princess' two o'clock fireworks. Honestly, it could be either.



...Assuming the fireworks were for this visit, is an ambassador really worth that sort of display? Or was that just Princess Peach showing off?

Yep, some random person Peach has never heard of gets a huge celebration. The hero that has saved the kingdom a dozen times over gets treated like nothing more than a simple plumber. How messed up is that?



Given that nobody's ever heard of your kingdom before, that might be a good idea. Otherwise who knows what might happen when the princess wants a little more land for her tennis courts.

Golf course, race track, battle arena, giant boardgames....*Rambles on*



Odds this is booby-trapped?

♪Alert!♪

Pretty darn high.



Woah, how did you do that to the walls? Also, the royal heralds are freakin' cowards for running away from a little lightning like that. Granted, it did happen indoors...

Hey, all the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom are made out of some sort of unidentified fungus. Something like this should've happened A LOT sooner.



The ambassador's henchman casts off their disguise as well, and summons this freaky-looking headgear... which just drops out of nowhere onto his head.



Something glows inside the headgear once it sucks up all the smoke, leaving Peach to slowly crumple and pass out while these goons enjoy some evil laughter.



The ambassador and their henchman fly off into the sky, which I could swear wasn't that colour when we started.

BAD TRIP! BAD TRIP! GAME OVER MAN GA- Oh okay, it’s just supposed to set the tone, gotcha...

♪World Map♪

Elsewhere, everyone's favourite second fiddle is doing laundry. At least he's out in the sunshine... rather than in his brother's shadow.



Even this Toad pays Luigi no respect, just shouting a few things at him and then barging straight past.

Hey, people better stop messing with Luigi! I mean, think about this. He’s got dark powers from living in Mario’s shadow (Negative World final smash), he’s been shown to have a dark heart that can easily be possessed by evil (Super Paper Mario), is a mechanical genius (as shown in Mario party and a few other games), and is an accomplished swordsman. Seriously the only thing he needs is force lightning and he’d be a Sith Lord!

Oh yeah, I hadn't thought about that Mario Party map.



Once the Toad heads inside the Mario Bros. house, I finally get control beyond just advancing text. There's a lot of little details here, like the Power Star rug and coloured bedspreads. No idea what that potted plant is though.



To get on with the intro, we have to look over here... Now, what do you suppose this Toad's about to do?



Yep, they're going to go look at Mario in the shower.



Exposure to overweight Italian plumbers in the nude traumatises them enough for the Toad to run face-first into that dresser. Can't say I entirely blame them, since mushroom people might not even have some of the same anatomy.

Yep, and this is why this particular Toad has an emotional collapse whenever it hears the words “Italian sausage” uttered. Though honestly... I can’t blame him.



Mario, you're supposed to be a hero. You don't have to beat information out of people, or expose that poor Toad to any more looks under your towel.

Did.....Did Mario just teabag a defenceless Toad? Okay granted I’d want to do something horrible to the little bastard that constantly told me the girl I was trying to find was in another castle after risking life and limb, but I don’t think I’d be giving him a look at my meatballs while doing it. ...Just saying....



For goodness' sake man, at least put some pants on first!



Wait, no, not like that...!



Ooh... That's gotta hurt.

I don’t know what happened in that dust clouds, and I really don’t want to know to be honest.

And that's really got to hurt! Also, wasn't Mario's hat inside? ...and no underwear on the clothes line?

Going commando! And dragging your brother behind....Tied up with rope....Not gonna touch that one. Not even with a twelve foot pole.

♪Peach's Misfortune♪

Back at the castle, also known as "The least safe spot Princess Peach can possibly be", we have another familiar face... or back, anyway.



Mario and Luigi come rushing in, but one doesn't quite stop in time... What are the chances that our spiky friend over there will just let that go?

You know, considering how hard Luigi must’ve hit Bowser to make them feel that, you’d expect him to be out cold for a second or two.



If you said 'none', you win a wonderful non-prize! Also, Luigi's still a coward.

♪Normal Battle♪

So... Yeah, welcome to our first battle, where we're already facing off against Bowser! There's only one option for now, so let's go with that.



Is it just me, or did that not look quite as... forceful as it should have?



Aw yeah, there we go. As the Toad will try and tell us, you can press A just before Mario lands on an enemy to do extra damage, a system which Paper Mario fans will feel pretty familiar with. The stars there show that I've done it right this time, as opposed to the puffs of smoke for failing.



The nice thing about this game is that good use of Action Commands on defence can completely neuter enemies, to the point where upgrading defensive equipment can be seriously skimped on.



Anyway, that Toad can just step right back, this tutorial stuff's my job.



Bowser's only attack here is extremely telegraphed, because he not only shakes as he gets ready to breath out, but he takes a moment to lean forward too. Again, just press A to make Mario jump.

The fight ends after a few rounds anyway, so you're in no danger of dying here.

♪Peach's Misfortune♪

Suuure you would have, Bowser.



...That's a new one. But why would you take someone's voice?

Better question... Why would you want Peach’s voice? It’s.... creepy....



Woah, what the-



Ooo-kay, that's definitely not good.



Peach has another few goes at talking, which everyone is wise enough to run away from this time.



Bowser knows how to run a koopa kingdom: delegation! He apparently also knows that good guys can be suckered into a whole lot of things, provided you're clever about it.



Mario is having none of it though.



It's just too bad he doesn't have any choice in the matter.

Bowser is awesome in this game, possibly because of how much of a colossal ham he is.

Oh indeed, when Bowser actually has dialogue besides roaring, his level of hamminess far exceeds that of even Robotnik. But still I’d love to see the two of them having some kind of talkshow. Bowser & Eggs! Made by villains! For villains!



At least he's offering to help out for once... He's not usually this friendly unless there's some kind of sporting competition involved.



Oh, snap... Everybody run!

Hey, look at the bright side! Princess Peach’s new understanding of ummm... Hieroglyphics...? Could prove to be extremely useful later on!



...The castle walls may need a new coat of paint.

♪Toadtown Square♪

One scene change later...



Loosely translated, time for more tutorials! Oh goody! We'll save those for next time, though.

And for my last bit of input for this session: When was Mario ever in shape? That, dear readers, is a question you must answer on your own. Gooodnight everybody!

Mario is always in shape. He just stays that fat just so he can laugh at physics harder.

I've always wondered what that thing is. I mean, she just flies up into the sky and into a... giant... face? Did the clouds just take that shape due to her magic? Though they look far too solid to be clouds.

Ah well.

I love Bowser's hamminess in any game where he has proper dialogue. Especially the RPGs, since they already have a lot of scathing self-parody. It's great.

Though, Bowser's battle sprite in this game always disturbed me. I mean, it looks like he has no shoulders here and his arms are just growing out of his neck.

Oops, I'm an idiot! I totally forgot the music links, which are in the first update now.

I think it's just a 'border' for the viewers to look at.

It looks like they exaggerated Bowser's hunched stance a bit too much. Try hunching over and lifting your shoulders until they're about level with your ears.

It's always weird seeing how squat and minor Bowser was prior to M&L3.

His sprite in M&L2 was the same size as in 3, I think, though it didn't have nearly as many frames of animation.

On the GBA though? Bowser's squat map sprite looks pretty hilarious.

While him being a large ham is fun, it's unfortunate that he's lost his Spiky status and turned into more or less a joke. Particularly bad in Mario Party 3 where the protagonists, once he finally catches up with them (after several "Bowser arrives too late" scenes) they just take advantage of a moment's distraction to run away.

Also, I already know what sprite mashup I'll do, when we get to a real introduction of a certain character.

Even if I haven't played the game.

He was pretty ferocious in the NSMB games...or at least the Wii one.

That's kind of the way it goes, I've noticed. If it's an RPG or a spin-off, Bowser tends to be kind of... derpy, in the "Fungah! Foiled again!" kind of way.

If it's a 'main series' Mario game then he does tend to be a bit more ferocious. An exception to this, of course, is Super Mario Sunshine.

"Mario! How DARE you ruin my family vacation!"

This isn't set in stone, of course, as he has moments of ferociousness in spin-offs and moments of herpaderp in main series games, but that's the way I've always seen it anyway.

He's even more wimpy in the Mario Party games, where he's actually UPSET because Mario & crew didn't invite him on their vacation.

...WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?!

Why wouldn't they? At this point they're all just one happy family.

Make sure to mention Geno when he comes up. It's a long way off, but still...

On that subject, since Square owns Geno, I can't help thinking he'd make a good bonus character for Dissidia 3.

Yes, if by happy you mean dysfunctional.