GameXPlain's review is out
[Upcoming Game] Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (October 6th 2017)
- Thread starter TB100
- Start date
Also, some idiot in the YouTube comments is saying they should have changed the story to get rid of Bowser being possesed.
Makes me cringe. Why would you want a remake to change half the story? Just because the minority of people didn't like it?
Would you like us to also change the story to get rid of the Beanbean Kingdom and make the game simply take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, keeping only the dungeon layouts?
Makes me cringe. Why would you want a remake to change half the story? Just because the minority of people didn't like it?
Would you like us to also change the story to get rid of the Beanbean Kingdom and make the game simply take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, keeping only the dungeon layouts?
Shading and animating looks like it could have been a bitch nevermind the fact that the overworld tilesets and backgrounds are completely 2D hand-drawn unlike PJ’s and DT’s enviroments.
Still very possible it was a rush job either way IMO.
.....were they scared of Bowletta's tits or something?
just not liking that part of the story as its concept
I've been playing it for a while now. It's not THAT challenging yet. ^^
No, I didn't!
Well, the game is balanced with you fighting every enemy and getting Egadd's items as soon as possible.
But I remember there being 3 difficulty levels of that hack. Is that no longer the case?
Got the game today, been playing for about two hours so far and I think I already have a good grasp on what my thoughts on the remake portion will be in full by the end of it, I will write an impressions post when I'm done and do another one for the Minion's Quest mode, which I won't start until I beat the main game, just to give some hands on thoughts.
That's a bit of a lofty expectation, isn't it?
Sounds interesting! You should also consider writing up your thoughts over on Gaming Reinvented too, we'd love to see an article about this game in some form!
Well how am I supposed to get them if all I get from bean spots IS FRICKIN WOO BEANS!?!? WHERE MY CHUCKLES AT!?
Quick question: I just did the Popple + Birdo battle in the remake and an odd thing happened, he got to steal Mario's hammer, due to me not being used to one of his tells in the remake and things went on as expected. However after I did enough damage I was able to beat the hammer out of him, which resulted into an A button mashing tug of war with the hammer, between Mario and Popple, which allowed me to get the hammer back.
It's been a very long time since I let him steal anything the GBA original, so am I just forgetting something or is it really a new thing? Because I don't recall that being in the original at all.
It's been a very long time since I let him steal anything the GBA original, so am I just forgetting something or is it really a new thing? Because I don't recall that being in the original at all.
Welp, I'm done with the remake portion and while I do admit to being a bit of an easy to please twat in comparison to the more critical members here, I still figured I'd give some impressions :
Story
The story itself is unchanged as expected, with that said there are some minor changes to some of the cutscenes, like a brief added bit of dialogue when meeting Popple and Bowser at the end of the Woohoo Hooniversity, none of it is intrusive though.
Visuals
Right of the bat I'll say that it's a nice change of pace to have a (almost) fully sprite based Mario & Luigi game again and while I do think that most of it looks great there are some factors where I have both good and bad things to say :
+ For the most part most character/enemy designs have remained faithful and they do nail a good amount of the expressions.
- Which makes instances where that's not the case all the more glaring, Little Fungitown being the biggest offender by a longshot.
+ The lighting looks better and less distracting when seen on an actual 3DS screen, in some places like Joke's End it even looks really nice.
- There are still times where it looks seriously out place, Beanbean Castle and how bizzarely dark it is being a good example.
+ The animation quality is still top notch, especially on Mario & Luigi, who do use a lot of their old SS animations, which makes the fact that it's still the Dream Team sprites again not as glaring as it was in Paper Jam.
- With that said it's still the third game to use a good number of the sprites, I like em', but it's about time that we get a completely fresh set.
Music
Very subjective, so there's no point to get too deep into it, I wil say that a lot of the remixes that I was initially iffy on are starting to grow on me, even if I still find the instrumentations questionable.
Gameplay
Overworld :
For the most part the same as it was in Superstar Saga, with one added good and bad thing each :
+ The added conveniences like extra warp pipes and the bridge between the two parts of Beanbean Castle Town (when the town is wrecked) not being broken this time around.
-The new handling of the Bros moves is not very intuitiv, being able to use the Touchscreen to quickly switch to a specific one is neat enough, but using the L and R triggers now forces you to scroll trough a single list of all of them in a row, not to mention the fact that Mario and Luigi now always use A and B respectively, regardless of position, which caused some muscle memory issues for me. It's all something I got used to, but it is a very questionable change and an attempt to fix something that was not even broken.
Battles :
I tend to hear that a number of people find the remake easier, I can partly agree with that, for instances Cackletta in her battle when cloning herself now has a stupidly easy tell on which one is the real one, so you don't even need to let her attack anymore, in order to find out which one is real, at the same time the battle with her spirit was a lot more difficult for me, then the original, since I find her arm swinging attack a lot harder to dodge this time around, so it kinda varies.
While most battles haven't changed too much there have been some additions, like the thing that I already metioned with Popple (if it is new, still haven't gotten an answer on that), Trunkle will shield the tree on his head once enough damage is done and the Koopalings even all have strongly revamped battles to make them more distinct from each other, which is an undeniable plus.
Most noticably there are the Bros attacks, to put it shortly, I found the new button timings to be just fine and easy to use and in the case of Fire Bros actually better then the original, since it doesn't take forever to pull off, this time around. Advanced Chopper and Knockback Bros saw some some nerfs, to make them less overpowered, Advanced Cyclone Bros is still killer though.
I didn't really say that much in the end, because while I may not agree with every decision that was made here (and most of those were already discussed) it's still Superstar Saga, I still had a great time, it was very faithful and it does make some improvements, but it won't replace the original for me, I love both versions for different reasons, but the remake could have been something a lot bigger, rather then the filler title that it clearly is, which is especially evident by the lack of a Battle Ring or any other new content outside of Minion's Quest.
Speaking of which that's the next thing in line, so I'll see what I think of that mode.
Story
The story itself is unchanged as expected, with that said there are some minor changes to some of the cutscenes, like a brief added bit of dialogue when meeting Popple and Bowser at the end of the Woohoo Hooniversity, none of it is intrusive though.
Visuals
Right of the bat I'll say that it's a nice change of pace to have a (almost) fully sprite based Mario & Luigi game again and while I do think that most of it looks great there are some factors where I have both good and bad things to say :
+ For the most part most character/enemy designs have remained faithful and they do nail a good amount of the expressions.
- Which makes instances where that's not the case all the more glaring, Little Fungitown being the biggest offender by a longshot.
+ The lighting looks better and less distracting when seen on an actual 3DS screen, in some places like Joke's End it even looks really nice.
- There are still times where it looks seriously out place, Beanbean Castle and how bizzarely dark it is being a good example.
+ The animation quality is still top notch, especially on Mario & Luigi, who do use a lot of their old SS animations, which makes the fact that it's still the Dream Team sprites again not as glaring as it was in Paper Jam.
- With that said it's still the third game to use a good number of the sprites, I like em', but it's about time that we get a completely fresh set.
Music
Very subjective, so there's no point to get too deep into it, I wil say that a lot of the remixes that I was initially iffy on are starting to grow on me, even if I still find the instrumentations questionable.
Gameplay
Overworld :
For the most part the same as it was in Superstar Saga, with one added good and bad thing each :
+ The added conveniences like extra warp pipes and the bridge between the two parts of Beanbean Castle Town (when the town is wrecked) not being broken this time around.
-The new handling of the Bros moves is not very intuitiv, being able to use the Touchscreen to quickly switch to a specific one is neat enough, but using the L and R triggers now forces you to scroll trough a single list of all of them in a row, not to mention the fact that Mario and Luigi now always use A and B respectively, regardless of position, which caused some muscle memory issues for me. It's all something I got used to, but it is a very questionable change and an attempt to fix something that was not even broken.
Battles :
I tend to hear that a number of people find the remake easier, I can partly agree with that, for instances Cackletta in her battle when cloning herself now has a stupidly easy tell on which one is the real one, so you don't even need to let her attack anymore, in order to find out which one is real, at the same time the battle with her spirit was a lot more difficult for me, then the original, since I find her arm swinging attack a lot harder to dodge this time around, so it kinda varies.
While most battles haven't changed too much there have been some additions, like the thing that I already metioned with Popple (if it is new, still haven't gotten an answer on that), Trunkle will shield the tree on his head once enough damage is done and the Koopalings even all have strongly revamped battles to make them more distinct from each other, which is an undeniable plus.
Most noticably there are the Bros attacks, to put it shortly, I found the new button timings to be just fine and easy to use and in the case of Fire Bros actually better then the original, since it doesn't take forever to pull off, this time around. Advanced Chopper and Knockback Bros saw some some nerfs, to make them less overpowered, Advanced Cyclone Bros is still killer though.
I didn't really say that much in the end, because while I may not agree with every decision that was made here (and most of those were already discussed) it's still Superstar Saga, I still had a great time, it was very faithful and it does make some improvements, but it won't replace the original for me, I love both versions for different reasons, but the remake could have been something a lot bigger, rather then the filler title that it clearly is, which is especially evident by the lack of a Battle Ring or any other new content outside of Minion's Quest.
Speaking of which that's the next thing in line, so I'll see what I think of that mode.
Guys, there's something I really want to know.
What happens if you press START during the Star Stache Smash minigame?
Do you still see the little drawings of the rules? Is the "Wintendo' logo still there?
Been trying to find out in a let's play, but everybody ignores the "press Start to view the rules" ans nobody tries that...
What happens if you press START during the Star Stache Smash minigame?
Do you still see the little drawings of the rules? Is the "Wintendo' logo still there?
Been trying to find out in a let's play, but everybody ignores the "press Start to view the rules" ans nobody tries that...
It's just a regular pause screen now, without the rules and the Wintendo logo is nowhere to be seen.
One thing they did add though is to let you exit the minigames whenever you please.
One thing they did add though is to let you exit the minigames whenever you please.
Something that has been bothering me a lot from an artistic standpoint:
Why the heck are they so obsessed with showing characters from a perfect 90° angle when they look to the side?
You end up with stuff like this:
Yes, this is technically how they would stand in real life, if they looked to the right, but it's a videogame, you can take artistic liberties.
On the GBA they always show characters at a bit of an angle, so you can see their face when they talk to you:
Why didn't they use this angle?
This is how they look in battle too. ->
There's a reason they never showed these guys from a 90° side angle in the GBA version, it's cuz they look like shit. Maybe when they're turning around or simply standing it would look fine, but not when they're talking to you.
Another example is Fawfy here.
Why does he talk to you like this...
...instead of like this, where you can see his face and his headgear much better?
These would look much better at an angle.
This is why all the Paper Mario sprites are at an angle. You mostly see them from the front but they are clearly still looking in a specific direction. Seeing them from the side at a 90° angle is not important. It's important to read their faces.
Why the heck are they so obsessed with showing characters from a perfect 90° angle when they look to the side?
You end up with stuff like this:
Yes, this is technically how they would stand in real life, if they looked to the right, but it's a videogame, you can take artistic liberties.
On the GBA they always show characters at a bit of an angle, so you can see their face when they talk to you:
Why didn't they use this angle?
There's a reason they never showed these guys from a 90° side angle in the GBA version, it's cuz they look like shit. Maybe when they're turning around or simply standing it would look fine, but not when they're talking to you.
Another example is Fawfy here.
Why does he talk to you like this...
...instead of like this, where you can see his face and his headgear much better?
These would look much better at an angle.
This is why all the Paper Mario sprites are at an angle. You mostly see them from the front but they are clearly still looking in a specific direction. Seeing them from the side at a 90° angle is not important. It's important to read their faces.
Another common theme is an unwillingness to make things look weird or ugly, even if that was the whole point of a sprite.
The whole point of these animations was to make them look devastated and like dead husks of themselves. Making them look less like that is missing the point.
But other things still look as ugly.
Like this beauty:
...who lost her glasses.
And this freak:
...with his grabby hands.
So if you have designs as freaky as these, why not be consistent with it?
The whole point of these animations was to make them look devastated and like dead husks of themselves. Making them look less like that is missing the point.
But other things still look as ugly.
Like this beauty:
And this freak:
So if you have designs as freaky as these, why not be consistent with it?
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