E3: Mario & Luigi 2 Impressions

Nintendo had announced in its pre-E3 press conference a sequel to the hit RPG Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga developed by AlphaDream for the Game Boy Advance.

The new game, titled Mario & Luigi 2 as of now, is a continuation of the gameplay and game design that made the original game such a smash hit. Nintendo had two DS systems set aside on the expo floor for this game, and there were three playable levels included, which suggest that the game is far along and perhaps will be ready for a release this year.

The story of this new game is not being revealed at the moment, except for the strange fact that Mario and Luigi have somehow traveled back to the past and have encountered their baby-selves. They must now combine their abilities to overcome the obstacles presented before them.

Each level demoed a different action that Mario and Luigi could use. If it was necessary, there was a control tutorial presented to the user at the beginning of each level which one could either use or not. After going through the tutorial once, there was no need to use it in the other levels.

Each of the levels had different objectives. The easy “Forest Level” had the player collect five stars hidden in tree trunks. To acquire these, you had to toss baby Mario and Luigi into the stumps and have them recover the stars. The end of this level had a more complex tree stump to navigate which would end with the path in another part of the map being cleared to reach the final star.

The second level took place in a Factory that was being used to suck life energy out of the toads imprisoned in the forest and convert it for use as UFO fuel. The object of this game was to defeat the boss monster at the end of the level. This level would make use of the Hammer ability from the original game, though this time around, only the babies were able to wield those weapons. The boss monster itself was quite tough and difficult to read, for it always had two lackeys at its side that would re-spawn if killed, and it would summon UFO’s that would rain down destruction from the above screen.

The last playable level took place on an Island in which your objective was to retrieve a Golden Yoshi Egg. Here, the spin move from the original game made a return where Mario and Luigi had to climb on top of each other and spin around to cross large gaps. Just before you found the egg, a face from the past appeared as Kamek the Magikoopa from the Yoshi’s Island series blocked your way and engaged in battle. This battle was also quite tough, but it wasn’t hard to figure out his moves unlike the previous boss. After you defeated him, you acquired the Golden Egg and the final level was finished.

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Graphically, Mario & Luigi 2 did not at first appear to be much of a step up from its GBA predecessor. No 3D effects were evident from what had been displayed and the environments looked only slightly more detailed than they did in Super Star Saga. Still, the animations did seem to be more fluid, and there were some neat effects thrown about, such as when you entered a battle and the screen would deform into a ball and bounce up.

As with most DS games on the show floor, it was pretty much impossible to hear any sounds emanating from the system. But what little we heard did sound like the tunes that were used in the original game.

Now for the controls, which have been changed somewhat from the original in order to fit with the addition of the babies. The A button is Mario’s action command; the B button is Luigi’s action. The X button is baby Mario’s action and the Y button is for baby Luigi. Unlike the first game where the R button was used to switch Mario & Luigi from front to back, now the button switches between babies and adults when the two are separated. It wasn’t apparent in the demo if either the babies or the adults could split up individually as well.

Concerning battles, Mario, Luigi and their baby-selves could participate in a group of four or a group of two. This affects gameplay in terms of the power of your attacks, as well as what special items could be used. Some special items require that all four characters be present while others only require two. The special item that I found the most useful was the Red Shell which could be kicked at enemies and then could be kicked again by the other brother. Also, because only the babies used hammers in the demo, they needed to be present in battle in order to use hammer attacks and defenses.

Unfortunately the control scheme started to feel awkward after some time when trying to remember which buttons corresponded to which character, this was made even worse during battles if one of the adults “died”, his place was taken by the baby version of himself, and then you had to remember to press his corresponding control button to command him in order to avoid attacks, which could get frustrating at tough battles.

Since the characters can only proceed through certain key spots if they are together, becoming separated over a long distance could become a problem. However, AlphaDream has provided a simple, effective shortcut in the form of a “Pipe Block” that instantly transports the other party to the current party’s present location via a warp pipe. Its a very handy addition to prevent tedious backtracking.

There is no firm release date on this title, but if you enjoyed the first game, then you should definitely be looking out for this next addition to the Mario RPG series. If AlphaDream can tweak the controls a bit to reduce confusion and maybe add some more graphical flair to the visuals, then this game should turn out great. Stay tuned for more information on this promising title as soon as it is released.