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PartridgeSenpai
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The Mario & Luigi Series

by PartridgeSenpai Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:29 am

Having just finished Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, I have now completed all five of the Mario & Luigi games. With that perspective, I started to ponder why the series has seen only remakes since 2015 (with the most recent remake of Inside Story for the 3DS feeling like one of the more redundant remakes in recent memory on any platform). I came to the conclusion that it's because the series has, more or less, been stuck in '03 for its entire existence.

The M&L games that have sold the best haven't been the best (imo), but they've had strong gimmicks. Inside Story had Bowser as a playable character. Dream Team was an early 3DS game when there wasn't much on the system (and it was also the first M&L game on 3DS). The first game is certainly the best, but on a mechanical level it isn't THAT much better. The writing quality varies a little from game to game, but they all have the same focus on combo-moves, lots of combat in between islands of text (aka rough pacing), they all have the same style of pretty animations and quite good music.

Say someone like Maru, who has very little time for games these days, was wanting to try the series, I could really only recommend the first one, because if you've played one, you've basically played them all.

Looking at all the Mario & Luigi games side-by-side, I'm honestly kinda happy that Paper Mario started trying such bold new directions. If Super Paper Mario had been another game with the combat style of the first two, I think people largely would not have cared about it.
The Paper Mario games aren't perfect mechanically, and all of them can get outright boring at times, but at very least each game does its best to stand out from the others.

I'm not trying to say that any of the M&L games are bad. None of them are anything close to bad. I'm saying they're all such a similar kind of good (from their mechanics to their writing) and have been that way for so long that I understand why people started getting tired of them.

I was curious on how the rest of y'all think about the series and on this matter in particular for why it kinda quietly faded away from the spotlight in recent years.

-----

While I'm here, I may as well drop my ranking of the series:

Superstar Saga > Paper Jam > Partners in Time > Dream Team > Bowser's Inside Story
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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Ziggy587
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Re: The Mario & Luigi Series

by Ziggy587 Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:13 am

I haven't played through any of the Mario & Luigi games yet. I have one on the Wii U VC, the first one I think. I played a few hours of it but stopped. I'd really like to start that one over, and play more of the series!
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Limewater
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Re: The Mario & Luigi Series

by Limewater Tue Nov 30, 2021 3:27 pm

NECRO-BUMP!

I started Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga a few years ago. I was having fun with it and made it a few hours in, but had to give up because the primary gimmick was distinguishing between red and green, and I can't do that so well, so it became unplayable for me.

As a result, I haven't tried any of the others.
Systems: TI-99/4a, Commodore Vic-20, Atari 2600, NES, SMS, GB, Neo Geo MVS (Big Red 4-slot), Genesis, SNES, 3DO, PS1, N64, DC, PS2, GBA, GCN, NDSi, Wii
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Gucci
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Re: The Mario & Luigi Series

by Gucci Tue Nov 30, 2021 5:24 pm

RIP Alphadreams!!!

I played and beat the first and second in the series. I own the rest, including the remakes, but I haven’t played them yet.

I hear that Bower’s Inside Story is the best of the bunch.
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alienjesus
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Re: The Mario & Luigi Series

by alienjesus Tue Nov 30, 2021 5:27 pm

Gucci wrote:RIP Alphadreams!!!

I played and beat the first and second in the series. I own the rest, including the remakes, but I haven’t played them yet.

I hear that Bower’s Inside Story is the best of the bunch.


I prefer Superstar Saga, but they're both fun.
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