Topic: Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story: Head to Head (Minor Spoilers)

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It was bound to happen. I've reached the final boss of Bowser's Inside Story (and hence almost completed the game), which is the sequel to my favorite game of all time, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Is BIS just as good, and has it lived up to the hype reviews?

Superstar Saga vs. Bowser's Inside Story

The Battle System

Superstar Saga introduced the series' trademark battle system. Bowser's Inside Story merely copied it, both adding and taking away from its predecessor. Let's look at the differences:

1. The removal of the hand powers
Why were these removed? They added a welcome layer of complexity and strategy to some of the enemy fights. In BIS, you only have two basic attacks, jumping and hammering, and neither are really all that different (except than you can't hit flying enemies with the hammer - power-wise they're nearly identical).

2. The Special Attacks
BIS floods you with a huge choice of attacks, and you are often left wondering which attack you should use against an enemy. In SS, both Bros' had their own unique attacks, and you had a better feel of what they did and when you should use them. Also, you could learn variants of the attacks, something that was lacking in BIS.

3. The Enemies
First off, there are far less baddies in BIS than in SS. Besides that, they're not as fun to fight. The counter-attack strategies tend to repeat all too often among the enemies, and the designs themselves just aren't as unique or memorable as in SS. Also, BIS has Bowser as a playable character, which means lots of large enemies in the overworld and consequently means you'll have to fight them as M&L. It just doesn't feel like a Mario game when you're constantly fighting baddies three times your size.

And then, of course, there's the dual screen use in BIS. Mario's stupidly close to the top of the bottom screen, making it difficult to judge when to counter-attack fast-falling obstacles from the top screen.

A big deal about this game is that you get to fight as Bowser. Frankly, I was disappointed. It's not that it's bad, it just isn't as fun as I feel it could've been. Also, since you're only controlling one character, the level of intensity lowers. Alternating punching and ducking in some of the enemy attacks felt a bit clunky to me, and occasionally frustrating.

Overworld Exploration

Again, we run into the issue of Bowser being huge. Almost all of the areas in the overworld have huge, wide-open spaces, and wide, ugly ramps (Bowser can't jump). It's not really a problem when you're playing as Bowser (though some of the areas do look a bit ugly with the huge platforms and bare spots), but when you enter them as the Bros, there's far too much empty space. BIS does half-way solve this by adding areas that are only accessible by the bros, but there are still a good amount of areas that are just too huge and barren.

In SS, the areas look better proportioned and have more eye candy, since they're all designed for the Bros' themselves.

Inside Bowser

Here we approach BIS's main gimmick: M&L inside Bowser. I admit, it had a lot of potential, but it really didn't deliver. Nearly all of the areas inside Bowser look identical, the level designs are almost instantly forgettable, and the Bowser-Bros co-op puzzles (which I address further down) aren't as complex or awesome as they could've been.

SS had similar 2D platforming areas, which were highly reminiscent of SMB1, and I think were better designed.

The Overworld Areas

This was what really killed BIS for me. SS has a wide variety of locales, where BIS has only a few. I'll list them as well as my memory serves:

Superstar Saga:

• Mushroom Castle
• Bowser's Airship
• Stardust Fields
• Hoohoo Village
• Hoohoo Mountain
• Beanbean Kingdom Overworld
• Beanbean Castle
• The Castle Sewers
• Chucklehuck Woods
• Woohoo University
• Teehee Valley
• Little Fungi Town
• Guffawhaw Ruins
• Oho Oasis
• Gwarhar Lagoon
• The underwater area near Oho Oasis
• The SS Constitution Ship (can't remember if that's the correct name or not)
• The Joke's End
• Bowser's Castle

Bowser's Inside Story: (Feel free to add names to the areas - I can't remember them ATM)

• Mushroom Town
• The main overworld
• The forest
• Bubble Lake
• Bubble Bottom
• Plack Beach
• The cliffs at Plack Beach
• Bowser's Castle
• Peach's Castle

Basically, there's around twice as many areas in SS as in BIS, outside of Bowser. (There are a bunch of areas inside Bowser, but they all look pretty much the same, so I'm not counting them here.) While BIS has larger areas, they're not as pretty or unique as in SS.

The Puzzles

SS was littered with puzzles, some of them being rather complex (from what I remember - it's been a few years since I first played the game.) BIS never challenged my wits more than a few seconds. It just didn't take full advantage of the Bros-inside-Bowser mechanic. Bowser more-or-less acted as a live switch, turning on and off environmental changes at will. Cool idea, so-so execution.

The Controls

SS had a complex control system that BIS simplified for the better. After playing BIS for an extensive time, I found it hard getting back into the groove in SS.

The Stories

SS had a wacky, unique story that totally ventured away from the Mushroom Kingdom. The characters were well-developed and had unique personalities (Popple, Prince Peasely, Queen Bean, Cackletta, Fawful, etc.). Also, the story had quite a few plot twists throughout the game.

The entire plot of BIS is told at the VERY beginning of the story. There are a couple expected twists at the end which heavily derived from SS, which disappointed me. The characters aren't as memorable, less developed, and less unique. Also, I thought they ruined Fawful. He worked incredibly well as an evil sidekick, but as the main villain he was just not as... I don't know, funny? That's not the word I'm looking for, but I think you know what I mean. Basically, the story is heavily lacking in BIS, and nowhere near as robust in content and characters as SS. I will say that Bowser's dialog is incredibly awesome and snappy.

To sum up my thoughts on BIS: The inside-Bowser mechanic wasn't fully developed, the lack of areas in the overworld was highly disappointing, playing as Bowser wasn't as fun as the hype reviews made it out to be, the story was lacking, Fawful was pretty much ruined, the enemy design was poorly done and uninspired, and it just wasn't as fun or engrossing as Superstar Saga. This isn't to say that it's not a good game. On the contrary, I had a good deal of fun with it, but it pales in comparison with Superstar Saga, and I found it highly undeserving of the rave reviews.

Rant away.