
Cast your mind back to 2003 (we know — yikes, right?) and you might recall a relatively brief commercial for the critically acclaimed RPG Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance.
The commercial featured footage of a pair of rambunctious kids dressed as our favourite brothers, doing their utmost to cause havoc and mayhem upon one another. [Er, I think you'll find this is archival footage of the young Mario bros. themselves. Some random kids dressed up as Mario and Luigi!? Tsk. - Ed]
Well, it seems that less than half of the filmed footage was used for the final commercial, with 27 seconds left on the cutting room floor. The good news, though, is that the whole lot is now available to view online, and while it doesn't exactly provide any insight into the game itself, it's nevertheless a fun little nugget of history.
Here's the footage, courtesy of Twitter users @Foulowe59 and @MarioBrothBlog:
And here's the original commercial from back in the day:
The game got a 3DS version — Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions — late in that system's life which sadly got a little lost as everyone and their dog moved over to Switch. If you've still got your 3DS, we definitely recommend picking the game up there while you still can!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 30
Superstar Saga is maybe my favourite GBA game, but boy am I scared to try out the 3DS version.
Garden gnome memes
I really miss that series. M&L Superstar Saga was my first Mario game ever
those kids? They're both Chris Pratt
This game is so cute, fun, and hilarious. I have it on both GBA and 3DS, and the original Nintendo published strategy guide. I will say that the commercial did not inspire me to want to play it. I really just want to see actual gameplay footage and nothing else when it comes to game advertising. 🤷🏻♀️
I wasn't aware that Mario was a ****, jesus. Poor Luigi.
Looking back on these makes me reminisce on when I first played M&L, being the Superstar Saga remake for 3DS. I thought the world was vibrant and overwhelmingly charming, the characters and dialogue were hilarious and the gameplay itself was very fun as well. There will always be a tinge of sadness with this series unfortunately though due to.... you know what. Which sucks because without that depressing story, this series will be remembered as 'the Mario series that did things differently' and, with how basic Mario can feel at times, that's a good title to have.
One of Nintendos best series yet it was left to die
Just shows Mario being a complete arse to Luigi.
But i did like these games, played them all a few years before the Switch came out. Then the 3DS remakes ruined them with Generic characters.
@Pokeman_noob Yes the famous series that are declared dead barely 2 years after the previous release. If that's dead, I wonder how you can call some Nintendo licences.
Little reminder that the original game is also on the Wii U Virtual Console as well as Partners in Time, but not the original Bowser's Inside Story.
This was tweeted over a week ago... Wait a minute. Don't tell me that you guys don't have Supper Mario Broth tweet notifications on?! Because that would be madness.
@Scarko how come? I loved the original and I have a sealed copy of the 3DS version which I want to get to at some point. Is there something wrong with it (genuine question)?
@HammerGalladeBro Yea Partners In Time is one of the few games I mean to pickup before the eshop is killed.
@mariomaster96 Mine too! I had seen some Mario cartoons on TV, had never played a Mario game, had never played an RPG, had no idea what I was getting into, and loved it to death! I thought it was like a cross between a game and a good book!
I’m always a fan of baby mustaches. My kids watch Saturday morning cartoons from the 80s and 90s with commercials on YT on... Saturday mornings, and there’s almost always a Nintendo ad or two. Last weekend it was a cool commercial for Metroid on Gameboy and Samus came out of the screen to hang with the kids playing Gameboy. She was just a fairly cheap looking prop though, and her head was wobbling back and forth like a bobble head. Good stuff.
@K1LLEGAL: I have a feeling that it's been dumbed down, compared to the original. Would be very glad to be proved wrong
@Scarko ah gotcha. Thanks for the response. I appreciate you don’t want to tarnish your memories of the original!
Almost a flawless game. I still have the box, directions and of course - cart.
I've gradually been working my way through this gem of a series. I've played Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (SS is very good, BM is so-so) and am currently working on Partners In Time on the DS. Really liking the latter so far, though I'm not as onboard with the baby mechanics and splitting up lol.
If you pay attention to the pool section of both versions, you will notice the used version has a different recorded scene of Mario bomb diving into the pool and Luigi backing away from the splash, but that recording is not present on the long unused version. Makes me wonder if perhaps there could be more unused footage from different recording takes that isn't present in that uncovered recording. How interesting.
Btw, just a quick reminder that Mario & Luigi are fraternal twins, so basically they are the same age and not years apart like shown in this commercial. Luigi is only the younger brother because he was born after Mario's birth.
I saw the thumbnail and about had a heart attack thinking the series was revived. And then I read the title. Great way to start the day, just great.
Uff that music.Thats what I call a fine tune to smash goombas.
It still begs the question. Where are the parents and their mustaches?
@Kamalen It was declared dead because Nintendo shut down the game's developer, after the last game somehow didn't manage to achieve what was surely some kind of over-ambitious sales goal.
Haha, what a fun advertisement for a truly wonderful game.
@KingMike Nintendo didn't shut down the studio (Alphadream was 3rd party), they declaredd bankruptcy due to growing debt, like they were millions of dollars in debtbefore the remakes.
And the BIS' remake was one of the worst selling Mario games of all time. On the realms where Virtual Boy games were comparable. The goal was likely to clear Alphadream's debts.
Superstar saga would have done a lot better if they at least made a Switch version. 3DS version exclusive made no sense for the timing
@Fizza the main series has also tried to do some things in different ways - not as much as RPGs have been able to do, but it's still one thing. but anyway, it would be great if the next 3d Mario came with even more creative ideas(as was the case with Bowser' Fury, with the almost ''open world'')
I miss this era of Nintendo ads...
This video entertainment is lacking Link's Awakening manner Switch remaking! I HAVE FURY!
@Dr_Lugae Poor sales aren't really a surprising. It was very late and I'll assume Nintendo probably printed it on the scale of Virtual Boy games too (actually make that less than VB games, I do remember SEEING those readily available in stores back in the day). Which doesn't help people like me who are like "if I'm going to pay physical price, I want a physical copy" Like I tried to buy both it and Yokai Watch 3 at GameStop and was only able to get a copy of the former (and probably their only copy).
(not as worried personally about YW3 since I have a JP copy sitting around, though I hear the EN version is based on the third version. I'll assume a JP copy of that would still be easier to find if I felt the need to pick one up for my other console.)
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