This review has been a long time coming, mostly due to procrastination on my end. I had been struggling with the decision to include Gameboy Advance titles on the site for a while, mostly because I didn’t want to admit the GBA was already a retro system. I still have my Gameboy SP sitting on the shelf next to my DS and 3DS. I even still play on it occasionally. But I can’t deny the facts anymore. The system came out back on March 21st, 2001. As of this writing, the system is already 17 years old, sporting graphics comparable to the Super Nintendo. It is a Retro System, and it belongs on my site. That’s not a bad thing though. It is a great system with a lot of great games on it just waiting to be played.
If we’re going to be welcoming the Gameboy Advance to the site, I felt it needed to be done right. I picked a game I had heard great things about but have personally never played, and that game is “Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga”. Following in the footsteps of the Super Nintendo Classic “Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars”, this game puts Mario and Company into a Roleplaying game setting as opposed to the traditional Platforming setting the Nintendo Mascot is usually associated with. While it may sound strange at first, it has proven to be a winning formula, still living on today with multiple games in the “Mario & Luigi” Series as well as the ongoing “Paper Mario” Series. I have previously played Super Mario RPG and found it to be a great game, which gives me high hopes for this spiritual successor. So let’s dive in and see what this game, and the system in general, have to offer us!
Table of Contents
- Part 01 – Intro
- Part 02 – Stardust Fields
- Part 03 – Hoohoo Village and Hoohoo Mountain
- Part 04 – Beanbean Outskirts and Beanbean Castle
- Part 05 – The Chucklehuck Woods
- Part 06 – Beanbean Castle Town
- Part 07 – Woohoo Hooniversity
- Part 08 – Oho Oasis
- Part 09 – Oho Ocean
- Part 10 – Return to the Kingdom
- Part 11 – Beanbean Airport
- Part 12 – Teehee Valley
- Part 13 – Little Fungitown
- Part 14 – Guffawha Ruins
- Part 15 – S.S. Chuckola
- Part 16 – Gwarhar Lagoon
- Part 17 – Return to the Chucklehuck Woods
- Part 18 – The Yoshi Theater & The Fashion Genius
- Part 19 – Joke’s End
- Part 20 – Once More Around
- Part 21 – Bowser’s Castle
- Part 22 – The Final Battle
- Part 23 – The Verdict
Gameplay
-The Adventure Begins-
The game opens at Peach’s Castle where, in a rare event, Princess Peach is actually performing part of her royal duties. Today, Peach is meeting with a goodwill ambassador from the neighboring Beanbean Kingdom. Queen Bean was even so kind as to send a gift for our Princess Peach.
Unfortunately, the whole thing was a trap. As soon as Princess Peach opens the gift box, a weird contraption pops out and sprays an ominous green smoke onto our princess. It turns out these two aren’t goodwill ambassadors at all. They are in fact the Evil Witch Cackletta and her Loyal Minion Fawful. What terrible thing have they done to poor Princess Peach?
As the useless Toad Guards flee the room, leaving Peach completely defenseless, Fawful dons a new contraption on his head to vacuum up all the green smoke. Peach collapses to the ground while the pair laugh maniacally. Curiously, the two fly off out of the castle shortly after, leaving the princess behind. Was this not the usually kidnapping setup? They couldn’t possibly have straight up killed her could they? That would be just too dark for any Mario game.
Meanwhile, at the home of the Mario Brothers, Luigi is outside hanging laundry, unaware of what is going on elsewhere in the kingdom. That is, until a Toad shows up shouting about an Emergency Situation at the Castle. Apparently the Kingdom Courier was already sent out for the brothers but for some reason never made it. Hearing this, the Toad runs inside the house looking for Mario.
Once inside, the Toad searches all throughout the small home looking for Mario. It doesn’t take long before he hears our hero humming to himself in a back room. The Toad rushes inside to deliver his urgent message, but something in that room gave him quite the shock as he lets out a massive “Eeeeeeek!!!”
The Toad quickly runs from the room, face red and disoriented, and promptly knocks himself out by accidentally running into a dresser around the corner. Our Hero Mario emerges from the room shortly after wearing nothing but a towel. Apparently Mario was showering at the time which is what startled the Toad so much. I dare not imagine the sight that poor Toad walked in on. After knocking the Toad around a little to wake him up, he finally manages to get enough of his message out to Mario for our Hero to take action.
Knowing something terrible must have happened to his beloved Princess Peach, Mario wastes no time, rushing out the door still in just the towel. He quickly grabs the clothes that Luigi was hanging to dry and puts them on. A little too quickly perhaps and it would seem poor Luigi has become tangled with the clothes line and is being dragged behind Mario as he rushes off to the castle.
By the time the brothers arrive, Bowser has already shown up, no doubt looking to kidnap the Princess for himself in the confusion. Mario’s sudden stop at the sight of Bowser unfortunately caused Luigi to go flying headlong into Bowsers back, knocking the Koopa King over and enraging him.
This brings us into our first battle of the game. In typical RPG fashion, all of the actions are menu and turn based. You scroll through the menus to select your attack, then you select a target, and finally you perform the action. Once your attack is over, the enemy has their turn to attack. From there you go back and forth until someone dies. This should be very familiar to anyone that has played an RPG before.
However, this isn’t your typical RPG. In Super Star Saga, all of your attacks have “Action Commands.” What are Action Commands you might ask? Well, at specific parts of the attack animation you can press the action button again to do additional damage. It’s a small change to the formula, but it is a powerful change and one that really keeps you in the action rather than sitting back and watching the fight. Getting even a single extra point of damage can really change the flow of battle.
Not only that, but you can also dodge enemy attacks in the same way. Every enemy attack has a specific point in its animation that will allow you to dodge the attack entirely. The extra damage of Action Commands were nice, but this is actually a complete game changer. Your characters are no longer damage sponges that will just drink a healing potion after the battle. You now have to pay attention in battle and manually avoid the attacks. If you get good enough at the timing, it’s possible to play through the entire game without ever taking a single hit of damage this way. Not that I would ever be capable of that.
The battle continues for a few more rounds until Bowser has finally had enough and calls off the fight. Although, his antagonizing that he would have won had he not stopped no doubt would have started a new fight of its own. Thankfully one of the Toads chimes in to remind us that something terrible has happened to Princess Peach. It turns out what Cackletta stole was actually Princess Peach’s voice.
As if stealing her voice wasn’t bad enough, Cackletta somehow replaced her voice with an “Explosive Vocabulary”. That description, while literally accurate, might be a little confusing, so let me explain. Rather than speaking normal words, everything Peach says has been replaced with a weird font full of bombs and spiders and other odd shapes. Then a moment after she says it, the characters fall to the ground outside the speech bubble and literally explode. Hence the name “Explosive Vocabulary”.
We quickly find out that this is the reason Bowser hadn’t kidnapped her before the brothers arrived. Even if he did kidnap her, she would just end up destroying his castle. It would seem our heroes will have to travel outside of the Mushroom Kingdom to the neighboring Beanbean Kingdom if they want to return Peach’s voice. Bowser is actually quite enthusiastic about the idea and openly encouraging Mario for once, though for a selfish reason. He even goes so far as to offer to personally escort Mario to the Beanbean kingdom in his Koopa Cruiser.
The shock of Bowser and Mario actually working together must have really gotten to Peach, because she said something which became a rather large speech bubble of Explosive Vocabulary. Terrified of the impending doom, everyone quickly rushes for the exits. As the bombs hit the floor, the whole castle is filled with a massive explosion which shoots out all the windows and buckles the walls. I sure do hope Princess Peach survived all that…
Peach’s fate aside, we return our attention to Mario, now out in the castle courtyard. Finally we gain control over Mario and can begin the game proper. In true RPG fashion, you are free to wander around, explore the environment, and are encouraged to talk to everyone you can. Many of the people you talk to will offer you advice towards what you’re supposed to be doing. This Toad for example tells us that Bowser is waiting in his Koopa Cruiser towards the other exit. Since we’re towards the South side of the Courtyard at the moment, I’ll take that to mean Bowser is waiting for us up North.
Before we head off to the Koopa Cruiser, I think it would be best to explore the Courtyard a bit and get familiar with the quirks of this game. While the main mechanics are nothing all together unusual for an RPG, there are some things that are a bit unconventional. For one thing, Mario can actually Jump. For Mario that’s to be expected, but for an RPG that is an extreme rarity. Most RPGs I have even played had no need for a jump button. In fact most characters in RPGs would find themselves trapped behind even an ankle high barrier.
Other things we’ll have to keep in mind are the fact that Mario will actually have an item inventory as opposed to consuming every item on contact. This of course is common for an RPG, but not so much for a Mario game. Then we have a bit of a blend between the two worlds in regard to item boxes. Instead of the typical treasure chests you would find in many RPGs you will instead find various ?-Blocks scattered around the world filled with helpful items. So you’ll have to keep an eye out for them.
Being an RPG, we’ll also have to be aware of random side quests we can do. This Toad for example has lost his “Precious Belonging” and would be thrilled if we could help him find it. It’s early in the game, so this one isn’t too hard to finish, just keep searching around the ledge until you find it. But there are sure to be much more complicated quests going forward. Most of these quests you won’t really have to do, but usually you’ll get a nice reward for doing them. Plus you’re a Hero, you should be helping people in need anyway.
After thoroughly exploring the courtyard, it’s time to gather everyone together and head north to the Koopa Cruiser. Be sure to tell this lost Koopa Troopa where to go, we’re going to need everyone we can get if we’re heading over to the Beanbean Kingdom. Head north yourself and you’ll find Luigi waiting for you to tell you Bowser is waiting.
Just north of the Courtyard, we enter Toadtown Square and find arguably the most important feature to look out for in the game, the Save Point. This game is going to take a long time to complete, and you’re going to want to save as often as possible. Seriously, nothing is worse than dying in a random battle and losing hours of progress because you haven’t saved in forever. So keep an eye out for these Save Albums and use them every time you see them.
Now that we’ve saved, it’s time to head off to the Koopa Cruiser. But before we get there, we’re stopped in our tracks by Peach’s loyal steward Toadsworth. Toadsworth has gone to the trouble of preparing a Suitcase for us to use on our journey. This Suitcase will act as the backdrop for the menu screen, which I think is a nice touch. Instead of being a generic menu screen where all your items are just magically stored in the void, we can see that Mario is actually carrying all his items and outfits inside this suitcase. He also scrapes together 100 coins to help fund our journey to the Beanbean kingdom.
With Mario now well equipped for his adventure, it’s time to see him off. It would be nice to have Luigi join us, but apparently he’s planning to stay behind and protect the Mushroom Kingdom in Mario’s absence. So instead Luigi and Toadsworth are simply going to see Mario off as he heads to the Beanbean Kingdom.
Finally we arrive at the Koopa Cruiser to see a rather annoyed Bowser waiting for us. Bowser wanted to leave as soon as possible and we were just wandering around the Courtyard instead. Even if he is annoyed, he can’t help but boast about his new Koopa Cruiser. No doubt it was built with the intent of using it against Mario. How ironic that its maiden voyage would be to help Mario instead.
The Koopa Cruiser can’t leave without its crew however, and so Bowser calls for his Bowser Baddies. Unfortunately, no one shows up. The only ones here are the lone Koopa Troopa we gave directions to earlier, and Luigi, who only showed up to see Mario off. Not knowing this, Bowser begins to assume Luigi is here to join in the adventure. Luigi, the natural coward that he is however, has no such desire to venture off to the Beanbean Kingdom.
Seeing where this conversation is heading, Luigi attempts to escape the area. Unfortunately for him, it was at that same moment that the rest of the Bowser Baddies started entering the square, pushing him back towards the Koopa Cruiser. It looks like Luigi may actually be swept up in the crowd and forced to join the adventure against his will.
Everyone has boarded the Koopa Cruiser and it is time for us to depart for the Beanbean kingdom. Everyone that is except for one deserter. Who would dare desert the Bowser Baddies? Such an act cannot be tolerated and Bowser orders the crew to initiate cruiser pursuit to chase down this lone individual. No one defies King Koopa.
The Cruiser lists off with the power of its jet engine to hunt down this deserter. Of course, who else would try to escape the Bowser Baddies than someone who was never actually a member? I speak of course of Luigi. Somehow he managed to push his way through the crowd and is desperately trying to remain in the Mushroom Kingdom. Sadly, such a thing is no longer possible for the younger Mario Brother as the Koopa Cruiser extends a robotic arm to catch him and drag him on board.
Inside the Koopa Cruiser we see Luigi sulking, having been forcibly brought onto this adventure. Before long, Bowser’s voice can be heard over the loudspeaker trying to get the Brothers’ attention. Not only is Luigi forced to join the adventure, but Bowser continues to not remember his name, referring to him as “Green Guy” and later “Mr. Green Mario Brother Guy” instead. With the speed of the Cruiser, it’s not long before we arrive in the Beanbean Kingdom.
Now that Luigi has officially joined the adventure, we need to get used to the fact that there are two people in the party now. Moving around is easy enough, Luigi will simply walk behind Mario wherever he goes. However, you are capable to control the brothers independently. If you look at the top right corner, you’ll see the action icons listed for each of the brothers. Because of this, you can do things like make Luigi jump while Mario stands still. You even have the option to swap the brothers around so Luigi is leading the party. This is a relatively minor thing in the long run, but still something that will need to be kept in mind.
Because of this unique control scheme, there are certain aspects of the game that will be rather unconventional. For example, you will occasionally find “Bros. Blocks” instead of regular ?-Blocks. The difference between the two is that once you hit the block the first time, it will move sideways over the other brother who will then have to hit it as if playing a game of volleyball.
As we approach the Beanbean Kingdom boarder, a topic comes up that probably should have been thought about sooner, our passports. Even in the fictional world of the Mario Universe, you must have proper documentation if you plan to cross the border to a different country. Thankfully, there is a Koopa on board who is well versed in creating passports. The legality of these passports may be questionable, but at the moment we really don’t have time to worry about such things.
Mario is first to get his picture taken, and as we’re getting ready for our picture, the Koopa warns us to stand still and not press any buttons to hold a pose. Naturally this means we are absolutely going to be pressing every button we can and hope for a good pose in the end. That’s how we ended up with silly passport pictures like these. Now that we look at it, there’s something I find interesting about the passports. Despite everyone forgetting Luigi’s name, he is actually on the left side in the Suitcase menu. Since most people read left to right, the person on the left is usually the first one you notice and therefor typically given to the more important character. Not only that, but if you look, at level 1 Luigi is actually slightly stronger than his older brother, sporting 12hp compared to Mario’s 10hp.
Before we can make it up to the deck to meet up with Bowser, we are stopped again by another Koopa Troopa. This time, it’s to teach us how to fight as a pair. Back at the castle we were given the basic tutorial for how the flow of battle works. But now that Luigi is with us, we need to learn how to control him as well. Just like in the overworld, you control Mario and Luigi independently in battle. This means that all of Mario’s actions will be performed using the A Button while all of Luigi’s actions will use the B button. This includes both attacking and dodging, so I’m sure it’s going to take a little bit to get used to trying to dodge attacks.
In addition to the two person battle tutorial, we are also introduced to the concept of Counterattacks. We’ve already mentioned before that all of the attacks in this game can be avoided if you dodge them at the right time. However, now we know that if you time your dodge just right, you will actually counterattack the enemy. Done right, you will completely avoid damage while at the same time causing a small amount of damage back to the attacking enemy. Just be aware that not EVERY attack is capable of a counterattack. Bowser’s fire breath attack for example is an attack that you are not able to counter.
As we make our way to the deck, we end up getting dragged into several more battle. Right now there’s still simple battles with Goombas, but even simple battle still give you experience afterwards. Very quickly, we have gained enough experience for Mario to Level Up.
As with any RPG, increased level also comes with increased stats. You gain more Health Points (HP) so you can take more damage, and Bro Points (BP) which act as your magic later in the game. Power (Pow) to increase your attack damage, Defense (Def) so you don’t take as much damage, Speed so you get your turn sooner, and Mustache Power (Stache) for… um… actually, I never did figure out what your Stache power does. Anyway, what I really like about this game is what happens after your stat increases have been added to your current value. A Lakitu shows up and actually lets you select a stat you wish to add a bonus to and further increase. After making your selection, a slot wheel will spin and you have a chance to get between a +1 and +5 increase to your selected stat. I feel this adds a great deal of customization to your experience. Depending on your play style, you could focus your attention on raising your Power so you can just steamroll through your enemies. Or perhaps you’d rather raise up your defense so you can become a tank and absorb all the damage. Whatever your playstyle is, you can tweak the experience to your liking.
It looks like the tutorials aren’t quite done yet. Just a little further down the path we encounter a Koopa Troopa who is trying to round up a few Goombas. In exchange for our help, he is going to teach us about going into battle. Unlike many RPGs, Super Star Saga does not have “Random Encounters”. Instead, you can see the enemies on the field at all time. Touching them will start the battle, or if you like, you can avoid them and skip the battles entirely. However, the advice we are given by this Koopa Troopa is to stomp on the enemies to initiate battle. Done right, this will actually cause all the enemies to take a small amount of damage before the battle has even started. Sometimes the enemies will even start the battle stunned, giving you an even bigger advantage.
On the flip side, if you aren’t paying attention, and an enemy happens to touch whichever brother is in the back of the party, you will take damage instead. Not only that, but you will actually be knocked over at the beginning of battle, which makes it so you are unable to dodge any attacks until your turn comes around. Such a situation can quickly become devastating, especially at these low levels. Personally I find this to be slightly complicated to pull off, mostly because of the isometric view. Very often I found myself overshooting the jump with Mario and basically ramming Luigi straight into the enemy, starting the battle off at a disadvantage. But that’s just me and my poor coordination.
We’re almost to the Deck when our progress is stopped yet again. This time, it would appear someone has carelessly placed a bunch of cargo right in the middle of our path. We’ll have to clear out this mess first if we want to move forward. Thankfully, this is a rather simple problem to fix. Just north of the mess is an !-Block we can use to activate “Mr. Pinch”. “Mr. Pinch” being the nickname this particular Koopa Troopa has given to the overhead pinch crane. Don’t ask why.
Unfortunately, Mr. Pinch accidentally mistakes Luigi for a piece of cargo. It grabs him by his head and lifts him up into the air before anyone can really do anything to stop it. Poor Luigi, his day just keeps getting worse. He didn’t even want to come on this adventure in the first place.
Trying to make the best of a bad situation, the Koopa Troopa suggests Luigi could become the ship’s lookout. After a quick transition, we FINALLY make it to the deck and see that Luigi is indeed being used as a lookout. A random Koopa Troopa comes to report to Bowser that we are nearing the Beanbean Kingdom boarder. It is then that Luigi sees something in the distance so disturbing that his eyes literally pop out through the binoculars!
Out of nowhere, the Koopa Cruiser comes under attack as an explosion rocks the ship, freeing Luigi in the process. Before anyone can even guess what happened, Cackletta appears to taunt our heroes. Flying around on… what is that? …A rocket powered rocking chair? Between the chair and the face, there’s really no question here that Cackletta is psychotic and needs to be stopped. Even if she hadn’t stolen Peach’s voice.
Bowser ends up being the one to speak for the group, criticizing Cackletta for her misdeeds while at the same time praising how cool of a plan it is. Cackletta of course is unfazed by any of it, allowing it all to simply feed her ego as she gloats some more. Apparently stealing Peach’s voice is only the first part of her master plan, and she intends to head back to the Beanbean Kingdom as soon as possible to go onto the next step.
Naturally we don’t get a chance to fight Cackletta before she flies away, she is obviously intended to be a final boss. Instead she instructs Fawful to take care of us. At this point I would like to stop for a moment and talk about Fawful as a character. Fawful is obviously a second in command and therefore should be treated with caution. However, Fawful is such a gimmicky character that it’s hard to take him seriously. If you just look at his speech pattern above, you’ll see what I mean. He is intentionally written as a character with terrible translation from Japanese, as a nod to the bad translations seen in the NES era of gaming. On top of that, he insists on using metaphors that make no sense in any context. “Princess Peach’s sweet voice will soon be the bread that makes the sandwich of Cackletta’s Desires!” What does that even mean?
And it only gets worse from there. “Mustard of your doom!” should never be the witty remark you say before attacking someone. Again, what does that even mean? But here we are. Fawful has his awful monologue and then suddenly launches an attack at Bowser from his helmet contraption.
As Mario and Luigi check on Bowser’s condition, Fawful flies onto the deck and our battle with Fawful begins. Unfortunately, being in battle doesn’t stop Fawful from talking. Before each attack he still taunts our heroes by calling them “Fink-Rat!!!” Once again, what is he even talking about? I have never once heard the expression “Fink-Rat” in my entire life. I can barely even imagine what it means beyond the basic knowledge that it is some kind of insult.
Shortly into the battle, Bowser regains consciousness and actually offers us up some advice for defeating Fawful. According to Bowser, Fawful’s shouts of “Fink-Rat” are more than just random insults. The color of the text is actually a hint towards who he is planning to attack. If it’s red, he’s going to attack Mario. If it’s green, he’s going to attack Luigi. It’s a good early warning system so you can prepare to dodge the attacks.
Armed with this new knowledge, dodging all of Fawful’s attacks become much easier. You still have to pay attention to what’s going on though. Occasionally Fawful will attack both brothers one after the other, starting with the hinted to brother. So you still need to be ready to dodge with both of them.
A few rounds of battle go by, and eventually Fawful’s headgear breaks, dropping him to the deck with the rest of us. You would think this would make him easier to fight, since he can’t launch any more energy balls at us, but it does have the downside that now his attack pattern has changed. Instead of yelling an insult and shooting at one of the brothers, he now simply rushes one of them and tries to slam into them. Still, while the colored hints are gone, the attack itself remains very telegraphed, allowing plenty of time for you to react and dodge the attack, or even counterattack if you time it right.
It doesn’t take long before Fawful is defeated and the battle is won. However, it is a shallow victory on our part. Fawful is quick to call down yet another Headgear to fly around on before exclaiming “I have fury!” Whatever that is supposed to mean.
Fawful was instructed to stop us, and he still very much intends to do that. After a few more nonsensical taunts, Fawful lets loose with a massive barrage of energy attacks against the Koopa Cruiser. Faced with such a large scale attack, there isn’t a whole lot our heroes can do besides panic, and panic they do.
Just like that, the Koopa Cruiser is shot out of the sky with our heroes on it. Our focus quickly shifts to a yet unknown General Starshade who has noticed the explosion and is currently observing the aftermath through his binoculars. From his perspective, Mario and Luigi can be seen plummeting towards the ground at such speed that they resemble meteorites. We can only hope they land someplace soft, or this adventure might be over before it has even begun.
Despite the incredible height from which they fell, Luigi manages to stand up from the crash relatively unharmed. Mario on the other hand was not so lucky, having landed head first into the ground, embedding himself all the way up to his waist. Only his stubby little legs are left sticking up out of the ground. A sad end for our hero. Always the loyal brother, Luigi goes over to collect what remains of his older sibling.
By some miracle, Mario actually survives this impact. Much like Luigi, he seem to be mostly unfazed by the whole experience. The Koopa Troopas however don’t seem to be doing as well. They are also somehow alive, but they clearly aren’t going to be walking away from this any time soon. I do wish to commend them for their devotion to Bowser. Two out of the Three Koopas we find tell us to look for Bowser who has apparently landed on the opposite side of the boarder. The third Koopa even laments the fact that they had yet to pay off the Koopa Cruiser before its destruction.
Even with all of Fawful’s interference, we did manage to make it to the border between the Mushroom and Beanbean kingdoms. This particular border checkpoint happens to be stationed by two Hammer Brothers who, if you couldn’t tell from the décor, happen to be huge Mario Brothers fans.
I believe it’s because of that admiration that our border crossing isn’t going to be as easy as a simple stamp on the passport. According to the Hammer Brothers, in order for us to cross the border to the Beanbean kingdom, we must first “…do some jumping worthy of the Mario name!” Maybe it’s just me, but that sounds awfully suspicious, and possibly an abuse of power. What if someone who isn’t Mario wants to cross the border? Do they also have to do jumping worthy of Mario?
Again, according to the Hammer Brothers, we must “…jump to avoid touching the Royal Border Line!” if we wish to cross over to the Beanbean Kingdom. The Royal Border Line being nothing more than a simple jump rope. The Hammer Brothers will rush around the room and you have to make Mario and Luigi jump in time to avoid touching the rope.
They aren’t content to just run side to side however. The Hammer Brothers will be twisting and curling that rope like a snake the whole time. Sometimes they’ll rush around to the other side of the room to catch you off guard. Other times only one of the brothers will move, twirling the rope around you. They even go as far as to fake you out and try to hit you as you land from your jump. It’s a somewhat tricky, but at the same time it is a fantastic way to quickly get you used to controlling the two brothers at the same time.
If you manage to make it through the whole challenge without either brother touching the jump rope Royal Border Line 3 times, then the Hammer Brothers will grant you entry to the Beanbean Kingdom. Much like our interactions with Bowser, it’s a weird feeling to have our former enemies wish us well, but there you have it. At the same time, how bad are the enemies going to be in the Beanbean kingdom if the Hammer Brothers are warning the Mario Brothers to be careful?
We don’t make it far past the border station before one of the Hammer Brothers comes and stops us. Apparently we are the first two people to EVER manage to cross the border since the Hammer Brothers have been on duty. So I guess that answers my question from earlier, yes other people are also expected to jump worthy of Mario, and no they did not succeed. Anyway, to commemorate the occasion, the Hammer Brother gifts us a map of the Beanbean Kingdom.
Before we head off, I would like to point out that the Royal Border Jump is actually the first of several Mini Games scattered throughout the main game. If you return to the border, the Hammer Brothers will let you try a more challenging version of the Border Jump. If you succeed again, you will be rewarded with “Hee Beans”. What are Hee Beans? I have no idea. But I’m sure they will be important later on, so I’m happy to have them.
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