History YMMV / MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: For the original release, the Koopalings get summoned to appear as bosses at the beginning of the final dungeon. If you happened to be unaware of who these characters were - which was very easy, as their last appearance in a non-remake game was nearly a decade ago in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' - then who they all are will likely be completely lost on you. (Note that this doesn't apply to the 3DS remake, which released long after their comeback in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' made them series regulars again.)

** ''Superstar Saga'' is highly beloved, so the remake caused some breakage. Many fans were disappointed by the design standardization, feeling that the game's EarlyInstallmentWeirdness with regards to character designs was one of its major charm points and that it feels soulless without them. They also dislike the removal of some unique [=NPCs=] and the [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG Geno]] cameo (not helped by this game coming out after several ''Mario'' [=RPGs=] where Nintendo didn't include any truly new characters), and it uses the still-contested graphical style of ''Dream Team'' and ''Paper Jam''. Other fans are just happy to see an RPG as unique as ''Superstar Saga'' getting attention during the DorkAge of ''Mario'' [=RPGs=], enjoying the updated graphics and seeing the redesigns and removals as a consequence of time passing or a way of tying it in with the rest of the series.

** The Gunner Guys in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. They only have one attack, but it comes in two varieties and it's hard to determine how it will attack you. And if they hit you, you will not only take a lot of damage, but the risk of getting immobilized too. The same dungeon also features Hammer Bros (which generally appear along Gunner Guys). Hard-to-dodge and very powerful attacks make them one of the most dangerous enemies in the game.

* EvilIsCool: Cackletta really knows how to be intimidating, especially in her spirit form. It helps that she was the first female main villain of the Mario series discounting Captain Syrup, predating the [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Shadow Queen]] by one year.
* FanPreferredCutContent: The Starbeans Café was intended to house a number of cameos from other Nintendo characters that ended up being replaced for unknown reasons. [[https://tcrf.net/Mario_%26_Luigi:_Superstar_Saga#Unused_Starbeans_Cameos Unused dialogue and sprites]] exist depicting [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], [[Franchise/StarFox Fox McCloud]], [[VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Olimar]], an ''VideoGame/{{Excite}}bike'' racer, and even VideoGame/{{Wario}} arriving to sample the drinks you made and give you exclusive gear in return. Ultimately, these were all removed in favor of just using Professor E. Gadd for each scene instead, which many consider a letdown compared to the crossovers and especially Wario, who fans have wanted to see in a Mario RPG for some time. The gear each character would've given is still handed out by E. Gadd, but most of it has been renamed to make the references to other franchises less obvious.

* BigLippedAligatorMoment: If you didn’t know about the Koopalings beforehand (which wasn’t hard, since they weren’t mentioned since the SNES many years earlier), their inclusion was very bizarre and they seemed to exist purely to add more bosses. Thankfully, this was subverted in the 3DS’ remake, as you generally needed to avoid Mario games as a whole to not know who the Koopalings are due to their resurgence.

* WhatAnIdiot: After Mario and Luigi put the Beanstar back together, they get a message from [[spoiler:Bowletta]], where they want Mario and Luigi to hand the Beanstar over to them at Joke's End in exchange for Princess Peach's freedom. After the message is done, Prince Peasley proposes to use a fake replica of the Beanstar to give to the baddies to trick them without giving up the real deal. Unfortunately, Fawful sees through the trick and knocks out Luigi when he shows the fake Beanstar, and steals the real one from him. The question here is, why bring the real Beanstar in the first place?

** The remake's soundtrack also has mixed opinions from the fanbase. Some see it as a way of Creator/YokoShimomura losing her touch, as some songs either downplay some of the instruments of the song (the final boss theme for example) or is simply just not as good as the original. Others, however, believe that the OST is better than the original due to the 3DS' superior sound chip and enjoy the different takes on the soundtrack.

** The music has also been the subject of derisive comments. A particular example would be the rendition of the final boss music, where the organ music seems to overpower the electric guitar.

* FanPreferredCutContent: The Starbeans Café was intended to house a number of cameos from other Nintendo characters that ended up being replaced for unknown reasons. [[https://tcrf.net/Mario_%26_Luigi:_Superstar_Saga#Unused_Starbeans_Cameos Unused dialogue and sprites]] exist depicting [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], [[Franchise/StarFox Fox McCloud]], [[VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Olimar]], an ''VideoGame/{{Excitebike}}'' racer, and even [[VideoGame/WarioWare Wario]] arriving to sample the drinks you made and give you exclusive gear in return. Ultimately, these were all removed in favor of just using Professor E. Gadd for each scene instead, which many consider a letdown compared to the crossovers and especially Wario, who fans have wanted to see in a Mario RPG for some time. The gear each character would've given is still handed out by E. Gadd, but most of it has been renamed to make the references to other franchises less obvious.

** Zig-zagged with Cackletta during the final boss fight: while it can be restarted without having to beat Bowletta again and having the boss's Speed reduced (so a reasonably leveled Bros. pair will have a chance to heal from the previous HPToOne attack before being hit again), she got a massive buff to HP and a lot more attacks than the GBA version, making her a MarathonBoss.

* EvilIsCool: Cackletta really knows how to be intimidating, especially in her soul form. It helps that she was the first female main villain of the Mario series discounting Captain Syrup, predating the [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Shadow Queen]] by one year.

** Zig-zagged with Cackletta's Soul: while it can be restarted without having to beat Bowletta again and having the boss's Speed reduced (so a reasonably leveled Bros. pair will have a chance to heal from the previous HPToOne attack before being hit again), she got a massive buff to HP and a lot more attacks than the GBA version, making her a MarathonBoss.

** The biggest reason Cackletta's Soul is such an annoying boss comes from her spinning arms attack, which she has a high chance of using at the start of the fight (when Mario and Luigi are down to one HP, making it an insta-kill attack in essence). Her other starting moves are a bit troublesome too, but dodging/countering those is far more intuitive to do at the very least. The spinning arms, however, are known to slow down or speed up with little warning, and in fact may even stunlock the brothers if the player doesn't react fast. It's to the point that this move never stops being a legitimate threat throughout the whole battle, even if the player manages to heal themselves.

* UncannyValley: An example from the 3DS remake; while all the other sprites in the game are two-dimensional, [[spoiler:Cackletta's Soul]] is instead three-dimensional, [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3dQJvlKJZuY/maxresdefault.jpg making her look rather off-putting]].

** Bowletta has been cited by many to be a hideous {{Gonk}}, an AnimalisticAbomination, or just plain...''weird'' looking, and it just gets worse as you think about it further. Bowser's once big, prominent snout is now just thin lips with no nostrils, and his eyes and horns are replaced accordingly with Cackletta's own. Perhaps the most freakish change is the plastron of his shell, now adjusted to resemble a pair of...[[GettingCrapPastTheRadar don't think about it too hard.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Cackletta destroying Beanbean Town. [[spoiler:Twice.]]

** Bowser [[HelpImStuck gets stuck]] in a Bullet Bill blaster and warns the Mario Bros. not to make any dieting jokes. [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Two games later]], Starlow decides to ignore that warning once Bowser gets stuck again, this time actually due to his weight.

** Teehee Valley saddles you with a EscortMission where you need to protect Princess Peach from being kidnapped by the local {{mooks}}, which which is unnecessarily annoying thanks to Peach's ArtificialStupidity. You then have a BossBattle against Trunkle, [[ThatOneBoss which can be fairly difficult if you don't know what you're doing]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Fawful, mainly for his hilarious dialogue and personality. His popularity earned him a small role in [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime the sequel]] and has even gotten him promoted to the Big Bad in [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory the third game]].
** Popple will be taking this status, too, see? He even made a reappearance in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam Dream Team]]'', albeit only for a bit part.

* GameBreaker: The Mush Badge, which increases the Brothers' power depending on how many mushrooms they have. If you try to buy 99 of each mushroom, no one will stop you. This also makes Great Force more usable. Great Force doubles the damage you deal while also doubling the damage you take; that second part doesn't matter so much because, with both Great Force and the Mush Badge, you can destroy almost every boss in ''one round''.

** The final battle involves [[spoiler:Bowletta inhaling Mario and Luigi]]. [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Sound familiar now?]]
** And [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion this isn't even the first time... and Bowser could chew Luigi to bits.]]

** The penultimate battle [[spoiler:against Fawful]] is a ShieldedCoreBoss. The final battle in ''Bowser's Inside Story'' is ''also'' a ShieldedCoreBoss, taken UpToEleven. [[spoiler:The Bros. have to attack the Dark Core above Dark Fawful's head, which they can't reach unless they take out his limbs, which they can't attack unless they take out his eyes. They can't even fight Dark Fawful at all until Bowser inhales him after making Dark Bowser spit him out]].
** In the intro, it is shown that Cackletta had replaced Princess Peach's [[spoiler:(or rather Birdo's)]] voice with explosive vocabulary. [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Now even her words are bombs.]]

* HoYay: Luigi is flattered by Prince Peasley. Also Birdo toward Popple, depending on what gender Birdo you think is.

* JerkassWoobie: Bowser, undeniably. He is continuously humiliated for most of it, and he doesn't even do anything that villainous. Yet the universe is out to make him suffer.

* MemeticMutation: I HAVE FURY!
** Fawful himself can be considered a FountainOfMemes.

* TheScrappy: Jojora, who has no reason to attack the Mario Bros. other than to serve as the boss of a [[ThatOneLevel really long and difficult dungeon]]. Her antics also serve to delay the exchange between Mario and Bowletta.

*** In the final stretches of this battle, Cackletta will start summoning colored energy orbs that teleport around the screen and then fly towards its respective colored brother. This move is an erratic mess that demands the player to pay attention to everywhere in the screen while simultaneously countering the energy orbs (while also keeping an eye for the ones that are just decoys). It's rather easy to lose control of one's defense like that as those things keep bombarding Mario and Luigi. The individual orbs themselves aren't that strong, but they are fast and wear health down quickly due to being so numerous.
* ThatOneBoss: Some bosses in the game can be rather frustrating.

** Whichever friend of Jojora that you pick, it'll end up as this trope. If nothing else for taking too long. Especially if she uses her kissing attack to eat HP from your face or you try attacking her whenever Jojora is on the battlefield.
** While [[spoiler:Cackletta's Spirit]] isn't quite one, the beginning of the battle is. Both Mario and Luigi have only one hit point, and she gets to go first, unleashing a barrage of attacks that the player knows nothing about. And losing--that is, getting hit even once--means you have to fight [[spoiler:Bowletta]] ''all over again''. The remake, thankfully, removes that part of the fight, letting you heal right away.
*** In the remake, despite giving you a chance to fully recover, she has some more attacks. First of all, her "time freeze" attack is part of her initial attacks (despite being one of her attacks if you dropped her health below half) and her attacks are more powerful. This may bite you back if you're using the Great Force and you have a hard time dodging her attacks.
** Ludwig Von Koopa in the remake. In the original game, he's fought very similarly to Iggy Koopa, but his fight is significantly changed in the remake. He charges up a giant orb and fires out smaller orbs, all which can be relatively tough to dodge. The smaller orbs deal a crapton of damage and the giant orb is instant death. Also, the battle is similar in the vein of Shrowser from the second game and Thunder Sass from the fourth game, where the entire battle must be won by counterattacking, nothing else. At least the game lets you start over right at the start of the battle.
** Wendy O. Koopa in the remake isn't much better than Ludwig. She's bearable at first, but upon taking enough damage she starts splitting into six and spinning at such a ridiculous speed that it's nigh impossible to follow the real Wendy. Couple that with the fact she's also a TimeLimitBoss, and the fight turns into a LuckBasedMission. The fact her ring attack is awkward to dodge and can inflict Heavy G status makes it all worse.

* ThatOneSidequest: At the beginning of the solo sequence in Joke's End, you can see an out of reach switch on Luigi's side of the fence that you need a barrel to reach. After the solo sequence ends, you won't find another barrel until right before the boss. You have to get Luigi into that barrel and slowly backtrack through almost the entire level so Mario can get on the barrel and hit the switch. As a result of the barrel mechanics, getting into any battle will result in the barrel breaking and having to go back to where the barrel was. The reward is only Hoo Beans, of which the game practically gives you 15 of after finishing Joke's End and can be farmed in the surfing minigame; thus, barely anyone does this once they find out. This is only the case in the original, however; the remake, where it is required to get all of the blocks and music, makes it much easier to pull off. Funny enough, the original barrel still appears in the boss room, despite [[TheArtifact now being obsolete]].

* OneSceneWonder: The very popular [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG Geno]] makes a brief appearance as the host of a minigame in Little Fungitown. Some of his more dedicated fans have admitted to buying ''Superstar Saga'' once they heard of his brief appearance here. Unfortunately, his cameo is removed from the 3DS remake, likely due to Nintendo not wanting to pay royalties to Creator/SquareEnix again.

** The penultimate battle [[spoiler:against Fawful]] is a ShieldedCoreBoss. The final battle in ''Bowser's Inside Story'' is ''also'' a ShieldedCoreBoss, taken UpToEleven. [[spoiler: The Bros. have to attack the Dark Core above Dark Fawful's head, which they can't reach unless they take out his limbs, which they can't attack unless they take out his eyes. They can't even fight Dark Fawful at all until Bowser inhales him after making Dark Bowser spit him out]].

** Time for some muffins! [[labelnote:Explanation]]The track Fawful & Cackletta DX features a triangle ringing at around the 1:32 mark, which sounds incredibly similar to an oven dinging once it’s finished baking. Consequently, people have taken to joking that Cackletta had been baking deserts prior to fighting the heroes, usually muffins.[[/labelnote]]

** Many of the places that Cackletta involves herself with end up as this. The Mario Bros.' first visit to the Beanbean Castle Town. The houses and buildings are all wrecked and innocent civilians lie on the ground like they're on the verge of death. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I57xwMRQVOI The music makes it feel like you're walking in a graveyard.]] It gets worse, as [[spoiler: after having a nice town for a good portion of the game, it's reduced to this sorry state by Bowletta during the end of the game.]]

** Hermie III, a giant crab somewhat larger than the humans in this universe obsessed with a shiny artifact, can be reminiscent of [[Disney/{{Moana}} Tamatoa]].

* UncannyValley: An example from the 3DS remake; while all the other sprites in the game are two-dimensional, [[spoiler:Cackeletta's Soul]] is instead three-dimensional, [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3dQJvlKJZuY/maxresdefault.jpg making her look rather off-putting]].

* MostAnnoyingSound:
** Joke's End' uses a piece of background music that can turn into this because of how repetitive is. It's also the temple music from before.
** "OH! Help me!"
** The dreaded Hanna-Barbera "zing-out" whistle that plays whenever someone runs away during a comical moment. You're gonna be hearing that a lot throughout the whole game, mostly once during any cutscene. Thankfully they fixed this problem in the remake.
** In ''Bowser's Minions'', the Bros. saying "Let's-a go!" every time they initiate a Bros. Attack can get very irritating after a while.

* EarWorm: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr70dLy5yKg The main battle theme.]] Even the Bros. dance along with it.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjs_63wEOAM The remade version, as well.]]

** Clumphs. They've got ''massive'' HP and generally come in pairs, making for a very long fight. And they're no slouches in the power department either, as they sport one of the biggest non-boss attack stats in the game. They can be instantly defeated by Mario's Firebrand, but it's random and you got no experience by doing it. Even worse? They're [[ThatOneLevel Joke's End]] enemies, meaning you ''must'' battle them alone along with the other monsters in the zone. And if you're controlling [[StoneWall Luigi]] (who has the Thunderhand ability instead of Firebrand, meaning no instant defeat with him), prepare for a lot of pain.
** The Gunner Guys in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. They only have one attack, but it comes in two varieties and it's hard to determine how it will attack you. And if they hit you, you will not only take a lot of damage, but the risk of getting immobilized too. The same dungeon also features Hammer Bros (which generally appear along Gunner Guys, [[SarcasmMode for extra fun]]). Hard-to-dodge and very powerful attacks make them one of the most dangerous enemies in the game.

* GameBreaker: The Mush Badge, which increases the Brothers' power depending on how many mushrooms they have. Go ahead and buy 99 of each mushroom. No one will stop you. This also makes Great Force more usable. Great Force doubles the damage you deal while also doubling the damage you take; that second part doesn't matter so much because, with both Great Force and the Mush Badge, you can destroy almost every boss in ''one round''.

** Get the Advanced Thunder Bros. If you get it right, then it reduces the enemy's attack so that they only do 1 damage with each hit. And, it works on most bosses! It only hits one enemy, but since many of the bosses have only one section, that frequently doesn't matter.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Fawful's hilariously-broken English, a significant reason why he's the EnsembleDarkhorse, was a {{Woolseyism}} done for the American fanbase. As such, he has a massive fanbase among Americans.

** Troopeas, Elite Troopeas, Paratroopeas and Scaratroopeas. Why? Not only do they have very high defense, they can also heal or even ''resurrect'' other enemies in battle, including themselves, making them extremely annoying if you can't defeat them in one or two hits.

** Remember the entry about the Mushroom vs. Beanbean exchange rate? Now consider that ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' ends with [[spoiler:the Zeekeeper showering 80 million coins on Pi'illo Island, which would be used as a tourist attraction. Guess the big bird didn't really take inflation into account.]]

** In the intro, it is shown that Cackletta had replaced Princess Peach's [[spoiler:(or rather Birdo's)]] voice with explosive vocabulary. [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Now even her words are bombs!]]
** A giant crab somewhat larger than the humans in this universe obsessed with the shiny artifact? [[Disney/{{Moana}} Tamatoa Anyone?]]

** Joke's End's music. Yes, there's background music that can turn into this because of how repetitive is. It's also the temple music from before.

** Joke's End. It's the SlippySlideyIceWorld (minus FrictionlessIce) of the game. In contrast to the smiling faces littered all over the other areas, Joke's End has expressions of despair littered all over. ''Frozen.'' It wouldn't be so bad [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Atv7UWUK_A if this weren't the music]].

*** Somehow, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NndjamvUtrU the remade music is even creepier]]. It really drives the whole "joke graveyard" thing home...
** The original depiction of the monster in Guffawha Ruins. Not only is it shown breathing fire and [[EatenAlive eating a poor Toad alive]], it's rumored to [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath brutally murder its victims by breaking their bones, stripping their flesh and sucking their blood!]]
** Many of the places that Cackletta involves herself with? Yeah, they become this. The Mario Bros.' first visit to the Beanbean Castle Town. The houses and buildings are all wrecked and innocent civilians lie on the ground like they're on the verge of death. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I57xwMRQVOI The music makes it feel like you're walking in a graveyard.]] It gets worse, as [[spoiler:you end the game with the town in this state. Yeah, after having a nice town for a good portion of the game, it's reduced to this sorry state by Bowletta during the endgame.]]
** The [[YouNoTakeCandle Oho Jees]]. In particular, the research team that was studying them accidentally lit one on fire. End result? It attacked one of the scientists, and the scientist ''transformed'' into an Oho Jee. Oh, and the research team regards it as no big loss, saying that [[ForScience science marches on.]]

** Wendy O. Koopa in the remake isn't much better than Ludwig. She's bearable at first, but upon taking enough damage she starts splitting into six and spinning at such a ridiculous speed that it's nigh impossible to follow the real Wendy. Couple that with the fact she's also a TimeLimitBoss, and the fight turns into a LuckBasedMission. The fact her ring attack is awkward to dodge and can inflict Heavy G status is just icing on the cake.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Regardless of your [[BrokenBase feelings]] about the SpritePolygonMix used for the 3DS remake, but one thing's for sure is that the updated backgrounds, animations, and lighting make the game ''much'' more visually compelling.

* EvilIsCool: Cackletta really knows how to be intimidating, especially in her soul form. It helps that she was the first female main villain of the Mario series, predating the [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Shadow Queen]] by one year.