Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Well kudos on including the silly turn-based RPG Superstar Saga in the launch batch, this being one of my favorite games of all time. Also, one of the funniest games of all time. Co-created by Shigeru Miyamoto, but developed by then-relative newbies, AlphaDream, this RPG is hilarious from its opening moments, lampooning the Mario franchise in some of the most imaginative ways.

Uniquely for what would go on to be a series of games, here you control Mario and Luigi simultaneously, swapping over which is in the lead in order to perform all manner of combo abilities and attacks. Battles are turn-based, but as in the Paper Mario games, often require reflexes to time both attacking and defending between the pair of heroes. At least, if you want to hit enemies harder.

But as I say, more than anything else, this is a comedy. It’s astonishingly meta, with jokes based on bad translations of Japanese to English in games (“I HAVE FURY!”), and even stumbling behind-the-scenes to discover how Mario games’ blocks are constantly innovated upon. Oh, and there are constant digs at Luigi for not being as famous as his brother.

This Switch port is of the original GBA build, and not 2017’s DS remake, it’s worth noting. The pixel art doesn’t scale quite as well as The Minish Cap, but it’s still damned fine, and this ridiculously colorful game is carefully not over-bright, as you’ll tend to find the game in most other emulation.