The Mushroom Kingdom has boundaries with the neighbouring BeanBean Kingdom, and for the first time ever, the ambassador is paying a visit to meet with Princess Peach. Except it isn't really the ambassador. The evil BeanBean witch Cackletta has disguised herself and in the midst of their meeting, steals Peach's voice and replaces it with explosives. Soon after Bowser turns up to the castle for his annual "Princess kidnap" ritual, but decides this time is not a good time to do it. At the same moment Mario and Luigi turn up to investigate this incident. As they did in Super Mario RPG, the brothers and Bowser team up to head into Beanbean Kingdom to find Cackletta and return Peach's voice.

Anyone who has played Paper Mario on the N64 will find this new game follows a very similar gameplay template with a few additions and changes. One button is always assigned to Mario's actions, and the other one to Luigi's actions, with the shoulder buttons cycling through the possible options. Exploration is done in real-time with familiar moves such as jumping and using hammers part and parcel of navigating the landscape. The brothers can also team up to jump higher or further if required and other special moves can be learned to open up new parts of Beanbean Kingdom.

Upon entering combat, the action becomes turn-based with the player choosing an attacking or defensive option for each brother. The brothers can also team-up to produce a higher-powered attack against one particular enemy. With skilful timings of each brother's action button, attacks can be made more powerful, and enemies' attacks can be avoided or even repelled. Everything is handled through an easy-to-use interface that provides complete control over the action. Success depends not only on strategy but also on a smidgeon of arcade related reaction speed and skill. For those players who do not like random battles, there are no random triggers at all in the game, the player can pick and choose most of the time when to fight.

At its heart Superstar Saga is an RPG style game, but an uncomplicated one at that, which makes it appealing to arcade fans and the non-statically minded; in other words, people who may be put off by more detailed and deeper role-playing games. That isn't to say that fans of complicated RPGs will not find any reward from the game, far from it. There is still plenty of item management, levelling up, equipment decisions and attack planning to satisfy this branch of games player. Attributes are reduced into attacking and defensive power, speed and moustache rating (a comedy in its own right), whilst stats are housed into hit points and teamwork points.

Humour has always been a trademark through Nintendo's games, and this game is no exception. Alpha Dream has however gone full tilt in providing a laugh at almost every opportunity. There is a running gag throughout the game that whilst Mario is known all over, most people have hardly heard of Luigi and keep referring to him as "Mr Green guy" for example. The result of Peach's swearing is funny; the BeanBean Kingdom Queen is a female version of Brian Blessed; BeanBean's prince is out of medieval history complete with floppy hair; and Cackletta is a ham actress in waiting, as well as being a graduate of the "stereotype maniacal evil cackle" academy.

There is also a great deal of familial about many aspects of the game. Sound effects are reassuringly Nintendo-like, from the bashing of coin blocks to the snatches of speech used throughout. Many well-known enemies are littered about BeanBean Kingdom, there's an immigrant Toad community village hidden away, and there are cameos from many Nintendo characters, old and new alike. References to almost every Mario game previous are evident, and there is even a double-entendre or two. No doubt the translation team have had a field day of Monty Python proportions putting in the English script. It feels so much like a Mario game and this definitely adds to the immense appeal of the gameplay.

It may appear fairly simple on the surface, but there is a great deal of freedom, complexity and head scratching combined into one fabulous program. There are numerous hidden areas to go explore and earn power-ups within, and some of the landscapes require detailed thinking and planning to not only negotiate, but to solve puzzles and gain items. It isn't Zelda, but many of the tasks require thinking along similar lines.

The other aspect similar to Zelda is in the layout and appearance, specifically Link to the Past. Portrayed in a pseudo 3D style with height and distance conveyed superbly in a 2D plane, the backgrounds are full of colour, verve and intrinsic little details such as accurate shadowing and texture representation. Sprites are modelled in 8 directions, and each one has their own character and accuracy if they already existed in the Mario world. Luigi is taller than Mario for example, and the developers have done a very good job in convincing that the new characters introduced have been around for ages.

Superstar Saga is more than just an RPG with Mario characters, much like its predecessors. It has as much right to sit up there in the definition of "fun" and "joy" as Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario. The two-character system yields delight and reward constantly throughout every single part of the game. Things never slack off either due to the brilliant storyline and characters, whilst the tricky combat and devious puzzles keep attention fixated. This is a complete package and one that is practically flawless. Sure it has to end sometime, but there is a lot of enjoyable gaming to get through before the conclusion is reached. An absolute must-buy for any handheld owner.