Video Game / Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

An adventure so big, you'll need both bros.!

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is the first game in the Mario & Luigi spinoff series of the beloved Mario franchise. Developed by AlphaDream, it released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance, for the Wii U eShop in April 2014, and in February 2023 for the launch of Nintendo Switch Online's library of GBA titles.

In one of the most elaborate original games made for the Game Boy Advance, Mario is sent to the Beanbean Kingdom, which conveniently adjoins the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi reluctantly goes along after Mario and Bowser join forces. The Big Bad Cackletta reportedly has stolen Princess Peach's voice (yes, her voice) in order to activate the Beanstar, an artifact with the power to grant wishes.

Superstar Saga has a remake for the Nintendo 3DS, called Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, that was released October 2017, updated to the same graphical style of Dream Team and Paper Jam. As indicated by the addition to the game's title, included in this remake is a new mode called Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser, which features Bowser's minions banding together in order to rescue their master.

Minion Quest's tropes can be found here.

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Tropes appearing in the original game:

• Abandoned Laboratory: Woohoo Hooniversity. Unlike most examples of this trope, the place has only been abandoned for a few hours at most by the time you explore it.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: The level cap is 99, and you'll most likely be around level 45 by the time you reach the final boss.
• Accidental Misnaming:
  • Characters invent names for Luigi, because they keep forgetting his name.
  • Popple keeps referring to Mario and Luigi as "Red and Green" because he doesn't care to know their names.
• Action Insurance Gag: At the end of the early gameplay scenes, Bowser's Koopa Cruiser is destroyed by Fawful. Talking to one of the Koopa Troopas found afterwards yields the comment, "The K-Koopa Cruiser... we haven't finished... paying it off.."
• Animate Inanimate Object: The Chuckolator, an animated barrel of soda created from infamous jokes and puns. It seems to lose its sentience once defeated.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The 3DS remake fixed a few issues that plagued the original GBA versions:
  • Any forced tutorials have been removed, thanks to the addition of the guide mechanic from Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. Now new players can simply view tutorials on their own time, while familiar players who already know the mechanics can skip it entirely.
  • As it is now required for 100% Completion, a certain switch in Joke's End is easier to get now thanks to a new barrel accessible to both Bros closer to the switch, as well as being able to walk faster while Luigi is in a barrel.
  • Hammer guard holds as long as needed, whereas in the original it only lasted for a short time before the bro would drop his hammer and be vulnerable. That mechanic would be particularly frustrating for players who couldn't get the timing on an enemy's attack right.
• Apathetic Citizens: One of the Beanbean Castle Town residents asks you to find his pets for him once the town's started to rebuild from the attack. He tells you the little critters "aren't super-motivated, so they're probably still around town someplace". He seems to be of a type since he can't be bothered to go find them himself.
• Artistic License – Economics: At the start of the game, the exchange rate between Mushroom Kingdom coins and Beanbean coins is pretty shabby, something like 100M = 10B. Later on, Prince Peasley cockily bets 99,999,999,999,999 Mushroom Kingdom coins that he'll find the Plot Coupons first; even with the poor exchange rate, this is a pretty sweet deal. But when he makes good on the bet at the end of the game, the converted value of his promised ante is...99 Beanbean coins, meaning that over the course of a single game, the Mushroom Kingdom's economy has crashed so irretrievably that statistically, even the houseflies are begging for change in the streets of the nearest stable economy (probably Beanbean). Although it does take Money for Nothing to its logical conclusion.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Trunkle's tree on its head, as using several Bros. attacks on it can take it out before it is able to divide.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: In a very striking inversion, the fight with Cackletta's Soul features a precise dosage of heavy metal. The result is intimidating, to say the least.
• Balloon Belly: Whenever Mario drinks out from a water fountain and at one point, the Chuckola Reserve.
• Barrier Change Boss: Mom Piranha's elemental weakness changes depending on her color^note Lightning if she's red, fire if she's blue, and is healed if hit by the wrong element.
• Berserk Button: Jojora doesn't react well when you attack her friends. On the other hand, she doesn't seem to mind too much being attacked herself, as she has killer defense. However, she will leave if you counter her attack.
• Beta Couple: Toadsworth and Lady Lima.
• Big Bad: Cackletta, who wants to conquer the Beanbean Kingdom as well as the rest of the world with the power of the Beanstar.
• Bishie Sparkle: When Prince Peasley flips his hair, the entire screen goes white. Downplayed on one occasion due to the prince being shrunk.
• Bizarre Beverage Use: The Chuckolator is a creature made out of Chuckola Cola, and can change its forms to wield a sword or rifle. It is set upon Mario and Luigi to defend the Chuckola Reserve that its creator has been working on for 1,000 years. The Chuckola Reserve itself is used shortly thereafter to remove the Belly Belch worm that Queen Bean was forced to swallow.
• Bland-Name Product: The Starbeans Café is an obvious take-off of the real-world Starbucks chain.
• Book Ends:
  • The first time you see Beanbean Castle Town, it's been destroyed. Towards the climax, when you come back, it's been destroyed again.
  • You ride the Koopa Cruiser to the Beanbean Kingdom at the start of the game, which serves as the site for several tutorials and the first mini-boss, who ultimately destroys it. Between the last and second-last dungeons, you ride it again after its repair job. These instances are roughly thirty hours of gameplay apart.
• Boss-Altering Consequence:
  • During Popple and Bowser's boss fight, if you defeat Popple first, you'll have to continue the fight with Bowser, but if you defeat Bowser first, then Popple will flee the battle to save his own skin.
  • Downplayed with the fight against Jojora. Before the fight, she gives the player the choice of which of her friends she will invite to join her, which may give the impression that the friend you choose will have different stats or abilities, but all this does is change their name. Ultimately played straight, as Jojora will flee if you defeat her friend first, much like Popple.
• Boss Bonanza: The game has a separate boss fight for each of the seven Koopalings in Bowser's Castle, followed by Fawful, Bowletta, and the Essence of Cackletta.
• Boundareefs: The Oho Ocean is limited by a thin but impenetrable line of rocks, preventing Mario and Luigi from surfing too far.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of the unused scenes in Starbeans Café has Wario say "Now that I’m here, this game’s finally gettin’ good!" and later "Don’t you have free drinks for celebrity guest stars in this game?".
• The Bus Came Back: The Koopalings return after being absent for more than a decade since Super Mario World. They got Put on a Bus again until 2009.
• But Thou Must!: You're forced to sit through the Hammerhead Bros.' tutorial even if you've mastered how the hammer works.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor Bowser. He gets curbstomped by Fawful, his cruiser is blown up, gets stuck in a cannon, gets fired out of it, hits his head so hard he loses his memory, works as Popple's lackey for some time as "Rookie", finally regains his memory but falls who-knows-how-far from the Beanstar, gets possessed by Cackletta, gets beaten up by the Mario Brothers, then finally gets blown up with his castle and hits the screen, and is then dragged home by the plane and it's implied that he got a cold. He's not gonna try to kidnap Peach for a while.
• Call-Back: The Koopalings are fought in the same order they were in Super Mario World, and the same three pairs (Iggy and Larry, Morton and Roy, and Lemmy and Wendy) are again given similar fighting styles, with Ludwig joining Morton and Roy at least in the original game.
• Calling Your Attacks: Each time you switch to a new tool or action to use, the Bros. call out the name of said weapon.
• The Cameo: Geno from Super Mario RPG shows up to teach you how to play the Surprisingly Easy Miniquest, with Square Enix's permission.
• Camera Abuse: After Cackletta's spirit is destroyed and Bowser turns back to normal, he gets blasted out of his castle as the Self-Destruct Sequence finishes, and hits the screen, cracking it. He then slides down the screen before falling into the ocean far below.
• Cash Gate: The first major boss, Tolstar, demands 100 Beanbean coins before he lets you pass (the 100+ Mushroom coins you have come out to only 10 due to the exchange rate between the two kingdoms.) A lesser one shows up later, where you require 100 coins to get a hand massage that unlocks new hand power techniques; at this point, you'll likely have plenty of cash saved up to get the massage.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Remember Blablanadon from the Hoohoo areas? He's the only way to access Bowser's Castle at the end of the game.
• Clothesline Stealing: After being informed that the princess is in danger, Mario — who had just gotten out of the shower and was only wearing a towel — runs outside and jumps into the clothesline Luigi was hanging their clothes on, coming out fully dressed and with Luigi tied to his leg.
• Cognizant Limbs:
  • You have to smack Queen Bean's arms for her pointy crown to fall off, but you can bypass all that if you've learned Splash Bros. Advance, though you may still wish to destroy the arms to prevent her from using her shockwave attacks that can hit both brothers.
  • Hermie III's claws can be targeted. He'll counter every attack used against him with his claws if his claws aren't down.
  • Cackletta's arms and head need to be destroyed before her heart can be targeted.
• Collection Sidequest: Finding all the coffee beans, including the hidden Hee beans.
• Combination Attack: The main draw of the game is the way Mario and Luigi team up for puzzles and fighting. Their moves in combat range from Fire Bros. (Mario throws fireballs at Luigi, who hammers them into the enemies), to Knockback Bros. (Luigi hits Mario at the enemies with his hammer), to Swing Bros. (Mario spins Luigi in a circle before chucking him at the enemy).
• Company Cross References: The items the player obtains at Starbeans Café are references to several different Nintendo games. For example, one such item is the Triforce, called the "Great Force" here.
• Console Cameo: The Game Boy Horror SP is a modified Game Boy Advance SP.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Bowser (as Rookie, during his fight with Popple) throws hammers, which he hasn't done since Super Mario RPG.
  • Upon defeating Popple in his final battle, Birdo Turns Red and declares that "this is as far as you go!" This is the same line she would open her boss battles with in the Super Mario Advance version of Super Mario Bros. 2.
  • The moment Mario enters the castle's plaza, a Toad hopes his vacation hasn't slowed him down, referencing Super Mario Sunshine.
  • There is an area where the Woohoo Hooniversity professors are studying the Art Evolution of various item blocks, from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and Paper Mario 64.
  • The barrel section in Woohoo Hooniversity resembles a level from Donkey Kong.
  • The Viruses from Dr. Mario are enemies in Woohoo Hooniversity, and can be defeated by having more than one be the same color by jumping on them (the remake has a chime from the game playing when you do this).
  • Boddles shuts up his mouthy assistant by retreating into his shell and creating a waving crosshair, much like the Yoshi's main form of attack in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
• Could Say It, But...: "Don't go pressing up, down, left, or right on the Control Pad to hold a pose!"
• Crazy-Prepared: Peasley knew of Cackletta's plan to steal Peach's voice, and warned her and Toadsworth so they switched with Birdo. Unfortunately, Bowser arrived before she could tell the Bros. the truth.
• Cross Dresser: Luigi dressing up as Princess Peach (even doing a Noblewoman's Laugh, if only to conceal his mustache).
• Curb-Stomp Battle: At the start of the game, Fawful one-shots Bowser with an attack that would otherwise take five or so hits to defeat a Bro.
• Damsel in Distress: In a unique twist, Princess Peach isn't kidnapped... but her voice is. Well, she still gets kidnapped later, but it isn't the usual "whole game" deal. Even then, it's not Peach's voice that's kidnapped. It's Birdo's. Apparently, anyone can put on a pink dress and a wig and pass for Princess Peach, since Birdo, Luigi and even an alien do it throughout the various Mario & Luigi games.
• A Day in the Limelight: Luigi gets his moment to shine during a few plot points, such as having to go to the Guffawha Ruins, where a terrible monster apparently lives when Mario is incapacitated.
• Dead All Along: The grizzled old bean in a rocking chair who oversees the minecart minigame seems harmless and rocks in his chair with his trusty bright green dog at his side, he makes mention of how he's come to the end of his road. After you play the minigame and come to the end of the minecart tracks, he spontaneously fades into view right before you enter the room to greet you. Old dude's a ghost. Averted in the remake where he's already present when you finish the minigame.
• Death Mountain: Hoohoo Mountain. Hoohoo Village is located halfway up the mountain, but it was formerly populated by the Hoohooligans. The climb up the mountain shows their weapon Hoohooros, and jokes written on the walls in Hooroglyphs, an ancient form of writing.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: The bosses are all shown exploding into stars when defeated, even if they are alive in the cutscene that follows.
• Defeat Means Friendship: To an extent. After Tolstar is defeated, he reappears when the Brothers are cornered and accused by a group of Beanbean guards, vouching for your innocence.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • The Tutorial Bowser, as with all the Bowser boss fights during the game, is programmed to be healed if it's hit with a fire-based attack and be vulnerable to thunder-based attacks. It's only possible to use these attacks on the Tutorial Bowser via hacking, since at the point in the game you're supposed to be fighting him, you only have Mario, and he only has one attack at the time: The element-neutral "jump" attack.
  • Upon finding Bowser stuck in the cannon in Stardust Fields, Mario jumps on Bowser three times and gets a coin for each stomp. This is to prevent you from having zero coins in the upcoming cutscene where Tolstar demands 100 coins from you. The only way to reach 0 coins would be to repeatedly run from the fights with the Fighter Flies in the area before.
• Difficulty by Region: Despite the short turnaround time for the various releases of the game, the Japanese version is very different from the American and European versions, making it easier and harder in certain places. Most of the remake is based around the Japanese version's changes.
  • The brothers start with more BP in the Japanese version, but gain lower boosts from level-up bonuses in exchange for higher BP growth.
  • Heart Blocks from Paper Mario are added to three locations in the Japanese version to serve as free restore points.
  • Equipment stats are altered in various ways, and the price of equipment in shops is substantially higher in the Japanese version.
  • The Mush Badges' "Shroom Force" effect uses a different damage calculation formula in the Japanese version that makes it half as effective. Similarly, the Red and Green Pepper consumables buff their associated stats by a lower amount.
  • Trunkle is a very exploitable boss in the American/European versions, due to its heavily vulnerable tree weak spot. The Japanese version has the tree regenerate a lot of health every time it's attacked to make this approach harder, in addition to giving both Trunkle and its tree more health.
  • In the final battle, Cackletta's spirit has lower health, and the brothers are guaranteed the first turn to heal from their HP to One status. However, Bowletta has significantly higher HP in the Japanese version, and BP is not restored in the transition to Cackletta's soul.
• Dig Attack:
  • The normal Chopper Bros. is a downplayed example as the digging is not the attack itself; Mario first hammers Luigi into the ground to start, and then Mario leaps over to the enemy while Luigi follows from underground. When they arrive in front of the enemy, Luigi pops out of the ground to launch Mario into the air, at which point he spins around with hammer in hand to slam it into the enemy multiple times.
  • Advanced Chopper Bros. is a straighter, more traditional version of this. Mario hammers Luigi into the ground once more, but this time Luigi pops out under the enemy rather than Mario, damaging them as he emerges. Mario then hammers Luigi back below the surface while the enemy is in midair, and when they fall back down the cycle repeats. This attack has an indefinite length in the original, but is capped to eight cycles in the 3DS remake.
  • Advanced Thunder Bros. has Luigi charge electricity, and then get hammered into the ground by Mario. While underground, Luigi moves below the enemy targeted, then leaps out and uppercuts them with electrifying power. Unlike the normal move, this only strikes a single enemy as opposed to all enemies, and will lower the enemy's attack power instead of their defense.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Cackletta the first time you face her, and she has somewhat nasty attacks to boot.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: Woohoo Hooniversity houses the fight with Cackletta...and the second showdown with Popple and Rookie.
• Disguised in Drag: Luigi disguises himself as Peach to trick Bowletta into handing over the real Peach to them.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: Fawful's infamous "Mustard of Doom".
• The Drag-Along: Luigi, at first. In fact, the literal example at the beginning (where Mario runs to Peach's Castle while dragging Luigi who is tangled in a rope tied around Mario) provides this trope's page image.
• The Dragon: Fawful, but later he wishes he was the main villain. He later gets his wish in Bowser's Inside Story.
• Dual Boss: Popple and his various "rookie" sidekicks. Also Jojora and her friend, though only the friend needs to be defeated.
• Duel Boss: Luigi fights Piranha Bean alone.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The game has a number of mechanics that don't appear in future installments:
  • Mario and Luigi can switch positions in the overworld to enable different movement techniques reliant on Luigi being in front, such as the High Jump and Fire Tickle. This also makes it so that Luigi is controlled with the A button. Later games remove this mechanic so that Mario is always controlled with A, and Luigi is always controlled with B.
  • This game has a third attack/overworld ability, the Firehand and Thunderhand. Later games keep it to just jumping and hammers, and elemental powers are used only via Flowers in-battle.
  • The Bros. get hammer upgrades, that can break increasingly durable blocks. Later games have hammers that break all obstacles regardless of durability.
  • You can make Bros. moves harder, which increases its strength but increases the cost, ditches the slowdown, and removes the button prompts. Using a Bros. move enough also enables variations of their existing Bro Attacks.
  • These are the only Mario and Luigi games where the Bros. Attacks are based around the techniques Mario and Luigi learn to navigate around the overworld. As a consequence, they're the only games in the series where they're acquired automatically as part of progression (except for the two secret attacks, acquired from the Thwomp gambling minigame). Consequently, this is the only Mario and Luigi game not to have a variation of the Green Shell/Red Shell Bro attack.
  • This is the only Mario and Luigi game not to have an Exposition Fairy of some sort.
  • Several recurring Mario enemies are given unique designs, including Dry Bones walking on all fours, thin and birdlike Boomerang Bros. and Hammer Bros. that are much fatter (making them look more like Sledge Bros. than typical Hammer Bros.). Later games use the standard designs of these enemies, while the remake only leaves Dry Bones unchanged; the Boomerang Bros. kept their designs but were reclassified as a separate type of enemy called Beanerang Bros., while other classic Mario enemies, such as Hammer Bros., use more standard designs.
  • Bowser (and his other identities as Rookie and Bowletta) are much shorter (he's about one head taller than Luigi) than the other appearances of him, which is even more obvious when his updated sprites are used in the remakes. This is justified since this game does what many other RPGs do with their enemy characters; Give them super deformed overworld sprites. A lot of bosses in this game have bigger proportions in battle, including Bowser.
  • Luigi speaks in an actual legible way in one scene for this game, when he's dressed up as Princess Peach. In all the other games, the Bros speak Italian-ish Simlish all the time.
  • Later games in the series (and even the remake's Minion Quest) portray Goombas as intelligent, capable of speech, and full (if usually low-ranking) members of Bowser's army. However, Superstar Saga portrayed them as much more animalistic than later entries, with them being essentially the attack dogs of Bowser's army, while Bowser's actual soldiers are all Koopas. They had no speaking lines and were stored in barrels on the Koopa Cruiser, with a couple practice fights early on (while the Bros were temporarily allied with Bowser) having the premise of needing to subdue a few Goombas that had gotten loose so they could be put back into storage. Minion Quest shows that this was a result of everyone underestimating their potential until they proved their worth during their search for Bowser.
  • This game and its sequel lack any Post Endgame Content, unlike later games, which would include a Boss Rush with a superboss at the end.
  • This is the only game that features Mario and Luigi as the sole playable characters, with Partners in Time having Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, Bowser's Inside Story Bowser, Dream Team Dreamy Luigi, and Paper Jam Paper Mario as playable characters.
  • The end credits do not feature an epilogue slideshow (or in the case of Partners In Time, a recap of the game's plot). Instead, It's just the gang riding back to the Mushroom Kingdom via plane while also passing by parts of the Beanbean Kingdom. Though the Remake and Paper Jam don't bring back the slideshows.
• Easter Egg: There's a relatively easy to find one atop Hoohoo Mountain: from the upper right corner of the summit, you can see Princess Peach's castle in the horizon.
• Eating the Enemy: Attempted by Bowletta during the final boss fight. They pretend to be defeated, only for a bomb to knock out the Bros., and they inhale the Mario Bros. up. Unfortunately, this became their undoing, as it led to a Womb Level where the Bros. were able to take on the Essence of Cackletta, and destroy her heart, thus ending Cackletta for good.
• Elemental Punch: Advanced Thunder Bros. has Luigi deliver a Thunderhand-charged uppercut.
• Embedded Precursor: Superstar Saga includes the Game Boy Advance remake of the Mario Bros. arcade game. It's the same remake included with the Super Mario Advance games.
• Enemy Mine: Bowser. However, he helps the brothers only because he doesn't like other bad guys taking what he wants. Sadly, it doesn't last long, though, as throughout the whole game, events conspire to prevent him from helping for anything other than getting to the Beanbean Kingdom.
• Escort Mission: Escorting Princess Peach through Teehee Valley to Little Fungitown. You have to keep her onscreen at all times, make sure there are no enemies heading towards her, and work quickly to open the gate at each section of the valley. If you don't do one of the first two, she gets kidnapped. Mario and Luigi must rescue her and try again. However, the player can make this easier by defeating every opponent on the field, then escorting Peach.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Popple helps Mario move the Beanstar out of harm's way and bows respectfully to him before a battle.
• Evil Laugh: As befitting her name, Cackletta tends to indulge in evil laughter quite a bit. Even her basic pose seems like she's chuckling behind her teeth.
• Evil Tastes Good: Fawful clearly enjoys his villainy, notably as he rants about his delicious doom mustard on victory bread.
• Evolving Attack: If you use Bros. Attacks enough times, one of the Bros. will take a second to think and then talk to the other, allowing you to do a different version of the attack, often with its own unique properties. The alternate Spin Bros. attack, for example, does less damage to normal enemies than the original, but it also allows Mario to jump on The Spiny and do double damage to it.
• Expy:
  • The Beanstar could be considered pretty similar to Jirachi.
  • Hermie III is one to the Yadotsuri enemies◊ from Tomato Adventure, also developed by AlphaDream.
• Eye Awaken: After Cackletta's spirit posesses an unconscious Bowser, a cutscene shows Bowletta's eyes opening on a black background.
• Face Fault: A visual gag done fairly often by Mario and Luigi during exposition when NPCs come to ridiculous conclusions, or reveal upsetting news. Given that Mario and Luigi explain everything with a considerable amount of pantomime, reacting with a face plant nicely punctuates their performance.
• Face–Heel Turn: The Birdo who disguised as Princess Peach is later seen working with the thief Popple.
• Fartillery: When asleep, the Malibut enemy attacks by farting green bubbles at the bros.
• Fastball Special:
  • Knockback Bros. has Luigi turn Mario into Mini Mario, who is then launched at the enemies by Luigi's hammer. The Advanced version has Luigi repeatedly smack Mario back at the enemies on Mario's rebound until you mess up.
  • Swing Bros. has Mario grab Luigi and build up speed for a Human Hammer-Throw before slinging Luigi at the target.
• Flipping Helpless: The brothers can't get past the giant Koopas until they've learned the fire dash attack. Using said move on the Koopas will knock them over, at which point they'll choose to stand in a place that's not in your way.
• Flunky Boss: Mom Piranha, who is accompanied by respawning piranha plants.
• Food Eats You: The Chuckolator, a giant monster made of soda that the Bros. fight in Chucklehuck Woods.
• Forced Transformation:
  • Prince Peasley was turned into a dragon and trapped inside an egg before the game's events began — the dragon is a very early boss fight. Apparently Mario and Luigi beating the stuffing out of the dragon breaks the spell.
  • Woohoo Hooniversity professors are shown getting turned into Laser Snifits.
  • Bowser after being possessed by Cackletta. His face becomes Cackletta's and he gains some "female anatomy", to say the least.
• Foregone Victory: Mario can't lose the first fight with Bowser, no matter what you do. Even if you miss every single action command, Mario will win.
• Foreshadowing:
  • At Woohoo Hooniversary, Cackletta installs Peach's voice into robots called Peach-Bots to awaken the Beanstar. Unfortunately for her, the Beanstar reacted to the voice with a furious rampage, hinting that she didn't actually steal Peach's voice, but stole Birdo's instead.
  • One of the objects Trunkle can inhale is a Poison Mushroom. At Little Fungitown, Mario eats one mistaken for an Invincishroom.
  • A more minor case, but at the Yoshi Theater, you'll see a poster of the game as a movie. Guess what the game turns out to be after you finish watching the credits?
• Forgettable Character: Luigi. People often seem to forget/not know his name, and what they do call him usually references the color green. For example, early in the game, we get "Mario and...Mr. Green Mario Brother Guy!" A guard in front of Beanbean Castle addressed "the famous Mario and Lui-uh...other guy", forgetting the name in mid sentence. In a later scene, the same guard noted, "A very Mario-esque fellow and a Loo...uh, some other guy!"
• Frothy Mugs of Water:
  • There is a hilarious segment in which the characters are involved with what is obviously a wine-making business, with grapes and grape vines, fermenting, vintages, etc. — which all the characters describe as "soda". It's not so much censorship as a joke. In the airport, soda is banned on-site and will be confiscated. It is wine in the German version, however.
  • Starbeans Café serves "Bean Juice". Not coffee. Bean juice. Quite a bit of gameplay is even dedicated to finding specific beans to use in particular "blends". There were going to be cameo appearances by other Nintendo characters who would come and drink the coffee, but they were written out of the game.
• Gambit Pile Up: Most allied NPCs are chessmasters at one point or another, with instances including Peach and Lady Lima completely anticipating Cackletta's fake gift and kidnapping of the princess's voice, countering the plan by swapping out her and Birdo before the opening cutscene, a plan not revealed until halfway through the game, long after it occurred. Cackletta also manipulated crazy situations, such as making you fix the plumbing to cancel the castle security system. Even Mario and Luigi get in on it by swapping Luigi and Peach to have him infiltrate the Koopa Cruiser.
• Game-Breaking Bug: When the original GBA game was uploaded to the internet for emulation, players encountered a dangerous glitch during the Bob-omb Paint tutorial where Mario unexpectedly points to the right side when being hit by Luigi, causing the water shot to completely miss and permanently softlock the game.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: While Luigi is hypnotised to think he's Mario, the Toads will appropriately change their dialogue in confusion to Luigi insisting he's Mario. However, in solo battles, Luigi will still say "Luigi!" and say his brother's name when the latter's passport photo is selected. Also, Luigi doesn't respond when Peach calls him by his name, likely because of the potential difficulties this would cause with the plot.
• Gender Bender: Bowletta has Cackletta's personality and visuals in Bowser's body, confusing even other characters.
• Global Currency Exception: Those 100 coins you got at the beginning of the game turn out to be Mushroom Coins, and are worth 10 Beanbean Coins. (This doesn't matter, as you have to surrender them immediately.) And later, when you get 99,999,999,999,999 Mushroom coins, they're worth...99 Beanbean Coins. But how could the exchange rate fluctuate so fast? The only logical, foolproof explanation is that Peach's kidnapping causes the currency's value to tank... and Rule of Funny.
• Go Wait Outside:
  • The Hammerhead Bros. say this to Mario and Luigi before they make hammers from the Hoohoo Block that fell into their workshop.
  • As well as when the bridge is being repaired so you can get said block. Thought somewhat of an aversion as you actually have to Talk to Everyone before the event flag will trigger.
• Gold-Colored Superiority:
  • Golden Beanies have higher stats than the standard Beanie, and provide more experience and loot.
  • The best Hammers in the game are gold.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: The thief Popple and his various partners hound you throughout the game, but are never really seen as a threat.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The four Beanstar shards. Notably, Mario and Luigi must find eight Bean Fruits to collect one of the shards — making it an example of Catching These Things to Catch All Of These Other Things.
• Grand Theft Me: Happens to Bowser when Cackletta's ghost needs to quickly possess a new body in order to survive. This causes some Pronoun Trouble about whether the result is male or female.
• Green Around the Gills: Upon coming down with a case of Bean Fever from the Invincishroom, Mario's face and skin turn bean green.
• Green Hill Zone: The Beanbean Fields, though they're not necessarily the first area of the game. They're a series of grasslands, small hills, and waterways that surround Beanbean Castle Town, and the enemies are primarily the Beanbean Kingdom's variants on basic Mario enemies (Beanies and Parabeanies for Goombas, Troopeas and Paratroopeas for Koopas, and Sharpeas and Lakipeas for Spiny and Lakitu, among others like Tanoombas and Bob-ombs).
• Groin Attack: One of the Amusing Injuries you can inflict on Luigi: Use the Hammer to shrink Mario, then have Mario jump and have Luigi high-jump at the same time. You can get coins this way, but Luigi's health will gradually drop.
• Ground Wave: Morton and Roy cause ground waves by stomping when the heroic brothers fight them. In the remake, only Morton does this.
• Harmless Electrocution: Before learning the technique Thunder Tickle, Luigi can shock Mario which only makes the latter annoyed. Once the brothers learn the move, it sticks them together while facing one direction and can be used to pass through slow-moving spiky barrels, activate Boo Statues and make Mario spit out water like a sprinkler.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The first phase of the final boss battle. Lose, and you get a game over as usual. Win, and a Time Bob-omb appears out of nowhere and blows you up anyway, setting the stage for the second phase.
• Healing Boss:
  • If Popple is successful in stealing a mushroom from you, he will later use it on himself or his ally to restore HP.
  • Mom Piranha can heal small portions of health if there are piranha plants in the battle that are the same color as her.
  • When performing its inhaling attack, Trunkle can potentially consume mushrooms to restore HP if they are not intercepted by the bros. In the Japanese version, he heals himself based on what he consumed and also restores health to his tree each time you attack it.
  • After taking a certain amount of damage, Hermie III will retreat inside his shell to restore HP, but using Firebrand-based attacks on him will force him back out (complaining that Mario's ruining his decorations).
  • Jojora can conjure blizzards that not only damage the bros., but also heal her friend.
  • Bowletta can absorb any Flarets she summons to restore HP.
  • When exposed, Cackletta's Soul's heart can restore the HP of her arms or itself.
• Hub Level: Beanbean Castle Town. Along with Beanbean Castle being located to the North, there's E. Gadd's coffee shop, several shops for clothing and badges, a hint-giving man (changed to award prizes in the 3DS version), a few sidequests, and a green Warp Pipe.
• Hub Under Attack: After clearing Joke's End, Mario and Luigi come back to Beanbean town to find it destroyed (again) by Bowser's Castle bombarding it. Fortunately, all the shops are still standing and remain open for business.
• Human Furniture Is a Pain in the Tail: A Yoshi in the Yoshi Theater says that the chairs look comfy but he can't sit in them because his tail gets in the way. However, the ending and official art does show Yoshis sitting in the theater seats.
• Human Hammer-Throw: The Swing Bros. attack has Mario swing Luigi around and throw him towards an enemy.
• Hypno Pendulum: Technically a Hypno Staff, but in any case, Psycho Kamek uses it to hypnotize Luigi into thinking he's Mario so he's brave enough to go to Guffawha Ruins.
• Identity Amnesia: After he's fired from a cannon, Bowser loses his memory, forgets who he is, and ends up as Popple's dopey sidekick. He remembers who he is just after the second fight with Mario, but his mind is shortly after taken over by Cackletta.
• Idiot Ball: After Mario and Luigi put the Beanstar back together, they get a message from 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?
• I Know Madden Kombat: Fire Bros. Advanced has Mario knock the fireballs Luigi hits into a stationary position in the air. Once he runs out of fireballs to throw, he jumps off of Luigi and spikes the floating fireball into the opposition like a volleyball.
• Implausible Boarding Skills: How do you cross the ocean to get to Joke's End? Easy, Mario can use Luigi as a surfboard simply by hammering him into a convenient slot.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Luigi's second Bros. Move, gained near the start of Chucklehuck Woods, allows him to turn Mario tiny by hitting him with a hammer.
• Instant Expert: Mario and Luigi's Bros. Attacks. Reading the Secret Scrolls once for two moves is apparently enough as well. It's also played with, though, in that there's a hidden, more difficult form of each Bros. move — appropriately named Advanced — that can only be unlocked if the player successfully pulls off the move a large number of times.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: Pretty much everything Fawful says. ^note In the original Japanese version, he adds "rururururu" to the end of his sentences.
• Item Crafting: The various coffee beans are brought to Professor E. Gadd's coffee shop and blended into stat boosting drinks. He also gives out accessories (and a skit) every time a new type of drink is brewed.
• It's All About Me: Hermie attacks you because you barged in looking for a MacGuffin and happened to be a world-famous superstar, distracting his friends from fussing over him. Fortunately, in an optional sidequest, you can get him a replacement star that has a mutual relationship with him.
• It's Up to You: At one point, Prince Peasley challenges the Mario Bros. to see who can get the most plot coupons, with a large bet hanging on the line. The prince fails to get even a single one, as when trying to get his first one, he gets shrunken down and eaten. In addition, at the beginning of the game, Bowser offers himself and his army to help the Mario Bros., only for them to be shot down. Ultimately subverted. You never needed to get involved in the first place, due to steps taken prior to the start of the game.
• Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Jojora is the buddy of the cousin of the descendant who once owned Joke's End.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: A random bolt of lighting is enough to snap a hypnotised Luigi out of thinking he's Mario. Luigi's Thunderhand power also heals certain enemies instead of damaging them.
• Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: Mario and Luigi get Fire and Lightning abilities respectively. This might be due to their personalities. Mario, a hero, is brave and consistent, though his Fire powers existed before this game as the Fire Flower powerup. But Mario is also aggressive and impulsive, showing a little hotheadedness. Luigi, who is slightly cowardly (you could say that he's gone in a flash), is also more expressive in his emotions and funnier (he might have a spark of life in him). When Luigi does act, he can make all the difference, and he is as brave as his brother during events with strong enemies. Hence, the partnership between the two.
• Literal Metaphor: Mario and Luigi have to jump the border from the Mushroom Kingdom to the Beanbean Kingdom early on. To do so, they play a game called "Border Jump", which is like fancy jump-rope.
• Lost Voice Plot: The game initially revolves around Peach getting her voice stolen and the Bros. trying to retrieve it. Turns out she didn't lose her voice in the first place.
• The Lost Woods: Chucklehuck Woods, a labyrinthine forest area home to talking trees. Even the music sounds foreboding and the area is the largest seen yet at the point the brothers first come to see it.
• MacGuffin: Peach's voice, for the first half anyways. After that, the Beanstar takes its place.
• Man Hug: Mario and Luigi hug each other at least three times during their adventure; the first time being in Woohoo Hooniversity after Luigi is freed from a barrel mishap, the second time after rescuing Peach from her temporary Teehee Valley kidnapping during the Escort Mission (though you can do this again if you let her be kidnapped again), and the third time is when Mario frees Luigi from being tied up.
• Me's a Crowd:
  • When Trunkle starts running out of health, he'll create four copies of himself, one of which has his weak point inside. He'll then shuffle it around so that Mario and Luigi will have a harder time figuring it out.
  • Cackletta will split into three when you fight her, though each clone will only attack the Mario Brothers once per round. However, if Mario or Luigi attack the wrong one, it will burst into a swarm of Cackletta bats.
  • Lemmy and Wendy can use this tactic, though they both had a tendency to give away who the real one is. It's more helpful for Wendy since she has a Time Bob-omb, making for a good stalling tactic.
• Metal Slime: Gold Beanies. There's a rare chance of finding one after the brothers defeat a Pestnut (there's usually just a regular Beanie inside) and they run away the moment their turn comes around, but they drop a relatively large amount of experience and the Spiny Badge, which lets you stomp spiked enemies. They later appear in Dream Team, where they're much stronger.
• Minecart Madness: An old Beanish man offers this minigame. Notably, compared to other mini-games, it's rather easy, though it's possible to lose gems if you don't watch your surroundings.
• Mistaken for Santa: While hunting for pieces of the beanstar, the brothers meet a hermit crab named Hermie III whose shell has been decorated to look like a Christmas tree. Hermie notices the brothers and makes not of Mario's red clothes and mustache. He immediate assumes Mario to be "Thanta Clauth".
• Mistaken Identity: Thanks to the red clothing, Hermie III thinks that Mario is Santa Claus.
• Mook Medic: The Troopea family can produce small water drops (squirting them out of their shells in the GBA version, digging into their "pockets" and flinging them into the air in the 3DS remake) to heal themselves or other enemies on the field. Elite Troopeas and Scaratroopeas can outright revive enemies.
• Mugging the Monster: Popple and Rookie attempt to rob Bubbles of the legendary Chuckola Reserve. Unfortunately for them, he is stronger than they thought and rather crazy.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: The Piranha Bean will give out either the Piranha Badge or Piranha Suit, depending on whether or not it's fought with a certain item equipped.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The plan to disguise Luigi as Peach and turn him over to the villains first appeared in the comic Super Mario Adventures, which was printed in Nintendo Power over a decade earlier.
  • One of the Hammerhead Bros., after giving Mario and Luigi their hammers, says "Now you're playing with power!" That was an advertising slogan that was used until the mid-late Super NES era.
• Newbie Immunity: The first fight is against Bowser. It's impossible to lose the fight against him, even if you get hit by every attack or mistime every jump, as the game is programmed for you to win the battle within a set number of turns.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fixing Beanbean Castle's plumbing deactivates the forcefield around the Beanstar. Of course, you have to do this to progress.
• Nobody Poops: Lampshaded when Gadd wants to take a leak. Luigi solves this by vacuuming Gadd into the Poltergust 3000.
  Professor E. Gadd: WHERE'S THE RESTROOM?
  Clerk: Boss! You never built any toilets in this place!
• Non-Indicative Name: The sprite of the special Cobalt Necktie accessory clearly shows a bowtie.
• Non-Standard Game Over: The only Game Over that can happen outside of battle occurs if the player runs out of time escaping Bowser's Castle after defeating Cackletta for good. The screen shakes, followed by a scene of the castle in the sky exploding. In the original version, the screen turns red and the player is immediately taken back to their last save point. In the 3DS remake, the screen turns black and the player is immediately taken back to the title screen.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: The Guffawha Ruins monster. He's actually quite nice, but is annoyed that everyone keeps spreading rumors about him. Once Luigi helps him relieve his stress, he thanks the plumber and opens the path forward.
• Not Quite Dead: Unfortunately, the Mario Brothers do not realize about Cackletta's soul transfer until it's too late.
• NPC Roadblock:
  • Throughout the game, there are multiple large Koopas standing in areas just narrow enough that you can't go around them. You can't do anything with them until Mario and Luigi learn the fire dash maneuver, which allows them to ram the Koopas so hard that they get knocked over, after which point they get up and stand in more convenient locations.
    "Derr...No matter what you hit me with, you can't knock me down!...I think."
  • The remake adds several guards to the area where you would first meet Tanoombas and Troopeas, preventing you from challenging the higher-leveled enemies too early on.
• Ocular Gushers: Peach, who is actually Birdo in disguise, does this at the beginning of the game, and Luigi does it when telling Mario that Peach got kidnapped by Bowletta.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Mario and Luigi at the beginning of the battle against Cackletta's spirit due to the brothers being reduced to 1 HP and always moving second (if they are not overleveled). This can be Defied if either Mario or Luigi is wearing the #1 Trousers, Anuboo Jeans, or Beanstar Pants and uses a healing item.
• One-Time Dungeon: The entire beginning of the game. The Mario Bros. house, Peach's Castle (where you fight Bowser) and Toad Town Square become unreachable once you board the Koopa Cruiser, the Cruiser cannot be returned to after it crashes, and the Mushroom Kingdom side of Stardust Fields all become permanently unreachable after the Border Jump minigame. There's also Chucklehuck Woods Underground (after beating the Chuckolator), the Guffawha Ruins (which can only be visited by Luigi from the entrance), the S.S. Chuckola, the repaired Koopa Cruiser, and the Beanbean Castle Town's houses after the second destruction.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: The Chuckolator, which is literally living soda that grows stronger by the power of jokes.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: Trunkle dies to one or two hits of the Chopper Bros. attack to the forehead.
• Painful Pointy Pufferfish: The Puffer Cheeps are globefishes that initially look like mere blue Cheep Cheeps, but harming them will cause them to inflate, revealing quills that damage the plumbers should they jump on them. Damaging them once more will deflate them.
• Palmtree Panic: Oho Oasis and Gwarhar Lagoon are tropical seaside regions in the eastern part of the Beanbean Kingdom.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • While none of it is necessary for completion, some of the One-Time Dungeon areas contain item blocks that cannot be collected once the player has left the area, though the repaired Koopa Cruiser contains 15 Hoo Beans which, outside of the surfing minigame, are only available in very limited quantities.
  • If the player hasn't collected all five Beanlets and ten Beanstones before the second destruction of Beanbean Castle Town, they miss out on a Golden Mushroom (though duplicates of this item do exist) and the handy Bros. Rock badge respectively.
  • A number of enemies and bosses carry rare equipment that will only be dropped when using Advanced Swing Bros. or by equipping the Game Boy Horror SP. Even worse, most of these aren't guaranteed drops with the rate generally being around 39.22% without the Game Boy Horror SP, which is the last gift the brothers receive from Professor E. Gadd. A special mention goes to the Mecha-Chomp which only has a 16.13% chance of dropping the School Emblem badge when using Advanced Swing Bros. and only when it's malfunctioning. If you're too strong against it, the Mecha-Chomp will be killed before it gets the chance to malfunction. Also, in the western versions of the game, if Luigi doesn't have the Game Boy Horror SP when fighting Piranha Bean, you miss out on the Piranha Suit. (Ludwig always drops the Piranha Suit in the Japanese version.)
  • The remake retains most of the missable content, though bosses that carry items are now guaranteed to drop them. However, it also adds even more missable content. The player can still miss Popple Badge A if Popple flees after defeating Rookie first in the battle at Woohoo Hooniversity and Popple Badge AA if he flees when Birdo is defeated first in Teehee Valley. The player can also miss out on the Revenge Jeans if Jojora flees when her friend is defeated first.
  • In Guffawha Ruins in the remake, the Mari-Lui Badge can be found at the dead-end east of the fourth area, in the ? Block on the right. Elite Chuck Guys and Limbo Bros. also now carry items, the Elite Chuck Guy Badge and the Defense Pants respectively. As the amount of beans required to make all seven blends have been halved from the original version, the player can obtain the Game Boy Horror SP much earlier to guarantee the drops. Make sure that Luigi is equipped with it though. If you don't do this before Bowletta kidnaps Peach in Little Fungitown once, the gates are sealed and your chances are gone for good, and even if the Mario Bros. rescued Peach from Bowletta in Joke's End afterwards, the gates do not reopen.
• Pictorial Speech-Bubble: Occasionally.
  • Luigi can be found in the tutorial area. When interacted with, he speaks unintelligibly as always, though his speech bubbles (one containing Bowser laughing and one containing Bowser walking north) and actions (jumping while facing the north exit) make it clear that he's telling Mario that Bowser's waiting for him to the north.
  • When the Bros. crash-land in Oho Oasis, Luigi calls Mario's name while looking for him, accompanied by a speech bubble with Mario's sprite in it.
  • When Luigi sees a Bowser-esque silhouette in Little Fungitown, he shouts a speech bubble with Bowser's sprite in it. He's only half-right.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Subverted for once, as this game includes one of the few times that the plumbers Mario and Luigi are seen actually working on someone's plumbing.
• Poor Communication Kills: The first few arcs of the plot stem from the fact nobody tells Mario and Luigi what's going on until about a third of the way into the game. This is justified, as Bowser managed to make his way towards Peach before the Mario Brothers did. Fortunately, it doesn't impact the brothers too much, as they still manage to cure Queen Bean after a Beanbean Castle assault and defeat Cackletta for the first time.
• Portable Hole: One of Cackletta's attacks has her send moving holes along the floor, which the brothers have to jump over when they get close. If they fall in, they'll take a chunk of damage and get inflicted with the Heavy G status.
• Premiseville: Beanbean Castle Town is so named because it's populated by beans. Then again, it is part of Beanbean Kingdom.
• Pronoun Trouble: Queen Bean uses "he... she... uh, IT" to refer to Bowletta, the result of Cackletta pulling a Grand Theft Me on Bowser.
• Proscenium Reveal: After the credits, the scene pulls back and reveals the whole game was a movie seen at the Yoshi Theater. This ending is referenced at the opening of the remake, where a movie of the original game is about to play, only for it to be paused before Mario and Luigi arrive and jump through the screen, entering the world of the remake.
• Rare Candy: The Bean Juices. While Woo Beans and Chuckle Beans are plentiful, Hee Beans are only won in minigames, and Hoo Beans are stored in invisible blocks. There's an optional late-game minigame that awards Woo, Hoo, and Chuckle Beans, with the top prize being two of each after getting the first top prize.
• Really 700 Years Old: Throughout their adventures in Chateau de Chucklehuck, the Bros. learn of Bubbles, the original founder and owner of the chateau and the rumored creator of Chuckola Reserve, a mysterious soda so shrouded in legend that some doubt its existence. Every indication is given that this character is long dead...until, of course, Mario and Luigi meet him in the heart of Chucklehuck Woods, where he reveals he's been perfecting his soda for the past 1000 years. And what does perfecting soda for a millennium do? Grant it life and make it try to kill you, apparently.
• Recognition Failure: People failing to recognize who the Mario Bros. are escalates to a Running Gag.
  • Upon first entering Hoohoo Village, Mario and Luigi get accosted by Beanbean Troops who assume they're the ones who kidnapped Prince Peasley. They don't believe the duo until Tolstar tells the guards that the Bros. are telling the truth.
    Beanbean Troop: What's that? You say you're Mario and Luigi? Lies! Bald-faced lies! The superstars of the Mushroom Kingdom would never come here!
  • When Mario and Luigi first attempt to enter Beanbean Castle, the troops stationed outside are unable to recognize Luigi, and seem to doubt that even Mario is who he claims to be.
  • Psycho Kamek, upon seeing Luigi's clothing, identifies him as a big fan of Mario.
  • Hermie III sees Mario's red clothes and mustache and successfully determines him to be... Santa Claus. However, the other residents of Gwarhar Lagoon do properly recognize Mario and Luigi and are overjoyed at the celebrities in their midst.
• Recurring Boss:
  • Popple is fought multiple times throughout the story, and Fawful is fought after the tutorial battle with him.
  • Bowser, even being fought alongside Popple twice. You actually fight him a total of four times.
• Replaced with Replica: Prince Peasley gives Mario and Luigi a fake plastic Beanstar to trick the villains with, but the villains catch onto that. What they don't catch on to, however, is when Luigi disguises himself as Peach and tricks them into thinking they've captured a fake Peach, when they've actually captured the real one.
• Rewatch Bonus: Upon replaying the game, once you learn Peach never lost her voice in the first place, it casts the game's first half in a new light.
  Kingdom Courier Vol. 2: "Mario and Bowser Team Up?" - Our favorite hero, Mario, is leaving for the Beanbean Kingdom with our least favorite villain, Bowser! With Bowser's imminent departure from the kingdom, cries of joy were heard in Princess Peach's Castle.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • Princess Peach and the Beanbean royalty had Cackletta's initial plan foiled before the game even started.
  • Prince Peasley also saves the Bros. from Fawful twice, and blows up Bowser's Castle to stop the attack on the Castle Town in the end.
• Rump Roast: Mario's Firebrand move when he's behind Luigi involves lighting a fire under Luigi's buttocks, causing him to run at breakneck speed.
• Saharan Shipwreck: Complete with a Skeleton Crew. They were carrying a shipment of Chuckola Cola, until one sailor drank too much and broke a hole in the ship. Mario and Luigi inadvertently give the ship its proper burial.
• Say My Name:
  • One of the Bros. will scream the other's name if he gets knocked unconscious during a battle.
  • If the Bros. are separate, looking at the gear or status of the character you're not playing as will have your current character say their name.
  • Luigi screams Mario's name in horror when he comes down with the "bean fever".
• Schrödinger's Question: Downplayed with Jojora's friend. You can choose one of four friends but the only difference is whether their hair is yellow or pink^note Yellow hair means the friend is weak to fire and heals by thunder while pink hair means she is healed by fire but weak to thunder.
• Sdrawkcab Alias: Used to hide the word "fatso".
  Skeleton: Old Bloat is even more of an "ostaf" than before!... Whuzzat? You dunno what an "ostaf" is??? Seesh! It's simple! Try spellin' it backwards!
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Peach's voice was never stolen; it was actually Birdo whose voice got taken away. Which explains why the Beanstar didn't like the voice.
• Shielded Core Boss: Fawful, the second time you fight him, sits inside a mechanical head. In order to get to the man himself, you have to overheat it by attacking it, which makes Fawful come out.
• Ship Level: The S.S. Chuckola, which is landlocked in Teehee Valley. The skeleton sailors here are holding one of the four Beanstar pieces hostage from the brothers, though they're willing to provide it to them if they help Old Bloat out from a crack in the wall. Unfortunately, they end up sinking before they can provide the Beanstar piece, causing it to head to Gwarhar Lagoon.
• Shoot the Medic First: The Troopea family's ability to heal other enemies and in the case of Elite Troopeas and Scaratroopeas, revive them leads to this although they can heal themselves as well.
• Shout-Out:
  • Nintendo had a few taken out — the coffee shop was supposed to have a different Nintendo cameo for each new drink, but Professor E. Gadd's role was expanded at the last minute. The accessories he gives out are all references to the characters that would have been giving them out instead.
  • The Chuckola Bounce minigame features monsters that spit rocks at you called Chuckoroks.
  • The lobby in the Yoshi Theater features movie posters referring to other Nintendo franchises including Kirby, The Legendary Starfy (titled 'Legend of Stafy'), WarioWare and a poster titled M & L, implying it's a movie of the game itself. The remake replaces the posters with those based on later Mario & Luigi games.
• Slapstick: A large part of the humor is found in the Bros. Amusing Injuries;
  • If you have the Mario Bro in the back use their hammer before the team abilities that use it are learned, the front brother just ends up getting squished before turning to angrily let their brother know they were not a fan. Mario igniting Luigi's behind and Luigi zapping Mario in the back are also possibilities with Firebrand and Thunderhand.
  • If you attempt to have Luigi initiate a High Jump while Mario is Mini, Mario can jump up and use Luigi as a coin block, to the detriment of Luigi's crotch and health.
  • Flubbing Bros. Attacks has a tendency to lead to comical fails and humorous injuries for both brothers:
    • Missing the second input of Chopper Bros. has Luigi pop up and get his face flattened by Mario's hammer when he swings it at the enemy.
    • With Fire Bros., Mario failing to charge a fireball or Luigi failing to hit one results in Luigi's overalls being lit on fire, causing him to run backwards and Wrap Around to behind the enemy, where he bumps into them to put it out and deal a little damage on the way.
    • If Advanced Fire Bros. is attempted and at least one fireball is waiting in midair, messing up Luigi hitting a fireball has him slap where the fireball landed to put it out, while Mario receives an Ash Face from failing to hit the floating fireball at the enemy properly.
    • Failing the first input of Knockback Bros. or Cyclone Bros. results in the hammer's head falling off and Luigi failing to shrink Mario. Luigi still goes through with the second swing with just the stick, though, which sends Mario running at the enemy, and subsequently tripping over them for a minor amount of damage.
    • Missing the last input of Advanced Cyclone Bros. has Luigi's hammer head fall off right as Mario swings his brother downward, resulting in the loose hammer head landing on Mario's head once Luigi is out of the way.
• Sleepy Enemy: One of the enemies found in Oho Ocean Seabed are Malibuts, octopus-esque creatures who begin the fight asleep and subconsciously attack Mario and Luigi by blowing bubbles if they're left alone. If attacked, they wake up annoyed at having their sleep disrupted and throw their pillow at the offending brother.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Joke's End, a tomb made from the 'cold reaction to bad jokes,' is a massive building made of ice blocks.
• Sole Entertainment Option: A video arcade in Little Fungitown, and a cinema to the north of Beanbean Castle Town.
• Solo Sequence: There are a few situations in which one brother is out of commission, forcing the other to go alone. In addition, there are many puzzles in which the brothers separate for short times, emphasizing the teamwork in Teamwork Puzzle Game. One dungeon consists of both characters having a solo sequence at the same time. It's Joke's End.
• Stealth Pun:
  • Joke's End is the place all bad jokes go due to their frigid reception.^note Joke's End is a Slippy-Slidey Ice World and is full of tough enemies and puzzles that are no laughing matter.
  • Mario gets to ride Luigi transformed into a surfboard, or a "Weegee^note Ouija Board" if you will.
• Stock Sound Effect: The roars that some bosses emits are a clipped version of Bowser's more animalistic roars in his appearances such as Mario Kart 64, Luigi's Mansion and Super Smash Bros. Melee, though he has his more cartoony vocals in this game. Cackletta in her Bowletta form uses these roars, though.
• Stuck in Their Shadow: Happens In-Universe. Characters recognize Mario, but either forget Luigi, or acknowledge that Luigi is the brother "left behind". This references older games (Super Mario RPG, Super Mario 64, the first Paper Mario 64) where Luigi stayed at home while Mario did everything. This is subverted in-game when Luigi is mistaken for a wannabe recruit.
• Studiopolis: The Yoshi Theater is a brightly-lit movie theater with several movie posters in the lobby.
• Suddenly Shouting: The Toad doctor tells Luigi and Peach that if Mario isn't cured in three days' time, "HE'LL BE A BEAN!" Within the same scene, there's also Peach when convincing Luigi to go Guffawha Ruins which apparently contains a horrible monster.
  Peach: YOU. WILL. GO. YES?
• Suddenly Voiced: Luigi apparently flawlessly mimics Princess Peach's voice when being used as bait in order to save the real princess and take back the Beanstar. As soon as he finishes his mission, he goes back to Speaking Simlish.
• Tennis Boss: Larry Koopa takes this literally, as he uses a tennis racket for one of his attacks.
• Theme Naming: The places around Beanbean Kingdom are named after types of or onomatopoeia for laughter.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Luigi finally gets some recognition (including actually being called by his name) when the brothers meet some in-universe fans.
• Timed Mission:
  • A few of these occur during the adventure such as the minigame with Hoohooros and the Guffawha Ruins monster.
  • A variant occurs when fighting the Koopalings in Bowser's Castle. While you have as much time as you want to choose moves, you must win within a certain number of turns and a Time Bob-omb keeps track of how many turns you have left. Failure to win the battle before the number of turns runs out means you get blown up.
  • As soon as Mario and Luigi defeat Cackletta's Soul, Bowser's Castle is rigged to explode by Prince Peasley. You have several minutes to escape though unless you deliberately hang about, it doesn't take long to flee.
• The Title Saga: Superstar Saga.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky: After the brothers defeat Cackletta, she needs a new body for her soul to stay alive, desperately telling Fawful that anyone will do when he finds one. Unfortunately for Mario and Luigi, the body Fawful found was Bowser, which gives her a huge boost in resources and power.
• Too Dumb to Live: In Teehee Valley, the bros have to guide Peach to the end of the desert safely. If she steps out of your sight, she will be kidnapped and you must save her, then start all over again. The problem is that she is just walking aimlessly, and you have to tell her where to go instead of her following common sense. If she can't defend herself, why not just stay behind the bros?
• Training Boss: Bowser, as the tutorial. He does one point of damage to you (Mario has 11 health), and is automatically defeated when he is damaged on the sixth turn. Your only battle command is to attack him and hence damage him, so it's impossible to lose the fight.
• Tree Top Town: Little Fungitown is a town built by Toads on top of a series of mushrooms.
• Tropical Island Adventure: Oho Oasis and Gwarhar Lagoon take the Bros to a tropical island and a sandy beach, respectively.
• Trrrilling Rrrs: Luigi says "Thunder" this way when selecting the Thunderhand ability.
• Under the Sea: The floor of Oho Ocean is explorable and takes place completely underwater.
• Un Evil Laugh: Fawful has a goofy, high-pitched laugh, in contrast to Cackletta's witch-like cackle.
• Unstoppable Rage: The brothers first meet Queen Bean after Cackletta forced her to eat a Belly Blech Worm, which turned her into a muscular brute that only focused on violent destruction.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Popple has the habit of adding "see?" to the end of his lines, see?
  • Perhaps you noticed the elderly researcher in Castle Town, and his brother in the Yoshi Theater. Both say "perhaps" often... perhaps! (Note: The former uses the word pretty much anywhere in his sentences, whereas the latter always sticks them at the end.)
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Poor Luigi gets on the receiving end of this if you attempt a High Jump when Mario is mini, and have Mario jump just before Luigi lands on top of him. You earn one coin for pulling this off, but Luigi loses one HP in return (4 HP in the remake), and looks like he got racked in the balls. It's hilarious to pull off, though.
  • There's more cruelty than just getting coins from beating Luigi, you can, in the "Joke's End" area, burn the Clumph's hair with a few fire spells to make him run away from battle, crying. or, if you're a fan of violence on friendly people, in Oho Oasis, you can actually battle these Oho Jee creatures by burning or thundershocking them (Remember they are members of some expedition group turned into these creatures.), ESPECIALLY considering they aren't naturally violent until provoked, Meaning you're simply being a jerk destroying people for no reason.
  • Or, if NPC violence isn't your cup of tea, perhaps you'd be interested on more jerky actions, such as, in the beginning of the game, you can take a mushroom away from a Toad (Toads usually respect Mario, y'know), or purposefully give wrong directions to the Koopa person, which makes them upset with you. Or even better, there's a side-quest where you need to find some bean-like dogs, buuut, you can simply take these dogs and run away, never bringing them back to the original owner.
• Video Game Stealing: Swing Bros. Advanced can allow the Bros. to steal an item from an enemy.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Fawful was Cackletta's Dragon, and his strange way of talking was played for laughs.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Queen Bean — at that point, the game quits playing around with you and expects you to really know how to do timed attacks, dodge, and counter. Fortunately, taking out her arms will weaken her.
• Warm-Up Boss:
  • Tolstar, who simply throws spiked balls at our heroes, occasionally trying to fake out our heroes by tossing them above their heads. He eventually starts attacking more when his HP goes down.
  • Before Tolstar comes Fawful, who introduces the concept of enemies telegraphing their attacks to distinguish which brother they are attacking.
• Weak to Fire: Blue Oho Jees are critically weak to Mario's Firebrand while Red Oho Jees are weak to Luigi's Thunderhand. Spiky Snifits and Ice Snifits are also critically weak to fire while Glurps are weak to both elements. Meanwhile, while Clumphs only take normal damage to fire in the original game, but can flee if their toupee is burned, the remake has them take critical damage.
• Weapons-Grade Vocabulary: Peach's (actually Birdo's) voice is stolen and replaced with Cackletta's explosive vocabulary. The characters keep having to scurry out of harm's way whenever she speaks. Then she attempts a full paragraph, and blows out every window in the castle.
• Wham Line: When Peach arrives and begins to speak, the Bros. brace for impact, then she somehow delivers this line...
  Peach: Mario! Luigi!
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Hammering Mario or Luigi or setting fire to/electrocuting Luigi or Mario before they have learnt the appropriate moves will cause the bro in the front to yell at him and scold him for doing this for no reason.
  • Peach wants to go to Little Fungitown. Luigi thinks it's a bad idea. Mario whacks Luigi on the head with his hammer and says "Let's go!" Problem solved.
• Womb Level: The final boss battle takes place inside Bowser/Bowletta's stomach, though it looks more like a volcano interior than a stomach. In the remake it looks even less like a stomach.
• The Worf Effect: At the start of the game, Bowser gets knocked out in one hit by Fawful. The same attack takes at least five hits to down a bro.
• X-Ray Sparks: Mario gets them whenever Luigi uses Thunderhand behind him. A failed Thunder Bros attack can also result in this for both brothers.
• You Have Researched Breathing: Once Luigi learns how to properly shock his brother with the Thunderhand on the field, the Bros. gain the ability to move in sync with one another as well as the ability to walk backwards. Why Luigi needs to electrocute Mario order for them to accomplish this is a mystery.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already: In the GBA version, you can try to use Hammer or Hand actions with the brother that is behind before you know there are Bros Actions that can be pulled off with them. However, if you do so, all you'll accomplish is a small piece of foreshadowing, as well as a pissed-off brother in front.

Tropes appearing in the remake:

• Adaptation Name Change:
  • The very odd-looking Boomerang Bros. from the original game are renamed Beanerang Bros. for the remake so they can keep the same design. Traditional Boomerang Bros. appear in Minion Quest. Averted with the quadrupedal Dry Bones, which keep the same name even though bipedal Dry Bones are also present.
  • The tougher Palette Swaps of certain enemies go by the same names as the first versions in the original game, but here they get the "Elite" descriptor, which was originally exclusive to the Elite Troopea.
• Adapted Out:
  • The Mario Bros. arcade game was not re-embedded in the remake.
  • Geno's cameo is gone in the remake.
  • Psycho Kamek is gone and is replaced with Dr. Toadley.
  • Mecha-Chomps from Woohoo Hooniversity are replaced with Mechakoopas, a standard Bowser troop that appeared in Dream Team and Paper Jam. Both of these enemies share a mechanic where they malfunction after taking a hit, swapping the meaning of their attack signals.
  • The now-obsolete Power Grip is gone entirely. The new fifth cameo item, the Secret Specs, is a Virtual Boy.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The tandem jump (derived from the Trio jump from Paper Jam) simplifies minor platforming sections. Whereas in the original, the player has to press the respective brother's button to even move while jumping, here they both jump with a single button.
• Art Evolution:
  • Several of the familiar enemies who had a different appearance in the GBA game are redesigned to look more like they do in the main games as well as later Mario & Luigi games (for example, Hammer Bros. have paler beaks and aren't barefoot anymore). This also extends to their Beanbean Kingdom derivatives, like Troopeas, who go from being quadrupeds to bipeds.
  • The remake upgrades the Koopalings to look more like they do following their return in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. In addition, they also have lines here — Roy, for example, explains how the Time Bob-ombs work instead of the game.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: In comparison to the previous 3DS Mario & Luigi titles, the game is primarily pixel-based like the original Game Boy Advance version instead of a Sprite/Polygon Mix. It also runs at a full sixty frames per second, instead of thirty.
• The Artifact:
  • Even though the game can now be saved at any point from the menu, Save Albums still exist.
  • In the original, when Mario jumps on Bowser while he's stuck in Tolstar's cannon, he gets three coins. This was done in case Mario and Luigi were to run from the two Fighter Flies before Tolstar and lose all of their money, which Tolstar would take in his introduction. In the remake, there's no way to lose money until Hoohoo Village, but the three coins are still there.
  • There's still a barrel in the room before the boss in Joke's End that was needed to hit a switch to get a Hoo Bean block in the original, even though the remake adds a barrel earlier in the dungeon.
• Begin with a Finisher: Ludwig von Koopa explicitly states that he's going all-out right from the start. He gets the first (and only!) turn of the fight, not letting Mario and Luigi attack at all. Ludwig starts by launching a giant, slow-moving One-Hit Kill fireball into the air and then bombards the Bros. with smaller fireballs while the giant fireball arcs toward them. To survive, Mario and Luigi must use their hammers to fend off the barrage of smaller fireballs and then swat the giant fireball back at Ludwig, defeating him instantly.
• But Thou Must!: Averted with the Hammerhead Bros.' tutorial, which can now be skipped and is even the default option. They even drop the guilt-tripping (i.e., "Ouch! Try bein' polite, will ya?"). You can refuse their help with awkward silence when they insist on showing you. The Koopa on the Koopa Cruiser also allows you to skip his tutorial, but the field move tutorials and the tutorial on how to use Bros. Attacks shortly after in Stardust Fields (the latter case happening once and never again), Chateau de Chucklehuck, and Gwarhar Lagoon still cannot be skipped. However, the Hammerhead Bros. have a new method of guilt-tripping if you refuse their help: they complain the only reason they're even in the game from hereon is just to make the Mario Bros. hammers after filling their end of the bargain, despite the fact that they become essential again when the Bros. need a stronger hammer to deal with stronger boulders.
• Call-Back: The seven Koopalings are still fought in the order from World in the main game, and again with the same pairs with the same strategies. Ludwig, however, gets a completely unique fight like he did in World rather than being grouped with Morton and Roy like in the original.
• Call-Forward: Dr. Toadley appears in this game (in place of Psycho Kamek), though he first appeared in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
• The Cameo: The film posters in Yoshi Theater now feature the Shroobs, Broque Monseur, Broque Madam, Broggy, and Prince Dreambert.
• Console Cameo: The remake replaces the Power Grip with a Virtual Boy. The arcade games at the Little Fungitown Game Center and Bowletta's messages in the remake use a Nintendo 3DS.
• Continuity Nod: In Mario and Luigi's slightly redesigned house are a trophy, a Wii Wheel, a tennis racket, a golf club, a yellow cape and a hardhat with a toolbelt.
• Death or Glory Attack: This is now the tactic of Ludwig von Koopa, throwing a giant orb at you that will kill instantly whoever gets hit, while having to block smaller orbs.
• Easter Egg: There is a different stamp for most areas when you save. The beginning of the game has the emblem of the Mushroom Kingdom (which you can also find in the border area), while Bowser's Koopa Cruiser and his castle has the familiar Bowser silhouette.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: After leaving Beanbean castle for the first time, Luigi will still sulk over not getting a badge, even though enemies can drop them before that point (and he most likely has one equipped by then).
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: While all of the bosses have some plot relevance or foreshadowing, Trunkle attacks out of nowhere and has no extra appearances after his fight.
• Interface Screw: Iggy Koopa does this when you fight him in Bowser's Castle, swapping your stats around on the bottom screen.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Cackletta's Soul is a 3D model instead of a sprite, though her arms are still 2D.
• Retcon:
  • A minor example with Mario's house features several new background items, including those that didn't exist when the original game was released (the Wii Wheel, for example).
  • Bowser's amnesia is originally caused offscreen after being shot out of Tolstar's cannon in the original, but here it's caused by Captain Goomba falling on his head during the events of Minion Quest.
  • Cackletta's Soul's right and left arms are now blue and red respectively, though her design remains unchanged.
  • In the original, the Koopalings were The Voiceless, even their roar was just a noise at best. Here, they have their usual voice acting and can talk, even in Bowser's Castle (Roy Koopa himself explains the Bob-ombs instead of the game). This is likely to follow the fact that they could talk in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.
  • In the original game, it's implied that the Koopalings and most of Bowser's army were brainwashed to serve Bowletta in the endgame. Although Fawful does brainwash the Koopalings in the Minion Quest game, it's retconned when you fight them in Bowser's Castle in the remake, where they (under Captain Goomba's command) are ordered to defeat Mario by Bowser... who is just Bowletta in disguise. This also removes the scene where Bowletta calls the Koopalings as you enter the castle in the original game entirely. Very oddly, this is the only detail in Minion Quest to not line up with the main story in the remake, as how Mario and Luigi still end up fighting the Koopalings is completely unexplained.
  • Thanks to an in-story mixup by Captain Goomba in Minion Quest, the 'Invincishroom' Mario eats in Little Fungitown is clearly a Poison Mushroom. This causes a bit of a plot hole as a result, since there's still dialogue about possibly getting sick eating things from other regions. However, since the Toad who received the Poison Mushroom doesn't actually know what an Invincishroom looks like, it's entirely possible that they never realized Mario ate a Poison Mushroom and is just assuming that Mario's body is not used to the regional food.
• Scenery Porn: The game's graphics look wonderful, having taken Dream Team and Paper Jam's artstyle and improved upon it. Bowser's Castle especially due to the lighting.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Limbo Bros. have a new attack animation in which they launch themselves in a flying headbutt with a pose identical to E. Honda.
  • The Great Force item in Starbeans Café plays the Item Get! tune from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when obtained.
• Sizable Snowflakes: Such starry snowflakes now hover in the air in Joke's End.
• Took a Level in Badass: While a lot of the bosses have been buffed to some extent, Trunkle gets the biggest treatment by making the fight more complex while making it implausible to end the fight in one turn.
• Turns Red: Similar to Paper Jam, once you get a boss at low health, they'll get angry and flash a certain color, something that was only done with Bowletta in the original game.
• Unflattering ID Photo: The game features various locations in the Beanbean Kingdom where the Mario Bros. can get their photos taken, which get reused for their passports. The photographer tells you to avoid pressing the D-Pad directions to make silly poses, but won't bother retaking it if he snaps a passport ID photo of Luigi looking like he's wincing in pain.
• Wintry Auroral Sky: The sky above the frozen Joke's End is now dark and laced with multicoloured auroras.
• You Don't Look Like You:
  • Bink, originally a Donkey Kong-looking skeleton, now looks identical to the rest of the S.S. Chuckola's crew.
  • Inverted with the Koopa Troop, who now look closer to the way Koopas and Goombas do in most other Mario games. The regular Dry Bones retain their Off-Model looks, Spinies have their regular design but keep their green shell with yellow spikes from the original game and the Magikoopas and Hammer Bros. have their regular looks.

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