Mario & Luigi gets my award for the most aptly titled game this year. It’s essentially the third Super Mario RPG, after the SNES original and the N64 quasi-sequel, Paper Mario. This time around, Mario has brought his brother along, and they must work together to complete the quest. According to the plaque in Nintendo’s booth, someone has stolen Princess Peach’s voice and replaced it with “explosives”. Either that’s a bad translation, or this will be one of the wackiest Mario storylines yet.

At the core of the gameplay, however, is a very simple, yet innovative idea. You must control both Mario and Luigi…at the same time. The dual-character thing has been done before in games like Banjo-Kazooie, Jak & Daxter, etc. But Mario & Luigi implements the concept quite differently, because you can’t just control one plumber and have the other one tag along in the background. You actually have to control both at all times, and that means during field exploration, turn-based battles, and mini-games. It’s a rather intriguing approach that should yield all sorts of unique results for the game, if handled properly.

In the E3 demo, the A and B buttons each make one of the brothers jump; which button corresponds to which character depends on the order, which you can change with Start. In other words, sometimes Mario is walking out in front, and sometimes Luigi is leading the duo. The only problem is that it’s very hard to keep up with which button makes which man jump. There’s a display in the corner to tell you, but I found myself having to glance up there way too often. It would be better if the jumping assignments were absolute, e.g. pressing A always makes Mario jump, and pressing B always makes Luigi jump. That’s how it already is for the battles, and having the assignments flip back and forth just adds confusion to other parts of the game.

In the field, Mario and Luigi follow each other around at your D-pad’s command. The Select button brings up the sub-screen, where you can view each brother’s status and use items, etc. Pressing R changes the function of the lead character from normal jumping to some special ability. Mario can jump onto Luigi’s shoulders and do a spin jump, which lets him hover in the air and fly to distant ledges. Luigi can jump onto Mario’s shoulders and do a super-high jump, which lets him reach very tall ledges. These moves have to be used creatively in order to find secret areas and reach the next map. I’m assuming that the final game will include many more of these special jumps. The maps themselves were pretty well designed, although the isometric view did confuse me a few times as to which platforms were at which depth or height. Enemies are roaming around in the field, and when you touch one, you enter a battle; I couldn’t find any bonus for jumping on the enemies or touching them from behind, but I really hope the final game addresses that.

Speaking of battles, they are very much like those found in Paper Mario, which can only be a good thing. For each character, you choose the type of action, and then press the button again at certain times to deal extra damage. There are team-up attacks for each character, which serve as the game’s magic spells. These special moves let you press A and B in certain combinations to do quite a bit of extra damage to the enemies. On-screen cues from the characters tell you when to press which button, but you have to be fast, and practice definitely helps. When enemies attack Mario and/or Luigi, you can press A and/or B to make the characters jump and avoid taking damage, or even land on the enemy’s head and dish out a counterattack. I am really pleased to see that the enemies can learn to anticipate your jumping, and they have various means of messing up your timing. It makes you pay close attention if you want to successfully interact with the battles, which are still primarily turn-based. Bosses throw even more clever twists at your jumping skills, including attacks that would take aim at both of the brothers, either simultaneously or alternately. One boss attacks with a laser, which sweeps vertically up and down, across the feet of each plumber in turn. Avoiding this deadly attack means pressing A, then B, then A, and so on, but the timing varies from turn to turn.

At the end of each battle, you are awarded experience points (and, if I remember correctly, coins). When one of the brothers gains a level, all of his dozen or so stats are increased by a few points. Then you get a bonus stat upgrade, which you can apply to the attribute of your choice. A little slot machine will determine whether that attribute is boosted by one, two, or three points. It’s a nice way to let you customize your characters, without giving you too much control of their abilities.

Finally, I have to mention the insanely difficult jump roping mini-game. Mario and Luigi encounter the Hammer Bros., who challenge the plumbers to a game of “Double Dutch” jump rope. But rather than swing the rope, the Hammer Bros. just drag it along the ground; regardless, the rope is rendered with some kind of rotating/scaling sprite, and it looks great. Mario and Luigi are still, as always, controlled with A and B, and you have to make them jump and avoid touching the rope at all costs. Each character is allowed three touches, and if either one runs out, you have to start over or give up. I watched other players attempt this mini-game over and over, with no success. It’s much harder than it looks, as the Hammer Bros. get increasingly dirty in their patterns and tactics. If this is the kind of quirky, challenging, brilliant gameplay we can expect from Mario & Luigi, it’s going to be a game to remember. Chalk it up as one of my most highly anticipated GBA titles.