Ranking the Mario & Luigi games (please respect opinions)!

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I saw a thread of ranking the Paper Mario games, so I thought I should make one for the Mario & Luigi games! Everyone can share their opinions on the games, and please respect them. Everybody has preferences! Please do not spoil anything related to Mario & Luigi: Brothership, there are people who want to play the games but haven't yet.

Here are my rankings! I love all of these games and don't dislike any of them. 1=favorite, 6=least favorite.

  1. Brothership
  2. Dream Team
  3. Bowser's Inside Story (especially the original)
  4. Superstar Saga (especially the remake)
  5. Paper Jam
  6. Partners In Time
 
Sprig said:
In what world is Dream Team better than Inside Story 💀💀
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Dream Team has a special place in my heart for being the first Mario & Luigi game I have played. I have so many memories of the game and have played through it many times over the years. I know Bowser's Inside Story is the fan favorite, and it is a fantastic game, but I didn't grow up playing it like many others have.

In other words, Nostalgia is one reason, but the combat and boss battles were also better in my opinion.
 
Mostly the same as Sparks but with Partners in Time over Paper Jam. Haven't decided where exactly Brothership would go just yet though, but over Superstar Saga at least.

Also, Bowser's Inside Story is a very fun game but I get more excitement out of Dream Team.
 
I made a ranking of the averages of the music of their games (doesn't include Brothership, but does include the remakes).
  1. Bowser's Inside Story
  2. Paper Jam
  3. Partners in Time
  4. Bowser's Insider Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (when doing this I found that this has the worst music)
  5. Superstar Saga
  6. Dream Team (when doing this I found that this has the best music)
  7. Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions
As for the actual ranking
  1. Bowser's Inside Story
  2. Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions
  3. Superstar Saga
  4. Paper Jam
  5. Dream Team
  6. Partners in Time
I have not played Bowser's Insider Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, so it isn't ranked here.
 
1. Superstar Saga & Bowser's Inside Story (they are tied because it's too hard to decide one over the other, also this includes the remakes)
3. Brothership (very happy with how this ended up being pretty much the Super Paper Mario of M&L by the endgame, and it doesn't take a genius to understand why I'd absolutely eat that up, I even want to theme around a certain character but will hold off b/c I don't want to spoil people)
4. Dream Team
5. Partners in Time
(huge gap, I love every game above this)
6. ....the sterile one
 
I won't rank them just yet because I haven't finished all of them. But I will say, I personally have no idea why Partners in Time is consistently listed so low on so many of these rankings. I think it's a fantastic game, and I say this as someone with zero nostalgia for it. I played it for the first time last year and loved it, I'd rank it right up there with Bowser's Inside Story.

The gameplay is fast and fun, just like all the other good M&L games. I love how the babies add extra depth to the bros attacks. You can get extra hits in with X/Y but it gets riskier the longer the attacks go on for, and it's fun to see how much you can get away with.

And speaking of the babies I really enjoyed their presence in this game. I'm not normally a fan of them but in they have a lot of great interactions with the older bros that added a lot of charm to the game.

I loved how the story had a lot more edge to it, compared to Superstar Saga. The first few areas (HolliJolli Village, Toadwood Forest, and Vim Factory) are some of the strangest and depressing places in any Mario game. Overall the game felt much darker than the other M&L games (you wouldn't think the one about babies would be the darkest but yeah).

It doesn't have the greatest OST in the series, but some songs really stand out. Gritzy Desert is by far the best desert theme in any game.
I put off playing PIT for years cause I always heard how it was mediocre and a black sheep or whatever. But when I finally gave it a chance I just loved it. My favorite M&L game has always been Bowser's Inside Story and I've never felt like any of the other games have quite lived up to that. Superstar Saga came close, but didn't quite reach there for me. But when I played PIT for the first time it captivated me in the same way BIS did. I fucking love this game.

And honestly I don't agree with any of the complaints I've heard about it. The big point of contention is that bros attacks are now limited items, but honestly? I didn't have an issue with this system. I actually enjoyed it in a way. It added a resource management system to the game that felt fresh. And having limited attacks meant that I couldn't just spam my strongest attack over and over like I do in BIS. I had to change my strategy to save on bros items and that made the combat more engaging for me. I'm not saying it was the best system or that they should return to it. But for the one game it was in, honestly? I didn't mind it. I don't get why it's such a huge issue.

People complain that the game is linear, and I will concede that is true. The game is kind of structured like Mario 64, where Peach's Castle is the hub and you jump into portals to enter worlds. But this didn't bother me too much, because the levels themselves are still well designed.

I've heard complaints that it "doesn't use the dual screens enough" and I don't think this is true at all. Most of the puzzles are of the babies and bros separated on both screens, switching back and forth to do things to progress. Plus many of the bros attacks use both screens.

It's been pointed out that the game only used the touch screen once. Yeah it's true you only use it one time to clean shit stains off a piece of paper, but I don't think that's a big deal. If anything, it's a strength. I mean Bowser's Inside Story had a lot of gimmicky bullshit it did with the touch screen and mic, so Partners In Time not having any of that is actually good in my eyes.

I know the difficulty is a big point of contention. The NA release is much harder than the other versions and many people don't like that. But honestly, as someone who's been playing these games since childhood, I really appreciated the challenge. There was no point where I felt like the game was unfair. It was consistently challenging the whole way through and I really liked that. Maybe I'd feel differently if I played it as a kid when I was less skilled.

Fuck, I'd even defend the final boss. That's right, I even like the final boss, sue me.

Maybe I should've made a different thread for this cause it's kinda off topic, but PIT is a game I feel very positively towards and I've been wanting a place to express that.
 
Dell Conagher said:
I won't rank them just yet because I haven't finished all of them. But I will say, I personally have no idea why Partners in Time is consistently listed so low on so many of these rankings. I think it's a fantastic game, and I say this as someone with zero nostalgia for it. I played it for the first time last year and loved it, I'd rank it right up there with Bowser's Inside Story.

The gameplay is fast and fun, just like all the other good M&L games. I love how the babies add extra depth to the bros attacks. You can get extra hits in with X/Y but it gets riskier the longer the attacks go on for, and it's fun to see how much you can get away with.

And speaking of the babies I really enjoyed their presence in this game. I'm not normally a fan of them but in they have a lot of great interactions with the older bros that added a lot of charm to the game.

I loved how the story had a lot more edge to it, compared to Superstar Saga. The first few areas (HolliJolli Village, Toadwood Forest, and Vim Factory) are some of the strangest and depressing places in any Mario game. Overall the game felt much darker than the other M&L games (you wouldn't think the one about babies would be the darkest but yeah).

It doesn't have the greatest OST in the series, but some songs really stand out. Gritzy Desert is by far the best desert theme in any game.
I put off playing PIT for years cause I always heard how it was mediocre and a black sheep or whatever. But when I finally gave it a chance I just loved it. My favorite M&L game has always been Bowser's Inside Story and I've never felt like any of the other games have quite lived up to that. Superstar Saga came close, but didn't quite reach there for me. But when I played PIT for the first time it captivated me in the same way BIS did. I fucking love this game.

And honestly I don't agree with any of the complaints I've heard about it. The big point of contention is that bros attacks are now limited items, but honestly? I didn't have an issue with this system. I actually enjoyed it in a way. It added a resource management system to the game that felt fresh. And having limited attacks meant that I couldn't just spam my strongest attack over and over like I do in BIS. I had to change my strategy to save on bros items and that made the combat more engaging for me. I'm not saying it was the best system or that they should return to it. But for the one game it was in, honestly? I didn't mind it. I don't get why it's such a huge issue.

People complain that the game is linear, and I will concede that is true. The game is kind of structured like Mario 64, where Peach's Castle is the hub and you jump into portals to enter worlds. But this didn't bother me too much, because the levels themselves are still well designed.

I've heard complaints that it "doesn't use the dual screens enough" and I don't think this is true at all. Most of the puzzles are of the babies and bros separated on both screens, switching back and forth to do things to progress. Plus many of the bros attacks use both screens.

It's been pointed out that the game only used the touch screen once. Yeah it's true you only use it one time to clean shit stains off a piece of paper, but I don't think that's a big deal. If anything, it's a strength. I mean Bowser's Inside Story had a lot of gimmicky bullshit it did with the touch screen and mic, so Partners In Time not having any of that is actually good in my eyes.

I know the difficulty is a big point of contention. The NA release is much harder than the other versions and many people don't like that. But honestly, as someone who's been playing these games since childhood, I really appreciated the challenge. There was no point where I felt like the game was unfair. It was consistently challenging the whole way through and I really liked that. Maybe I'd feel differently if I played it as a kid when I was less skilled.

Fuck, I'd even defend the final boss. That's right, I even like the final boss, sue me.

Maybe I should've made a different thread for this cause it's kinda off topic, but PIT is a game I feel very positively towards and I've been wanting a place to express that.
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Partners in Time is a great game but all it really comes down to is people liking the other games even more.
 
I'm always the one with the unpopular opinions so I'll defend Partners in Time to my dying breath.

It's not even the black sheep of the series. That would belong to something like Devil May Cry 2.
 
I've only played Dream Team and Paper Jam and liked them both about equally. I guess I'd put Dream Team slightly above Paper Jam. Never played any of the rest and don't really plan to. I also don't really plan to replay either of these two because as a completionist these two games are a nightmare to 100% because of things like the Mad Skillathon, Battle Broque Madame, Boss Battle Ring, Attackathon, etc.

But if there's one reason why I am glad that I tried out these games it's for their soundtracks. Both of these games have great music. Had I never played these games, I would've never been exposed to their soundtracks and I would've seriously missed out on some great tunes.

I'll give a shout out to the fast version of the Dreamy Wakeport theme. I'm glad that I played Dream Team just for that theme alone. I remember when I played that part of the game I would stand still just to listen to the music...
 
I generally pretty much agree with Fawfulthegreat64's ranking. I think it is very accurate as to probably how most fans feel about the games and which are the best ones. My opinion though.

Ray Trace said:
I'm always the one with the unpopular opinions so I'll defend Partners in Time to my dying breath.

It's not even the black sheep of the series. That would belong to something like Devil May Cry 2.
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Your opinion's not unpopular with me, Ray Trace. I think all the games in the series are great.
 
I remember being on GameFAQs, I think before Dream Team came out, and people were debating what the best M&L game was.

The games mentioned in the thread were Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story. There was no mention of Partners in Time.

Anytime I did hear something about the game it was always negative. I think it's fair to say that before Paper Jam released, Partners in Time was the least liked Mario & Luigi game. Because of this I never bothered playing it until just recently. Then when I did I was blown away with how good it was.

Moral of the story: Never listen to the opinions of GameFAQs users :yoshi:
 
Ray Trace said:
I'm always the one with the unpopular opinions so I'll defend Partners in Time to my dying breath.

It's not even the black sheep of the series. That would belong to something like Devil May Cry 2.
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I think given the trajectory of things, Paper Jam will wind up being #2 on your list
 
Christmas Who? said:
Paper Jam is great, I really don't understand the hate behind it
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I think it's an underrated game. Yeah the crossover was a missed opportunity story-wise and there aren't any new characters, but the gameplay is still the amazing Mario & Luigi style we all love.
 
LeftyGreenMario said:
I think given the trajectory of things, Paper Jam will wind up being #2 on your list
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That game had Toadette as the Papercraft General so I'm going to guess it'll probably be #2 out of all Mario & Luigi games.
 
1. Superstar Saga
2. Brothership
3. Dream Team & Partners In Time
4. Bowser's Inside Story
5. Paper Jam

I likea my M&L focused pretty strictly on the Brothers themselves, or gimmicks that tie back their relationship. Paper Jam is higher than Bowser's Inside Story in the gameplay department for sure but I do prefer my M&L's to not feel so derivative storywise so BIS gets put above. But believe me when I say both of those games leave me with very little interest in them (never finished Paper Jam and last time I thought about BIS itself was that Luigi & Luigi: Luigi's Inside Story + Luigi's Journey meme).

Brothership gets number two because they managed to invest me into something other than the Bros for once which should make it number one actually but when put between cables or Luigi in a dress Luigi wins 100% of the time. Sorry, I don't make the rules.
 
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