Super Mario Comrades (2002)
Platform: Nintendo GameCube (GCN)
Based on several ideas for a third PlayStation Mario game, Yoshiaki Koizumi chose to combine the collect-a-thon with the tag-team miltiplayer style of Rare's Donkey Kong Empire for the PlayStation.
Gameplay
In the game, the player controls five different characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, and Prince Cream - the last of whom is Peach's brother, and was introduced in
Super Mario Ultra 2. Each of these characters has different abilities that the player can use obtain various collectibles, including how they attack enemies and powers granted to them through an item called the Special Flower, which lets them get an ability that makes traversing a stage easier, and are important for 100% completion.
| Character | Description (From Official Nintendo Instruction Booklet) | Special Attack | Special Flower Ability |
| Mario | Our main hero, and the one we all know and love. Reasonably strong, consistently reliable, and the classic jack-of-all-stats. | Mario can roll head first into enemies to knock then out then attack them. | Balloon Power: Mario can inflate from the stomach out like a balloon, and reach high-up places. |
| Luigi | The timid brother of Mario can jump a little higher and a little farther, and run a little faster. However, he does suffer from poor traction. It doesn't matter too much though, since the world is always full of tradeoffs. | Luigi can throw a sucker punch that goes far enough to damage enemies and activate switches. | Vanish Power: Turns Luigi invincible, and lets him travel through pretty much any solid matter. |
| Princess Peach | Making her first playable appearance in 14 years, Peach's high heels make her the slowest of the bunch. On the other hand, her dress means she can have some control over where she lands if she's jumping high. | Peach can twirl around in a way that makes her stun enemies before attacking them. | Flight Power: Peach grows a pair of wings out of her back that allows her to fly. This power is not unlike the Wing Cap in the Ultra duology. |
| Princess Daisy | Like Peach, this spunky girl uses her dress to guide where she lands. Unlike Peach though, she also uses a double jump to reach places higher than what even Luigi and reach, and gets her get over larger voids than the others. | Daisy can spin in the air while jumping, allowing her to take down airbone enemies more easily. | Metal Power: Turns Daisy into heavy metal, which gives her stronger power and invincibility. With this form, she can walk underwater, but sinks more quickly in quicksand and dies instantly if she touches lava (it's metal, after all). |
| Prince Cream | The youngest of our playable characters by at least 10 years, Cream is also the fastest and most agile of the cast. However, he is also quite a bit weaker, and is more vulnerable to damage from enemies. But his sheer psychic energy makes most obstacles and enemies easy to confront. | Cream can use his telekinetic powers to stun enemies, making them easier to attack. | Mega Power: Like what the mushroom does IOTL's Mario 64 DS, Cream will turn into a giant who is invincible. The shoes also protect Cream from being hurt if he walks in cold ice, quicksand, or lava. |
The design of the game's main worlds and levels are also different from those of the
Ultra duology, taking more inspiration from other PlayStation Collect-A-Thons like
Spyro The Dragon and
Banjo-Kazooie than said Mario games. However, the classic tradition of collecting various trinkets - most notably Power Stars - remains. Unlike in past games though, the stars are color-coded to avoid confusion with other stars in the same level (these stars are the colors of the rainbow, plus pink, cyan, black, white, gray, and brown), since the player is not booted out of a level and can wonder around it as long as they please. Missions that involve collecting Power Stars can range in nature from bosses, to racing or doing tasks for NPCs, or rescuing all of the seven Sprixie Princesses from each world (like
Banjo-Kazooie's Jinjos, these Sprixies are color-coded, the difference is that in each world, you take then to the Queen Sprixie that can be found in a random location). In total, there are 12 stars to collect in each of the 15 worlds, then another 20 to collect in the overworld and various secret levels, leading to a grand total of 200 stars.
Once the main mode has been completed to 100% completion, players are treated to the "One-Man Missions" Mode. This mode uses the same game as the main game, but requires players to select a character before they go in to a mission, then stay with said character until the mission is finished or the character dies. Another mode that's unlocked after completing the game at least once is "Mode of the Kings", where you play as King Toadstool, Peach and Cream's father, for the entire game.
Worlds
Much like in every other collect-a-thons, much of the game's action takes place in various levels that are accessed from a hub world - said hub being a New England-esque costal town known as Port Able. Unlike in the Ultra duology, where the links to the other worlds were magical, this world is linked to the levels via various real-life transporation modes. In Port Able are 10 different minigames that can be played to earn several different Rainbow-colored Power Stars, while the game's last 10 are in various secret levels scattered across the world, which force players to utilize the different playable characters for various tasks.
The game's main worlds are:
Argllyn: A Wales-themed village located in a valley with a lake, as well as a mountain. This is a basic level that acts as a playground where Mario and Luigi's movesets are tested. Included is a boss fight with King Goomboss and his numerous different Goomba types. As well as meeting the Sprixie fairies for the first time, which Mario and Luigi need to save to get one of the major stars.
Queasyton: A city that's so high up in the air that most buildings have passages to connect pedestrians, as well as some places built on top of clouds. However, many of these bridges are under maintenance. As a result, Peach and her Flight Ability are used the most in this level. Especially when an Albatoss boss arrives to cause havoc for Wart.
Phantom Peaks: A Bed-&-Breakfast filled with riffs on classic horror characters from around the world. Most notable is the boss fight with the vampire Count Ustroi. In this fight,any player can be used but Peach is the best. Another mission includes jumping down a well with so the Sadako spoof living down there can have some company. Not to mention spoofs of the Addams family getting your help to find where their children were playing hide-and-seek.
Hotel Wario: A seaside resort run by the Warios, which includes a casino where only the adult characters are ever allowed to enter; meaning Cream needs to sneak in for a star only he can get at one point. Other stars derive from maintenance in the elaborate water park/artifical beach, and repairing other parts of the building. Add on a boss fight with Petey Pirahna, which Wart sent to terrorize the place, in the main lobby.
Carnivorous Caverns: A network of abandoned mines and catacombs that are now used as a hideout by those brave enough to resist Wart's aggression against the rest of the planet's nations. Tricyclude is fought as the level's main boss, with many smaller carnivorous monsters to look out for as you get stars by doing missions for the resistance fighters.
Sunken Citadel: The new Atlantis-like level for the game. Here, Daisy's Metal ability is used extensively to allow the player to access the numerous buildings that are too deep rto swim into directly. Included in this level is many recycled elements of Wet Dry World from Ultra, namely water level changing. That said the city shows some rather gruesome history of its sinking. Not to mention the boss of the level being a Leviathan that Daisy must sink into the water to take down.
Cyborg Playground: New AI-powered war machines are trialed in this level under Wart's orders in a laboratory. Most of the level involves sneaking under the machines' radar, making Luigi's Vanish ability especially useful here. However, Peach's Flight Ability is how you defeat the resident Mecha-birdo boss. Mix on a theme derived from those of the Great Bay Temple and
The Terminator.
Twinklelight Village: A Christmas-themed village in the mountains of northwest Fungaria that is accessed by rail. This level involves Mario taking part in a ski competition and Prince Cream helping a local toy company deal with Jack-In-Ape, a "Deranged Robotic Ape Toy" which acts like Mad Jack from OTL's DK64 - except that Cream defeats him by growing in size, and throwing the big evil toy into water where it electrocutes.
Rogueport Harbor: A large industrial center, albeit with more elements of abandoned or declining machinery. A lot of the missions are akin to Ricco Harbor in the later game Sunshine, as well as Jiggies in Banjo-Kazooie's Rusty Bucket Bay. The boss here is a sentient AI-powered submarine that tries to launch a balistic missle at the Harbor, and Mario has to use the Torpedo Teds its sends against sub.
Hotdune Desert: Unlike most other desert levels in Mario games, this game derives less from Egypt and more from the Middle East's pre-Islamic kingdoms in general. That said many of the enemies from Land's Birabuto Kingdom make their return. The boss here is a sphynx who asks you questions about the characters. Get one wrong, it's more ferocious until you knock it down again. Once you answer correctly three times, the sphynx quits.
Dyabterre: The swamp level of the game, which is mainly derived from the Louisiana Bayou at first. Notably included is a mission where Mario must swim through cheep-infested waters to a grotto. All of this is of course topped off with an airplane graveyard where you also look for some stars. The boss here is a witch who was executed by being thrown into the swamp to drown centuries ago.
Crumbledust Ruins: The remains of an ancient kingdom straight out of Fire Emblem, which was abandoned when their harnessing of lightning's power stated causing trouble. Now, Prince Cream is the most adept at traversing this area due to his speed making him ideal for the fast platforming required. Also included is a boss battle with the electrical being who was created to harness the lightning.
Heckbeard Armada: Captain Heckbeard has gotten himself a fleet of modern ships courtesy of Wart. Now, the Mario Gang must get on board them and steal the stars that power said armada. Heckbeard and be fought with any of the characters, unlike most other boss characters I've detailed so far. Additionally, you have to get other stars by getting some medicine to sick crew members and repair the turbine engine on one of the ships.
McCrackentoa: A volcanic island where the namesake volcano is notorious for its sulfuric nature. Here, Cream is regularly used in his Mega Power form to cross blue lava to get to various islands inside the volcano. Likewise, a boss is featured here in the form of some Sumo Fire Bros. Additional elements including trying to defuse the volcano before it can erupt and destroy a village below.
8-Bit Land: The final major level; an amusement park used as a sort of hideout for Wart and his thugs. Incldued is a boss in the former of a malfunctioning AI clown, as well as the Princesses having to round up some rowdy shoolkids on an end of the year field trip. Another star has Prince Cream become the main attraction of a freak show, with the adults having to bust him out, and Luigi also having to climb an anamatronic of a cyclops.
Additionally, several mini-levels are featured where only one star can be gotten, and these are also accessed from Port Able, in no particular order these are:
Bowser's Submarine: Mario must enter this large submarine alone, and use Balloon Power to access out-of-reach switches to finally confront Bowser and save Peach.
Tatanga's Spaceship: Luigi must enter, and combat the alien alone to save Princess Daisy.
Mouser's Laboratory: In this sadistic rodent's experimentation lab, Prince Cream has been taken captive for use in torturous studies. Only his sister can come in and save him, here the music is more derived from DKC's Fear Factory.
Port Able Municipal Children Hospital: Here, the player has to go around entertaining and/or comforting sick children. Eventually, the work is rewarded with a Power Star.
Sprixie Playground: Essentially a bigger Sprixie mission where there are more of several colors than in the normal levels. Now there are 30 of the things instead of the twelve in normal levels.
Sky Isle: Use Mario's Balloon Power to rech neight heights and look on the back of a large Troopa to find the star.
Phanto's Prison: Prince Cream must combat the Phanto before it can completely break out of its prison.
Flight of the Kado Bird: A species of large bird has its newborn flying around Port Able. Now the player can fly around on said bird to reach the mountain home where a star is.
Coin Coffer Pond: The player has to defeat enough Coin Coffers to get the 1000 coins needed to get the sub-level's star.
Temple of Traps: The player enters an old temple that is dedicated to evading or triggering booby traps.
Another 10 stars can be found by doing various minigames in Port Able. All of which harness a certain character's special ability in some way or another. Like using Metal Daisy to get through a flooded basement to open a drain valve, or using Peach to get some stranded climbers down to safety.
Plot
Mario receives a letter early one morning from Princess Peach, requesting that he joins her and the others for a vacation at the coastal town of Port Able. When he arrives however, he finds that only King Toastool, the current King of Fungaria, is there. King Toadstool calmly explains to Mario that Wart has returned from Subcon, and is now invading Fungaria and the rest of their corner of the universe. He kidnapped the others to lure Mario into a trap.
Naturally, Mario heads off to the rescue. First he finds Luigi, and after the two have collected at least three stars, Bowser's Submarine arrives and sends various Koopa Troop enemies to land. Mario goes in to confront Bowser and save Peach. After that, the group collects more Stars until the total is 7 - at which point Luigi then has to board Tatanga's airship to save Princess Daisy. After collecting 10 stars the group learns that Mouser is hold Prince Cream hostage in a lab in the mountains. After Peach saves him, the entire game picks up in pace, and becomes darker too.
When the player finally has at least 170 stars, a large battleship appears off land, and starts attacking Port Able. This level has the five characters test their abilities to their utmost extreme. In the end, the five confront Wart, who uses the Book of Enzar to get stronger for each of the boss' five phases, where the charactes must exploit their own special powers to bring him down. With Wart defeated, the group returns home for a well earned rest, but it's then revealed Wart has escaped via a mini-submarine.
Reception
Acclaimed upon release by fans and critics, this remains one of Nintendo's best-selling titles, and the best seller for the entire GameCube's run.
(at least, i'm pretty sure it was)
