Every MAR10 Day, we try to focus on our favourite plumber turned hero, but as Dayna Elieen poignantly said, “we can only do so many ‘I love Mario’ posts.” However, this year felt particularly special to me since yesterday, March 9th, 2026, marked the 30th anniversary of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I spoke before about my first interaction with Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, but it’s interesting to consider why it had such a hold on me at the time.
From the moment I laid eyes on the cartridge, I was completely enraptured. Seeing Mario, Peach and Bowser in what appeared to be 3D—even if Bowser was just a collection of spheres—made Mario feel so much bigger and more advanced than ever before. And the strange image of a strange, eyeballed sword sticking out of a castle against a red sky made the game seem much darker and more serious than Super Mario had been known for.
Around that time, the only RPG I had been familiar with was Final Fantasy Legend II on the Game Boy, and given that I was about six years old at that time, while I had some experience with the genre, I wasn’t particularly adept at it. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, by comparison, was incredibly easy to get into because it captured the basics of the RPG formula while maintaining the fun and accessibility of the Super Mario franchise.
Little did I fully realize at that time, but it was the partnership between Nintendo and SquareSoft that made the game so genuinely brilliant. Shigeru Miyamoto, Chihiro Fujioka and the development teams at both Nintendo and Square worked incredibly hard to make Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars not only a solid RPG, but one that was authentically Mario. Fujioka said in a 1995 interview, “The main concern for all involved was that we didn’t want to make a ‘normal’ RPG that simply substituted in Mario characters, like some cheap Final Fantasy sprite-swap.”
He continued, “And yet, the basic core of the game was Mario…it’s a Mario RPG, which means an RPG featuring things that only Mario can do: jumping, dashing, and so forth.” And I think that’s exactly what made the game so brilliant. While it still involves a certain degree of strategy, so much of the game was faster-paced and more action-focused. Almost every level on the world map features some degree of platforming, and some levels, like the Midas River or Booster Hill, are just straight-up action setpieces.
For a 1996 RPG on the Super Nintendo, it had a level of dynamism that not a lot of more “straightforward” RPGs had. But Square’s influence can be seen throughout Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars in levels like the Return to Mushroom Kingdom, Star Hill, and the Sunken Ship. These areas have a much sombre atmosphere, darker colour palettes and even more melancholic music that better fit the tone of a Final Fantasy than a Super Mario game.
But it also felt so technologically advanced for a game released in 1996, thanks to some clever visual design and rendering techniques. Similar to Donkey Kong Country, seeing a game move that smoothly in what appeared to be 3D was like witnessing a miracle in real time. It made Mario’s world feel bigger and more alive than it ever had before.
“I can’t think of a better game to pop in to celebrate MAR10 Day, whether it’s the 30-year-old original or the Switch remake.”
I’ll never forget stepping into Star Hill for the first time, seeing its vast, dreamlike atmosphere set to its twinkling yet reverent music—set in a more minor key, giving it an almost religious tone—and getting a little emotional as I read all the various wishes scattered about. I remember, even as a kid, having a moment of pause when finding the wish that read “I want to be a great hero, like my brother Mario.” As a younger brother myself, that one sat with me.
Or getting to the Sunken Ship for the first time, and feeling completely trapped by a sequence of devious puzzles. The music did an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere, with the sounds of creaking wood, crashing waves and ghostly wails filling our darkened room as we played late into the night, trying to solve the puzzle that would have us face a Giant Blooper miniboss.
And, like I said in my review, “it’s remarkable to think just how different the story was from a typical Super Mario experience.” From a narrative perspective, populating the world with characters common to the Mushroom Kingdom, but altered in unique and fun ways—like the residents of Moleville or Nimbus Land, which could essentially be Monty Moles and Lakitu Clouds.
The inclusion of interesting party members like Mallow and Geno made the Super Mario universe feel so much bigger and more creative, and there’s no denying what a monumental moment it was for a six-year-old Super Mario fan to have both Princess Peach AND Bowser join Mario on his adventure. It was a level of storytelling that was easy enough for a child to understand, and creatively different enough to resonate.
But of course, no conversation about Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars would be complete without mentioning its battle system. The implementation of “Timed Hits” was one of the single greatest contributions that was ever applied to the RPG genre. It added an extra layer of depth by rewarding players for being strategic in combat, but active participants in it.
It was something so brilliant, born of a desire to maintain the “action” feel of Super Mario present within an RP. To this day, when games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 essentially lift it whole-cloth for their battle systems—because why fix what isn’t broken—they’re heralded as revolutionary, simply because only the Mario RPGs seem to remember it’s something turn-based combat can do.
I can’t think of a better game to pop in to celebrate MAR10 Day, whether it’s the 30-year-old original or the Switch remake. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars isn’t just one of the best RPGs ever made; it’s one of the best Mario games ever made. It’s a testament to the unparalleled creativity that Nintendo’s iconic mascot can bring to almost every genre and style of gameplay.
