I can actually remember the first time I ever played Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I was at a friend’s house, and her dad happened to have a few Super Nintendo games, chiefly among them was Super Mario RPG. Not really sure what it was—only drawn in by the familiar visage of my favourite plumber—I popped it in and gave it a try. I was so enraptured by the game that she actually got mad at me when I left her in the middle of playing to go back to it.
Super Mario RPG is one of those strange games that could only really exist in the weird, experimental 90s. Its unique gameplay, impressive visuals, somewhat dark tone, and breaking of familiar conventions made it stand out from any other “traditional” turn-based RPG on the platform. Despite a plethora of solid Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi RPG games, Nintendo has never attempted to recreate the wonderful weirdness of Super Mario RPG—probably due in large part to Square’s involvement, or lack thereof.
And it seems they don’t really have to since everything old is new again, and why fix what isn’t broken? The first in what seems to be a long line of remakes, Super Mario RPG is a stellar recreation of the classic that, for better or worse, updates the original SNES game in almost every way possible.
Fans of the original will be familiar with the story, and Nintendo’s many Directs will have definitely told newcomers. While on a routine princess-rescuing mission, Bowser, Mario and Peach are separated when a massive sword crashes down from the heavens—destroying the Star Road and scattering the seven Star Pieces. Mario must journey across the land, meeting strange new allies and battling even stranger villains to defeat this new foe and restore peace to the land.
“Super Mario RPG is a stellar recreation of the classic that, for better or worse, updates the original SNES game in almost every way possible.”
There’s not a whole lot new to say since the remake leaves the story entirely unchanged. Instead, it’s remarkable to think just how different the story was from a typical Super Mario experience. While it still maintains a sense of playful whimsy that is indicative of the Super Mario world, its overall tone is much darker.
From the Mushroom Kingdom being overrun with Shysters to Rose Town being filled with Toads frozen in place from Bowyer’s barrage of arrows to Moleville being in a panic from two children lost in its mines, every new area of Super Mario RPG’s world is under some kind of crisis—which is usually punctuated by the town being enveloped in a shroud of darkness.
When moments of levity and humour do occur, it’s a genuinely refreshing break from the game’s more dramatic throughline and makes those moments all the more memorable. It’s impossible to forget the Midas River, Booster’s Tower, or Marrymore because, despite being pivotal plot moments, they stand in such stark contrast to the rest of the story.
As was shown in the September Nintendo Direct, the biggest changes to Super Mario RPG come in the form of gameplay adjustments and a complete graphical overhaul. While the majority of the classic gameplay remains intact small quality-of-life improvements and additions freshen it up just enough to differentiate it from the original.
For those unaware, Super Mario RPG pioneered the mechanic of “timed hits,” where if players timed their button presses just right, it could result in bonus damage to the targeted opponent This also allowed for expanded Special Attacks that would provide extra functions for timed presses—the Geno Whirl would do 9999 damage to opponents, and Peach’s “Group Hug” would not only heal more but eliminate status effects on a timed hit.
Timed Hits are a bit more fleshed out in this in a lot of unique ways. For starters, players can chain together successful Timed Hits/Blocks in order to gain certain buffs in combat. Each character has different buffs that apply after a certain number, so who you choose to keep in the party can have different effects. In addition, Super Mario RPG adds is the Action Gauge, which will fill with each successful Timed Hit or Block. Once filled, players can utilize a massive “Triple Attack” which will change or have different effects depending on who’s in your party.
“…the biggest changes to Super Mario RPG come in the form of gameplay adjustments and a complete graphical overhaul.”
Super Mario RPG also reconfigures the Timed Hits to be a bit more rewarding for more precise timing. While you can still pull off a “regular” Timed Hit, if you’re able to hit it just right, then a timed hit will cause splash damage to all opponents. This also applies to blocking, where landing the timing perfectly will negate virtually all damage from an attack. Speaking of blocking, Super Mario RPG also broadens the range of attacks that can be blocked—where certain magic attacks in the original were unblockable. Now, many of these can be blocked with only some group attacks being unblockable.
At first, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this change since the original Super Mario RPG’s combat was very intentionally designed—with Timed Hits being a bonus for attacking singular opponents and certain special attacks targeting all enemies being a big part of the strategy. I worried that it would make the combat too easy. However, the more I played, the more I began to come around to the change.
For one thing, the combat still feels balanced enough that landing a Perfect Hit doesn’t alter the battle too much, but it adds a bit of quickness to each fight that better suits the design of the Switch, particularly as a handheld console. This consideration for handheld design is backed by how the game autosaves whenever you enter a new area of any level—though traditional saves are still available.
While playing in docked mode, you can still see the original’s high bar of quality design present, but these little changes exemplify not only how better suited this remake is to the Switch’s easy pick-up-and-play but how the Super Mario RPG was always meant to be a faster, more action-focused RPG.
Of course, where the game really stands out is in its audio/visual design. It almost feels like a cheat to say Super Mario RPG both looks and sounds amazing since the original featured visuals and a soundtrack that were way ahead of its time—managing to actually achieve a 3D effect on the SNES that could only be rivalled by Donkey Kong Country in terms of quality. Nevertheless, Super Mario RPG enhances all the visuals by bringing them into the modern day—making both the environments and character models cleaner and more detailed.
Adding to this, Super Mario RPG replaces a lot of scenes that played out simply in-game with fully animated cutscenes, which do an impeccable job of bringing the scene to life while remaining true to their SNES counterparts—mimicking much of the original’s sound effects and general pacing. Then there’s the game’s sound design, which enhances some of the game’s unique sounds while still incorporating some of the SNES sound effects and a soundtrack which has been completely revamped with a beautiful combination of old-school chiptune and live instruments.
“Super Mario RPG replaces a lot of scenes that played out simply in-game with fully animated cutscenes, which do an impeccable job of bringing the scene to life while remaining true to their SNES counterparts…”
Again, it’s hard to really comment on the soundtrack, which simply makes what was already an incredible soundtrack even better with modernized music. Interestingly enough, players can switch the music to the original score in the options menu, and it’s incredible to hear just how amazing the soundtrack was—and still is—and how completely it still holds up. You could play this whole game with the original soundtrack and fully believe it was crafted for this game.
While it’s hard to find anything I truly dislike about Super Mario RPG, there are some little things that will probably only annoy me. For starters, the game is as true a remake as the N’Sane Trilogy or MediEvil and controlling Mario still feels like you’re playing the SNES game. As such, some of the platforming is needlessly annoying and maybe even more so with all the added animation frames.
In fact, a lot of the platforming definitely shows the game’s age and could have used some tightening or redesigning. The fluidity of the animation can also make timing your hits a little weird since the original was designed for more simplistic animation frames.
Also, some of the character’s names have been changed—whether it’s to better match the Japanese version, or it was just an updating thing, I’m not sure—and it kind of ruins some of the original’s jokes, or at least just sucks the fun out them. Frogfucius, originally a play on Confucius, is just the Frog Sage. Bellome’s defeat speech has been changed so it doesn’t rhyme, and I, for one, will never forgive this game for removing Mallow asking Mario, “Who do you think are, Bruce Lee?”
However, despite some minor complaints, Super Mario RPG is essentially a 1:1 remake of what was not only an incredible game but a true classic of gaming history. With Nintendo consistently making it complicated to access its own library of iconic games, it’s at least somewhat nice that fans and newcomers will be able to experience one of the best RPGs made in such a refreshed, updated package.
