As a fan of Mario RPGs, I never got into the original Super Mario RPG. I tried my best to enjoy it, but I could never get into it in the same way I did for Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
I think the biggest reason behind this is that Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars served as the foundation of those games. That’s not a bad thing, mind you, but just a declaration that those two other Mario subseries took what was already established by Legend of the Seven Stars and built upon it to make something more distinct and unique. In that regard, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is somewhat forgettable and has only become more and more forgotten in recent years as those two other franchises gained prominence. Because of this, the game has become somewhat of a cult hit as it became harder and harder to play, much like how Sonic CD was thought of as this lost Sonic classic because the game was just that hard to come across.
Now, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars came out in 1996, only five months before Super Mario 64. The first Mario RPG was only rereleased sparingly by Nintendo, and currently, prices of the original cartridge hover around $100. Time has turned the original SNES game into a cult classic. So, it was about time for the game to be remade and reintroduced to modern audiences 27 years after its original release. The game, now shortened to Super Mario RPG, is a perfectly fine and serviceable RPG that is sure to please anyone who plays it, but I think that there are plenty of other RPGs that came out this year that are far, far better.
After a brief intro where Mario once again defeats Bowser and rescues Peach, a giant sword crashes into Bowser’s Castle and sends all three of them across the Mushroom Kingdom. The sword, we learn much later in the game, is an envoy of Smithy, who is attempting to invade the Mushroom Kingdom with his manufactured soldiers. While arriving, the Smithy Gang also inadvertently destroyed the Star Road, which grants the wishes of all people in the Mushroom Kingdom. So Mario, alongside Bowser, Peach, and newcomers Mallow and Geno, set off on a quest to collect the pieces of the Star Road and stop the Smithy Gang from taking over the Mushroom Kingdom.
Super Mario RPG is an incredibly linear RPG with very little side content. That isn’t to say that there are no sidequests that players can undertake or optional fights to test your skills, but Super Mario RPG is more interested in shuffling you from setpiece to setpiece at a brisk pace. One moment, you may be exploring a forest filled with Wigglers, then less than an hour later, you’re on a wild mine cart ride, then another hour later, you’re crashing a wedding with a monster cake. There’s a plethora of creativity in these moments, even if they don’t last all that long and inject a jolt of energy into the entire experience. They’re all the more unique since virtually none of Super Mario RPG’s cast and side characters ever make other meaningful appearances in the franchise. I know there’s plenty of love for Geno, but we need more Booster, too!
If you’ve played another Mario-themed RPG, you’ll know how a lot of how Super Mario RPG functions. You have a small party of playable characters, in this case, three, and you’ll be able to do one of four things with each of them – use basic attacks, special attacks, items, or defend. While you can just select the move and be done, special attacks and basic attacks can be timed with a button press in order to do more damage. At the same time, if an enemy attacks you, you can time a button press in order to reduce the amount of damage you take. By 2023, it’s fairly standard for the series, but back in 1996, this was a nice way to increase engagement during combat, especially given how easy a lot of Super Mario RPGs are.
Despite playing the game on Normal difficulty as opposed to the easier Breezey difficulty, I rarely, if ever, faced a challenge in Super Mario RPG. Boss encounters are pretty straightforward, and the game showers you with opportunities to make your life easier. When you use items, there’s a chance to keep the item you just spent. Upon beating an enemy, there’s a chance you can get a random stat boost. You can get stat boosts by continuing to execute timed attacks accurately, making you even stronger the longer a fight goes on. You can even double the amount of experience or coins you get after a fight by completing a basic shell game minigame. To be clear, easy is not necessarily a bad thing, especially given how Super Mario RPG frames itself as being a beginner’s RPG. But there’s a difference between being beginner-friendly and being braindead, and at times, the game is so easy that it just devolved into button-mashing.
Make no mistake, the game can and will put up a challenge as the game goes on, but only near the very end and in the post-game. I don’t really mind this since it makes Super Mario RPG a game that anyone can play and beat while being difficult for anyone who is trying to fully complete the game, much like a Kirby game. But when the majority of this 10-12 hour experience is as easy as it is, then it can become boring as the game just forces you to go from easy challenge to easy challenge. The frequent minigames do a lot to break up the pace, but eventually, you’ll run out of side content and have to keep going with your adventure.
For as easy as the game may be, I loved virtually everything about the game’s presentation. All of the characters have this model-like charm to them, not dissimilar from how the characters in the remake of Link’s Awakening looked. The models look clean, and it actually allowed me to see what some of these characters looked like outside of the SNES version’s pixelated visuals. Speaking of the SNES version, the original soundtrack composed by Yoko Shimomura is intact, alongside a new updated soundtrack arranged by her that you can swap between at a moment’s notice. I love it when games do this, and I loved flip-flopping between the two soundtracks and deciding what my favorite version of each song was (spoilers: the original SNES version has the better compositions).
As far as new additions in this remake go, most of them are minor quality-of-life features like several of those aforementioned stat boosts, new post-game content, and a journal that includes a bestiary, a journal that shows major highlights in your playthrough, and a sound player. There are also Triple Moves that you can use in battle, which can only be used when an action meter reaches 100% by executing timed attacks. For as nice as these features are, there’s nothing really substantial when compared to the base game outside of a general touch-up. This is a barebones remake of a pretty barebones game, but it presents everything with the kind of beauty you would expect from a 2023 Nintendo game.
For as much as I loved seeing Super Mario RPG remade, I can’t help but acknowledge that the game feels antiquated by today’s standards. It’s nice to see the game in a new light, but I can’t fully recommend this game if you’ve played the original and loved it. If you were to get this remake, it would primarily be because of convenience, given how the original Super Mario RPG isn’t currently available on modern platforms. If it was, then I don’t think I can fully recommend Super Mario RPG when compared to its original version.
That being said, the game is still a fun experience. It’s a quaint and simple little RPG that captures a lot of old-school Mario charm that you just don’t see in the franchise nowadays. If this is your first Mario RPG or your first RPG in general, then Super Mario RPG is a great place to start. If you want to relive those bygone days of the SNES version, then your nostalgia may start to crack as the game’s easier difficulty and lack of content begin to rear their heads.
