Quick Links
Summary
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is getting a complete overhaul and rebuild for the Nintendo Switch, offering a delightful rendition of a historic treasure with the same irreverently weird humor and novel gameplay.
- The game introduced a slightly sarcastic edge to the Mario mythos, giving Mario a "voice" through mutely gesturing and transforming into other characters to communicate. It expresses Mario's earnestness, heroism, and exasperation at surrounding events.
- The new remake of Super Mario RPG stays true to the original while adding finer visual details. The active combat system, timed button presses, and unique characters and species are among the highlights. The game also offers a new difficulty option, gameplay tweaks, and flashy cinematics.
Nintendo’s first-party overhaul remakes are a rarity, especially when it comes to Mario, which made the first the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series. Whether or not Squaresoft’s quirky classic can still match blows with contemporary turn-based offerings, it remains a delightful rendition of a historic treasure, packed with the same irreverently weird humor and novel gameplay as before.
Super Mario RPG introduced a slightly sarcastic edge to temper the generally saccharine and straightforward Mario mythos. In some ways, this game’s Mario evokes the work of Buster Keaton and other silent film stars, mutely gesturing as wildly as the tech allowed, frequently transforming into other characters to communicate with NPCs in something akin to charades. In a way, the game gave Mario a “voice” in spite of his lack of dialogue, effectively expressing his earnestness, heroism, and continued exasperation at surrounding events.
Super Mario RPG Remake - Release Date, Gameplay Details, & Changes
The classic Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is going to be reimagined for the Nintendo Switch with the truncated title: Super Mario RPG.
In addition to the expected toads, goombas, koopa troopers, and the Princess – updated here as Peach instead of Toadstool, one of several name changes in the text – Super Mario RPG brought in a clutch of other characters and species unique to this entry. There’s the thieving rascal Croco, the cloud prince Mallow (once raised as a frog), and a roster of original beasts and bosses to trounce. Simply rediscovering the game’s bizarre flora and fauna is one of the best parts of this remake, which adds finer visual detail while sticking close to the muddier-looking SNES version's character models.
Narrative Hi-Jinks in a Funky Mario World
The story begins with a classic princess-kidnapping by Bowser, but quickly diverts after an enormous sword with a face shatters a glowing star and stabs into the villain’s castle, seting up a takeover for the Smithy Gang. Eventually, Bowser himself begrudgingly s Mario’s party, which includes Peach, Mallow, and Geno, a Pinocchio-like toy with guns granted life by a mysterious presence from the Star Road. The five of them will travel through distinct biomes and dungeons in their quest to relinquish seven lost stars, eventually sabotaging the Smithy Gang’s plans to manufacture anthropomorphic weapons to take over the kingdom.
In classic JRPG fashion, players will assemble their team over time, explore various regions and towns, and fight through dungeons and fortresses. Treasures include new weapons and gear, and there are some curious quests which lead to unique content off the beaten path. Super Mario RPG never leverages a substantive challenge, but features a plethora of worthwhile secrets and a few hilarious moments, like Seaside Town’s tickle-torture standoff. It’s a game which always keeps a quirky detail in its back pocket; for instance, koopa troopers and goombas in the castle escape from battle whenever Bowser is present in the party.
Updates and Changes Never Stray Far From the Old Formula
Super Mario RPG was always turn-based, but its active combat added dynamic spice to the normal routine, allowing players to fortify defenses or add special effects to each attack with a perfectly timed button press. It’s hard to describe the exact timing required to pull this off correctly, but it’s something which eventually hardened into muscle memory, and the remake does a great job of porting it over with some additional bells and whistles. It still feels uncannily close to what’s found in the SNES version, and fans should be able to easily adapt to this version, eventually replicating their best repeat-jump records once again.
A new difficulty option offers an easier “breezy” mode as a hot-swappable option, along with other gameplay tweaks that mostly make the game even easier. Players previously had to commit to their three-character lineup between battles, but can now swap party at any time, a feature which trivializes specific boss fights. Timed button presses have a new visual indicator intended to be a helpful tell, though this arguably distracts and does more harm than good, and it would have been nice to have the option to turn it off. The game also prompts scratch damage to all enemies on a perfect press, buffs characters after successful chains, and will even warn the player when facing an unblockable hit.
There are probably other updates to particular bosses and items, all of which will surely be compiled into a detailed post-release list of changes and interrogated by fans. We played the game for review on normal mode, but could never fully shake the feeling that some equipment seemed stronger or some boss encounters included alternate mobs and abilities. For hardcore secret collectors, a few tools assist the hunt for invisible mystery boxes, and there’s even a post-game opportunity to nab that tricky Frog Coin before the throne room if missed the first time around.
Triple Moves & Flashy Cinematics
The most significant gameplay change in Super Mario RPG is probably the Triple Move, a new combo attack which takes some inspiration from Chrono Trigger, another classic RPG on the SNES. As in that game, Triple Moves are a special ability which accumulates energy with perfect presses over time. Once the gauge reaches 100%, players can activate a superpowered attack and slick cinematic which varies depending on the active party. This doesn’t significantly change the game’s combat, but it’s a welcome bonus all the same, and the short cinematics can even be skipped over by pressing the + button.
Other cinematic scenes pop up throughout Super Mario RPG, recontextualizing certain moments which played out in the standard isometric view in the original. Events like Mallow chasing Croco or bosses entering an arena before a fight now properly transition with close-up camera angles, aligning with the updated visual fidelity and modern feel of the remake.
A New Vision for A Classic
The peculiar isometric jumping feels a little tighter this time, though players of the mainline Nintendo series wouldn’t ever confuse the game’s platforming for a true-blue Mario experience. It’s always deliberately stiff, and the camera makes it hard to gauge the distance between certain platform edges clearly, but these issues are definitely alleviated here. Backgrounds are filled out with detailed artwork around the edges instead of just an empty void, infusing them with a greater sense of place, and the many bonus levels and challenges look and feel improved while sticking close to their original mechanics.
Whether or not players enjoy the relentlessly repetitive battle music, the remade OST sounds top-notch, and it can even be changed back to the original cartridge’s soundtrack at will. A special optional secret boss returns for the remake with their familiar accompanying battle theme intact, and all of these tracks can be later replayed in a sound menu.
Super Mario RPG is a sizable adventure, with a normal-mode playthrough running approximately 13 hours, but new players can expect it to take a bit longer if they get lost at certain junctures. A post-credits breadcrumb trail of hints appears after continuing the same save file, revealing some spicier boss fights to track down, and a Player Report section of the pause menu displays best minigame records and other stats for completionists to pore over. There’s even a bestiary packed with cool info, though it would have been nice to include some actual artwork for inventory items.
Final Thoughts & Review Score
Even almost 30 years later, Super Mario RPG remains a solid value for the money, thanks to its diverse gameplay and quirky sense of character. Newcomers should appreciate the unique setting, puzzles, and range of secrets, but may also find the game’s most rudimentary JRPG tropes a little dated by this point. Its novelty freshens its lesser aspects, though, even though normal mode should be a cakewalk for most players, outside of the post-game challenges and a few select encounters.
Why Super Mario RPG Is Still The Best RPG Of All Time
Mario can run, jump, and Goomba stomp like no other, but here’s why his SNES RPG is still the finest example of the genre!
At the end of the day, Super Mario RPG has not received much love, outside of a surprising appearance on the SNES Classic and some a real sequel some day.
Source: Nintendo of America/YouTube
A digital Nintendo Switch code was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.
