It stands to reason that people are starting to get sick of Mario-based RPGs; a pseudo subgenre that combines the template of the traditional Japanese role-playing game with the mechanics of a Super Mario platformer. Personally, I don’t know how we got here; the response for the last Mario & Luigi game hasn’t exactly been outrageously positive (although I don’t really put much stock in reviews for Mario games in general; not even spin-offs) but thought that looked pretty solid overall. The less said about the venom spewed toward Paper Mario: Color Splash, that hasn’t even been released yet, the better. But, the ill isn’t without a valid reason: the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series have been solid overall, the inaugural Paper Mario, The Thousand Year Door, and Superstar Saga standing as the gold standards, but none has really supplanted themselves as the definitive Mario RPG experience. That because the Nintendo-Square team-up on the SNES still bears that mantle.
Yes, even after twenty years of its initial release, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars remains the best version of itself ever conjured, as well as one of the best RPG released for its system. Its mechanics are well construction and tightened to a frightening degree, its story is a masterclass in self-satire, down to its initial bare-bone narrative, and its aesthetics are iconic in spite of its fidelity showing its age, even though it’s pretty much an excuse for Square to play around with the Mario menagerie. Quintessential is an understatement; this is the most important Mario RPG in the finite library of Mario RPGs, period.
Its main innovation, of course, lays in its battle system. While traversing through a map full of monsters isn’t exactly an original idea (Chrono Trigger did it first, and maybe not even that), Super Mario RPG found a way to make the actual battles against its beasties far more active than any turn-based RPG that came before. Its implementation of the oft-imitated timed hits system ensures this, where the player can inflict more damage with the regular and special attacks, and buff the effects of healing spells with a timely push of a button. It was meant to be used more as a risk-reward type of system, but if mastered, can be easily abused to the point of even rendering later threats in the game kind of puny. This is perhaps the easiest RPG I’ve played pre-Mass Effect, and fortunately the most user-friendly, as all commands are mapped out on the face buttons: A for attack, B for defense or an escape attempt, X for item, Y for Special attacks. The Square-standard Active Time Battle system is absent, making for a more methodical style for each impending fight. The only grip is that the entire party share one universe Mana system, here called flower points, which can sorely limit strategy.
Exploration is also rather unique, as the dungeons play more like an isometric platformer than a 2D Legend of Zelda clone without an attack button. The Chrono Trigger approach of having all of the monsters in the hud world, elimination random encounters in the process, works like gangbusters here, enhancing that Super Mario feel. And classic enemies aplenty roam the fields of the Mushroom Kingdom, with some one-off menagerie sprinkled in for good measure; Goombas, Koopa, Lakitu, even Shy Guys, they’re all here. Square even throws some platforming puzzle throughout the game for good measure. Super Mario RPG may be a role-playing game (yeah I know “No shit, Sherlock”), but it is a Mario game first and foremost.
That’s perhaps the greatest conceit of the game; it looks and feels like how a Super Mario game is supposed to look and feel. While constructing the game, Square initial was thinking about putting Mario in a full-on high fantasy world, and equip the portly plumber with a sword and shield for good measure. This is Square after all, who at the time were mainly known for its still high fantastical Final Fantasy and Mana series. But, after feedback surfaced that the game would be better served staying in the Mushroom Kingdom, the high fantasy Mario RPG idea was scrapped. Thank goodness; can you imagine a brooding fantasy adventure with Super Mario of all people fronting the fight against demons? How about we get that Mario/Zelda crossover first, huh?
What’s the plot of this story-driven experience? Well, upon accomplishing a rescue mission for the unth-teenth time, an evil giant sword plants itself onto Bowser’s fortress, scattering the three main players to three different corners of the Kingdom along with seven mysterious stars. Mario sets off to find the princess again, but learns of a far greater crisis; those seven stars are actually the shattered pieces of Star Road, the cosmic manifestation of wish fulfillment. Without those stars, the road can’t be repaired, and no one’s wishes will come true. So, with the help of puffy cloud boy named Mallow, a star warrior named Geno, the soon recovered Princess Peach, and a reluctant Bowser, Mario seeks to recover the pieces of Star Road, and to battle the evil that has run amuck in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Narrative in a Mario game has never been a top priority before this point, and Square relishes in pointing that out every single chance it gets, with a story that works both as a highly creative episode of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and a running parody of Super Mario in general. At the start, Mario sets out to Bowser’s keep to rescue Princess Peach (what else is new). Then it starts to get incredibly silly for there on out, even for a Mario game. Mario’s impulsive nature is on full display throughout, Peach turns out to be incredibly useful to the point that it makes you how she gets continuously get kidnapped to begin with, and Bowser furthers that point by being portrayed more as a less vulgar Eric Cartman type instead of a menacing monster-Darth Vader type. Even the little thing about the story’s presentation stand out; while I’m not particularly fond a Mario playing the silent protagonist (especially since we’ve all heard his talk multiple time on multiple occasion in multiple mediums), his pantomimes are always rather hysterical. And everyone’s enamorment with Mario’s jumping ability kills every time.
I can gush for days, folk, but by now I think you get the point: Super Mario RPG is best Mario RPG there is, was, and, until something else proves different, ever will be. It’s not a secret why people have a growing ire for the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series. I’m not one of them, but it would be wrong to ignore at this point. Great games have come from both series, and I’m confident that there still will. But, the fact that there hasn’t been a proper follow-up to the Nintendo-Square opus remains one of gaming’s many atrocities. I hold out hope that it’ll happen sooner rather than later, but for now, I’ll survive so long as this one-off still holds up. And there no excuse to not check it out now that it’s available on the Wii U Virtual Console.