We live in an era of gaming where remakes and remasters are fairly commonplace. Some of these are closer to what I would call a “port” than worthy of the classification “new” game, and at my most cynical, I can call them attempts to monetise nostalgia. Others are dedicated attempts to move a classic from eras past to a modern console and provide a chance for gamers to feel something familiar while playing an experience that is new.
This remake of 1996’s Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars falls into the latter camp. Launching on the 17th of November 2023 as a Switch exclusive, this game is likely to be a very popular gift for gamers both young and old this holiday season.
As always seems to be the case in the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach has ended up in Bowser’s clutches and Mario is tasked with rescuing her. The game begins with the jolly plumber running through Bowser’s castle, dueling on chandeliers and seemingly defeating the big bad. But there’s a twist. A giant sword impales the castle and destroys the bridge that leads to it. As a result, Mario must take the long way around while locating seven stars that are needed to save the wishes of all those in the Kingdom.
While the story is very simple and straight forward, the way that it’s told, putting a great deal of emphasis on physical comedy, is enduring. This game does feature written dialogue, but the story can be inferred and deduced from the expressions and actions performed as much as the words on the screen. An excellent example of this is when Mario explains that the stars that grant wishes have disappeared.
You don’t need to be able to read the text to get a grasp on the situation and that’s the secret sauce of how this game delivers an admittedly short, but entertaining and accessible tale that anyone can enjoy.
As this is a Mario game, what you’re doing for large parts of it is jumping. Jumping to open boxes, jumping to save, jumping on beds for fun. Even defeating your enemies requires a good bounce or two.
As Mario travels through different locales in search of stars, he battles monsters that try to stop him. The world utilises 3D “sets” and usually a fixed camera position that keeps the constraints of a top-down game, but shows depth like a more modern game. Connecting with an enemy in the world begins a turn-based battle, which sees three of Mario’s team square off against enemies. As most turn-based battles do, you have regular attacks, special attacks and the ability to use items.
This isn’t just simply taking turns slogging each other until one party has been defeated. Pressing the “A” button just before your attack lands gives that attack an AoE component and increases its damage. Pressing the button just before your foes’ strikes hit you can result in mitigating and even prevention entirely.
This is a simple, but effective, way to keep a player who might not normally be into turn-based combat engaged, as it’s not just a case of “press and wait.” I’m a massive fan of turn-based games thanks to growing up during the PS One era of JRPGs, and even I can see the value of this mechanic, even if I’m not that good at getting my timings perfect.
Thankfully, for those of us who can’t quite get the timing right, you can use items and equipment to beef up Mario and his team, or level the party up to the cap of 30, though you don’t need to get much higher than 20 unless you intend to make a run at this game’s endgame bosses.
There are only three equipment slots and most of the equippable items can be acquired from the stores throughout the Kingdom, but these fit the bill in terms of giving you some flexibility. You can also purchase consumable items that can be used to heal or buff your party by using regular coins or Frog coins. In particular, the accessories that allow you to nullify certain status effects are very useful throughout, especially if you know what effects your foes are trying to apply.
A quick note on those foes. The bosses in this game range from a collection of anthropomorphic weapons, like a Claymore or a Bow, to a pirate captain Shark. These are the right level of silly to be entertaining, and their names are all the kind of painful pun that I enjoy. The regular enemies reflect some of the Mario universe’s common adversaries like Shy Guys and Boos, but there’s enough diversity that this doesn’t feel painfully repetitive.
When each character levels up you get a few points in each stat and then a choice of what to put a few extra points in. This is a simple choice of three, physical attributes, magic attributes, or health, which further adds to this game’s accessibility. You don’t need to know deep intricate levelling and min-max mechanics to be effective, just pick whatever you like.
In terms of skills, each character gets their own set, and these are archetypal. Of the five party members you can use, there’s two that have healing abilities, two that are designed for raw physical power and then Mario who has a good amount of flexibility.
It’s worth noting that the game isn’t particularly deep in terms of mechanics or side content, nor is it all that difficult. It’s also not a long game either, but crux of these issues are because the remake is using the same framework as the original game. It took me (11 HOURS) to get all the stars, but I can easily see that taking longer if you’re more familiar with the traditional side-scrolling Mario experience than a turn-based one. If you want to beat the endgame bosses, you’ll need to throw another few hours at this, depending on where you ended the main game. I saw the credits at around level 20 and got handed my first game over around 10mins into the post-game, so this is a decent step up in difficulty.
There have been some enhancements here other than graphical, to try and move this game into this decade, and they include features like autosave, an easier “Breezy” difficulty and more animated facial expressions and character models.
Graphically, this is a Switch game and looks like it, but I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I actually think this game looks very similar to another remake of a 90s game in Atelier Marie. This aesthetic works well for these remakes as it allows the game’s models to be fresh and new but still feel like the old top-down pixel experience when needed.
In terms of performance, this runs well on the Switch, and while there are some times where I noticed the 30FPS limit, if you’re not looking for it, you aren’t going to see it. This also plays well in handheld mode, with the natural pauses turn-based combat provides making this a strong candidate for on-the-go gaming.
Ultimately, Super Mario RPG is good. It’s a refined and purposeful tune-up of a classic that entertained many throughout their childhood. While there’s certainly a level of appeal here for grown ups, there is a calculation of length-to-value that heavily depends on whether or not you intend to grind for a run at the post-game bosses. Unlike a lot of other Mario-titles, such as Mario Strikers, Mario Kart this is very much a single-player experience, and one that will shine on the first playthrough, but likely not offer much else on a repeat trip.
I do think this is an absolute no-brainer of a recommendation if you’re buying as a present for a young gamer, and it’s yet another premier title to add to Nintendo’s ever-growing catalogue of excellence aimed at that demographic. If you’re outside that demographic, and I indeed am, then this game walks a murky grey area that will likely come down to your own, very specific feelings on both Mario and what you’re looking to get out of RPGs in general.
Fatelighter 