Super Mario RPG : Wii Virtual Console Edition (I guess)

Why am I reviewing a 12-odd year old SNES game? Well it came out a few weeks ago to this day on the Wii Virtual Console and I promised that I’d attempt to review every 2008 release that I spent an adequate amount of time on, so here we go. It certainly dominated any free time I could’ve used to play newer games, and killed the possibility of me being able to adequately review Mass Effect, proving that simplicity and charm can put the most epic, big-budget, blockbuster RPG experience of the modern era to shame sometimes.



Super Mario RPG : Legend of the Seven Stars : Predictably enough, an RPG. Based in the Mario universe nonetheless.

Story : Bowser kidnaps the Princess. Ever the possessive boyfriend, Mario comes to stop this guy that dare ask out the Princess behind his back. He discovers that he went to the right castle on the first try and quickly comes to the rescue, only for some giant sword to plummet from the sky and set forth in motion a series of events that is the adventure of Super Mario RPG. What I like about the Paper Mario games and especially this game is the light-hearted sense of self-parody, as this game does a fine job of acknowledging all the odd nuances of the Mario universe and cleverly pokes fun of them, something that we can all wish the new Sonic RPG should do to the Sonic mythology but probably doesn’t.

I’ll get all the negatively out of my system right now.

Cons : By the second half, magic attacks are all but obsolete. The isometric camera makes certain jumps odd and challenging to attempt. RPG veterans who eat Disgaea-esque Nippon Ichi RPGs for breakfast will never be tested in this game.

Alright, now to stick a rod of praise up this game’s arse. Super Mario RPG is an RPG for the common folk, one that doesn’t beg you to grind away in areas for several hours to beat a boss or look up a strategy guide to discover what elemental attacks buffered with what attack modifiers will work in what situations. There usually isn’t a lot of strategy that goes into combat, but at the same time, the concept of having to time your button press at the right moment to increase damage means you won’t fall asleep thrashing the same goomba/frog thingy troupe of enemies over and over, and it helps that the fights themselves move at a more brisk pace than in the Paper Mario games. Likewise, enemies appear live in the areas instead of randomly popping up so there’s less of the frustration of RPGs past. You can avoid fights if you so chose to, but you’d best take plenty on as to keep your characters adequately leveled.

Hmmm…I’m realizing now that it’s harder to write a lengthy review for a game I love than a game I hate. These older games have less to review about, which is why I guess so many reviews dedicate paragraphs to graphics, audio, controls, some cliché introductory paragraph detailing the history of a franchise that often praises said franchise like it has some kind of royal heritage. I can’t think of too many games I’ve replayed more than this one, and I think it easily stands the test of time so it’s a definite must-have for Wii owners. Even if you don’t like RPGs, Super Mario RPG had a gateway drug-like effect on me that later got me hooked on Chrono Trigger, then later harder drugs like Xenogears and Dragon Quest…well whatever number the Playstation 2 Dragon Quest was. So it could have the same effect on you too. What else can I praise…?

Pros : Mario’s pantomiming ability, memorable cast, remained unaltered from its original release.

Okay, before I give this game 5 stars and move on, I do have one thing to say. I tend to wonder why Super Mario RPG has been ignored by Nintendo for so long. On one hand, I’m glad to see that it hasn’t been re-released and needlessly altered like any of the Super Mario Advance games, which got George Lucas-like tweaks like voice samples that didn’t fit in the original game. On the other hand, Geno, Mallow, and the rest of the Mario RPG universe has been left alone by Nintendo, a company that loves to relish in nostalgia by repackaging its characters in its tennis games, golf games, pinball games and especially the Super Smash Bros series. Is it because Square developed the game? If there’s some legal issue because of that, I would imagine it would’ve been dealt with being that the two companies are on the same page and Square even developed the Mario Basketball game. Or is it out of pride, seeing that some of the greatest original characters and perhaps the greatest storyline to ever come out of a Nintendo franchise were conceived by a studio that existed away from Nintendo? The Paper Mario games are valiant efforts to capture the same lightning Super Mario RPG struck in a bottle, but they lack the originality and often feel like dumbed-down versions of what wasn’t a very complex game to begin with.

5 stars

And almost certainly better than Sonic Chronicles.