Super Mario RPG remake review – role-playing origins

Super Mario RPG – the SNES version never looked like this (Picture: Nintendo)

The precursor to Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi gets a welcome remake on Nintendo Switch, in what is the only Nintendo x SquareSoft team-up.

Although today Square Enix, and especially the Final Fantasy franchise, is most associated with the PlayStation format it didn’t used to be that way. Final Fantasy was originally exclusive to the NES and SNES, and Square Enix ditching Nintendo to bring Final Fantasy 7 to the original PlayStation was seen as a shocking betrayal at the time – even though it was just business.

Before that time, Square (they didn’t merge with Enix until movie flop Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within almost destroyed the company in the early 2000s) was bosom buddies with Nintendo. However, the only time they directly collaborated was more than a year after the PlayStation had already launched, for what ended up being the last big budget Nintendo exclusive of the SNES era.

As a result, Super Mario RPG was never originally released in Europe, but then that was the fate of most Japanese role-players at that time. It’s a particular shame in this case though, because not only is Super Mario RPG really good but it proved to be the spiritual predecessor for both the Paper Mario franchise and the Mario & Luigi titles.

Square only ever worked on Super Mario RPG and there’s no direct connection between any of the other games and this, other than that they generally also involve collecting lost stars (the game’s American subtitle was Legend Of The Seven Stars). Sadly, we’ll probably never get another Mario & Luigi game, at least not from the original developer, and while we liked The Origami King most fans are still bitter that Paper Mario has dropped most of its core role-playing systems.

However, Super Mario RPG is, as the name suggests, a straight role-player, very much in the style of Final Fantasy games of that era. Or at least broadly speaking it is. The difficulty level is significantly lower and the game offers the unusual choice, at the time, of just ignoring enemies and walking past them – since they were represented in the field and didn’t just pounce on you out of nowhere in a random battle.

Many hardcore role-playing fans considered this dumbing down, but while it’s true the game as a whole doesn’t have the same depth as many of its contemporaries these features now seem ahead of their time and have been widely embraced as standard by modern equivalents.

The plot is, as you can imagine, not complex and involves an invading army of talking melee weapons that have destroyed the Star Road (which previously granted people’s wishes) and taken over Bowser’s castle, just as Mario was about to rescue Prince Peach for the nth time.

Super Mario RPG is nowhere near as subversively funny as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which is being remastered next year, but for the time it is still quite amusing. Both Bowser and Peach end up becoming playable (alongside two brand new characters) and the former is particularly endearing in his unwillingness to admit he’s been outmatched and needs Mario’s help.

The game was made by Square but Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was still the producer and the charm of the series and its characters shines through brightly, despite the limited dialogue and pre-modern portrayal of Peach. Although this does seem to be a new translation of the original.

Mechanically, the game is simple, with a standard turn-based battle system in the Dragon Quest mould. What makes it distinctive is that timing your button presses can increase the effectiveness of both attack and defence, which is something that both the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series went on to use to great effect.

The unlockable skill trees for each character are very short and linear, and there’s only a small variety of weapons and equipment, but the whole game is so charming and breezily paced it’s still a pleasure to play through. Not only is it perfect for newcomers to the genre but it’s highly enjoyable for those who pine for simpler days and a game that can be beaten in less than 100 hours (Super Mario RPG is around 10 hours for the basics).

Battles, especially against cannon fodder, are over in a matter of seconds, with no faffing about, and yet boss battles are often quite clever and not just a case of turning enemies into damage sponges. Some can be very unique, such as the guy that keeps disabling buttons on your controller, and a lot of the designs are an interesting hybrid between Nintendo and Square design philosophies.

The original game used pre-rendered graphics inspired by Donkey Kong Country, which was still a novelty at the time. This remake replicates the look and feel of the original perfectly, with the same harsh isometric viewpoint and peculiar squashed appearance (everyone looks like they’ve spent the week wearing an anvil for a hat) for all the main characters. There are lots of new cut scenes too, which look great, although could perhaps have used some voice acting.

At first, we thought the visuals were a little too close to the original but if you go back and look it’s not how you remember it and directly comparing the two only underlines what a great job developer ArtePiazza has done. Especially as all the original mini-games are included, such a minecart chases (including a Mode 7 equivalent), Yoshi races, and a spot of simple platforming.

Super Mario RPG – no random battles here (Picture: Nintendo)

Not only does the game look the part but there’s a good number of new features and quality of life improvements. The inventory has been tidied up, from the unwieldly original, and there’s now a pokédex style Monster Guide to fill out, as well as fast travel, the ability to change party characters during battle, and tutorials before mini-games.

You’ve also got a new gauge that builds up over time and either activates a random power-up or a Triple Attack move that varies depending on who exactly you have in your squad. You can replay bosses, including a new one, and there are randomly appearing special enemies that put up a tougher fight but offer greater rewards. The newly rearranged soundtrack is great, but you also have the option to revert to the original SNES version at any time.

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As a remake this is essentially perfect, as while it may not look like much to the casual observer it maintains a perfect balance between modern and retro sensibilities, not just in terms of visuals but the gameplay itself. It’s a just a shame it’s so expensive. The SNES original has been released in Europe before, on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles, but at the point it was just £5.49.

This is a good remake but selling it at full price is probably a step too far for anyone that doesn’t have nostalgic memories of the original – which is going to be relatively few people in Europe. That aside, this is a welcome return for one of gaming’s greatest team-ups and, together with The Thousand-Year Door remaster, hopefully a sign that when Paper Mario does return it will be as a proper role-player.

Formats: Nintendo Switch
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: ArtePiazza (original: Square)
Release Date: 17th November 2023
Age Rating: 7

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The precursor to Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi gets a welcome remake on Nintendo Switch, in what is the only Nintendo x SquareSoft team-up.