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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2023
This is an absolutely phenomenal, hyper faithful, and even improved version of Super Mario RPG's Legend of the Seven Stars.
One of the greatest RPGs ever made.
In some ways, it's probably the greatest Mario game ever made.
This remake only changes one tiny relatively insignificant thing in a way that I find questionable, it changes several things in ways that make sense and are probably objectively better, and then it makes a number of dramatic improvements that feel like they should have been there all along in the original game from 30 years ago.
Everything looks gorgeous.
The game is absolutely delightful and hilarious.
The music is iconic and infectious.
You're going to hear it in your brain for the rest of your life.
And that's a GREAT thing.
It brings life to the Mushroom World In a way that few games ever have, even in the 30 years since this game originally came out.
It makes Mario into a fun character. It gives personalities to icons like Peach and Bowser.
This is the game that introduced various features of these characters that we would go on to see in later games, especially stuff like Peach being equipped with umbrellas and frying pans, or treating fireballs as sort of a default power that Mario has up his sleeve, even without picking up a Fire Flower (as we see in Super Smash Bros).
This game also introduces a number of unique new characters who are absolutely fantastic, and deserve to be in dozens of more games.
Geno, Mallow, Croco, Booster, Johnny, etc.
In a year when The Legend Of Zelda:Tears Of The Kingdom came out, Super Mario RPG's remake ended up being my Game Of The Year.
As great as TOTK is, and as much crazy big ambitious stuff and complexity as it rings to the table, it falls faaaaar short of achieving its true potential, and there are huge swaths of that game that feel lacking and incomplete.
Super Mario RPG does not have that problem for even a second.
Everything in Super Mario RPG feels like it is living VERY close to the maximum potential of the Mario franchise.
Every second is fun. Everything is interesting. The whole world is full of stuff to find and do, and people to talk to, and silly jokes and gags, and interesting little story bits.
How many dungeons and boss fights are there in Zelda TOTK? Maybe 10 if you count one instance of each species of big regular monster (Ganon, Temple bosses, Hinox, Gleeok, Talus, Flux Construct, etc?)
I have literally no idea how many boss fights Super Mario RPG has.
There are so so many.
Super Mario RPG has like 4-5 boss battles JUST within the tutorial area. I can think of at least 30 bosses in Super Mario RPG, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.
It's not a perfect game, but for a game that came out 30 years ago, and has only been minimally upgraded in this remake, it is SHOCKINGLY close.
Of all the Mario games that exist, this one is One of the must-have games in the series, alongside: Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with all the DLC, Super Mario Bros Wonder,.....and the remake of Super Mario 64 that they absolutely desperately need to make.....
This is better than the original Mario Bros, the original Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros The Lost levels, Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, all the Paper Mario games, all the Super Mario Land games, all the Mario Party games, almost all of the Mario Kart games, all the Mario sports games, etc etc etc.
This belongs in that core handful of Mario games that every gamer needs to play to understand how phenomenal Mario can truly be.
It's a tiny thumbnail-sized game cartridge full of happiness.
🤷🏻♂️
One of the greatest RPGs ever made.
In some ways, it's probably the greatest Mario game ever made.
This remake only changes one tiny relatively insignificant thing in a way that I find questionable, it changes several things in ways that make sense and are probably objectively better, and then it makes a number of dramatic improvements that feel like they should have been there all along in the original game from 30 years ago.
Everything looks gorgeous.
The game is absolutely delightful and hilarious.
The music is iconic and infectious.
You're going to hear it in your brain for the rest of your life.
And that's a GREAT thing.
It brings life to the Mushroom World In a way that few games ever have, even in the 30 years since this game originally came out.
It makes Mario into a fun character. It gives personalities to icons like Peach and Bowser.
This is the game that introduced various features of these characters that we would go on to see in later games, especially stuff like Peach being equipped with umbrellas and frying pans, or treating fireballs as sort of a default power that Mario has up his sleeve, even without picking up a Fire Flower (as we see in Super Smash Bros).
This game also introduces a number of unique new characters who are absolutely fantastic, and deserve to be in dozens of more games.
Geno, Mallow, Croco, Booster, Johnny, etc.
In a year when The Legend Of Zelda:Tears Of The Kingdom came out, Super Mario RPG's remake ended up being my Game Of The Year.
As great as TOTK is, and as much crazy big ambitious stuff and complexity as it rings to the table, it falls faaaaar short of achieving its true potential, and there are huge swaths of that game that feel lacking and incomplete.
Super Mario RPG does not have that problem for even a second.
Everything in Super Mario RPG feels like it is living VERY close to the maximum potential of the Mario franchise.
Every second is fun. Everything is interesting. The whole world is full of stuff to find and do, and people to talk to, and silly jokes and gags, and interesting little story bits.
How many dungeons and boss fights are there in Zelda TOTK? Maybe 10 if you count one instance of each species of big regular monster (Ganon, Temple bosses, Hinox, Gleeok, Talus, Flux Construct, etc?)
I have literally no idea how many boss fights Super Mario RPG has.
There are so so many.
Super Mario RPG has like 4-5 boss battles JUST within the tutorial area. I can think of at least 30 bosses in Super Mario RPG, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.
It's not a perfect game, but for a game that came out 30 years ago, and has only been minimally upgraded in this remake, it is SHOCKINGLY close.
Of all the Mario games that exist, this one is One of the must-have games in the series, alongside: Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with all the DLC, Super Mario Bros Wonder,.....and the remake of Super Mario 64 that they absolutely desperately need to make.....
This is better than the original Mario Bros, the original Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros The Lost levels, Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, all the Paper Mario games, all the Super Mario Land games, all the Mario Party games, almost all of the Mario Kart games, all the Mario sports games, etc etc etc.
This belongs in that core handful of Mario games that every gamer needs to play to understand how phenomenal Mario can truly be.
It's a tiny thumbnail-sized game cartridge full of happiness.
🤷🏻♂️
