There are some games that most assumed would never see the light of day again outside of a stray re-release, with Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars definitely being one of those games. The rights have always been an issue due to being a partnership between Nintendo and what was Square at the time. This is why the announcement of a Super Mario RPG remake earlier this year was all the more surprising, which has now arrived and proves once again why it is one of the greats.

A Blast From the Past

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was released later in the life of the Super Nintendo and took great advantage of the graphical capabilities of the system with a special enhanced chip that very few games utilized on the console. The game used sprites for each character and placed them atop an isometric world that you could explore by visiting the various areas in the game. Rather than completely remaking the game entirely, the development team on the remake was very faithful by updating the sprites and backgrounds from the original to 3D without taking away the charm and beauty of the original. There is even a unique way that a certain secret boss is handled which people of the original will greatly appreciate.

While the gameplay in the original was fairly basic, it was also incredibly well designed to where players could continually enjoy it throughout the game. This still works so well that the development team didn’t have to make many changes, but rather took the existing system and just upgraded it in a few areas while maintaining what people love about the original.

By touching an enemy while walking around, a battle will commence between your party and the enemies. Even though some more modern games have added a feature where you can either ambush the enemy or deal extra damage by jumping on top of them outside of combat, this has not been added to Super Mario RPG in the remake. The combat system still has you taking turns attacking the enemy using a mix of attacks, special moves, and items, where timing is more important than ever.

Just pressing the attack button once like a typical classic JRPG is not going to cut it here in Super Mario RPG, as that will deal the minimal amount of damage possible. By pressing the attack button once again just as your attack is landing, you can deal much more damage. This remake adds in another tier of this timing as well where if you hit it perfectly, it will not only hit the target for great damage but also the rest of the enemies with splash damage. The timing here can greatly vary between the characters and their equipped weapon, so finding the right weapon where it’s easiest to time these is crucial.

Paying close attention when the enemy is attacking is also very important in Super Mario RPG, as you can also mitigate some or all of the damage by timing the button press at just the right time. If you time it perfectly, you can even prevent all damage being dealt to your character. There are still attacks that cannot be prevented, but being able to limit some damage is something that can especially help in the tougher battles that come in the post-game.

This remake maintains the existing equipment system where you can equip a weapon, gear, and an accessory. They are not just all the same weapons for each character with strength upgrades but rather offer some variety in how they are used. For instance, Mario has a mix of hammers, gloves, and shells, while Mallow has sticks, gloves, and cymbals. The gear is going to range on which stat you want to focus on increasing, with it usually being either attack or defense. Accessories can break the game wide open, especially later in the game when you get access to the really powerful ones, with some giving extra EXP, increased strength, or even help to find treasure chests on the map. Figuring out the best lineup of equipment for your characters can really help you out in the long run.

Super Mario RPG featured five playable party members including Mario, Mallow, Geno, Bowser, and Peach, and those same five are once again playable in the remake. The big change here though is no longer are you relegated to only having three in your party for each battle. While you enter battle with your preset three party members, you can swap any of the non-Mario characters out for another without even losing a turn. If your character is defeated, you can choose who to swap them out with instantly as well. The game will even prompt you to swap one of them out if it becomes their turn and they have a status effect such as sleep or Scarecrow on them. It is kind of unfortunate that the game still locks to where Mario has to be in the party at all times, but the versatility with switching makes it feel like you’ve got a huge five-character party even though it’s technically only three at a time.

Carrying over from the original is the way the game’s balanced leveling system is handled across all party members. Most RPGs only give your active party members EXP, or at the most give a reduced amount to non-active party members. However, Super Mario RPG provides your entire party with the same amount of EXP regardless of whether a character is not in your current three or participated in the battle at all. The only change here that gives a character more EXP is the EXP Booster item that will double the EXP in each battle for the character who has it equipped. Having the balanced EXP system gives you more control of your party by keeping them pretty even throughout to where any of them can participate in a given fight and still feel like they are not underleveled.

One more addition to the game’s combat system is the new Triple Attacks that revolve around the new Action Gauge that’s found in battle. The Action Gauge gradually increases when you attack and are attacked, but can be increased even faster if you are timing hits correctly. Having long chains of timed presses can increase the gauge further with the goal being to reach 100%. Once you get to 100%, you can press a button regardless of which of your characters turn it is to activate one of the new Triple Attacks. There are seven of these total and they depend entirely on who is in your party at the time. One of the seven is only available early before you get three members in your party, but after that, you have six others to choose from including the Star Riders attack when you have Mario, Geno, and Mallow in the party. While they are called Triple Attacks, they aren’t all offensive moves, as the Spare-Us-All Triple Attack when you have Mario, Peach, and Geno in your party casts a barrier that protects you entirely from the next attack.

When the first gameplay trailers for Super Mario RPG’s remake were released, some people were concerned about the addition of the Triple Attack as a way of making the game too easy. It does make the game a bit easier, especially in tandem with some of the other abilities like the extra timing attacks and defense moves, but the good thing is that you can avoid using them entirely if you really would like to up the challenge. The game does not rely on these at all and I personally did not use hardly any of them just because I didn’t think about it most of the time.

The story in Super Mario RPG starts with Bowser kidnapping Peach as always, leading Mario to go to his castle to rescue her. Things go awry when a giant sword named Exor crashes down and takes over the castle, sending everyone flying. Mario then wakes up in his own house and starts a journey to go find the Princess. Along the way, he ends up meeting new characters named Mallow and Geno, while also having an unlikely team-up with Bowser and finally adding Peach to the group after finding her. Once assembled, the group has to work together to get back to Bowser’s castle and take down not only Exor but also the main villain named Smithy.

This story was never the deepest RPG story, but the charming characters made the experience a whole lot of fun.  That is still the case in the remake, where the characters have not lost a step in their banter back and forth. Getting to see Mario and Peach interact with Bowser in a more friendly manner in something that isn’t a Mario Kart or sports spinoff game is very welcome and leads to some genuinely great moments. The humor here is top-notch, with the visual gags being just as funny here as in the original. Bowser is hilarious throughout the game and still really manages to steal the show a lot of the time as well.

A few other additions in the remake are essentially quality-of-life upgrades to make the experience all the better. The game’s overworld map now allows for fast travel between areas by opening it on the pause menu, which makes things even easier to navigate. You now also have access to a storage box in Mario’s Pad that holds any excess items that you pick up, rather than only limiting you to what you can hold in your bag at a time. This is a huge help later in the game especially when you start piling up items and don’t want them to go to waste.

The rest of the game is pretty much as it was when it was released on the Super Nintendo, up until the credits at least. After completing the game, you will still be able to battle the hidden boss that was in the original game. That is not all though, as now you can complete a questline that includes rematches with the major bosses in the game, including that hidden boss. These fights are leagues harder than any of the other ones in the game and really will test your skills. A few of them even have some unique situations that you have to figure out to win. Thankfully, some extra powerful items become available in the post-game that you can get as well. Even with those though, these fights will present the biggest challenges you will face in the entire game.

The original Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars already had a stellar soundtrack that has now been redone here in the remake. This new version of the soundtrack is fantastic and does justice to the original in every way. For those traditionalists though, you can switch to the original version of the soundtrack from the menu at any time to relive the olden days. You can also unlock a Sound Player in the menu after beating the game that will allow you to just listen to any of the tracks from either version of the soundtrack. I will admit that I found myself doing this quite often after unlocking it.

Verdict

Remakes can often be hit or miss, where for every good one you can probably find a bad one as well. Super Mario RPG’s remake falls entirely on the good side though, as it not only provides a graphical upgrade to the original but also adds some extra features and content that enhance the experience. Whether you have played the original or not, Super Mario RPG is yet another must-own gem in the Nintendo Switch’s library that can appeal to many different groups of people.

Score: 9.5/10

Pros:

• Beautifully upgraded visuals
• Characters are just as charming as ever
• Upgrades to the combat that don’t completely change it
• Quality-of-life changes
• New post-game boss rematches are a real challenge

Cons:

• No extended game content besides the extra boss rematches
• Game may be too easy at times for some

Super Mario RPG was purchased for the reviewer. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.