The Best Mario of 1996 is an RPG!

Nintendo released one of the most impactful games in history during 1996. Super Mario 64 changed the landscape of 3D platformers and 3D gaming in general. Mario moved smoothly around wonderfully designed little worlds jam packed with secrets to discover. To this day it’s a ton of fun to play. I understand why it’s the Nintendo game people remember from 1996, but it’s not my favorite. Heck, it’s not my favorite Super Mario game of 1996. That honor goes to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

Ads, preview articles and eventually glowing reviews of Super Mario RPG filled EGM, GamePro and Nintendo Power magazines. Beautiful pre-rendered graphics splashed across magazine pages. TV commercials showed Mario running around colorful 3D worlds. It’s cliché, but the game looked like Toy Story on the Super Nintendo.

A cutscene of Princess Toadstool captured by Bowser and Mario jumping to her rescue opens the game. A fully animated cutscene. I cannot stress this enough, I had never seen anything like it. Donkey Kong Country had DK dancing, but his was far beyond Rare’s accomplishment.

The game then drops you right into Bowser’s castle. No journey through world 1-1. You get an empty room to explore and learn the Mario’s new isometric controls. Mean looking turtles fill the next room, so naturally I do what Mario always does, I jump on one….and the screen flashes to a turn based battle setup.

Nintendo uses Mario to distill genres to their simplest form. Allowing players of all skill levels to enjoy the game. There’s a reason Mario Kart 8 is the best selling Switch game to date. Mario RPG does this for JRPGs. It’s Final Fantasy for beginners, and thanks to all those magazine articles and commercials I was ready to this new gameplay style.

At eleven years old, my only experience with RPGs has been watching a friend play Chrono Trigger for ten minutes before switching to Mortal Kombat 2. Thankfully Mario RPG is designed for players like me. The battle begins and instead of a complicated menu system, Mario is surrounded by buttons that mirror the SNES controller layout. Pressing a button tells you what it does. Attack, Special, Item, and Etc. Easy to learn is the name of the game. You get all the standard JRPG actions, with none of the clutter.

Adult me appreciates the simplicity, but what truly makes the battle system perfect for newbies is Timed Hits. If you press the A button at the right time, you’ll hit the enemy harder. A simple mechanic to keep the player engaged during fights. Go on autopilot and you risk losing. Special attacks have similar timed presses, and there’s Timed Blocks to lower damage taken. Absolutely brilliant. More RPGs should steal this mechanic.

As you progress through the game, battling enemies, Mario levels up. Once again, the system is very simply. Choose one of three stats to increase. Special, Health or Attack/Defense. Each level there’s one clear choice, a stat that increases more than the other two. Mario RPG can be enjoyed while never looking into your stats, but if you’re a JRPG fan you’ll quickly discover how to best build your character.

I just touched on an important point of discussing Mario RPG. It’s a perfect beginner RPG, but it’s also fun for fans of the genre. There’s secret bosses that can kick your butt, powerful items & weapons hidden behind side quests, and minigames to challenge any RPG fan. The simplicity is charming, not patronizing.

The story is a straight forward adventure to save the Mushroom Kingdom, but from the Smithy Gang rather than Bowser. In fact, Bowser will join your team of heroes alongside Princess Toadstool and newcomers Mallow and Geno. I know Geno has a solid fan base, but I never clicked with him. He just doesn’t do much in the story. Mallow is my man. He has a full character arc from sad crying lump to eager hero ready to kick Smithy’s butt. It’s not deep, but I like him. In fact none of the story elements are deep, choosing fun and humor over serious at every opportunity.

Whimsical music supports the games fun adventure. Composed largely by Yoko Shimomura, of Street Fighter 2 and Kingdom Hearts fame, with three tracks from the amazing Nobuo Uematsu. The standard battle music is lively and upbeat, perfect for the track you’ll hear most. Each world has a fun theme that gets stuck in your head. Impressively it all sounds like a Mario game, despite no tracks coming from Koji Kondo.

An average playthrough of Mario RPG takes less than 20 hours. A complete newbie to RPGs may take a little longer, but it never wears out its welcome. Squaresoft and Nintendo created a wonderful RPG that holds up to today’s games. In fact, I’ve had more fun playing revisiting Mario RPG than I did Final Fantasy 7. Nintendo needs to get it on Switch Online. Until then, emulate it or pickup a SNES Classic to experience this amazing game.