‘Super Mario RPG’ updates its turn-based formula just enough

Team up with unlikely allies Mallow, Geno and even Bowser in Super Mario RPG.

Nintendo

Full disclosure: as someone born in the 1980s and raised in the 90s, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is already one of my all-time favorites. The Super Nintendo game drew me into lifelong video game fandom, and I played its opening sequence so many times it’s burned into my brain.

Where else could you use Mario’s jumps, punches and fireballs to win turn-based battles against Koopas and Goombas, all the way up to Final Fantasy-style bosses? Where else could you see him team up with a possessed wooden doll, a walking cloud boy, and even his nemesis Bowser to dethrone a gang of sentient weapons?

Fast forward to 2023. Mario just headlined a billion-dollar movie and the spectacular return-to-form game, Super Mario Brothers Wonder. But even alongside these Nintendo blockbusters, this new version of Super Mario RPG still feels fresh. It’s another win for Nintendo’s approach to remaking their cult classics; as faithful as Metroid Prime Remastered, but updated just enough to entice new players.

Mario, by way of Final Fantasy

Originally developed by Square, the company behind Final Fantasy, the game opens with Mario on a typical mission to rescue Princess Toadstool (now renamed Princess Peach) from Bowser. In the midst of their fight, a giant sword slashes Bowser’s castle, scattering everyone inside and destroying the Star Road, a wish-granting rainbow bridge leading to the castle. Mario soon sets out to defeat those responsible: the Smithy Gang, a crew of animated weapons who also happen to be power-hungry weapon traffickers. Despite this weird and even dark premise, the story beats are both silly and engaging,…