Game Highlight: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

System: SNES / Super Famicom

Date Published: 1996

Company: Nintendo + Squaresoft

2003: Picked up my copy of Super Mario RPG cheap from Yahoo Auction SG at a time where everyone was discarding wares away for PS2 stuffs (It was a great time to collect SNES). On release, the game was expensive, costing as much as Chrono Trigger. At that late-SNES period, gamers were growing out of puberty with the Saturn and Playstation; even with its then revolutionary pre-rendered graphics, SMRPG never caught on like CT.

To this day, I’m not really good with its game mechanics, even after completion. Partial reason why SMRPG didn’t turn out as big as Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger: the majority RPG audience then (no offence) fares poorly in action gaming. While most RPGs focus more on numbers and level grinding, SMRPG requires hitting buttons at right moments if you want an easier play experience. Want more damage? Better get good at timed hits. Want to soften enemies’ attacks? Hit the button before impact. Special moves (notably Mario’s Jump attacks) require being able to time your button presses in order to inflict optimum damage.

Best moment: For the 1^st time, it’s awesome to see Bowser and Mario teaming up, and Princess Toadstool’s violent SLAPPING attacks. The blows look painful too, Bowser better think twice before kidnapping her.

The Bad: Platform jumping, where navigating is a hit-or-miss affair due to the 3D isometric view. For me, these are the most un-enjoyable portions I needed to endure. What’s worst, there’s two courses of that nature in Koopa Castle in late game, if you ever have the misfortune to stumbled upon them.

Coming from Square and Nintendo, it’s a quality production, but the cute-ish plot and action-based gameplay for an RPG may not sit well with everyone. It’s worth a shot, just to see how far the Mario RPG series has grown since then.