Like many other video game enthusiasts of the early 90’s, I received a free copy of Dragon Warrior with my “Nintendo Power” subscription.
(Bear with me here.)
Freebie games are now a dime a dozen (generally geared toward getting your money through add-on purchases after the fact!), but in 1990-91 when this promotion occurred, it was mind-bending as hell.
Console games back then, pretty much without exception, cost $50 a pop. Yeah, many games eventually went on sale, and yeah, there were some exceptions – like one-offs on the Genesis or most (all?) of the games on the pricier NeoGeo – but by and large, that was the default cost: $50.
So you had to be choosy. And I, like many other western gamers, wasn’t ready to dump $50 into a role-playing game.*
* This is why the promotion existed, to get western gamers to try to get onboard with RPGs, since they were so huge in Japan and Nintendo wanted to maximize profits in the West as well.
I had brain rot for action, you see. “Die Hard” and “Star Wars” were probably my favorite movies by this point (“The Blues Brothers” might have been a close third). Playground activities centered around pretending to club other kids with some sort of blunt instrument (or actually connecting on occasion … Sorry, Gary!).
Video games, by extension, needed to be fast-paced as well, yes?
Well, not always, as it turned out.
Because of the Dragon Warrior offer, I learned I could receive a free game if I subscribed to a magazine I loved already. And that was something different entirely.
I signed up in about 0.0003 seconds.
And thusly, Dragon Warrior – the grindiest of painfully grindy RPGs – became my definitive viewpoint of the genre for the next decade.
It was the first and last impression. The alpha and the omega. Nothing to see here, folks, this is all there is.
“Yeah, this is fun I guess, but what’s with all the boring, repetitive, unavoidable battles? I’m not playing another game like this.”*
* It is beyond safe to say that Dragon Warrior will NOT be making an appearance on this list. Yes, it’s historically relevant, and yes, I still have great affinity for it. But at some point, you have to ask yourself, “Would I honestly recommend someone sit down with this thing today and try to play it?” The answer with Dragon Warrior: Not unless I was playing a cruel prank on someone.
So when “Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars” came along in 1996, it couldn’t have been further from my radar.
And justifiably so on some level, because even though it is undeniably stupid to generalize an entire genre of video game because of just one game, that one game in question was extremely difficult to love.
I regret nothing.
Except…
Holy smokes, did I miss out on some genuine bangers for a really long time.
Thank goodness for retro gaming as an actual business and my own personal resolve to circling back to missed games as an adopted mentality.
Because Super Mario RPG is a downright joyful experience.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars at a glance
Genre: RPG
Release: 1996
Platform: SNES
Complex’s No. 8 Best Super Nintendo Game
By the point when Super Mario RPG (title shortened so as to save my sanity) came out in the mid-90s, of course, I had some frame of reference for RPGs beyond a simple: “Dragon Warrior is sorta boring.” After all, we have already established that I was a fine connoisseur of high-brow reading material such as Nintendo Power! The gaming mags and even word of mouth had provided additional context that yes, some good RPGs existed.
A glowing review in EGM about Final Fantasy III (6) was something I can recall taking note of at the time. Second-hand word from other gamers about games like Crystalis, StarTropics and Secret of Mana had also penetrated my action-riddled brain.
So again, I was aware, at least on a bare minimum level, that there were other RPGs that had been received well and that they *might* offer changes or improvements over the creaky Dragon Warrior model.
That knowledge was counterbalanced by a healthy skepticism and a thrifty nature that kept me from wanting to make a mistake in trusting the word of others in purchasing a game that wouldn’t click with me.
Complicating matters further was that circa 1996, next-gen systems like the Playstation and Nintendo 64 were no longer merely theoretical, and were instead now flooding the gaming market with a gaggle of tempting new offerings, making available funds for a 16-bit purchase even scarcer.
It is within that background that I became aware of Super Mario RPG, and yes, I had no interest in it except in an academic sense.
“Huh. A team-up with the guys who made the Final Fantasy games? Maybe Nintendo is trying to figure this genre out, finally.”
At which point I went back to thinking about platformers, fighting games, and sports titles, with the occasional shooter sprinkled in, because of course I did.
In fairness to myself, that cursory understanding wasn’t altogether wrong, as Nintendo did not, in fact, have a wealth of first-party RPGs to boast on when the dream pairing with Squaresoft was first proposed.
Nintendo just did not have much of a track record in this vein.
That Super Mario RPG was lauded as a triumph by genre enthusiasts and gaming journalists alike wasn’t enough to get me to run out to the store to purchase a copy for myself, but it definitely reinforced the idea that, yes, Nintendo had teamed with Square to “finally figure it out.”
Now, context matters here. Nintendo had by now made inroads in Japan in the RPG space, and North America wasn’t completely barren in this regard either. The aforementioned StarTropics was a cult hit in the States, Earthbound represented a triumph amongst the folks who were paying attention (and was of course a massive hit under the “Mother” umbrella in Japan), and even Zelda II had its RPG-like influences/dabblings.
Moreover, the ensuing years would see the likes of Pokemon, Paper Mario, and Fire Emblem (among others) take on a gigantic place of importance within Nintendo’s strategy.
But at that time, leading into the fall of 1996, Nintendo very much was of the mind that they could learn some things from Square on how to build a game of this kind.
And hence, we ended up with a seriously weird, and seriously good game.
The basic concept was simple enough: Build a role-playing game featuring Mario, who is the most famous of famous video game characters. (This is because of his participation in platformers, but whatever. It was an opportunity to branch out. Like Cheetos introducing the jalapeno flavor.)
The execution of said concept wasn’t actually simple at all. Because on some basic level, there had to be some kind of acknowledgement that this type of game was going to be different. But it also needed to be familiar enough to draw people in.
The biggest challenge was this dance, of going off into RPG tropes and traditions and getting creative with the Mario universe vs. … just not doing that at all.
You see the latter instinct take over at times in the game itself. Familiar characters and environments abound. Mario moves around the world in a very “Mario-like” way, and even many of the attacks/actions available to your team in the midst of battle scenarios (thinking in particular but not exclusively of Mario’s hammer and fireball attacks) are callbacks to previous titles.
I imagine many tense calls between the two companies in which Square was “encouraged” to make Mario more like Mario.
That having been said, the desire to go in funky directions very obviously won out at times too.
Primary characters like Mallow, Geno and Smithy are, to say the least, a departure from previously established norms. The story centers around the main protagonist (Mario!) and antagonist (Bowser!) of the Mario series actually joining forces for a change (the horror!).
The game also features a somewhat rarely used 3D isometric environment which contributes to the oddity of the entire enterprise, and while it reeks of standard JRPG conventions at every turn (things such as hit points, magic spells, and battle screens abound), you don’t get much if any in the way of the requisite Square cameos that you see in other affairs. There is no Cloud showing up to chat it up with Donald Duck here, for example (logically enough, since Cloud hadn’t been released to the public at this stage of things, but I digress…).
I really do think an essential factor in the game eventually working as well as it does is that it does accept this push and pull of varying forces vying for control and find a way to walk a middle ground. And it does that most successfully through trying for something new.
It’s not a traditional Square RPG. And it’s not a Mario game. It’s something bizarrely different instead.
And that’s what the developers probably needed to do in order for this game to be as successful as it was.
It wasn’t a surface-level paint job either. Yes, noted weirdos Mallow and Geno are here, and the story does some interesting things too (such as the aforementioned Mario-Bowser team up), but why the game probably endures as well as it does is its gaming mechanics.
Battles in the game are partially won through the execution of properly timed attacks.
In a standard turn-based game, the gamer can sit there literally for hours if they want as they strategize and determine what they want to do. It’s all very thoughtful (and at times boring).
Some years later, Square introduced its patented “active time” battles, in which the gamer would be pummeled with an onslaught of death by one’s opponent if they left the controls idle for too long. They needed to act or die, giving more urgency to the affair.
What’s going on here in Super Mario RPG is on another level entirely. Instead of having to attack as quickly as possible, the gamer needs to time certain button presses to achieve a more devastating result. So tapping the attack button repeatedly in a rhythmic manner, such as when executing Mario’s jump attack, rewards the gamer more than simply spamming the attack button as quickly as possible.
In some ways, you see the beginnings of rhythm games right here. Dance Dance Revolution, PaRappa the Rapper, Crypt of the Necrodancer … all games that are based on the correct timing of inputs are predated by THIS game (and some others I have some thoughts on that I might reveal in this space soon enough).
It’s a novel approach, and it’s not one you see much of in the RPG space even today, 25 years later.
Other aspects of the game make it stand out as well.
The visuals … how best to put this … are a pixelated, fuzzy attempt at simulating 3D textures in the style of the Donkey Kong Country games, and they’re very much of the “mileage will vary” category of things today. Yeah, I actually still kind of like the look. Yeah, I understand other people wanting to claw out their eyeballs when they see it.
The game’s sense of humor, also roundly lauded when the game came out, could similarly be a point of contention for some folks today, as not everyone’s style of humor is going to mesh perfectly with everyone else’s. I think this game is one of the most hilarious I’ve ever played, and since I’m making the case here for people to play the game, I will absolutely list the humor/script as being a point in the game’s favor and a reason to play. (I just know some folks will inevitably disagree.)
What hasn’t diminished over time or should be in any debates over quality is the impeccable score, composed by the legendary Yoko Shimomura (she of Street Fighter II and Kingdom Hearts fame). It captures an essence of whimsy that is critical to the whole affair.
Whimsy.
It’s a good word.
It’s that feeling of whimsy which basically sums up Super Mario RPG.
“Let’s have some fun together.”
Isn’t that the idea behind gaming in the first place?
So what makes it worth playing today?
At the time of this writing, I am currently doing a run through Final Fantasy 1 for the first time.
That game is trying to break me.
It’s got a brutal sense of difficulty paired with a mystifying approach to quality of life that is of course emblematic of the era in which it came out, but nevertheless is still a bit of a challenging thing to navigate in a modern era.
There are absolutely things going on there that paint a picture of Square being Square – rich world-building, intelligent, challenging design in regards to strategy, and fairly remarkable customization within the realm of character choices.
But …
That game is trying to break me.
It’s fascinating to go back to a time when, yes, we know (everyone knows), Nintendo didn’t have the RPG fully figured out.
But maybe, just possibly, Square didn’t have it fully figured out yet either?
Sure, in 1996 they were well on their way with the likes of games like the aforementioned Final Fantasy III, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana under their belts already (all of which are AWESOME). But by several accounts, Square didn’t take on this project merely to be able to play in someone else’s appealing sandbox … they also wanted more commercial success outside of Japan.
Mario was a way to achieve that.
Which is how we come full circle back to the Dragon Warrior marketing gimmick.
Super Mario RPG came about partly as a concession to western gamers … as a blatant attempt to sell more games. And because of this, one might think it problematic in ambition, execution, or both.
The game did outsell Nintendo’s own expectations, which had to be gratifying. The gambit worked.
But there’s also a magic present in Super Mario RPG that’s tough to fully quantify.
Through the marriage of two well-established publishing powerhouses with two specific visions, it shows a maturity in game design that removes the rough patches and unfriendly elements in favor of choices that favor the gamer.
“I hate grinding.”
Gone!
“I want style and humor.”
Here it is!
“How about a different battle system that will hold my attention?”
BOOM!
In a different era, it was enough to artificially lengthen a game through difficulty, excessive traveling, and muddled puzzling (ahem, I see you Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior).
But I think by the time the SNES rolled around (and certainly today), consumers needed better reasons to stick around.
The collaboration between Nintendo and Squaresoft dictated that the gamer win out in the end, since all parties wanted something special (and successful) to be created.
The compromise between serving Mario and serving the traditional RPG was instead to serve the gamer.
And the gamer did win. Square and Nintendo tried new things and gave their audience a relevant, lasting, unique experience that while it has served as a template of sorts for later Nintendo RPG efforts (the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series immediately spring to mind), it has yet to ever be truly duplicated.
I played this game for the first time a few years back, finally ready (and even eager) to experience one of those “games I had missed the first time around.”
It exceeded every expectation I had for it.
Indeed, I may actually have it a touch low on this list at No. 28 given my affinity for it (though I have it here mostly out of deference to the overall impact and import of a few other RPG classics that are slightly less derivative in nature).
Still, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a masterpiece.
Nintendo recently announced a re–release of the game for modern audiences, and while time will tell whether the new Switch game turns out to be more of a remastering or (heaven forbid) a complete remake, I think the takeaway should be that they see this special, whimsical game as worth preserving.
A whole new audience is set to experience the game this fall.
They are in for an absolute treat.
Dave’s Score: 10/10
Check out the whole Retro Gaming Essentials list here!
How to play
- Original hardware on SNES
- Virtual Console (Wii and Wii U)
- SNES Classic
- Nintendo Switch (this fall)