A good introduction to Mario RPGs
source: www.nintendo.co.uk
Super Mario RPG is the first entry in the Mario RPG series. It is a turn based RPG set in the Mario world. The original version of the game came out back in 1996, but today I am reviewing the Remake of the game that arrived November 17th 2023. I hadn't played the original so I can't do a comparison but I can look at it from the perspective of someone who has played the other Mario RPGs and compare how I think this new remake stacks up to those. This title, unlike the other Mario RPG's, is actually a collab between Nintendo and Square Enix. This is a collab I would love to see again for a different kind of project for sure as i like many games from both these companies.
~ Positives ~
Let's start by talking about the positives. To start with, let's just talk about how fun the game is generally. The combat is very easy to get into and satisfying, especially when you are able to time the hits correctly. I have always liked that Mario RPG's aren't just click a move and call it a day, rather, you are more actively involved. Something i think that this game has over other Mario RPG's is the amount of different standard attacks. There are many weapons you can equip to your characters and many of them having there own animations, meaning you also have to learn the timing for the new weapon, making it more engaging. The addition of the team attacks was such a great idea, there are quite a few of these between different combinations of party members which adds a nice bit of choice to this game. Each has it's uses for battles and really adds another layer to the combat. The puzzles are interesting too, some require quite a bit of brain power for them. In fact I would even say the boss fights are puzzles too as you need to figure out specific things to hit on enemies to make them weaker. The mini games provide a nice bit of variety as well. My favourite mini game being the one were you are sliding down a water fall. The soundtrack is something else I want to highlight here. I have listened to quite a bit of the original and I would say the remake greatly improves pretty much every track. The quality for the tracks here is really good. Some of my favourite tracks are the ones heard in boosters tower and the different boss music. A major turn off of the original game in my opinion was the visuals, it looked really rough for me. This remake while keeping the slightly weird proportions looks really good, I love the vibrant colours of the game. The animations are really good as well, especially the full cutscenes you get for the team attacks, absolutely stunning. The story, while not anything too crazy, is nice and simple to follow and there are some cool new additions to the Mario universe here. Mallow being the standout character of this game for sure, I would love for him to return one day. The narrative of the world is decent too, there are some cool bits of story to the background elements, the world feels very believable in that sense.
~ Negatives ~
Now let's talk about the negatives. Performance is an immediate one I will point out. I don't feel like there is any reason for it to be dropping frames in the areas it does like towns and such. It really hurts the game as it already is only 30fps which again I think should really be 60 fps for what the games scope is. Though on top of not great performance is pretty jank platforming, which makes the platforming feel pretty bad overall. The platforming is just way to precise for the movement of Mario, I found myself struggling quite a bit to land were I wanted too. I think even the devs knew that the platforming wasn't very polished as in the final area whenever you fall you get bounced right back up to were you was before the jump. While I find the combat fun, it is extremely simple which makes it get quite tedious over time, on top of this there is only one standard battle track throughout the whole game. While I appreciate the quality, I would have really liked at least one more standard battle theme for late game. The final area with extremely long battle gauntlets is what made me realise this, in fact I would personally recommend looking up what the doors lead to so you can avoid it. The game is also quite easy in general, I had more trouble with some of the early bosses than with the final boss. The difficulty balancing for this game is just generally a bit off.
~ Conclusion ~
To conclude, while i have my issues with the game I think it is a really great start to the Mario RPG series. I think many of it's faults are because it was so faithful, it definitely could have been a little less faithful to improve the general quality of the game. I would recommend Mario RPG fans play it though for sure to see where the series came from. General Mario fans, I'd recommend it to them as well, as it is a great entry to start with to see the improvement over time in the RPG series. I would definitely be interested in them making a true sequel to this game though, to see where they could take it.
Rating: 80/100
That's it for this blog, stay connected!
Comments
Post a Comment