A🐲nnounced today at the Nintendo Direct, Super Mario RPG is coming to Nintendo Switch later this year on November 17. The classic Mario game, originally released on the SNES, has been brought to life for the Switch.
There has been a drought of Mario games recently, but after the Nintendo Direct, we now have three to look forward to: Super Mario RPG, a remake of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, and a new Princess Peach focussed game. The only one coming this year though is Super Mario RPG, with the other two arriving in 2024. The game is a polished version of the 1996 classic, and has long been a fan favourite in the Mario canon. The series' first RPG, it formed the building blocks for the likes of Paper Mario and more narrative-driven adventures like Super Mario Odyssey and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
For newcomers, Super Mario RPG has some similarities to classic Final Fantasy games, although if you're a newcomer to Super Mario RPG you might well like more of FF14, Clive, and the action-combat of Final Fantasy 7 Remake when you think of Final Fantasy. The trailer gave us a look at the likes of Geno and Birdo, both also fan favourites in their own way. A lot of the Super Mario RPG does things differently to typical Mario games, and that's why it's such a popular game with fans.
The plot of the story is - get this - Mario rescuing Princess Peach (still known as Princess Toadstool back then) after she was kidnapped by Bowser. We saw her display more personality in the game in the '90s, backk when she was a fairly 2D dimensional character, with the RPG fleshing her out. Given that this process has continued since then - albeit with bumps in the road - we might see even more growth here, or it could be a like for like with a simple polish.
The gameplay trailer showed us the battles, the exploration, and the Rose Town setting, which is where Geno (a wooden puppet controlled my a mythical spirit - dwells. Super Mario RPG is known as one of Mario's strongest and most boundary pushing games, and considering we saw a reveal of a whole new Peach-led game, this is a good day to be a Mario fan.
Nintendo has been criticised for not valuing its past, especially when it comes to Mario. For being Nintendo's biggest mascot, he has not always had his previous games held up by Nintendo as much has he has by fans. Super Mario RPG is a classic game that all Mario fans, or even those interested in video game history, should play. On November 17, they'll finally be able to.