For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen fans shout from the rooftops that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario RPG: Lege🉐nd of♏ the Seven Stars is not only one of the best Mario RPGs, but one 🍎of the all-ꦯtime greats of the entire genre, standing proudly next to giants like and .

After years of hearing how perfect Geno would be for , as well as how games like Colour Splash and The Origami King pale in comparison to the game that started it all, it’s fair to say that I had some big expectations going into the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario RPG remake.

Nintendo seems to be on a bit of a Mario RPG remake kick, as it just recently announced that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is getting a remake 𝓡in 2024. Not sure why the original ൩Paper Mario has been ignored, but oh well.

Although it initially seemed impossible for Mario’s first roleplaying outing to reach the astronomically high bar that its fanbase has set for it over the years, Super Mario RPG somehow lives up to the hype. Thanks to its excellent combat, razor-sharp wit, and surprisingly heartfelt story, it has quickly taken a 🍌place as one o🍃f my favourite Mario games ever. I’ve seen the light now, Geno stans, and it is glorious.

As someone who has put off playing Legend of the Seven Stars all this time (blame the death of the virtual console), I don’t have that much to say about how this remake stacks up to the original release. I do wish Nintendo had gone for a toy-like, diorama-esque art style like it did with Link’s Awakening, but the remade graphics still look nice enough. Veterans might find it "dripless" but it's snazzy enough for me.

Considering most Mario games have a near-nonexi♕stent plot only there to keep the moustachioed plumber stomping on Goombas and moving between levels, I was surprised that Super Mario RPG’s story and characters were its best aspects. Rather than just being two-dimensional wahooing mascots, everyone here is fleshed out and given a ton of personality, most noticeable in Mario himself.

In pretty much every mainline Mario game, the chunky plumber plays second fiddle to every other character on screen.ও Here, he’s finally the star of the show. He dances, threatens to punch children, pantomimes, and oozes more personality than I’ve ever seen, all without saying a word. This is, without a doubt, the most interesting interpretation of the character out there, especially notable in a year where Chris Pratt played him on the big screen and his iconic voice actor was replaced for the first time in decades.

The same can be said of Bowser, Peach, and every other mainstay of the Mushroom Kingdom too, who are all given actual cha🦋racter traits, motivations, and identities like never before. Or since this is a remake, like never again. Combine that with memorable original characters like Geno and Mallow, who I now can’t believe have never appeared anywhere else, and my favourite part of Super Mario RPG was exploring the world and finally feeling something from characters I’ve been familiar with for decades.

These characters are so gripping in large part because of how bitingly funny they are, another feeling I never thought I’d have for a Mario game. Th𓆉ere are jokes and charming moments at pretty much every turn of the 12-hour adventure, but they’re also accompanied by a surprising emotional core, which is mostly delivered through Geno and Mallow. Super Mario RPG might not have the most complex plot, but it’s propelled into greatness by its humour and characters. More than anything, it makes me wish other Mario games put as much effort into their story.

Super Mario RPG isn’t just a fantastic Mario story, though, it’s also a sat𒁏isfying RPG. I’m usually not a big fan of turn-based combat and don’t have the patience for sitting on the sidelines and slowly commanding my team one-by-one, but here you’re actively pressing buttons in time with your attacks and blocks to make them as effective as possible. At first, it was a little hard to get used to the timing of it all, but it soon became rhythmic in nature🧔, and never failed to keep me engaged.

As greaജt as the combat feels to play, I wish that there was a bit more depth and difficulty to it. Once you’ve figured out the best party combination (which means replacing Mallow as soon as possible, sorry little fella) and got a handle of attack timings, encounters become a little too easy. That never stopped me from having a good time, but an option to ramp things up would have been nice, especially since there’s an even easier difficulty setting than the default medium I played on.

The only time where Super Mario RPG’s gameplay outright falters is with its minigames, which are annoyingly frequent. I appreciate they’re there to break up the combat and exploration and make areas more memorable but, no matter if you’re riding on carts or slowly drifting down waterfalls, they just feel bad to pౠlay and are the one part of the game that I wish the remake had the guts to update. I’m sure people who have 27 years of experience won’t mind them so much, but for a first-timer like me they stood out as one of the only disappointing parts of the adventure.

Even if I grumbled a bit every time I had to race Yoshis or catch beetles, t💮hat didn’t stop Super Mario RPG from becoming one of my favourite Mario games of all time. Its wonderfully charming world, great sense of humour, and engaging combat are all somehow just as good as everyone’s been saying for the past two decades, and I can’t believe it took me this long to finally give it a shot.

Score: 4.5/5. A Switch code was provided by the publisher.

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