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Friday 25 January, 2008
Super Mario RPG is a role-playing game made by Squaresoft and Nintendo. Once again, you face-off against Bowser in battle (and inevitably win). But this time around, he is NOT the last bad guy. In fact, he’s the first! Not too long after defeating Bowser, a new nemesis appears (who goes by the name “Smithy”). He takes over Bowser’s castle and claims he will be the ruler of the entire world! Now it’s not Mario’s job to save just the princess; he has to save the WORLD!
Gameplay: After playing the game for about 3 hours, the battles in the game introduced a system that feels a little bit newer than standard RPG battle systems. In this battle system, players can inflict more damage by pressing the “attack” button at the correct time during the attack animation. Likewise, when it’s the opponents’ turn to attack, you can press “A” to lower your damage (except against magic-based attacks).
I also enjoyed the fact that the view was not from a straight top-down view when walking around. It’s from an isometric view this time, and you can even jump around the map, giving the game a platform feel to it. Also, unlike many RPGs out there, Super Mario RPG actually shows where the bad guys are (unlike random encounters found in games like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior). So if you’re ever low on health and need to get to that save point, there’s no excuse saying that a random encounter killed you before you could make it.
All the lovable characters from the Mario world are in the game (from the main characters all the way down to the enemies), along with a few new characters made specifically for the game (such as a puffy cloud named Mallow who thinks he’s a frog). Also, there are many cameos in the game (including Samus and Culex!). The entire game is full of personality, and many of them are quite humorous.
Design: Super Mario RPG feels a lot like both a platformer and an RPG. When not in battle, the player can run around a town or dungeon and perform Mario’s signature jump to reach high places. As far as the battles go, it keeps players on their toes unlike other RPGs. In most RPGs, you can select a single attack or summon and you wait for the damage to be done. Sometimes the animations for these attacks are quite lengthy and can get old after using it over and over again (I’m looking at you Final Fantasy 7 with your “Knights of the Round”). However, in Super Mario RPG, the battle system feels a little more interactive because you can inflict more damage with a “Timed Hit”. Each character has different timing with their attacks, so it’s up to the player to master it. It keeps the battle feeling fresh for a while.
Also, this RPG is one that holds TONS of mini-games. I don’t mean just one or two. I mean a LOT. For instance, there’s a game where you can buy a kid’s Gameboy for about 100 coins or so, and you can try and beat his high score! There’s also a part where you have to help a frog compose a song (which he’ll give you something for if you do it right).
The only setback I can think of for the game is that it still feels like a traditional RPG in terms of items, equip, etc. While I can think of no way to improve upon this kind of item system, it would have been nice to see something innovative in this category as well. The story is not anything too special either. You play Mario, and you save the day. Again.
Still these setbacks are completely overshadowed by everything that’s good about this game. You have a more innovative battle system, lovable characters that you can grow attached to, awesome magic attacks, and a lot of fun minigames. A must-play for ANY RPG fan (or Mario fan for that matter).
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