This is our first guest article here. This is my buddy Mike (MV), who has dragged me ever so helplessly into the Walking Dead universe. Enjoy some retro gaming reading and then proceed to yell at him for having awesome interests/hobbies.
-EF
When I was a half grown, my parents were immensely sheltering. They were afraid of the grass in front of them and could barely make eye contact with the mailman. With this unholy fear of the unknown, came the general fear of media, and tried to keep my intake of film, literature, and video games to a grade A, Mickey Mouse approved level. When it came to my beloved Super Nintendo, my parents really only allowed me to own KA (that’s right, that was a rating one time) rated video games. Unfortunately for my youth, I suffered from ignorance, and didn’t even fathom the idea that there were video games out there in the world where you could kill Mechahitler or rip out someone’s heart in a fatality. I resorted to avoiding barrels in the country and throwing giant eggs at giant baby Bowser on top of a crumbling castle.
One faithful day, my whole world changed when I walked into my local video game rental store and saw a new Mario title. It caught my eye and pulled me in like Scorpion; this didn’t look like other Mario games. I knew something was different about this title. The title read: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I was immediately intrigued, and like if the game had put me under a spell to bring it home, I ran to the counter with the level of an excitement of a foster child, recently adopted by millionaires, bringing home his first puppy. What could this game have in store for little old me?
This is when, unaware at the time, I was introduced to RPGs. I had never played an RPG before, and though the game style was alienating to me, I was immediately hooked. I spent hours in front of my 18 inch television, logging countless hours as the plot thickened and my characters got stronger. I don’t think I even comprehended the genre at the time, but I would a few years later, when I purchased SMRPG’s older edgy brother, Final Fantasy 7.
Super Mario RPG was the love child of two legendary video game companies, Nintendo and Squaresoft. When Nintendo had the idea of incorporating their beloved sweaty Italian plumber into a roll playing adventure, they knew they would not be able to do it on their own. They hired the masters, the company behind the Final Fantasy franchise, Chrono Trigger, and other beloved RPG titles. After a few drinks and swooning words, Squaresoft agreed to develop the game. The outcome was glorious. The result of this partnership was the beloved Nintendo characters in a new world, a much larger Mushroom Kingdom than any of us had ever seen before, with new characters, new worlds, and a compelling story.
The plot begins with our hero, Mario. He is approaching Bowser’s castle to rescue Princess Toadstool (before she became a diva and changed her name to Peach). I’d imagine by now, he’s contemplating the idea of installing some kind of alarm system in her castle, or maybe hiring guards that aren’t three feet high with giant mushrooms on their heads. He works his way past some guards, teaching you how to play the game as you go, until you meet Bowser for a fight to win back the princess on top of two chandeliers, high above the castle. As a kid, I really didn’t understand how I was already fighting Bowser, how is this possible? Where is this game going? After you defeat Bowser, a giant sword falls through the sky, impaling Bowser’s castle. You soon learn after, this sword belongs to the Smithy gang, and that you will now have to collect the seven stars scattered across the land to rid of Smithy and his evil gang. This blew my mind as a child, to the same level as David Lynch does now to me on a regular basis. Bowser’s not the main bad guy?! No, he is your teammate, and there was a greater enemy to face, along with the help of new characters such as Mallow, the manic depressive cloud person, Geno, a mysterious spirit trapped inside an annoying kid’s doll, and Princess Toadstool. After two or three complete play-throughs, this became one of my favorite games.
Question is: does this game hold up today? The answer is simple: absolutely, don’t argue with me. Just like most of Squaresoft’s games, this game is like a fairy tale, something built so well, technology doesn’t dissolve it. The story is a classic, and is still compelling to this day. The game was so brilliantly constructed, keeping the Super Mario series’ signature game play style and molding it perfectly with the master crafted RPG gameplay Squaresoft has developed. SMRPG holds true nostalgia for Nintendo and Squaresoft fans alike.
I personally thank SMRPG for brilliantly introducing me to Squaresoft and their RPGs. I know at such a young age, I would have been intimidated by their big titles at the time such as Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger. SMRPG was a brilliant introduction to the world of video games I would soon learn to love and enjoy, and if it weren’t for this title, it would have been a lot later in life before I discovered the wonders of RPGs.
If you have had recess more recently than the last time you played this game, go on eBay, get in an uncomfortable and unnecessarily aggressive bidding war with chewieismycopilot69, and win yourself a copy of this game, and relive its legacy.
-MV
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