Super Mario RPG review: a classic reborn
As the old adage goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Such is the case for Super Mario RPG, the latest volley in what has been a banner year for the aging Nintendo Switch. WIth this remake, Nintendo takes a beloved but also oft-forgotten nineties classic and largely preserves it with all of the charm, character, and imagination that made it great in the first place.
The original Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a real classic of its time, a delicious cross-over of Nintendo’s most beloved intellectual property with the role-playing development chops of Square, right around the time that company was pumping out the likes of Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger. It’s some real Avengers team-up type stuff – the mightiest meet to create something unstoppable. Such is the nature of this project.
For the most part, this new version of Super Mario RPG feels very faithful. But it’s not faithful to a fault – and that, in fact, is paradoxically its greatest fault. What is presented is actually closer to and more respectful of the original than I’d have imagined modern Nintendo would manage with a Mario game, but at the same time, that propensity to nip and tuck – and especially to make things easier – imposes itself on the experience.