Super Mario RPG Deserves a 25th Anniversary Remaster

This March will mark the 25th anniversary of the timeless classic Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Star’s first release. Nintendo spent most of last year celebrating all of Mario’s biggest achievements, but completely overlooked all that the character has accomplished in the role-playing game genre. Hit series like the Mario & Luigi games and the Paper Mario franchise are among some of the most beloved by fans, but neither would have been possible without the game that started it all, Super Mario RPG. In commemoration for all that’s come after the game, it deserves some type of remaster to honor its 25th anniversary.

Developed by Square Soft, who eventually became Square Enix, Super Mario RPG’s story starts off similar to that of most Mario games, with the little Italian plumber trying to rescue Princess Peach from the clutches of Bowser. Just as Mario begins fighting Bowser to rescue the princess, a giant living sword crashes into the castle. This sends Mario, Peach, and Bowser flying across the map, while destroying Star Road and scattering the seven star fragments. Mario then returns to the castle to find that it’s been taken over by an evil robotic blacksmith, King Smithy. Mario must then go in search of all seven of the star fragments and, with the help of some friends both old and new, defeat Smithy and repair Star Road.

Super Mario RPG’s tone and aesthetic are noticeably different from any other Mario title that had previously been released at the time. SquareSoft mixed the conventions of a Final Fantasy game with the setting and characters from Mario to incredible results. The light-hearted and humorous dialog stood out at the time and is still very much still present in modern day Mario RPGs, like Paper Mario: The Origami King. The game’s character building was something that had never been seen in a Mario title before. Mario RPG marked one of the first occasions players could take control of Bowser and play alongside Mario (because all of his other henchmen ditched him). It also introduced characters like Mallow and Geno, who are still fan favorites to this day.

Super Mario RPG Deserves More Recognition From Nintendo

While Super Mario RPG helped set the standard for what future RPGs in the Mario franchise should strive to be, the game seems to go often overlooked by Nintendo. Outside of the occasional Mii Skin in Super Smash Bros the iconic RPG feels almost like something Nintendo tries to ignore. The game currently isn’t available in the Switch’s eShop or on the SNES Nintendo Online service. Super Mario RPG is available on the Wii U’s Virtual console and the SNES Classic Console, but seeing as both of those consoles are in short supply, finding a means of playing Mario RPG is somewhat tough to come by. Someone could always try and emulate the game online, but seeing as Nintendo is coming down hard on ROM users (as reported by Wired) to maintain intellectual properties, it may not be the best idea.

Currently, there is no easy way to play Super Mario RPG, but a simple rerelease on the Switch, similar to what Nintendo did with the original Fire Emblem, would fix the problem swiftly. The game is much more deserving of a remaster, but considering how well it still holds up to this day, a re-release would be just as good. There have also been some rumors of a sequel potentially in development from Square Enix. This seems like a pretty big stretch, however, as most of the rumors come from unknown Twitter users siting anonymous sources. While a sequel seems very unlikely, rumors indicate Super Mario RPG could hit the Switch’s SNES Online service sometime this year, so maybe there is some hope.

A 25th anniversary is something worth celebrating, and Super Mario RPG is more than deserving of praise, considering as it’s still just as good as the day it released. Here’s hoping Nintendo finds a way to commemorate this classic so a new generation of gamers can discover the joys of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for themselves.

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