Super Mario has done it all. He’s been a plumber, a doctor, a referee, a competitive kart driver, a sports star, a smash contender, and of course a platforming hero. But Mario has also taken the leapt into role playing games and the Super Nintendo classic, Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars, was just the beginning.

Super Mario RPG was released back in 1996, with Nintendo only acting as publisher and developer Square (now SquareEnix) creating the game. The story starts off by interrupting the normal Super Mario shenanigans of saving the princess. An evil organization, known as the Smithy Gang, literally crash into the Mushroom Kingdom with the intent to take Mario’s world by force. With bigger stakes on the line than his usual adventure Mario, along with old and new allies, decide to fight against their biggest foe yet.

As epic as my brief summary sounds this game does not take itself seriously. While the story works well enough and the characters are abrupt with personality the narrative pokes fun at every RPG cliché it can. Gameplay wise it’s fairly standard for an RPG at the time: you travel across various landscapes, visit towns for information and supplies, search for treasure, battle enemies in turn based combat for experience, fight powerful bosses, and do whatever is necessary to advance the plot. But this isn’t just another RPG. Square went the extra mile and provided an early answer to shake up a formula by changing two simple elements.

The first thing they did is eliminate random battles. Enemies are now seen out on the field when you’re exploring and touching them starts a battle. If you need to avoid a battle or simply just don’t feel like fighting avoid making contact. Enemies all behave differently on the field and while some will actively pursue you it’s your fault if you get caught. This alone avoids pointless interruptions and endless frustration.

The second thing they did is add timed hits during battle. Instead of simply just selecting commands and watching from afar you are able to actively engage more in the fight with a well-timed button press. Hitting a button during the right moment of your character’s basic attack animation will add another animation to the attack, causing extra damage. When defending against attacking enemies hitting the right button just before the attacks connects results in your character blocking. This will reduce the damage you receive and a spot on button tap could even nullify all damage. Timed defense only works against physical attacks as magic cannot be blocked. Mastering timed defense will take some serious skill and patience as enemies all have unique attack animations and they only get more complicated later in the game.

Timed hits for your special attacks, this game’s version of magic, are more varied and complicated with the type of button presses needed to be performed. Your special attacks are a good secondary power at your disposal, especially on bosses, but you’ll mostly rely on your physical attacks for most casual battles. Strangely enough all of the characters share a single pool of magic points, called flower points in this game, making excessive magic abuse impossible.

This game does include elements of platforming but it’s treated as a necessary element for travel and plays second fiddle to the turn based combat. Here it is simply used to help you traverse higher terrain, jump over enemies if you’re trying to avoid a fight, grab floating treasure boxes or find other secrets. One of the most unique elements of this game is the world is featured in an isometric view, which gives it an interesting and detailed look. Usually games with an isometric view point have very awkward controls but somehow Square managed to make Mario move in all directions with ease. The only time this gets awkward is with some of the platforming in the game but it’s barely noticeable.

As with any RPG there are loads of secrets to be found and you’ll be in for some real trial and error if you hope to locate everything. Some of these things are almost impossible to get without a strategy guide. I must also give props to the music in this game, which sports some catchy SNES tunes (examples include Forest Maze, Booster Tower, and Fight against an Armed Boss).

Super Mario RPG is an amazing game that is filled with wit, humor, and great gameplay. As the last Mario game released on the SNES it gave our beloved plumber a truly epic send off before his jump into 3D games. This was also one of the last major collaborations between Nintendo and Square, a bittersweet ending to great partnership. Though Super Mario RPG does not have direct sequel it did give birth to the Mario and Luigi series and the Paper Mario series, spiritual successors that are great in their own right.

Grade: A