The unbelievable conveyor belt of gaming releases in 2023 hasn’t quite slowed down yet, and Nintendo’s Super Mario RPG is the latest to hove into view, reviving a beloved SNES classic on the Switch.

It’s a game that loads of gamers have claimed still holds up, so this represents a perfect chance to see how its storied quest holds up in the light of a modern-day remake.

Simple storytelling

Super Mario RPG was the last time Mario got his own game on the SNES, in the twilight of that console, and I’ll hold my hand up here and say that I was three years old when it came out – I’ve never played the original.

It has an outsized reputation, though, as a classic example of the sort of team-up (between Square Enix and Nintendo) that would feel a lot rarer today, outside of perhaps the Mario + Rabbids games that Nintendo has let Ubisoft make.

The game sees Mario go through the familiar motions of a mission through various kingdoms to recover special Star Pieces, although this time he’s not quite rescuing Peach and the big baddie isn’t Bowser.

Instead, it’s a little more involved, and with actual dialogue to enjoy instead of brief barks and momentary explanations, there’s a fun and light-hearted family-friendly story to work through.

Each Star Piece ends up in the hand of a different member of the game’s eclectic cast of villains, and it’s been great fun to meet a variety of odd characters, many of whom don’t really fit into a cohesive visual style, a chaos that makes the game hugely likeable.

It’s also wittily written, full of knowing nudge-nudge lines and clever little bits of world play such that it would work a treat as a kid’s first turn-based RPG, but also has some fun moments for older players to enjoy.

That said, this isn’t exactly an RPG that you’d come to for a detailed or moving story – while some of Square Enix’s work from this era is surprisingly mature, this is distinctly family fare.

That’s not a big criticism – it’s just a sort of content label, as there are no decisions to make or major consequences to face up to as you progress (you’d be better off with Baldur’s Gate 3 if that’s your hope).

Classic battling

Part of what has made the original Super Mario RPG have such a lasting reputation is its battle system, the key to any turn-based RPG. In many ways this is a very simple example, but with one twist.

Every time you make an attack or use some magic, you get the chance to time a button press to make it more powerful, and most enemy attacks offer the same chance to block all incoming damage.

This means that you’re not a tactical bystander, but are instead on your toes at all times trying to maximise your efficiency and survivability. It’s a really fun mechanic, and in a twist of timing was resurrected to great effect by the indie hit Sea of Stars earlier this year.

The original is still great here, and while battles start off pretty trivial it doesn’t take too long before you run into encounters that can be quite tough if you haven’t got your timings down yet.

Sea of Stars made some of this stuff a little easier to parse with items that could help you figure out timings, whereas Super Mario RPG is a little more old-school (I haven’t been able to figure out why I sometimes get the exclamation mark to tell me when to press the button, and others times don’t). That makes it occasionally a tad frustrating since big battles can come down to blocking one big attack successfully, at times.

Outside of battles, though, it’s mostly a matter of exploring hub towns and running through exploration areas, figuring out simple puzzles and completing straightforward quests. It’s all structured around a classic Mario-style world map, too, which is charming (and objective flags make figuring out your next move a little easier than before).

The first couple of hours see Mario gain a couple of new companions in the form of the fluffy Mallow and animated wooden doll Geno, before later picking up some more familiar companions, each with their own strengths in combat that make composing your three-fighter party fun.

One big change lets you swap these fighters out during battles, which is hugely handy for avoiding defeat and is a really solid concession to more modern game design.

Charming visuals

If the gameplay offering makes for a warm and familiar blanket of old-school options, that fuzzy feeling extends to Super Mario RPG’s presentation in spades, with a lovely approach taken to updating the original game’s chunky isometric graphics.

The viewpoint is the same, up above Mario and his friends, but the art style is different (for all that it’s clearly familiar) – it almost calls to mind the chibi-infused treatment that another Nintendo remake, Link’s Awakening, got back in 2019, although it’s not quite the same.

Mario is still a funny little guy in this game’s world of design, though, and the extreme stockiness of most characters is preserved, just rendered in much more detail and with far smoother animations.

The biggest upgrade, to my eyes, comes where environments are concerned – they’re far more visually interesting and get quaint new details, all without losing the feel of the original versions.

For the most part, this means that layouts are the same, although the scale is sometimes stretched a little, but it’s just a far more detailed world to explore, from cliffsides to jungles, vines stretching into the sky or dank underground cisterns.

The music, meanwhile, is a brilliant update of old melodies. They get new life breathed into them by fuller orchestration and arrangements, but their catchy tunes aren’t lost in translation.

Verdict

Super Mario RPG is going to make some older gamers very, very happy indeed – and for (slightly) younger ones like myself, it’s a gorgeous way to experience a true classic.

It’s unmistakably retro, of course, which leads to some slight hangups every now and then, but for the most part its rougher edges have been smoothed out nicely, and its graphical update is just lovely.