Its hard to believe that its been three decades since Super Mario RPG was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Super Mario RPG: Legend of The Seven Stars was a big deal because it was one of the last major SNES titles to be released in America in ’96. Super Mario RPG came out the same year Nintendo was released the N64 and during time period where more gamers were beginning to turn to 3D game featured on consoles like PS1 and Sega Saturn. Super Mario RPG was not 3D but it featured pseudo-3D sprites along with 2.5D gameplay from an isometric perspective. Super Mario RPG is a game that also felt different from your average Mario game because of its darker tone in comparison to the light-hearted 2D platform titles that came before it. Also, seeing Mario in a role-playing game felt different but surprisingly refreshing considering the fact that 2D side-scrolling Mario games were becoming boring and repetitive by the mid-90’s. One of the reasons why Super Mario RPG looked significantly different from other Mario games was because the game was developed by Square Enix before company had its fallout with Nintendo.

The story for Super Mario RPG was pretty basic and featured five playable characters consisting of Mario, Princess Peach, Bowser, Geno and Mallow. The main antagonists of Super Mario RPG were the Smithy Gang who took over the Mushroom Kingdom and over Bowser’s Castle. The Smithy Gang also managed to destroy the Star Road using a giant sword with players having to collect the seven shattered pieces to repair it. Super Mario RPG featured seven different chapters and allowed characters to level up throughout the game by accumulating experience points through battle. In Super Mario RPG each character was capped at level 30 meaning experience points did not matter afterwards. What really made Super Mario RPG interesting was the fact that Bowser who is normally the main antagonist in Super Mario series was considered an anti-hero. Also, seeing Mario and Bowser work together for once was bizarre but kinda cool. It was never made clear whether or not Super Mario RPG was canon but its darker more mature presentation is something that added to its overall appeal.

After its release on Super Nintendo in ’96 Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Star managed to reach more than two million copies in sales. There are many who feel Super Mario RPG would have sold more than it did on the SNES if the game was released a few years earlier. Also, Super Mario RPG could have been a massive commercial success on the N64 if Nintendo and Square Enix continued their business partnership. The decision that Nintendo made to utilize cartridges opposed to CD-ROM’s for N64 was a major factor as to why Square Enix and Nintendo had a bitter fallout during the mid 90’s. The conflict that emerged between Nintendo and Square Enix is one of the main reasons why Super Mario RPG never got a true sequel. While Nintendo continued making Mario role-playing games from 2000 onwards none of them ever matched vibe of Super Mario RPG from 1996. Super Mario RPG is considered to be a cult classic within the gaming community and its popularity lead to fans pressuring Nintendo to remake the game for Nintendo Switch back 2023. The remake of Super Mario RPG on the Nintendo Switch sold more than the original reaching more than three million copies worldwide. Seeing that Super Mario RPG is still an attraction today its actually possible that we can finally get a sequel since Nintendo and Square Enix are on good terms once again.