cyberSnare ver 1.9.1

Erik Henriksen
pOke staff

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars For the Super Nintendo

I got this game off of eBay recently and it is one that I have really been wanting to play for a while, so this month I am going in the "way back" machine to review "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars," for the Super Nintendo. The Mario series of role playing games (RPG) have never been your traditional role playing games and with this one you get to see where some of the series’ trademarks came from (believe it or not this first game was designed by the RPG masters at Square).

Smithy has destroyed the Star Road, which causes dreams not to come true, so it is up to Mario and the gang to rescue the Seven Stars and repair the Star Road. Mario is joined by several characters, including newcomers Mallow and Geno. You can only have three characters in your party at a time and each character has their own unique traits, such as Mario who can jump on foes or hammer them. Geno shoots beams from his hands and Mallow is good at healing, so choosing the best three for the situation is key.

In battle you can choose to do a normal attack, a special attack (where each character's unique ability comes into play), use an item, defend yourself, or run from battle. In this game you have what are called "Flower Points," which are used to power your special abilities. These points are distributed amongst your characters, so you must choose wisely when deciding whether to use them or not. Special powers are implemented in several ways, Mario uses timed attacks (if you hit the attack button at the right time, your attack will do more damage and have less of a chance to miss), some require you to hold the button down and release at the right time, while others require you to rotate the directional pad to charge an attack.

There are several conditions to watch out for in battle such as poison, which slowly eats away at your health, silence (which prevents you from using special abilities), sleep (disabling entirely) and many others. Of course there are items that will nullify these effects. There are also several mini-games to entertain you along the way. "Beetle Race" has you trying to catch as many beetles while running up a hill being chased by bad guys. And "Midas River" has you swimming and barrel-rolling down a river, trying to gather as many coins as possible.

For its time, "Super Mario RPG" was a good RPG that laid the groundwork for one of the greatest series, but even back then wasn't without its flaws. Most of the game won't challenge you very much until the end where you will find yourself dying at the hands of bosses who seriously ramp up the difficulty without any warning. I would also suggest playing this before the later ones because you will find yourself missing some of the improvements that have been made over time; even then it isn’t a game to miss playing if you have a chance. A good story (for once your goal isn’t necessarily to rescue Princess Peach) and lots of Mario humor make your role to play this game. "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars" hops its way to a 7 out of 10.

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