When it comes to gamers and their wishful thinking, many people would likely think of theSuper Mario RPGfans who have been desiring a remake of the game for a number of years. After they refused to give up hope, theJune 2023 Nintendo Directhas answered their dreams at last, and a new version ofSMRPGis coming to the Switch in just five months. With the revival of the SNES classic announced alongside a new 2DSuper Mariogame and a new title starring Princess Peach, fans of Nintendo’s mascot have quite a lot to look forward to.
In terms of theSuper Mario RPGremake, its goal appears to be to recreate everything from the original title down to adapting the art style and isometric perspective to fit what’s expected of theMariofranchise in recent years. The result is stunning as it makes the game look beautiful and fresh in 3D, yet still colorful and uniquely its own, perfect for those who wanted its nostalgic look kept. However, there appears to be a few new features to this iteration of the cult classic role-playing game that might make this adventure feel special once more to even the most veteran players.
RELATED:Princess Peach is Getting Her Own Video Game
Super Mario RPG’s Strange New Combat Mechanics
Once the trailer forSMRPGjumps into gameplay, fans might notice that there’s something new among the familiar sights already. In the left-hand corner is a circular meter measured in percentages that seems to go up during both the player’s turn and the enemy’s turn. It appears that this meter is tied to the Action CommandsPaper MarioorMario & Luigifansmay be familiar with. While the otherMarioRPGs kept Action Commands alive,Super Mario RPGwas the one that first introduced them.
Even thoughSuper Mario RPGhas a historywith the Action Command system, this percentage gauge is new. There’s also a Chain counter that likely keeps track of how many Action Commands the player successfully pulls off in succession, and appears to offer boosts to different stats depending on just how many fans can reach. This may not be the case, however, as theSMRPGtrailer doesn’t explain this mechanic. Fans will likely need to wait for more updates to truly understand what this meter does.
How Super Mario RPG Makes What’s Old New Again
When it came to picturing thisclassic SNES gamebeing revived, not many fans would have pictured things panning out this perfectly. For some, they may have accepted losing the isometric perspective or the art style in favor of havingSMRPGremade, and others would have just been happy with any RPG that brought back Mallow and Geno. Not only is the game being remade faithfully in 3D, but a few adjustments are being made to improve the experience as well.
Right away, the trailer puts a spotlight on one of the biggest improvements the remake adds to the game, which is fully animated 3D cutscenes. In the original game, many ofSuper Mario RPG’siconic moments were animated through sprites and given dialogue through text boxes. Similarly to thePokemon Mystery DungeonSwitch remake, though, it appears that bigger moments will be given cinematic cutscenes, and there’s a strong possibility that special moves will have dramatic cutaways to their own special animations as well.
Yoko Shimomura, the composer forSuper Mario RPGwho went on to work on theMario & Luigiseries and thesoundtrack ofKingdom Hearts, has already stated that she’s back for this remake. That means all the beautiful recreations of the game’s music heard in the trailer had their original composer behind them. There are likely even more surprises to be found with the new version ofSMRPG, such as whether the game has at least a small bit of voice acting, but fans have to once again wait for more news in the coming months, knowing for sure its coming this time.
Super Mario RPGwill release on November 17 for Nintendo Switch.
MORE:Super Mario Bros Wonder’s Elephant, Long Mario Might Be Pure Nightmare Fuel
