Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Super Mario World
Developer	Squaresoft
Publisher	Nintendo
System	SNES
Release Date	JP March 9, 1996 US May 13, 1996
Gallery	GH Gallery
Rating	ESRB: E

The first Mario RPG and first Mario game with a large story. The game was created jointly by Squaresoft, known for their Final Fantasy series and Nintendo. The game blended the Mario world into traditional RPG elements and spawned two separate Mario RPG series.

Story

It starts while Mario is rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser like any other day. Then a giant sword falls from the sky, shattering the Star Road into seven Star Pieces before landing in Bowser's Keep- sending Mario, Peach and Bowser flying in different directions. With the mysterious sword comes a new band of villains called the Smithy Gang. Mario sets out to find the princess and winds up racing to get the Star Pieces before Smithy can use them for his own diabolical reasons.

Gameplay

Made by Square Soft, the people behind many popular RPG series, this game combines RPG strategy with timing skill. Instead of simply choosing an attack, watching your character perform it and then watching your character take damage from the enemy, with timed hits you can press buttons at the right times to add more power to your attack or decrease the power of enemy attacks. There are also a plethora of entertaining minigames- like rolling down Midas River, racing Yoshis and chasing bearded men up hills.

Another landmark of this game is that both the princess and Bowser are playable after they join your party. It's noteworthy to see Bowser playable in the game. Although Peach was playable in the American Super Mario Bros. 2, this is the first time you can play as Bowser. Mario's other two teammates are original characters- Geno the possessed doll and Mallow the weather wizard who thinks he's a frog.

One of the last Mario games for the Super NES, this features some of the system's best and most realistic graphics, aided by the SA-1 chip. It also has a variety of memorable music. There are also comical elements to the game that prevent the plumber from becoming too serious.

Sequels

Although this is the first Mario RPG, it has yet to have an actual sequel to it. Since then, two other Mario RPG series have arisen- Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi- which take many elements from this game, like the timed hits and humor.

The reason this game has no sequel and most characters have failed to reappear is that Square Soft held the rights to all original elements of the game and shortly afterwards started making games for the Playstation. Since then, Squaresoft and Nintendo have become closer again. Geno even made a small cameo appearance in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.