At the time in 1996 when Super Mario RPG was unleashed on the US market Role Playing games were just a niche genre within the video game market. Super Mario RPG appeared to be a game that attempted to change that. By using the popular Mario universe, nice looking rendered graphics and having the game itself designed by the makers of the popular Final Fantasy series (and many other notable 16-bit RPGs at the time) Squaresoft, Super Mario RPG tried to help standard style Role Playing Games become more popular with general gamers who at the time were turned off by RPGs for various reasons. This had been tried several times before and even Square themselves made an attempt in the past in order to increase casual gamers' interests in RPGs, by creating Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

However, fans of the RPG genre in general were rather unimpressed with the overall play and design of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and casual gamers who saw the game (and its ads which bragged about its low price tag) and were not very excited by it either. It appeared that the whole idea of making an RPG aimed at casual gamers would never be a success. Then along came Super Mario RPG which tried to once again to convince casual gamers to give RPGs a try. SMRPG with it's big marketing campaign and likable Mario characters was a partial sucess. While the game sold fairly well but it didn't have as big of an impact in convincing casual gamers to start playing RPGs as had been hoped.

Super Mario RPG's storyline starts off in the ever popular setting for nearly all Mario games, "The Mushroom Kingdom". In a not so surprising plot Princess Toadstool is kidnapped and Mario, of all people, has to go save her. Without going that far into this game's storyline, (as the plot is thinner then Calista Flockheart on a diet) it involves Mario building a party to help him go after and save the Princess, find the 7 magic stars, and then try to save the defenseless Mushroom kingdom from the evil Smithy who has taken over Bowser's castle. While this story may seem boring and cliched to most RPG fans, it fits the light feel of the game, considering Mario RPG was aimed at mostly casual gamers and children. Besides, you shouldn't expect a super-complicated plot in a youth-oriented game like this anyway.

One of the more (at the time of release) ground breaking things about Super Mario RPG was the additions made to the game's battle system. In Mario RPG you have a standard style RPG battle engine and something new called the "timed hit" system. With timed hits you can attack with extra power by hitting the attack button just before an attack. You can also decrease damage inflicted by enemies by simply hitting the A button just before being attacked. The layout for battles is fairly simple with commands for attack, items, special attack (like magic in most role playing games) and then defense, which allows you to both defend enemy attacks and run from battles. Like in most classic style RPGs Super Mario RPG has a system of experience points and levels; the more battles you win the more experience points you gain and the more powerful your characters become. One side note about the experience system is that for some reason the maximum experience level is 30 in Super Mario RPG, which is a pretty low number for a classic style RPG. Then again, considering that Super Mario RPG was made with younger and/or less RPG-experienced gamers in mind, it isn't supposed to be the longest game around.

The basic overworld engine of Super Mario RPG is rather captivating and original for a classic style console Role Playing Game. For one thing there aren't any random encounters found within Super Mario RPG. You can see your enemies and try to avoid battles which I've always felt is a superior system of going into battles, compared to the random encounter setup which is present in most console RPGs. The levels actually look like levels from a Mario game with many creatures and characters returning from earlier Mario games (like Goomba or Koopa Troopa). There are also question marks throughout the areas like in real Mario games as well which, when hit release all kinds of unique items. Another nice addition is that some of the items in the game come directly from the other Mario games. For example you can get an invincibility star and then run down all the enemies on the screen without having to fight them, you can also quickly gain experience points for overpowering the enemies with the invincibility derived from stars.

As far as the villages in Super Mario RPG look, they are all very well designed and all have an unique style to them. For example, the mushroom kingdom has a very distinctive look that no other town in the game has. There are a lot of secrets hidden throughout the towns that you can find by talking to people and/or by looking for the right things. The game's dungeons also have a certain level of originality to them with what are almost mini games hidden throughout. For example, in one sequence you can actually try to hide behind curtains to try and avoid being found by one of the game's villain's henchmen. If you are successful in avoiding him you do not have to fight him. Another thing about the design in this game is there are some cameo appearances by other popular Nintendo characters if you know how to find them. Both Link from the Zelda games and Samus from Metroid can be seen in certain spots under certain circumstances. This adds to the level of almost funniness this game possesses.

When traveling throughout the Mushroom Kingdom on your quest, the basic navigation interface in Super Mario RPG is done via a map screen (another likeness to some of the Mario games like Super Mario Brothers 3 or Super Mario World). On the map screen are little dots and areas which contain enemies. You must complete these areas to move further in the game and once you complete an area of the game you can just use the map screen to go back. There are also quite a few secret areas hidden throughout Super Mario RPG. While they don't significantly add to the game's time or anything, they certainly are a bonus.

And now on to one of Super Mario RPGs most impressive features, the game's incredible quality graphics. The graphics in Super Mario RPG are VERY impressive for a Super NES game. It looks a lot like Donkey Kong Country. The characters are all computer-designed, look amazingly sharp and animate very smoothly. The graphics in Super Mario RPG were better then any other RPG at the time. In fact the high quality visuals in Super Mario RPG were what I think was one of the big selling points of the game. All the towns and dungeons, and inanimate objects, such as houses, walls or even signs (which in most games cannot be read unless you click on them) have a very nice clean look to them as well. Super Mario RPG is arguably the best-looking SNES game ever released.

So here were are on what I felt was one of the weaker points of the game: the sound and music. The in-game tunes and sound effects are only so-so. A lot of the game's music is just remixed from other Mario games. While it's not that bad it would be nice to hear a lot more good, original music then what is in the game. A lot of the music that I did not recognize from Mario games wasn't all that fantastic nor all that terrible either. One good thing, though, is that the music in Super Mario RPG really does fit the overall cute and light atmosphere of the game. While that is nice considering that many games have scenes with overly-dramatic music playing and insignificant things going on, overall the music in Super Mario RPG is decent but not great. The sound effects also fit the game but are not all that exceptional.

One thing that really bothered me about Super Mario RPG was the control. At many points the control handled like a rusted-out go-cart on the highway in winter. The game had a diagonal overhead style view of the terrain. Since there was no analog pad for the SNES, controlling Mario in towns and in overworld areas took a little getting used. A lot of times you would have to walk diagonally to walk up due to the way that some of the levels were designed. While I eventually got used to the control which was more crooked than Microsoft, it definitely did take a little bit of getting used to before I was controlling smoothly. And having to learn to walk diagonally is about as fun as a Backstreet Boys concert to a straight male. In battles control handles fairly well, which it has to considering the precise timing needed to successfully pull off timed hits. While the control in Super Mario RPG wasn't terrible it did take some getting used to and could definitely have been better.

Overall I thought that Super Mario RPG was a highly enjoyable title to play. It has a much better-than-standard Role Playing Game battle system, and a few nice extras (like the timed hits system) that were added to it. The game itself has some fun bonuses, well-designed levels and a nice game engine with no random encounters. While some may find the game itself (with the Mario characters and all) cutesy, I enjoyed it. I thought that the battles were fun, and the levels were well designed, as was the game's whole engine. My main complaints with Super Mario RPG were that the game was quite short for an RPG (I finished it originally in a rental and in what was under 10 hours of playing time) and the play control was somewhat unusual which took some getting used to. Super Mario RPG is a great game to let friends who are not really into Role Playing Games try out. It is very simple and easy to play, with an in-game introduction on how to use the basic menus to get amateur players of the genre started. It also has a lot of elements of a Mario game that will keep younger gamers and non RPG players interested as well. While some hardcore RPG players may be somewhat turned off by the game's cutesy nature and shorter than Gary Coleman length, both younger and casual gamers may very well enjoy it, as it is designed to appeal to all ages and has a classic style RPG engine at its heart.