Actually, you might think that everything is the same in the Mushroom Kingdom: Bowser has once again kidnapped the princess and Mario is going on the obligatory rescue mission before lunch. But this time things are a little different. The mustachioed hero and his world are pre-rendered, the brave plumber now fights his way through Bowser’s castle based on rounds and menus and suddenly a huge sword crashes through the ceiling and scatters the protagonists to the four winds. Now it’s time to gather a few brave friends and save the world from the evil blacksmith’s dark plans. When it debuted in 1996 on the 16-bit SNES console, the premise and game mechanics made for a powerful hello: Mario as a hero in a role-playing game? And from Square too? Unthinkable! After all, RPGs areFinal Fantasy VII-Days still an expensive niche genre for a small handful of initiates.
Of course, in 2023 things will look different: Role-playing games of all kinds regularly dominate the sales charts and virtually every genre has incorporated some role-playing set pieces into them today. In this modern gaming ecosystem, the time is actually ripe for a glorious return of Mario’s first and, to this day, absolutely unique role-playing excursion. The original may have aged pretty well in terms of gameplay, but the presentation doesn’t cut a good figure on modern displays: The rendering scenarios and figures from back then are designed for CRT televisions and their scanlines, and on a modern XXL TV all that’s left is abstract pixel mush. Therefore, Square Enix and Nintendo decided to redevelop the game from scratch, and eventually Studio Arte Piazza (which, among others Dragon Quest XI ported to the Switch) entrusted with the remake. And so now, 27 years after the SNES debut, Mario and his team are jumping across the screens again. High-resolution, polygonal, with newly arranged sound, but still role-playing turn-based, just like in the blissful 16-bit times.