Arriving later on in the Super NES’s lifecycle in 1996, Super Mario RPG from Nintendo and Square found huge success – and while it went on to inspire games such as Paper Mario, this unique Mario role-playing experience remained sequestered away on Nintendo’s 16-bit hardware – until now. Super Mario RPG returns on Nintendo Switch courtesy of developer ArtePiazza and its partners. This is a complete rebuilding of the original game boasting fully 3D graphics, a freshly arranged soundtrack and plenty of enhancements designed to introduce Mario’s role playing adventure to a new audience.
In its original form, Super Mario RPG follows the trend of pre-rendered visuals that had become popular during the mid-90s. Yet, despite this, Mario RPG’s isometric perspective and unique stylings ultimately lends it a different feel compared to most other games on the Super NES. It was as if players were invited to peak into a collection of intricately sculpted Mario themed dioramas – a visual design that Nintendo never really revisited.
In rebuilding the game on Switch, developer ArtePiazza has fully embraced this aesthetic. The isometric perspective and 3D rendered design return while the rest of the package has been polished up, modernised to deliver an even smoother experience. This new version of the game has been recreated from the ground up using the Unity Engine. The entire game world is now rendered fully in real-time 3D, yet remains faithful to the original – to the point where the new version even offers up a shot-for-shot remake of the SNES original’s attract mode. It’s delivered via pre-rendered video – likely to account for the many changes of location. Interestingly, this video, and others within the game, run at 60fps. It may sound bizarre but Super Mario RPG is perhaps the best example of video playback on the entire platform.
