Screenshots from Video Game Museum

Year released: 1996 (Super NES)

Number of Players: 1

Smithy's giant sword crashes right into Bowser's castle. Mario and his ever growing party must collect all the star pieces and breach the sword for a showdown with Smithy.

Graphics: Ooo-eee. Everything is rendered to perfection, much like the Donkey Kong Country series. The colors are all very smooth, providing for a less than serious feel. Special attacks aren't as flashy as in other Square games, but they still look cool.

Play control: Mario moves in eight directions depending on how you use the control pad (four main directions for up, down, left, right, then pressing two appropriate directions at once to move diagonally). Jumps are executed with B, and the menu is accessed through X.
The battle system is much different. When you attack, you can press the attack button (either A for a normal attack or Y for a special attack) at a special time for greater damage.

Sound: Hmmm. Well, the composition isn't too compelling, and the instruments give the game a somewhat shallow feeling (similar to the smoothness of the colors). The sound effects are really happy sound effects, too. I don't know how else to put it... but they're bouncy, they're light, etc.

Challenge: Inexistant. Unless you count trying to hop 100 times in a row on an enemy's head (timing hitting Y on a special attack 100 times), there's no challenge. Even special attack types aren't that key to know.

Gameplay: Your run of the mill RPG engine--choose your attack (weapon or special, special using up MP, what this game calls FP, which is shared by the entire party rather than a single character). You have three characters that choose attacks and then carry them out. Both your party members and enemies have individual HPs, which are the aim of attack--attack the thing, its hopefully HP goes down. Once HP reaches 0, the thing dies. Same goes for your party members, but there are ways to revive them. Speed determines in what order this happens, including the order that the enemies attack (the faster the enemy, the more party members it'll attack before). You can use an item, too, or defend (or try to run away). Only difference is that timing thing listed above.
Oh, yeah, enemies aren't random--you encounter them. That is, where you'd get a random encounter in an RPG, you'll see enemies on the screen. Touch an enemy, and you head into combat.

Bottom line: With easy challenges and a simple battling engine, this could be considered a "my first RPG" of sorts. However, it's also a nice oasis amongst the many RPGs out there--you can just lounge back and have a grand old time. Fans of Chrono Trigger and Golden Sun are reccommended to try out this title.

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