This is it folks, the certified G.O.A.T of Mario RPGs, the one that’s not just considered one of the best Mario games, but one of Nintendo’s all-time greats along with the likes of Mother 3 and Majora’s Mask, which needless to say I think is well deserved. Not only does it expertly build on the best elements of the first game, it also actively improves on it’s faults.
The jump from N64 to GameCube really benefits both in terms of presentation and gameplay. Not only does the combat feel way more fluent thanks to the better frame rate, but the simple yet charming art style is gorgeous when brought to life with sharper graphics, even in spite of the shite setup I went through it on. (why wasn’t the Wii HDMI compatible Nintendo!?) The more capable specs also results in an infinitely superior soundtrack to boot. The first games soundtrack certainly wasn’t horrible, but a good few tracks could come off as really repetitive and grating after a while. Not here though, almost every song is a straight banger, and the result is yet another kickass soundtrack, as is really the norm with most Mario games.
Easily the biggest improvement is with the party members, as they both have way more spark and personality whilst also contributing way more to the plot than most of the party members in the first game did. Just compare Goombario with Goombella and you’ll probably see what I’m on about. It also helps that most of the party members you meet along the way have direct ties to the plot of each chapter in some way, which helps increase investment. Given Mario’s kind of a flat character (pun entirely intended) giving the party members more prominence was definitely a wise move.
Speaking of the story, while it’s admittedly not anything particularly special when it’s all laid out, the manner in which it unfolds, combined with the massive amount of characters throughout the whole adventure honestly overshadows that. Every chapters got a semi prominent supporting cast outside of the new party member you’ll usually get once every chapter, which helps make the world feel more lived in compared to the borderline barren nature of a lot of the first games areas. The Peach segments from the first game are also carried over here, however this time she’s paired up with the X-Nauts supercomputer TEC, as it gradually begins to question its own morality. That alone makes these segments way more interesting than they were in the first, which mostly just used them for little more then exposition. Speaking of the X-Nauts, I’m very happy that the dev team decided to go for another avenue with the villains beyond recycling Bowser for this game. Granted I feel their leader Grodus doesn’t have as much character when stacked up with other RPG villains like Cackletta or Fawful, but he’s still comes off as being a legitimate threat in spite of that. Of course it’s required by law for Bowser to show up at least once, however this time he’s reduced to a supporting role much like in Superstar Saga. He’s ok here, but I honestly think he wasn’t needed for this game, plus his side of the story doesn’t even get much resolution anyways.
Now when talking about this game it’s near impossible not to address what seems to be the Achilles Heel for a lot of people: the backtracking. It’s fine lol. There’s one annoying instance of it towards the end and right before the final boss I ended up having to go back through the entire last dungeon to restock on healing items, but those are the only instances where it was really annoying to an almost intrusive degree. I have some gripes with the epilogue as far as the fates of certain characters which I won’t get into here for spoiler reasons, but the game’s definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
While I’d only really recommend the first game to die hard Mario fans, this is an essential title for anyone reading. If you haven’t already, play this game! It’s one of the best games I’ve played in years, and Nintendo should be bloody ashamed for starving fans of an easy way to play it beyond emulation.
10/10
The jump from N64 to GameCube really benefits both in terms of presentation and gameplay. Not only does the combat feel way more fluent thanks to the better frame rate, but the simple yet charming art style is gorgeous when brought to life with sharper graphics, even in spite of the shite setup I went through it on. (why wasn’t the Wii HDMI compatible Nintendo!?) The more capable specs also results in an infinitely superior soundtrack to boot. The first games soundtrack certainly wasn’t horrible, but a good few tracks could come off as really repetitive and grating after a while. Not here though, almost every song is a straight banger, and the result is yet another kickass soundtrack, as is really the norm with most Mario games.
Easily the biggest improvement is with the party members, as they both have way more spark and personality whilst also contributing way more to the plot than most of the party members in the first game did. Just compare Goombario with Goombella and you’ll probably see what I’m on about. It also helps that most of the party members you meet along the way have direct ties to the plot of each chapter in some way, which helps increase investment. Given Mario’s kind of a flat character (pun entirely intended) giving the party members more prominence was definitely a wise move.
Speaking of the story, while it’s admittedly not anything particularly special when it’s all laid out, the manner in which it unfolds, combined with the massive amount of characters throughout the whole adventure honestly overshadows that. Every chapters got a semi prominent supporting cast outside of the new party member you’ll usually get once every chapter, which helps make the world feel more lived in compared to the borderline barren nature of a lot of the first games areas. The Peach segments from the first game are also carried over here, however this time she’s paired up with the X-Nauts supercomputer TEC, as it gradually begins to question its own morality. That alone makes these segments way more interesting than they were in the first, which mostly just used them for little more then exposition. Speaking of the X-Nauts, I’m very happy that the dev team decided to go for another avenue with the villains beyond recycling Bowser for this game. Granted I feel their leader Grodus doesn’t have as much character when stacked up with other RPG villains like Cackletta or Fawful, but he’s still comes off as being a legitimate threat in spite of that. Of course it’s required by law for Bowser to show up at least once, however this time he’s reduced to a supporting role much like in Superstar Saga. He’s ok here, but I honestly think he wasn’t needed for this game, plus his side of the story doesn’t even get much resolution anyways.
Now when talking about this game it’s near impossible not to address what seems to be the Achilles Heel for a lot of people: the backtracking. It’s fine lol. There’s one annoying instance of it towards the end and right before the final boss I ended up having to go back through the entire last dungeon to restock on healing items, but those are the only instances where it was really annoying to an almost intrusive degree. I have some gripes with the epilogue as far as the fates of certain characters which I won’t get into here for spoiler reasons, but the game’s definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
While I’d only really recommend the first game to die hard Mario fans, this is an essential title for anyone reading. If you haven’t already, play this game! It’s one of the best games I’ve played in years, and Nintendo should be bloody ashamed for starving fans of an easy way to play it beyond emulation.
10/10