Gaming Memories: Starfox

Haven't done one of those in a while... (I'm doing doing this one because the game I'm planning to cover next is taking me longer than I expected.) Anyway!

Starfox

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

March 1993

The Super Nintendo was an impressive console on its own for the time, home to many technological advances. With the gift of hindsight, it feels like where the greatest updates happened. Most distinctly, the in-between from an all-2D to an all-3D. Most games on the SNES were still pretty clearly 16-bit, 2D entries. Some games played around; Donkey Kong Country is not any less impressive nowadays when you take into consideration its release date, but the trickery of turning all 3D assets into 2D sprites to create the perfect illusion was genius. Super Mario Kart had 3D tracks, but the racers were still obviously 2D. And then, we had the first actual 3D games.

And in that field, Starfox was a pioneer. Like a glimpse into the future. Its hardware had to be tailor-made for it, too, requiring an extra processing chip in the cartridge to make these graphics run right. And do they? Well... We do have true polygonal 3D on the screen, but everything is cut down to allow the console to run it; lowered framerate and resolution, and the models are about as simple as can get, but IT WORKS. The more demanding parts of the game cut on those elements even furtther.

Starfox is the story of the Lylat System's Fox McCloud, who is sent on a mission with his colleagues Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare and Slippy Toad (the latter of whom keeps getting into trouble and we hate him for it). The task is to deal with the ominous Dr. Andross, who has his sights on multi-planetary conquest. The gameplay involves shooting at threats by aiming at their red-and-yellow weak points. The boss battles are fairly impressive considering the technology.

The structure of the game is also quite odd, split into three routes of differing difficulty, letting you have a tailor-made experience based on what you think you can do. (Did I ever play any other set of levels than on Easy? Maybe I did try them, failed pitifully, and stayed in my lane. I was young, after all.) Top this off with two bonus levels, and you get something special. It always ends in a fight with Andross, and that pristine white polygonal face with bright eyes, spitting white bricks at your Arwing, is still to this day one of the most iconic sights in the franchise. I did defeat this guy.

Starfox secured a spot for itself in fans' hearts, and would only grow from there, though later entries in the franchise would experiment more with genre and tech (...not always to the best results, as the Starfix game on the Wii U can attest). We even recently got Starfox 2, finally "released" first on the Super NES Classic Edition, then later on the Switch. For what it's worth, I keep fond memories of that one, and it's one of those games I grew up with that I'd happily go back in a heartbeat to see if I can fare better... if I didn't already have a backlog of 230+ games to get through, that is...

Gaming Memories: Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

November 1992

Bllbllblllblll- beep beep!

...I had to.

In this one, we control Road Runner as he speeds and jumps through five worlds while avoiding Wile E. Coyote's ACME-powered attempts to capture him. Contrary to the classic Looney Tunes cartoons, the focus is on the bird, not on the coyote's schemes. Gameplay could, as a result, feel like a Sonic game, since we control another famed fictional speedster. Emphasis on "could".

This adventure takes us through five worlds: The southwest American Desert, at first, but afterwards we explore giant construction sites, long trains, deep underground mines, ending the chase in space, the final frontier. In every level, the dastardly coyote attacks with a different plan, most of them pulled directly from the cartoons; examples include the wingsuit, the catapult, or the Wile E. Robot. Our carefree bird has two means of attack; the main one is his beak. The second is turbo speed, which you can use by holding down the Y button while Road Runner has some energy left in a gauge, which can be refilled by pecking at bird seed conspicuously left on the road. Each world has three levels, followed by a boss battle. These larger contraptions' weak points can be damaged by the beak attack.

A point brought up by other reviewers, which makes sense now when I think back to my own experience, is that levels aren't designed to take full advantage of Road Runner's speed, being filled with a lot of traps that are too easy to fall into if you run the whole time, as you won't have enough reaction time to avoid them. This also applies to level design, with some stages being labyrinthine - owing to a side-quest involving colored flags, which Road Runner can run by to raise, with each flag found netting a bonus to your score at the end of a level.

The game would have been stronger if its stages were more often designed with the Road Runner's speed in mind. But if we disregard that point, and barring a few annoying moments, we have a decent game here. It's great seeing all these references to the cartoons, and it's even better seeing Wile E.'s plans fail in spectacular fashion - as usual. It's a Looney Tunes game, it would be missing something without the usual slapstick humor! And yes, it IS hilarious. I have good memories of this one, as you can tell. Revisiting these has gotten me itching to retry some of them...

Gaming Memories: B.O.B.

B.O.B.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

June 1993

No, not the flat-earther rapper.

I said before that when I got my SNES, it was a gift from cousins leaving for university, so I inherited their collection as well. Some classics, and some stuff I had never heard of. Heck, stuff that's barely heard of. Like today's game.

B.O.B. is a part of the run-and-gun genre - same genre as Contra, but this is the funny cousin in the family. B.O.B. is a teenage robot taking the family car to go on a date. However, the teen gets distracted while driving in an asteroid field and crashes the car, landing on a large asteroid with alien bases and enemies on the way. He makes his way through, finds a new car, and heads onwards to his date. Guess what? Another crash, another landing. This happens a third time, poor guy. Oh, he does get to his date in the end. But he's gonna be a few hours late.

Our protagonist has access to six different weapons, and you can cycle through them with the L button of the SNES controller. All guns have ammunition, and you can run out of ammo... though if you do, B.O.B. can still use his fist to attack. The standout mechanic here, however, may be the Remotes, six items you can pick up and use. One's a trampoline, one is a mini-helicopter, one is a protective force field, one is an umbrella that slows his fall... These add nice variety to gameplay, and when necessary to beat a stage, they'll be plentiful. You can cycle through Remotes with the R button.

You run and shoot your way through 45 stages. It's been a long time since I last played this game, so I don't remember all of it, but I do know there was a nice variety in terms of dungeon types. Further down the line, stages can get downright labyrinthine. Some levels have memorable moments, and I recall the use of a floating ship to get through some of them, so gameplay changes now and then. The bosses all look friggin' cool, as well: Robots, aliens, fire elementals, ghosts... Also of note is the comedic tone from the story, retained in the many ways in which B.O.B. can die. Exploded to bits, melted into a puddle, disintegrated... 

The game worked with a password system­. When you finish some stages, you got a password made of six digits, and you could input that password from the title screen to get roughly where you were at. I don't remember ever beating the game in a single sitting, I do remember playing through its stages and eventually beating it thanks to the passwords. Because, damn, was it really tough. It's a difficult game. I still consider it a point of pride that I did win in the end. Critics consider it average, and maybe with the added time since I would think so as well, who knows. I probably should get an emulator and play it again... But I have fond memories of it, so maybe you'll enjoy it too.

Gaming Memories: Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country

Super Nintendo

November 21st, 1994 (NA)

I never owned a lot of Super Nintendo titles; if I recall, I've had maybe 10 total, and most came with the console, which had been gifted to me by cousins. I may have bought only one game for it. And as is normal for a kid given multiple new playthings at once, I eventually settled on a couple of favorites. This was one of them.

Donkey Kong's first major platform game on the SNES (and, ironically, the only "Donkey Kong Country" game of the era to feature him, as he has to be rescued in both sequels) felt like a game-changer in several ways. The 3D look given to all of the sprites made it groundbreaking as one of the first "2.5D" titles to exist. It featured not only the famous ape who famously had a beef with Mario in the earliest days of the plumber's career, but also Diddy Kong, a younger chimp clad in red, as well as a handful of additional Kongs serving as varied stops throughout this adventure.

The story? Oh, it's as simple as it gets, really; a group of villainous reptiles known as the Kremlings, led by the ruthless and kooky King K. Rool, has stolen the Kongs' banana hoard. Go kick their asses and get it back. The Kongs will help you, be it Funky Kong allowing you to travel to different areas (worlds) of Donkey Kong Island, Candy Kong saving your progress, and Cranky Kong providing tips, comedy and head-canings, grumpy old ape that he is.

I remember having such a good time with this game. A couple of stages had interesting gimmicks (not a fan of the mine carts, but the stage with the On/Off switches and the zombie-like reptiles was cool). The inclusion of animal helpers was great (Rambi, Enguarde and Expresso have a dear place in my heart; Squawk and Winky, not so much). And there were so many secrets to uncover and ways to earn extra lives - enough hidden areas that the game actually goers beyond 100% and is properly "completed" at 103%, and there's balloon lives, the KONG letters and even animal tokens to collect. The last battle against K. Rool is especially noteworthy with its famous fake-out ending, where credits start rolling too early - then the crocodile gets back up and things get serious.

It's such a great game and I have a huge nostalgic connection to it. With the gift of hindsight, I can see how it set the tone for the Donkey Kong franchise as a whole - its comedic edge, a staple of Rare, would be a part of the following entries, up to and including Donkey Kong 64 and most of the studio's other projects. It's a classic, for good reason, and definitely a must-play.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I bought that Link costume something like 3-4 years ago, telling myself I'd get to use it eventually for the blog... Took long enough, but that's FINALLY been done!

I was originally hoping to have this game as my anniversary review this year. Although I like The Legend of Zelda, I feel like I don’t get to talk about the franchise often enough. The third entry in the franchise, subtitled A Link to the Past, was released on April 13th, 1992, in America. The SNES game solidified many of the concepts that were present in the first two, and set the stage for all the ones that would come after. 

I eventually decided against reviewing this game for an anniversary, in part because I like said anniversary reviews to be long and detailed, and I need to have a lot to say. I didn’t have the time for such a thing this year. Also, I’ve grown to notice that it’s one of the better-known entries in the series. It’s not as huge as TLoZ: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask or Breath of the Wild, but I’d still classify it among the Top 5. I’ve seen a large community of people playing it to this day, piling on the self-imposed challenges and item randomizers. There are people out there who know this game better than I know my own home, and I’ve never moved in 28 years. So I don't have several parts' worth of things to say about it.

The big reason why I wanted to cover it, however, is that it’s one of the rare few games to have followed me in some form throughout my life. My cousins passed it down to me, in a package that included their SNES console and the rest of their collection, when I was about 10; I borrowed a copy from a friend to play on my Game Boy Advance SP; and I purchased it on the Wii Shop Channel too. I have a great sense of nostalgia for this one.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Part 5)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Talking down Bowser with simple logic. That, my friends,
is why Geno is awesome.

Time to finish this! In Part 4, Mario, Mallow, Geno, Peach and Bowser defeated Exor the sword, only to get sucked into its mouth and end up in the original world the Smithy Gang came from: A factory. Geno confirms that this is the Smithy Gang’s world of origin, a cold, dead place where only machines and monsters could exist. We see outside the factory, and yeah, it’s nothing but darkness and fog. Of course, now that Bowser got his castle back, he wants to leave the group, but Geno is quick to remind him that more weapon-based monsters will come out of Exor as long as the Smithy Gang isn’t truly defeated. Bowser reluctantly agrees to help the team until the end.

Even though the factory itself is a world of machines, the outside is inhabited by ghosts. Weird combination, but I suppose it just helps to show how alien and bizarre this world is. Don't you just hate it when ghosts show up out of nowhere, without any real reason, just to fill up space?

BRICK JOKE!

DAMMIT!

Ah yes, the bells can attack too.
They'll... ring you out!

Even weirder are the bosses met here. Oh yes, if you wanted gimmicks, you’re going to get gimmicks. A lot of gimmicky bosses. First is Count Down, a large clock that unleashes different attacks based on which hour it displays. However, it’s only a tool for the Ding-A-Lings, the two little bells on top of it, which can also attack. As a boss, it’s a very creative idea. Tough, but not impossible. Although, yes, it’s creative, but there is no reason for this thing being battled! Unless… Unless it’s the timekeeper of the factory’s activities, and its demise will make everything go awry? Nobody’s on time anymore, schedules get messed up, spears and guns living together in the same houses! Gun-dogs and knife-cats living together! Anarchy!

…Sometimes my interpretations get weird. And yet, there’s some sense in there.

After Count Down, we meet greyscale versions of past Smithy Gang enemies and bosses. It appears that Smithy has started mass-producing his creatures. There’s only one problem; in most cases, the Machine Made copies are weaker than the originals. Of course! Make minions en masse and their might may not match the major models! Er… That alliteration fell apart at the end. There are still colorful enemies around here though, like hammer monsters and, for some reason, more ghosts. The major Smithy Gang members are now fought in Machine Made versions, like the Axem Rangers (pitiful when they’re brought down to the ranks of enemies), Bowyer (who can still disable your buttons), Yaridovich can still split himself…

Just wait till you see their snakes.

Speaking of weird, unexpected bosses that don’t seem to fit the setting too well… we run into Cloaker and Domino, two robots who take inspiration from… Arabian Nights? One has a sabre and is more physical, one has a veil and uses more special attacks. It’s so weird. And when one of them is defeated, the other climbs on their pet, the Earth Link or Mad Adder (both giant robot-like snakes), and the battle continues. These guys, I just can’t justify. No clue why they’re a part of the Factory, they barely follow the weapon theme of the Smithy Gang!

But we’re coming close to the end now. We’re getting into the final hallway, in which we battle a factory clerk… who looks like a chibi version of Shovel Knight for some reason. Maybe the developers of Shovel Knight took inspiration there? …Probably not.  We find a Toad who has managed to run all the way through the factory to get to us and sell items before the final battles. Let me remind you that we’re in a factory infested with enemies that respawn at will, located in an alternate dimension, accessible only through the mouth of a giant sword planted into the fortress of the Mario franchise’s most recurring villain. If that Toad managed to reach this place by himself, then that is one badass Toad.

This Toad deserves his own game!
Unless he became Captain Toad?

Three bosses that are basically the same, and some that add finally some
new stuff to the table. Eh...?

Then, we battle, in quick succession, the factory's manager, the director, and the chief. Who’s next, the factory financier? The chain production overseer? The coffee-refilling intern? Well, at least the chief is different from the others… he’s helped in battle by a large machine named Gunyolk. Although that monster is actually the living lava inside of it… However, beating those doesn’t stop the production of machine mooks, so I guess we’ll have to talk with the owner of this place. Geno is reserved but happy at the thought of the seventh Star Piece being soon theirs, but knows that this means he’ll soon no longer have a reason to stay with his friends.

Come on Geno. You followed us all the way to here.
You know how it goes. This is not gonna happen unless
we battle Smithy. And this will be epic.

Mario and Co. infiltrate the final room and meet Smithy, who looks like… well… an evil, hammer-wielding, robotic Santa Claus. I mean, it’s a nice contrast with the main hero to have the final villain be associated with a particular job, wield a hammer, sport facial hair… But much like most bosses in the factory, Smithy comes out a bit out of nowhere, especially for a final villain, with no backstory or character exploration; Hell, we didn’t even know what he looked like. We only knew there was a Smithy because the enemies were called the Smithy Gang! And since the sword Exor had not been named until the battle against it, we could have reasonably assumed that it was Smithy. That’s my big issue with the game’s plot, really, how the final parts have so much padding, and yet have so little in the way of explaining the last villains, including the friggin’ final boss.

Bis boss versus final boss. Sadly Bowser alone is not able
to match Smithy. Good thing he's in a strong team!

Thankfully, while we still know little of Smithy’s backstory, we get to see a lot of his personality. He’s a terrible boss to his minions, which makes sense since he can rebuild them at will. He is callous, nasty, and has a bad case of misplaced pride. He wants to create a world of weapons, which is all the motivation we ever get. Oh, and being a Final Fantasy-like boss, he has immense power and an insane amount of Hit Points. Well, his first form isn’t so bad… 2,000 HP, some strong attacks… Would be easy, if there wasn’t that damn Smelter in the room, the thing that spits out a kind of magma goop that Smithy reforms into enemies with his hammer. The strategy is pretty simple; destroy the Smelter first. Good luck doing that, though, since Smithy can still attack in the meantime.

So Smithy is beaten. Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Kinda simple, even. Angered by his defeat, Smithy thrashes about, despite the warnings of his minions… and falls through the ground, dragging the heroes down with him. And so we see Smithy’s true form…

…Can he go back to wearing that beard? He looked cooler that way. And where are we? In a furnace? Is this the decapitated head of another Smithy in the background? Holy shit!

Tank head? Yeah, that still goes under the cannons rule.
Cannons are fine, but guns are a no-no.

Speaking of, final battle means an extra-tough boss and the best gimmick yet. Smithy has 8,000 HP and five different heads, and can reshape himself at will. Each head has its own stats and moves – the tank head is attack-focused, the wizard head uses a lot of special moves but has horrible defenses, the mask head is weak in attack but strong against physical moves, and the treasure chest head has good defenses and looooooves to inflict status ailments. Since Smithy gives himself a makeover every turn or two, you can never tell what he’s going to do next. And oh yeah, his body can attack too, though with a measly 1,000 HP it’s much easier to incapacitate – not that it makes a difference since it can just come back to full health a few turns after it’s been defeated, and attack again.

The first time I played through Super Mario RPG, it was on an emulator. I know, I’m not proud. A lack of preparations and planning led to the fight lasting 40 minutes. Most epic final battle I had ever been through. Someone who knows what they’re doing will probably go through it in 20 minutes, maybe 10 even if the team is at a high level. Which is on par with most final RPG boss fights, really. Especially as far as Square-Enix is concerned. A time comes where I can’t say much else than “Tough fight!”, I mean, what else is there to add? Yeah, it’s the final boss, but it’s not like I can keep rambling about that.

It's time for goodbyes, I think.
If we can see each other again, if that ever happens.

So Smithy is, at last, defeated. He explodes, and the Star Piece that he had made a part of himself is freed, allowing Mario to get it. Our quest is over, at last. The seven Star Pieces flash around Geno and with his magic, he sends them to their rightful place in the Star Road, bringing back the granting of wishes upon the Mushroom Kingdom. And so, the Star Spirit inhabiting the Geno doll leaves, to go back to the Star Road. Farewell Geno, or ♡♪!?, whatever your real name is. We won’t forget you. I mean… we literally won’t, you’re like one of the most beloved character of the Mario franchise, ever, with fans clamoring for your return in newer games of the franchise, and maybe also as an actual battler in Smash. Why can we get Cloud and we don’t even get Geno? For shame!

Runaway groom! Quick, catch him before he flees
on his toy train!

Next we see Mario, Mallow, Peach and Bowser on the cliff, looking towards Bowser’s Keep, and seeing Exor disintegrating into nothingness. With the threat of the Smithy Gang obliterated, we see what happens now around the Mushroom Kingdom. Mallow takes his rightful place as Prince of Nimbus Land. Bowser is busy repairing his castle, something that he would get used to doing in the future as more and more encounters with Mario or the new RPG villain would destroy his lair, in part or in totality. Jonathan Jones the shark pirate looks at the sea. Croco goes to Yo’Ster Isle, loses a race, but befriends Boshi the Yoshi wearing the silly sunglasses. Frogfucius attends a concert held by Toadofsky, whom I never mentioned until now because dammit, I couldn’t explain every single darn NPC and mini-game! Valentina fell on Booster’s Tower and he tries to marry her, Dodo directs the ceremony (somehow), but Booster chickens out midway into the wedding. I suppose he found out there was no cake this time around. Or maybe he’s too childish for the wedding night. The game then ends on a final shot of Mario, Peach and a few more, waving at the player with a big “Thank you” above them.

The end? Well… there’s also the credits, showing a parade around the Mushroom Kingdom. Led by Luigi – le gasp! He IS in the game after all! – and a few music-playing Toads, the parade presents the many actors of this story on a final hurrah, a reminder of good memories of the various adventures the heroes had. Including… Oh crap, it’s the Smithy Gang! They’re still alive! The Kingdom is doomed again!

Pictured: Enemies that should be dead.
Also pictured: The supervisor responsible for the
various translation goofs... who has still done a great
job in spite of the errors.

…Nah, the game is over. We’re fine. I hope. It ends with Mario and Peach on a shining star-shaped parade car as we get a final “The End” in the skies.

Good! I mean, yes, the game is good, but we’re not on my final words just yet. What else is there to say? Well, the game may have been beaten, but obviously you cannot save after Smithy’s defeat, so it will always be possible to go back to the Factory to beat him up. This also means that you can visit the Mushroom Kingdom at your leisure to find every little secret. And BOY are there many secrets in this game! I already covered the most famous ones – the Three Musty Fears, Jinx, Culex… but there’s more! There’s a ton of content that will pass by right under the eyes of anyone who plays this game only to see the end. Here, have a longer list of everything you can look for.

-Try to find all the hidden treasure chests around the Mushroom Kingdom;

-In Seaside Town, Frogfucius’ apprentice, gone to explore the world, will sell to you five one-of-a-kind items. They all require Frog Coins, a currency different from regular coins that can be found in treasure chests and during mini-games. Finding all of the world’s Frog Coins is a side-quest all to itself.

Casino, huh?

-After fighting Knife Guy and Grate Guy in Booster Tower, you can go out and look for Grate Guy’s Casino, which is very hard to find. In there you can play a number of luck-based games, with big rewards if you actually beat them. Needless to say, my own terrible luck has convinced me never to look for that place. Blackjack, slot machine, “Look the other way”… There are good items as rewards, but damn, too much luck is required there.

-Beating the race mini-game on Yo’ster Isle. This nets you an item allowing you to call Yoshi in battle, to eat enemies.

-Finding every best piece of equipment can be a pain, as many of them are either very well-hidden, or tucked at the end of a series of complicated actions and side-quests.

-In Tadpole Pond, we have Toadofsky, who will ask you to create music by jumping on tadpoles on the water area just before him. Hm… sounds familiar? I think Matthew Taranto took inspiration from that for his own game, Tadpole Treble.

And you do that here?
In your robot suit?
Huh.

Not a side-quest per se, but you can see shout-outs to other Nintendo franchises if you know where to look. Link and Samus can be seen resting at different inns (so is it canon that these two may have been vacationing in the Mushroom Kingdom?), and another place has an Arwing and two F-Zero vehicles as toys on a shelf. There are various other secrets like this, mostly when it comes to references and nods to the Mario universe as it existed back in 1996, barely 11 years after the first Super Mario Bros. (16 if you prefer to think that the franchise began with Donkey Kong).

It’s time for my final words, but first… a breakaway to explain this game’s legacy. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars has two distinct honors: The first Mario game made by Nintendo in partnership with Square-Enix (which is why none of the characters created for this game have appeared anywhere else, save for a cameo by Geno and an outfit in Smash 4). It’s also the first Mario RPG, which is a bigger deal than you’d think, since Nintendo’s next home console would see Mario adding role-playing games as a permanent addition to his spin-offs, with Paper Mario, and later on, the Mario & Luigi series debuting on Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. Super Mario RPG is a precursor to both, as well as the only RPG that isn’t part of either of these two sub-series. While they cannot be used in Mario games due to copyright belonging to Square-Enix, various characters from this very game have seen substitutes created later down the line, in a way to circumvent the copyright limitation. As an example, the Chancellor of the Mushroom Kingdom can be seen as a prototype of what would become Toadsworth. It also introduced timed hits, which would become a staple of the systems in later Mario RPGs, especially in the Mario & Luigi series.

"We didn't own the left one, so we made the right one.
Take that, copyright!"
To be honest, I do prefer Toadsworth.

Nonono, you joined the good guys. Welcome to the right
side, Bowser. Don't worry, you're gonna see  life from that
side a couple more times in the future.
Sometimes without even noticing.

We also owe to this game many personality traits of the main stars that we couldn’t see before (as most Mario games thus far had minimal storytelling and little chance of showcasing the characters’ quirks). Bowser being an egomaniacal jerk who thinks of himself as better than everyone else is something that may not have started in Super Mario RPG, but it definitely cemented that trait. It also made him a good boss towards his underlings, like a father to his men, something that would pop up time and time again in later games. Princess Peach being able to jump into action and kick as much ass as her fellows is also something that began here. She still has had only one game to herself, but she’s been joining the action more and more often lately. More of her personality traits also debuted in this game.

More than that, though, Super Mario RPG brought something unique to the franchise and the RPGs that would follow: The tone. Legend of the Seven Stars is heavy on jokes about the Mario franchise, making a mockery of its sillier elements, and pointing out the trends and common tropes of the setting. When Peach is kidnapped by Bowser, the Toads just go “Oh? Again? Alright then”, and go on with their lives. Everybody relies on Mario to get anything done, sometimes to ridiculous lengths. The interactions between the main characters are full of comedy. There is some deconstruction of the general elements of the franchise, and a lot of “lampshade hanging” as well (sorry, I can only explain this in TVTropes terms, go check the page I linked, you’ll see what I mean). This is omnipresent in later Mario RPGs, and even in some of the other genres the series has delved into… and it all pretty much started in Super Mario RPG; Legend of the Seven Stars.

Ooooh, meta!

So, is this a great game? Yes! It’s really, really great! I mean, it’s got flaws here and there, but it’s definitely great. It’s a grand story featuring tons of side-quests, and compelling, appealing characters and storylines. Oh, and also, it’s funny as Hell. The graphics “look” like 3D, and the game plays like 3D what with Mario being able to go in all four directions on any given map, but the sprites are actually 2D, drawn with inspiration from actual 3D models that the system would not have been able to use. The illusion is breathtaking, isn’t it? You can barely tell that this is “2.5D”! And the music. God, the music. To this day, it’s still hailed as some of the best tracks brought to the series! The “Forest Maze” track is still beloved today. Hell, there are TWO rap remixes of it with accompanying Flash videos, made by the same guy!

On top of all the NPCs, the game also brought to us many memorable bosses, and most of them are memorable specifically because they made use of gimmicks that are seldom-seen in other RPG franchises. Locking commands? Cloning the party by eating them? Those are rare things. And of course, let’s not forget that the game’s bestiary comprises over 200 different opponents, ranging from normal Mario enemies to odd bosses and mini-bosses, and the weirdest ideas for enemies you can think of (A carrot? And is that an elephant skeleton… with a bone trunk? Living puppets? Scepters? These weird shell-shaped things?). The Smithy Gang itself is memorable, as a team of robots based on weapons is a concept I had never seen before – although as the main villains of the story, some of them severely lack characterization and backstory, Smithy being the worst example.

Speaking of the story, while I do enjoy it I will admit that the padding of it is rather… blatant. A lot of portions seem to be there only to pad out the length of the story, with little connection to the plot. It’s especially true of a lot of bosses in the game, in the Factory in particular. And the game just drags on between the fifth Star Piece and the seventh, with some padding more obvious in places (being forced to complete 4 of 6 courses in Bowser’s Keep, as an example).

Yeah... I won't soon forget how forced that was.

The other main problem with the game is how, when it comes to items, equipment and accessories, very little is explained. Each object has room only for a small description, and the actual effects of many items are not described. It becomes a problem with some of the more special equipment, like the Lazy Shell that lowers attack but increases defense; the Quartz Charm, which boosts the attack and defense by 50%.... There are many other examples of items with odd effects, but the game doesn't tell you enough info. That’s an issue. It’s especially bad when it involves the equipment gained after completing complex tasks, and you have no idea of the effects of the reward you just obtained for your troubles.

Click the image to enlarge and see my two problems, summed
up here: The "Description is all we ever see of the item in the
game, very few explanation. Then, bad translation: "Noknok
Shell".

Oh, and of course, I can also talk about the translation again. It’s clear that Ted Woolsey and his team tried their best to bring the game to the English language, but they definitely had some issues, especially when it came to naming enemies and attacks. Some regular enemies of the Mario franchise are given names that don’t make sense (Paratroopas aren’t named Paratroopas, as an example), while other enemies keep a name close to the original Japanese one – when some other names could have worked better. Similarly the names of some of the attacks don’t make much sense. Thankfully, that’s a minor issue compared to everything else. Also, epic fail: They named regular Boos “The Big Boo”. Whoopsie.

Once again: Translation error.

Despite all this, yeah: Good game! A few flaws here and there, but great stuff overall. Go play it. That’s not an order, but it’s a very, very strong recommendation.

And so this closes the fourth anniversary review on Planned All Along! Sorry I had to take a hiatus at first, this stuff is really long to write after all. But yeah, I’m happy that it’s done, and I’m glad I could discuss this game. It’s been on my to-do list for a while.

So… I think it’s time for some Steam games now. Join me next week as I publish my next Steam Pack.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Part 4)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Let’s be quick with this, because we’re still a long way from getting that sixth star. Quick recap: We’re now in Nimbus Land, a country on clouds, inhabited by people who look like they could be Mallow’s species. We arrived in the middle of a time of turmoil as the King is sick, but we must not be afraid! A decidedly un-cloud-like person named Valentina has arrived with Prince Mallow… … …a dodo? Er, we have a cloudy-looking guy named Mallow on our side, and it doesn't seem to be that common of a name. Something’s wrong here. And unfortunately, the guards seem certain that this big bird is the Prince, and they won’t let anyone inside.

That part is worth watching just to see the mental
gymnastics Garro goes through to advertise the Mario
statue to Valetina.

So, how do we get around that? Why, cartoon antics, of course! A statue maker in Nimbus Land, Garro, will paint Mario with gold, and pass him off as a statue to be brought inside the castle. Because that’s guaranteed to work. Of course, Valentina already thinks that the castle belongs to her, so she’s littered the place with statues of herself, and the sculptor Garro, the guy who helped make Mario look like a statue, has to praise Mario’s looks in such a way that Valentina will let them through. Once the statues are put in place, Valentina orders her lackey Dodo to “polish them” and make them pretty, because in case you haven’t guessed, we are dealing with a queen of vanity here. Dodo seems to dislike her as much as she dislikes him, so he proceeds to peck every Valentina statue… and Mario, which exposes his cover. Or maybe not, if your reflexes are good enough to avoid the pecks of doom by jumping at the right times. Dodo IS kinda dumb after all. Even if you pass by Dodo, your cover still gets blown in the very next room anyway. Time for battle, I guess! While venturing around the castle, we can find imprisoned workers who give Mario a bunch of important advice as well as the Master Key of the place. Now that’s gonna be useful!

Before reaching Valentina, we get to a room with a giant egg in it. Breaking the egg reveals… who else? Birdo! I had a hunch that this bizarre pink character would be in the game. Did not expect her to be such a tough boss, though. Since when are eggs explosive and so damaging? Birdo attacks with explosive eggs, you heard that right. Eggs that somehow become enemies if you defend against them. Pretty gimmicky battle, but a fun one.

Finally we reach Valentina, and it takes her a moment to find out that Mario and Mallow have arrived. Of course, she immediately flees, with a flying Shy Guy and Dodo not far behind. Mario gives chase and battles more enemies on the way. He falls off Nimbus Land while Valentina stays, but it’s okay, climbing back is very easy. Outside, Valentina gets asked by Nimbus Landers about the King, long enough for Mario’s team to catch up and battle her.

Questioned by the Nimbus Landers, she panics.
Geez, it's like she wants all of the power with none of the
responsibilities. Would it be misplaced to compare her to
some guy making the news every day lately?

How does the battle start? Dodo shows up, snatches the character in the middle (since you always have 3 out at any moment), and a 1-vs-1 battle happens. Didn’t have a good character in the middle? Tough luck! If Dodo is defeated, the middle battler returns to the fight against Valentina. And yes, she is pretty tough, especially when Dodo joins again! Also, wow she’s tall. Would have expected her to be smaller than that. I’m getting weird flashbacks to The Chosen RPG.

Defeated, Valentina flees with Dodo, but they drop the key to the royal family’s quarters. Mallow immediately rushes inside. Remember how rain happened whenever he cried? Yeah, Mario pre-emptively opens an umbrella. You might want to as well, just in case Mallow transcends the fourth wall and you get rain in your living room. Or computer room. And so we meet the King and the Queen, who are so happy to see their son again, after the many years they spent without him… But of course, Mallow has been in this adventure for too long, and he feels the need to help until the end, so he comes back in the party. Sheesh, I would have thought his parents would have objected more than they did to Mallow putting himself in danger… Oh well, here goes one completed character arc.

Good thing Princess Toadstool let me borrow her umbrella.

As a bonus, we get to visit the King’s hot springs, and then we fall into Barrel Volcano. Time for the hottest dungeon so far!  A lot of new enemies, a lot of areas… You know the deal. There’s a store and an inn deep in the volcano, don’t think about this too hard, and we go on our way, and find this place’s boss. Or bosses.

Czar dragon and its undead form Zombone. How bizarre.

So first you fight that weird creature made of lava, the Czar Dragon – not sure where the Czar part comes from, though I think the monster in general may be a reference to the Blargg monsters found in various levels of Super Mario World. In fact, it’s made of various little fire monsters. But that’s not the weird part… when it’s defeated, it dies, and immediately comes back as a second monster, stronger, named Zombone. After this one is killed, we reach the sixth Star Piece… which is then swiftly stolen by a group of five colorful Smithy Gang folks… the Power Rangers! I mean Zyumerica Clonerangers! I mean Kamen Rider! I mean… Axem Rangers, that’s the right name!

That was not even the first design! Circled is the article
about sprite movies. The Wayback Machine hadn't kept
any screenshots of that one circa 2013.

Anyone else remembers the first year of Planned All Along? I do. Well, I kinda have to. It’s MY site after all. I mostly remember struggling to make more and more articles in order to keep the viewers' interest. I would make reviews, editorials (which, by this point, are just part of the reviews anyway), and Fun Stuff articles. The links are still in my Archives. In Fun Stuff, I would usually suggest fan works around Nintendo series, among them the Super Mario Bros. Z Flash series. That series actually featured the Axem Rangers in Episode 6, as quite a threat – well, until the big Sonic villain showed up and razed the island, because razing islands is a pastime of Sonic villains even in fan works.

Either way, that was a tangent related to the history of my blog, fitting for an anniversary review… but kinda pointless. Moving on!

Good thing they're all fairly weak and would be dispatched
easily if we fought them one by one... As an entire team
agaisnt us, that's a little harder.

Back to Mario’s team chasing the Axem Rangers. They’re a surprisingly intricate shout-out to the Power Rangers, with the red Leader, the green spellcaster (techie?), the black multi-attacker, the yellow brawny guy and the pink healer. We chase them until they embark on Blade, their trusty ship, and we embark as well to trigger the boss battle. This is a very tough one, precisely because they’re five against three of us, and while none of them have insane amounts of HP (compared to other bosses by this point), they’re still overwhelming together. You can probably imagine the strategy: Defeat the pink healer or the green spellcaster, then deal with whoever’s the most dangerous next.

The order in which you beat them matters little, as they then join into a single boss that you have to defeat. A boss with a very powerful all-hitting attack, so you better beat that before it beats you. Thankfully, it’s also pretty low on HP, so a strong team can succeed rather easily. Blade sinks with the Axems, and we get the sixth Star Piece. We can now return to Nimbus Land and we ask the King for a way to get to Bowser’s Keep. Turns out, there’s a royal bus made of clouds that can be used to drive to the Keep! The Nimbus… er… Bus.

Just what we needed! More filler.

And so we get to Bowser’s Keep! Yup, yet another dungeon. God knows we haven’t had enough of those yet! The enemies met at the start of the game in the Keep have been replaced by much tougher versions. However, that’s not the portion of interest. You soon get to six doors, each having a different challenge. Two are “action” courses reminiscent of Mario platformers, because that meshes so well with an RPG; two are puzzle sections; two are battle sections. Oh, and you have to complete four of them. Clearly Square-Enix had fun setting up these portions, and wants you to see more than half of them, but in the middle of a dungeon that is only the second-to-last, between two big dungeons, it just feels like more filler. I mean, the puzzles are clever, the battle sections are good EXP, and the platforming parts can be imaginative; there’s even a shout-out to the original Donkey Kong game… but can’t I just move forward now? Well, at least each trial awards Mario and his team some special items when they get to the end…

At least Kamek didn't turn that dragon giant, there's that.

Finally, after completing four trials, we encounter a Magikoopa who’s been brainwashed by Smithy. He won’t let the heroes pass by without a fight, so we enter battle. This Magikoopa’s shtick is to summon additional monsters from time to time, many of which are actually surprisingly powerful, almost like they could have been mini-bosses themselves. But hey, a Magikoopa can’t last forever, so it’s defeated and the brainwashing wears off. Surprise, surprise… everyone knows that any negative effects on a character wear off when they’re given a good beating in an RPG. Oh, by the way, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island had come out a year prior, with Kamek’s first appearance, and apparently, reading his Magikoopa’s thoughts reveals that he’s Kamek. Granted, it may not actually be Kamek as this Magikoopa's name is different in Japanese, but the similarities are strong enough. So yes, as you can see, Square-Enix really did their best to reference as many elements of the Mario mythos as possible – even though it was still fairly small at the time, this being the first Mario RPG, released in 1996…

Yes, kicking a giant Koopa shell at that robot is a good idea.
Totally.

We go through the door, and we're back in the room with the chandeliers. Nice callback to the start of the game. And, a samurai Smithy Gang member named Boomer who has been waiting for the heroes. And his speech makes it seem like he should be important, even though like every other Smithy Gang weapon-shaped thug, we had no idea of his existence. What is this one’s gimmick during the fight? He changes fighting styles sometimes, also changing color from red to blue. His defense then lowers, but he becomes stronger in another stat. Being a samurai, Boomer sees shame in his defeat and proceeds to cut off the chain of the chandelier he was standing on, sending himself to his doom. The chandelier the heroes were on, however, rises to meet with the enormous face of the sword that fell from the skies, through Star Road, and into Bowser’s Keep: Exor.

Exor_right_eye.exe has stopped working.
Reason: Clawed, punched and struck by fring pan.

Oh, and you ascend directly into the fight against it, too, so no saving or healing. Have fun against this gimmick boss that has to have both of its eyes defeated before you can actually damage the part of it that counts! For the record, Exor’s hilt, its weak point, is untouchable unless you damage its eyes first. Each eye is an enemy with different HP values, special moves, and so on. The mouth, labeled Neosquid (...why?), also has a wide variety of attacks and can be bothersome. Once Exor’s eyes are out, attack the hilt. Use the 9,999-damage Geno Whirl on that weak point, it’s the only boss on which it’ll work.

The best part? Or perhaps the worst part? Exor’s eyes will heal over time, so you have to go back to damaging those after a moment. Oh, it’s far from the hardest boss in the game, but you can definitely get dunked on, and if you didn’t like that from the OG Dunker in Undertale, imagine what it’s like to get dunked on by a sword multiple stories tall.

After Exor is defeated, it opens its mouth, and the party finds itself engulfed into it. Next thing they know, they’re in a different dimension (common final dungeon location) that looks an awful lot like a factory…

Travel By Sword. That's gotta be one of the weirdest means
of transportation I've ever seen.
I gotta wonder, though, if Exor is also of the Smithy Gang,
and that other dimension is its homeworld, and its mouth is the
portal, then how did it appear in the Mushroom Kingdom in the
first place?

…Do I use male pronouns for the Smithy Gang since they’re all robots (aside from maybe the one exception of the Pink Axem), or just say “It” for every one of them? Damn, it’s complicated to have some consistency across the ten thousand words of a 5-part review… No wonder I don’t want to do reviews this big as often anymore…

Come back for the final dungeon, as well as my final thoughts on the game, in Part 5!