An extremely talented Super Mario RPG fan is creating a modern remake of the groundbreaking classic. The Super Mario RPG's 25th anniversary was celebrated last year, but has remained notably absent from the Nintendo Switch Online service despite its many fans, and despite previous ports to the Wii and Wii U.
RPGs have had an interesting place in the history of the Mario franchise. The original, subtitled Legend of the Seven Stars, diverged heavily from the standard formula set up by earlier platformers. For example, it was one of the first 3D Mario games, having been released just a few months before Super Mario 64, and included Bowser as a party member. The game's success was hugely influential for the later Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi sub-series. Chihiro Fujioka, the game's director, even founded Mario & Luigi developer AlphaDream himself, but despite the success of the Mario & Luigi games, AlphaDream filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
While an official remake or port for Super Mario RPG has yet to appear, that has not stopped one fan from working to bring this dream to life. Twitter user huckori has been posting about his modernized remake of Super Mario RPG for some time now. His latest update shows off the initial implementation of encountering and battling enemies. In the video, a well-defined 3D model of Mario can be seen accompanied by the supposed 'tadpole' Mallow. Mario leaps to make contact with a Red Koopa Paratroopa, and a short battle quickly ensues. While it is clear that the game is currently not as polished as it could be, the battle system is shown to great effect. This new fan-made demo for the Mario game includes updated versions of all the original basic battle graphics, including the menu and damage-indicating star effect.
The quality of both the graphics and the gameplay would be extremely promising for an official remake, and so it is even more impressive for a single fan to accomplish. Of course, fan games are nothing new, especially for a franchise as long-lived and popular as Super Mario. Fans with the technical know-how have been making their own Mario games for years. Nintendo has even taken advantage of this creative side itself with the release of the Super Mario Maker games. In the past, this has led to the creation of a papercraft version of Super Mario Bros. amongst many other reimaginings of the famous plumber's adventures.
While huckori's version of Super Mario RPG is obviously a work in progress, what he has managed to accomplish so far is very impressive. Both Mario and the world around him are rendered in excellent detail, and the style is still clearly that of the original game despite the upgrade in quality. Fans will no doubt be eager to play the game once it reaches a playable state, but the regular development updates will hopefully sate the desire for more in the meantime. It is also worth keeping in mind that another Super Mario RPG game may be on the horizon as well; director Fujioka has previously said that he would like to make a sequel to end his career with, albeit one without Luigi as a party member.
Source: huckori/Twitter