Top 10 Mario Games: Number 8

oh wow two back to back i must be crazy

8. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Oh, Super Mario RPG, it's so sad that you're always overlooked. You are truly a fun game, and nobody even knows it! Well, rational people do but that number is rather small.

So if you've never played, or worse, never even heard of Super Mario RPG, it was a game developed by Square for the SNES way back in 1996. It's a nifty turn-based rpg that introduced fun mechanics held by all further Mario RPGs (see: Paper Mario; Mario & Luigi), while also presenting a ridiculously interesting and fun story and characters that have, sadly, never been seen since.

The game has a nice cast of characters that are fun, innovative, and lovable. If you've never heard of Mallow, the Axem Rangers, Geno, or Smithy, you and me are going to have a serious problem. The characters were interesting and full of life, something that many games lack. What else does this game have that other Mario games lack? Princess Toadstool (not Peach, Toadstool) and Bowser actually join your party and help you fight against the evil Smithy and his gang, repairing Star Road and reclaiming Bowser's Castle in the process.

The game itself has some fun locations, with Bowser's Castle serving as the main place, as it is the portal to Smithy's home world. Outside of that and Mushroom Kingdom, every other place is fun and new. Nimbus Land is, as it may sound, a land full of cloud people, much as Moleville is a city of moles. Still, we see some familiarity here: Yos'ter Isle is the home of the Yoshis and another fun location you'll encounter in the game (Cute reference to Yoshi's Island here, which will unfortunately not be included in my list. Despite it's Super Mario title, it just feels, clearly, like a Yoshi game. Look for it in my future Yoshi list, though.).

With great locations, fun and lovable characters, a memorable cast of villains, and a great soundtrack to boot, it's a mysterious why this game goes so unnoticed. You'd think that when Nintendo and Square collaborate, everyone and their brother would be all over it. However, many Mario fans don't even really know about this game. Perhaps it was okay before 2008 to use the "It's ridiculously difficult to find," excuse, but now that SMRPG is on the Virtual Console, it's hard to buy that sort of thing. In fact, go purchase and play it right this second.

P.S. There is no Yoshi list coming.

-Taylor