Super Mario RPG for Switch was one of the most anticipated releases of my life, and hot DAMN did it deliver. I've played the original probably close to a dozen times at this point, and this game felt like meeting an old friend for the first time all over again. It's faithful in a way that feels remarkably respectful of the source material; you can tell they got people who love Mario RPG to work on this.

This isn't just a straight remaster, either. Everything that's different feels changed for the better. The new mechanics serve to make the old battle system feel fresh, even if they do make an already easy RPG even easier. New cutscenes and dialogue were added to make the plot more cohesive and give the general party more screentime, which is greatly appreciated for how text-light the original is. The new text fits right in with the original Woolsey translation that was left mostly untouched aside from a few updated names (RIP Mack and Yaridovich). I can't think of a remix I dislike, and even my least favorites still break even in my book. The new character models resemble the janky, prerendered 90's look of the originals, recalling a time when the Mario series was still finding itself while looking stylish as all get-out.

I dunno what to say other than that this game impressed me on all fronts. This is hands-down the best ground-up remake I've ever played, and any complaints I have are incredibly minor next to everything it does well. Going back and talking to every character, rediscovering secrets, and finding new ones reminded me how lucky I am to have such love and care poured into one of my favorite games. I believed for the longest time that even seeing the likes of Geno and Mallow again was impossible, so seeing Mario RPG back in the limelight brings a tear to my eye. I hope Nintendo gets the memo that we want more Mario RPGs like this.

IT SLAPS, IT SLAPS, IT SLAPS. I genuinely love everything about this game. The battle system's a great callback to classics like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG, the visuals and music are some of the best I've seen and heard, the characters are great (Zale and Valere are kinda boring, but the supporting cast carries), the writing knows how to be witty and serious, and the story had me no-lifing the game for days on end just to see where it all went. It does lose steam a bit in terms of pacing toward the end, which is one of the few complaints I've seen others have that I agree with, but beyond that, I got just enough of everything I wanted out of the game and nothing overstays its welcome. It's not perfect, but it simply ticks all my boxes. Another absolute banger from the lads behind The Messenger.

This opinion would probably get me crucified on Twitter, Reddit, Steam, Myspace, or anywhere else you're capable of expressing an opinion, but I really, genuinely enjoyed this game. I had more fun exploring the region and catching my favorite Pokemon as I saw them than I have with any Pokemon game in recent memory. Legends Arceus may be objectively more polished, but this game has it beat in terms of world design and pure "I want to go there" factor. I can't in good conscience rate it higher on account of the technical issues, but speaking personally, they hardly got in the way of my enjoyment. The worst I ran into were some admittedly bad framerates plus a few silly softlocks that resolved themselves quickly. Otherwise, this direction for the series is legitimately the best I've seen and I hope they keep going with it. If they can iron out the performance issues and patch out stuff like the Poke Ball dev cubes, these could easily be the best Pokemon games ever released. But only time will tell on that front.