I like Super Mario RPG a lot. I replay it every few years and figured this time I would play the Switch version. It's good, about as good as the original, but the entire time playing I had this thought in the back of my head...
Why does this exist?
Is it to improve the original game? Or to provide a fresh perspective? It doesn't really do either, like it barely does anything different at all. What is or is not an improvement is subjective, of course, but there isn't much I would consider to be improved aside from the fast travel. The post-game boss rematches are neat but they're not really that big a step up from the rest of the game. The graphics are nice, but they always were. The arranged music is arguably worse, lacking the punchy drums and bass of the original.
It really is just Super Mario RPG, again, with no changes of substance, and because of that feels like a waste of development time and resources. The SFC/SNES original is a fantastic game, and there's nothing in the remake that makes me want to play either version over the other. It just kind of exists.
I wish remakes would take more risks. Game remakes are analagous to movie remakes and music remakes (covers), but those are more willing to go in new artistic directions compared to games. They stand up on their own as independent works. I often hear that safe video game remakes like Mario RPG preserve the "original experience," but the reality is that remakes are inherently their own experience. We should embrace that and realize that remakes shouldn't be so beholden to their audience's expectations.
Part of the issue is that the original versions of many games are no longer accessible. Maybe it would be too costly to port, or maybe the source code was lost so they'd need to remake the game anyway to bring it to current platforms. But Super Mario RPG was on the SNES Mini, surely Nintendo would be able to put it on NSO. They just didn't want to, so you would pay $60 for it again. Luckily, all these problems have already been solved with fan emulation and archival projects, and we all have access to almost every version, be that a revision, remaster, remake, etc., of any game. All easily accessible to everyone. In an ideal world, these would be available on official storefronts too, but I guess that's too much work. What I'm trying to say is, fans are preserving games better than any company could, so remakes ought to have their own unique vision instead. It'll never be that way because game companies have an adversarial relationship with emulation, but one can dream...
I digress. Super Mario RPG is a fine game, this remake is simply unambitious and uninteresting to me.
Why does this exist?
Is it to improve the original game? Or to provide a fresh perspective? It doesn't really do either, like it barely does anything different at all. What is or is not an improvement is subjective, of course, but there isn't much I would consider to be improved aside from the fast travel. The post-game boss rematches are neat but they're not really that big a step up from the rest of the game. The graphics are nice, but they always were. The arranged music is arguably worse, lacking the punchy drums and bass of the original.
It really is just Super Mario RPG, again, with no changes of substance, and because of that feels like a waste of development time and resources. The SFC/SNES original is a fantastic game, and there's nothing in the remake that makes me want to play either version over the other. It just kind of exists.
I wish remakes would take more risks. Game remakes are analagous to movie remakes and music remakes (covers), but those are more willing to go in new artistic directions compared to games. They stand up on their own as independent works. I often hear that safe video game remakes like Mario RPG preserve the "original experience," but the reality is that remakes are inherently their own experience. We should embrace that and realize that remakes shouldn't be so beholden to their audience's expectations.
Part of the issue is that the original versions of many games are no longer accessible. Maybe it would be too costly to port, or maybe the source code was lost so they'd need to remake the game anyway to bring it to current platforms. But Super Mario RPG was on the SNES Mini, surely Nintendo would be able to put it on NSO. They just didn't want to, so you would pay $60 for it again. Luckily, all these problems have already been solved with fan emulation and archival projects, and we all have access to almost every version, be that a revision, remaster, remake, etc., of any game. All easily accessible to everyone. In an ideal world, these would be available on official storefronts too, but I guess that's too much work. What I'm trying to say is, fans are preserving games better than any company could, so remakes ought to have their own unique vision instead. It'll never be that way because game companies have an adversarial relationship with emulation, but one can dream...
I digress. Super Mario RPG is a fine game, this remake is simply unambitious and uninteresting to me.