Video: Super Mario RPG Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison (Switch & SNES)

I always really loved the look of this game. After DKC, pre-rendered sprites were all the rage, and I liked isometric games giving us freedom to move around previously 2d worlds in a "3d" way - hense why I loved Sonic 3D so much as it ticked both boxes. The novelty of what that felt like back then is hard to accurately describe nowadays, and Super Mario RPG had this in spades.

Sadly, in Europe, the game never got released. Just as with most of the popular SNES RPGs they didn't want to bother translating them into multiple languages (or perhaps it wasn't possible because of cartridge storage sizes?) so they just never released them in Europe, not even UK only - very frustrating for English speakers considering English translations were done for the US market.

Super Mario RPG become somewhat of a mythical game for many, myself included, because we saw previews of it in magazines and it looked so cool, but it was never officially released. I personally didn't start importing games til the 32 bit era, so it felt completely out of reach for me, and I really wanted to play it. I didn't even really know what an RPG was, I just knew it was Mario, but with a story, in a "3d" perspective, and pre-rendered CG graphics. And that sounded SO flippin cool.

Of course, I eventually got to play it through emulation and then buying an imported cart many years later, I think it was also on Wii Virtual Console. Its one of my favourites - partially because its genuinely very good, but also I'm sure partially because of just how much mystique and longing there was for the game in the UK at the time of its release.

Anyway, as for the question, yes, I think they've done an incredible job at making modern real time versions of the pre-rendered isometric graphics that absolutely are faithful and respectful of the originals, whilst subtley improving upon them. As I was watching during the direct I was blown away by how perfect I thought it looked.

This is a Day One purchase for me and a permanent fixture in my favorite games of all time list.

The only thing missing is the option to play both versions, similar to what they did with the old Monkey Island remake many years back.

Btw, we still want the original added to SNES Online

@Juma009 Yes, I hope that after the remake has been out for a while they eventually add the original to NSO, just as they did with Links Awakening.

You know, it's no Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (in my humble opinion), but this is a MASSIVE step in the right direction for the Mario franchise. Nintendo did not water this game down like they did the Mario & Luigi remakes, and thats a beautiful thing.

"GENO FOR SMASH 6 CONFIRMED!!!!" 🤓🤓🤓

I immediately thought it looked faithful to the original, but with modern graphics just from the trailer alone.

I loved the original game and will absolutely be buying and playing the remake too. This was part of the golden age of RPGs and really proved that the Mario franchise as dynamic and malleable, in that in could do multiple genres and do it well. Let's a go~

Sort of a "Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl" type of remake, the original never appealed to me so for such a direct adaptation I think I'll pass, even as a huge Mario fan. Not to be a whiner, but I do wish the TTYD rumors were true.

Still, it does bode well that they've CHOSEN to remake an older Mario RPG. (Still hoping for real results from PMD Rescue Team DX...)

Where the heck is his neck?

"Super Mario RPG Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison"

Are they serious?

Video game graphics have come along way.
I still think the SNES versions holds up well, but the lighting and shading have improved.

I like the older graphics way better but it looks fine I guess.

only better graphics nothing else is changed..

I wonder what route they'll take with Culex.

I just hope they keep all the jokes, puns, and memes.

@slowpoke_tail There was also some kind of weird, Toad-like species with an elongated head at the end of the Super Mario Bros. Wonder trailer. Seems like such a little thing, but this has such big implications for Mario games moving forward.

This announcement made my day, and I’d just wish it would come out sooner.

Original composer is on board too for updated arrangements!

@HotGoomba I'm not a Geno fanboy at all and would much rather see my boy Waluigi, so I don't think I'm biased here in saying I think Geno's chances of getting into Smash just got way higher.

@spottedleaf I think a TTYD remaster is still coming eventually, but obviously not this year. I could totally see it following in the footsteps of Metroid Prime and Pikmin 1 + 2. "Download it from the Nintendo eShop...today! A physical release will be available in the near future." This has happened 2 Nintendo Directs in a row, and I don't think this is a coincidence; these stealth releases of GameCube titles are going to be a regular thing moving forward, I would bet the farm on it. TTYD, Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime 2 (and 3), Chibi-Robo, F-Zero GX... there's so many possibilities!

@Not_Soos Mmm yeah, thats a really great point! Gamecube remasters are great shadow drop material, and a full remake of a game doesn't make an HD port unrealistic, it's a different kind of product. Here's hoping...!

@Juma009 I can't see them adding it now and cannibalizing sales for the remake. Just like why we haven't seen the first two Advance Wars games of being added.

@spottedleaf Oh, I forgot to mention the two most obvious ones--I fully expect Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD to be shadow dropped next year. I think this is an ingenious marketing strategy Nintendo has on their hands. They know how ravenous we are for GameCube games. Announcing one in a Direct that you can purchase immediately will generate tons of hype and lead to several impulse buys.

Collectors who want the physical version may still double-dip so they can play the game as soon as it comes out. That's more revenue for Nintendo, and less of a wait time for us between announcements and releases. They're also budget titles, with Pikmin 1 and 2 bring $30/each and Metroid Prime being $40. Of course, Pikmin 1 and 2 are just HD ports, while Prime was beautifully remastered. So, who's to say whether TTYD would be a port or a remake? Super Mario RPG is developed by Square and not Intelligent Systems, so I don't think we should rule out the possibility of a remaster. It would just have to give Mario RPG enough wiggle room to not cannibalize the sales.

@Not_Soos I like your optimism, and youre right, theres a clear path to money here LOL, they got mine

@johnedwin there seems to be a percentage gauge in battle that wasn’t in the original.
So that’s one change.

@spottedleaf Exactly! It's a win for everybody!

I think they should HD remake a bunch of the SNES games. Donkey Kong Country trilogy especially

My heart cant handle this lol. So amazing, they finally did it, i hope it sells so wel, that Nintendo makes a sequel.

It's a testament to both that side-by-side they both look great.

I didn't think i'd ever see this happen, maybe they make a sequel eventually and port the og Super Mario RPG at some point.

It’s faithful to the original, sure, but on the other hand it’s a 60 dollar remake from a game which could have just been added ‘for free’ on Nintendo Switch Online.

I hope they come with a surprise extra story parts or other extra stuff, but if the graphics are the only change to the game then I will only buy the game if I find it for just a couple of bucks in a sale somewhere.

It would be cool if you could switch between new and original graphics (like some other remakes do).

Never liked the pre-rendered sprites tbh. The new game looks beautiful, though. I especially like how dynamic the cutscenes are now.

This'll be a treat to experience for the first time.

@Not_Soos How did they water down the Mario&Luigi games? Sounds like nitpicking to me. Also, not gonna lie, those games were never as good as this.

The colors in the old one are the only thing it's missing.

@Juma009 They will probably add it once sales of this new version die down a bit. Unless SE has a problem with it.

@Regulus6891
I remember. However, with Link's Awakening being one of my favorite games of all time, I saw the remake slightly differently:

The fact that Nintendo could just release a 25 year old Game Boy game with a new coat of paint and virtually zero new content just shows how amazingly well the original title holds up. And it gives a new generation a chance to experience what we liked as kids near three decades prior.

Super Mario RPG-- IMO-- is not as timeless a game as Link's Awakening was. It had flaws, quirks, and minor issues that could certainly be improved upon and ironed out with this remake. And it looks like they're adding minor QoL improvements from the trailer.

Will this have more content? I'm willing to bank on "No". But it will still be a way for a new generation to enjoy a classic. And I'm perfectly fine in allowing kids today the opportunity to see how amazing this game is, and was, back in our day.

This looks absolutely incredible. I seriously don't think they could have done a better job with the new art style.

Original graphics al the way for me!

I'll be playing this on the Miyoo instead of Switch, though I bought on Wii and also Wii U so no more rebuys from me for Nintendo on the classic games ever again.

They nerfed Valentina's damage "jiggle" lol
In all seriousness though, I'm super excited for this remake and I'm looking forward to playing through the game once again with the fresh visuals

@samuelvictor The mystique certainly added to the appeal.

I was super fortunate to have lived close to a very knowledgable importer, so I was lucky enough to have bought this, as well as FF6, Chrono Trigger and quite a few other US imported RPGs. There were a couple I sadly never bought, but they were poorly reviewed so I probably didn't miss out on much. Still, even those ganes held a mystical appeal.

I would have preferred something like this then just the basic emulation port of the original game. Adds way more to the experience with the more modern look.

@Daniel36 Oh wow I'm jealous! As we didn't even really get the NES in the UK either, like many Brits I never really got to experience JRPGs until FFVII and Pokemon. But because I read a lot of gaming magazines that covered the import scene, they were always talking about these amazing RPGs with incredible stories and 100s of hours of gameplay and I never really got a chance to fully understand what they were until years later - but they sounded super cool! In the late 90s I managed to go back and play them all through emulation, then eventually picking up copies via ebay etc. But there was about a 5 year period of being aware of these apparantly incredible life changing games... but having no access to them.

@JohnnyMind Thanks! Yeah I thought I remembered it being there. Seems like a lifetime ago!

@samuelvictor Yeah I was super lucky. Found out about them in UK magazines, which was also lucky to have in Holland.

Super Mario RPG was annoying though, the adapter hated the game, so it was on, off, on, off, on, off, on till it worked. The other games didn't have that.

Fond memories, haha.

Contextually, they both look really good.

@Daniel36 Wow so you weren't in the UK? That backs up my theory that there was enough people in Europe that spoke English to mean they could have released the American versions as long as they added a sticker to the box making very clear that it was text heavy and English only... Nowadays I live in France and spend a decent amount of time in other European countries and it seems a large number of people speak at least 2 languages. I'm trying my best to learn as many as I can, at least at a basic level so I can make an effort

Of course, translating the games to as many languages as possible would have be the very best option, but if that was impossible, releasing the English version would have been better than nothing at all, surely? Always really annoyed me.

From a cooperate decision standpoint, I would think that he's out. And it's 100% his fan's fault.

People forget that actions have consequences. And when communities started freaking out and threatening boycotts like THEY OWNED the right to decide who voices Mario, that doesn't motivate a company to keep using that person. It motivates them to switch to using new people every few games or so to prevent that type of entitlement from ever building up again.

You never want to be beholden to your talent, especially in this case where a vocal minority made a huge deal out of it, when 99.9% of the people who play Mario games couldn't even tell you his name.

@samuelvictor Oh 100% we had enough people speak English in Europe. You will find that aside from France and Germany, most Europeans speak English at a level well above average.

The Netherlands in particular ranks pretty high, the only country I can think of that supersedes us is Sweden. Those guys don't even have an accent.

The thing is, we all grew up with the same Hollywood movies you did. Sure, we have subtitles but you still learn English from it. We all listened to the same English language songs on the radio you did. We all played the same video games in English as you did. Only cartoons aimed at children were dubbed Dutch.

Only very few games back in the SNES era had different language options, and even when they were available, they were German, French, Italian and Spanish, so us Dutchies were always relegated to the English default anyways.

Booklets though were often in Dutch though, interestingly enough.

Nowadays, a looooot of games have additional languages, including Dutch. My kids are playing Zelda in Dutch right now, but I usually just go for English regardless, though that might also have something to do with the fact that I am an English teacher, so...

But no , there was absolutely no reason not to release Mario RPG here. It was a false assumption that there was nobody here who liked RPGs as much as Japan did, or America apparantly... just as much as it was a false assumption that all us Westerners preferred buff Marvel style character art on our boxes instead of the animé look that was splattered all over the games.

I still don't understand what those people were thinking. Yes, Megaman definitely becomes more appealing now that it is a middle aged man in serious need of a hip replacement.

But yeah, obviously it was a shame we couldn't easily get a hold of Mario RPG, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire or any of the other great RPGs, but the difficulty of obtaining them certainly did add to the appeal.

@Daniel36 Thats great to hear man. I was slightly hesitant to write what I did before because as a Brit who grew up in the 80s and 90s I'm quite ashamed of how xenophobic and superior a lot of Brits can be, thinking they are somehow better than the rest of Europe, our language and culture is the best etc. Being that I now live in France and travel widely, of course I don't personally feel that way, but I still hear a lot of that rhetoric from certain parts of British media. (Not tryign to start a political debate on a gaming site, please no-one get offended etc!)

Its very humbling to realise just how normal it is for people outside of Britain to be fluent in multiple languages. As I said, I've been really trying to get this way myself - I wish i'd have taken languages more seriously at school when its easier to learn new things! But yes,m its my experience that almost every country I travel to, people speak English. You mentioned France and Germany as exceptions - I live in France, but very close to Disneyland, so in that area, pretty much everyone has to be fluent in English because of all the Britsih and American tourists. But I still am making a huge effort to try and use French where I can and make sure to do an hour of apps/online courses a day, to hopefully one day become fluent. It seems disrespectful not to be, being that i chose to live here! lol.

I'm really interested to hear that most SNES games weren't translated to Dutch and were just released in English with Dutch manuals - I guess the more arcade style nature of those kinds of games don't really need much understanding of the text on screen. They obviously just figured text heavy nature of RPGs meant it would be too much... but as you said, it was the wrong decision. I'm glad you found a workaround!

One of my most hyped 2023 games, this and mario bros wonder

@Switch_Pro Super star saga had really cool cartoony spritework but they went and made it more like Dream team and not everybody liked that art style.

@samuelvictor Honestly, I never thought Brits were feeling superior or xenophobic at ALL. Granted, we didn't really know in the 90s, since there wasn't really much of a way to communicate.

I just know I loved reading you guys' magazines, since they were a vastly superior way of finding out about new games compared to the what? 1 Dutch magazine that was out? They were always half a year late.

No, I almost literally devoured my Total magazines, I LOVED them. Then later came Super Play, of which I still kept the Final Fantasy articles, and finally N64 Magazine, in which one of my drawings is even featured and was Wil Overton's favourite. Yeah, that was definitely a defining moment in my life!

So no worries, I don't think many people view Brits as anything very negative.

@Daniel36 Thanks! Its funny to hear that from someone who is Dutch as earlier this year your government actually launched paid television and online adverts telling us to "stay away" from Amsterdam! Literally telling us not to come because they didn't want us over there and warning that they were going to start throwing us in prison at the slightest sign of trouble! 😂 It was really quite shocking to see these "anti tourist" adverts but I did find it quite funny, if mortifying that it was deemed necessary. In lots of tourist spots around the world British tourists are seen as the worst as far as getting drunk and rowdy, or football hooliganism etc.

Of course, its not ALL Brits by any standards but its enough that many tourist destinations are doing their best to discourage British tourists - no longer giving cheap deals to British airlines, for example. Bars and takeawys that used to have English language signs are taking them down so they don't become "British drinking spots".

For some reason, some Brits seem to see going on holiday as an excuse to completely go wild or act like they own the place, and again I think part of that is to do with a lot of the attitude from certain sections of government, the press, etc as if we are somehow better or should be given special treatment (and everyone should learn English for the privilidge of speaking to us and having our business). Its all holdovers from the "Empire" days and stuff related to the Monarchy etc. Its highly embarassing and cringeworthy, to be honest.

I'm glad that you didn't grow up with that opinion of us! I must say, my experience is that its mostly British people thinking they are better than "foreigners" (again, not all Brits, but a loud minority), not the other countries being xenophobic towards Brits... except perhaps since Brexit, which brought up some negative feelings, understandably. Now living in France there is a certain rivalry between "us and them" which is understandable for historical reasons and because we are so close, but from my experience at least its not serious, more like a sibling rivalry where you tease each other.

Anyway, back to the magazines, you mention Total, Super Play and N64 magaine. These were all excellent and I bought many issues over the years. Super Play especially was where I learned about lots of amazing looking import games that I drooled over! Also taught me a lot about anime too, back when you couldn't just find such info on the internet. Thats amazing that you got a picture published and Wil Overton said it was his favourite - that's quite the accolade!

@samuelvictor Oh my goodness, I had to look it up because I couldn't believe it. That is insane.

In fairness though, you really should stay away from Amsterdam. It's not a very nice place. At least, not the tourist spots. It's a very grim place. I am pretty open minded and don't mind if people want to experience certain things, but it is grim. I had the misfortune of having to walk through the red light district several months ago. It was the most depressing thing to witness.

But yeah, no hatred from us on the Brits. At least not the non-partying, drunk, hooliganesque kind.

But we are completely hogging this comment section.

Mario RPG, absolutely great game and I am happy that they kept the general vibe of the original. You can see it has been built from the ground up and graphically it is way advanced, yet it still holds the exact same charm the original had, which is a big feat in itself. I remember how I never felt they managed to capture the magic of Super Mario World in any subsequent 2D iterations, so to see them recapturing the magic of Mario RPG almost perfectly is quite something to witness.

@PLATINUM7 IIRC Woolsey rewrote the whole damn thing, so since the world's gone more global, will they not only include Culex, will they use his original dialogue?

My money's on not, but who knows?

@Gamepro500 Yes dude. They redid the graphics and so people want to see if it's an upgrade or a mockery, and thankfully it's the former.

@Daniel36 Haha yeah it was quite the step for the Dutch government to spend money on that! I know the rest of Holland isn't like the Red Light District, I've visited a few times and its a beautiful country with lovely people I promise I'm the furthest possible thing from a football hooligan (though I've acted in movies about them! lol)

I completely agree that the NSMB games never managed to recreate the look & feel of Super Mario World or SMB 3 for me, but this new version of Mario RPG looks exactly like I would imagine a high res actually 3d version of the SNES game should look. Its literally perfect - that was my first thought when seeing teh traielr for the first time I like how its a square for square remake, just like Links Awakening was too.

@johnedwin exactly i don't know why its rocket science to some people...smh