One of the best Mario RPGs around.
-Gameplay
The starts out with the 7 star spirits resting up in Star Heaven. Suddenly, Bowser and his assistant Kami Koopa capture the star spirits and turn them into cards! Then Mario receives a letter to come to Peach's castle then Bowser swoops in and steals the castle and the princess. You try and fight him only for him to outpower you with the StarRod. It's up to you to collect the 7 Star Spirits and bring down Bowser. Sure, it's like the usual Mario story, but there are so many twists and turns that it will make you sit on the edge of your seat. So the game is an RPG. What makes this such a good RPG is that is so easy to pick up and play, but has the depth and challenge that RPG gamers are looking for. I would reccomend this for those who have yet to truly play an RPG, or to those who dislike RPGs because of their slow pace. That is what I like about this game, It isn't hella slow like most RPGs. It doesn't have unecessarly long attack animations, incomprehensible story, and sterotypical over-powered teenage emo characters. Perfect for the casual RPG fan. Though after finishing this game, I felt I could put up with more RPGs than normal. They just seem fun and engaging. The forumla here is the traditional turn-based combat. The battles are fun and quick, with the exception of boss battles which are fun and challenging. Well, most are anyway. Mario has all of the traditional moves such as, jump, hammer, and the butt-stomp all intergrated into RPG combat. It just makes it that much better that they kept the Mario elements. You get items such as the Mushroom, that gives you health, to the fireflower, which damages all the enimes in combat. You also get original items such as the sleepy sheep, which puts your enemies to sleep, and the spooky jar, which makes all the enemies run away in fear. You get some interesting puzzles to solve along the way too. None of these puzzles are frustrating in the least bit, and feel just the right difficulty. If you are looking for fun and engaging gameplay in an RPG on the N64, look no further.
-Graphics
For the time, these graphics were insane. It was probably the Killer 7 for it's generation. With such a strange art style, you can't help but grow fond of it. It was a technically impressive game aswell. With high polly enviornments and smooth, jaggie-free, graphics were unheard of. It was comparable to some of the other stuff coming out on next-gen consoles such as the PS2 and DC. This game still holds up today as visually pleasing, and that's saying something.
-Sound
While there is no voice acting, the music is just great. With some remixes of classic Mario tunes, combined with great original music. Don't be surprised if you are humming some of the boss battle themes, or the theme to Gusty Gulch.
-Replay
If you played through it once. You'll probably just play through it again because it's so much fun. That, or you can play through it again and try to find all the badges. What I mean to say it that if you played through it once, you are probably going to play through it again. I mean, it is a long game
This is a game that both, RPG fans and Non-RPG fans are going to want to play. You'll have to play it for yourself to belive me. So go play it!