An all-time mega-hit, this classic ranks among the greatest games ever created.
This game presents a cheerful story about Mario and friends teaming up to save their world from a surprise attack coming from outer space. The first place to be hit is Bowser's Keep, placing him, for the moment at least, on Mario's side in the fight to free the world- whatever Mario's world is called- from the clutches of an evil metalworker named Smithy, who is a slightly wizard-like old man (or is he?). The story takes you through a multitude of environments and introduces a cast of several new characters, which really add to this enchanting game.
The graphics in this game are absolutely brilliant- especially for their time. They're all pre-rendered 3D, similar to Donkey Kong Country, and absolutely well done. The colors are vibrant and induce a feeling of spontaneous joy in the viewer. The same can be said of the soundtrack- it's got some of my favorite video game music in it, and I've even made a CD out of it to listen to in my car. The music in this game is just absolutely perfect and totally appropriate for the environments it helps to portray.
To understand the gameplay of this game, just think Final Fantasy, and and you'll pretty much have it. Nothing revolutionary here, just the tride-and-true solid RPG gameplay that helped make the FF series so popular. You won't be annoyed by any random battles in this title (because they don't happen).
To understand the true greatness of this game, you can't simply look at the stats- the quality of the gameplay, sound, etc. It's more than that. It's about the whole experience you get from it- from the sights and sound, to the storyline and dialogue. The dialogue is cute and humorous, but not in a cheesy or corny sense- you can't help but smile at the situations and characters portrayed by this game.
If you could only own one game for SNES, and if you have any remnant of a childhood imagination left in you, then I would definately reccomend it be this game.