Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

The Good
This game is brilliant. Whoever came up with the idea to do an RPG based on Mario and Co. was a genius. And while that may be a cliche, this game manages to make cliches charming and funny all over again.

Easily the best thing about this game is it's humor. Mario is typically silent, expressing himself only in facial animations and jumps...yes, by "jumping." There are a decent number of characters, and it is one of the few games that let you control Bowser as a playable character on your team.

The story, while your typical roleplaying tale, is really well done even if not Final Fantasy caliber, and the Mario setting works perfectly for it. As an RPG, the game manages to not only emulate the classic control scheme well, but even introduces some new gameplay mechanics that add to the experience. Instead of summoning monsters, you can do suped up versions of typical Mario moves, like Fireballs and Super Jumps. It is even possible with one of the moves to continue it indefinitely, if you are skilled...

The Bad
This game is near perfect. I'm sure some can knock it for not having a mature, world ending story, or characters that seem to live on for eternity even though they died...basically, it's not Final Fantasy. But what you do get is a very enjoyable Mario adventure.

The Bottom Line
Mario's best game on the Super Nintendo. While Paper Mario may be a quasi-sequel to this game, this is still hands down the best and the one Mario game everyone should play at least once.

Now if only Nintendo would release it for GBA...