I have always been a fan of Mario’s RPG games and their very unique stories and characters. I’ve found myself bonded to their hilarious characters like Popple in Mario and Luigi, and even sometimes, tears would sprout in my eyes because of Bobbery and the sad tale about his wife.  The Mario RPG series started with Squaresoft developing the first Mario RPG, released March 13, 1996.  Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars marks the beginning of the Mario role playing game series.

Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars

Super Mario RPG narrates the story of Mario’s journey; along with several unexpected, companions into the Mushroom Kingdom in order to save their home. Mario and his friends must collect seven stars in order to retain peace. But collecting stars isn’t enough for Mario and his friends; in order to maintain peace they will have to confront multiple bosses within the Kingdom’s limits. That is until they meet their last opponent Smithy whose plan is to destroy the word with weaponry. I can still remember when my brothers and I used to play this game when I was little. I can perfectly remember that scene in the wedding; I used to play that part over and over again because I never got it right. It’s a good thing to know that people buy this game on virtual console and experience what many people have before.

Super Mario RPG has basic RPG game play, similar to any other common role playing game you’ve played before. No need to worry, you won’t be that surprised by Mario RPG’s. There really isn’t any new features in Mario RPG’s besides their incredible plots, worlds and characters. Although it follows the traditional RPG gaming, the Mario RPG franchise introduced the Action Command (or the Timed Attack) which allows characters to do a bit more damage to an enemy than with a normal hit. This happens when the player presses the “A” button right before Mario or any of his assistants/partners hits the opponent;  when attacked the player can press the “A” button to either avoid the attack or defend from the attack, reducing the amount of damage (like in the Mario & Luigi series and the Paper Mario series).

Paper Mario Series

Mario RPG series continued with the Paper Mario series and was a huge hit for Nintendo. It began with the Nintendo 64, February 5th 2001 in America, followed by Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door released October 11th 2004. Paper Mario is one of my favorite franchises on the Nintendo 64. I really enjoyed how your assistants would follow you around and use their abilities every time you needed them.  Besides the story and the lovely music, the battles turned out really fun and made the game fun to play with.  I don’t know about you guys but personally I loved playing this game with my family, we’d shout and laugh every time I lost or won a battle.

Paper Mario Series’ battle system was a bit different from Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars because Paper Mario introduced new concepts such as the BP and the FP.  During battle, Mario has the choice to fight along one of his assistants, each armed with unique attacks which will help you get through the game easier and faster.  In a fight, Mario has five options instead of the usual 4 in Super Mario RPG: Jump, Hammer, and Star Spirits, Items and Other which gives the character the option of changing your assistant, running away or defending. Assistants; however, have only two options:  Ability and Other.  It gets pretty simple and fun once you battle about three times.

The Paper Mario stories have always been related on saving Princess Peach, collecting stars and saving the world from destruction.  In the first Paper Mario, Princess Peach was hosting a party at her castle when BAM! Bowser arrived and ruined everything with the magical star rod he stole and on which he had imprisoned the Star Spirits. In the sequel Mario is invited by the Princess to the wonderful town of Rogueport until she is kidnapped again. This time by the army of Grodus, who is the robotic antagonist in the game.
Super Paper Mario was a huge change in the Paper Mario Series. It turned the game into a 2-D side-scroller, which turned the game both exciting and disappointing.  Although it lost most of its RPG elements it also won fun and exciting new features, different playable characters for instance. Even if it turned out disappointing to some players, because it did not keep the traditional Paper Mario RPG style, it still turner out to be a great game. I had lots of fun with this game and I really loved how you could change the scenario from 2D to 3D, it made the game pretty original and it created its own Paper Mario style which may lead –hopefully- to another sequel.

Mario and Luigi Series

Mario and Luigi series began with Mario began November 17th, 2003 with the launch of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Gameboy Advance.

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga introduces a whole new Kingdom to explore, The Bean Bean Kingdom where both Mario and Luigi will have to fight over Cackletta’s evil forces in order to get the Princess’ voice back. It’s a lot of fun and it’s extremely hilarious. The thing is this game made you experience a whole bunch of plot twists and “wow” moments, which obviously made the game incredibly good. Besides, the game itself was quite challenging and I pretty much enjoyed all of the scenarios inside the game, which were nicely developed and prepared.

Superstar Saga is shortly followed by its acclaimed sequel Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Released November 28 2005, Partners in Time recites the story of Mario and Luigi saving the Princess, along with their younger selves, from an alien force called Shroobs. I really thought the game wasn’t that good. Once you’re in the present you are stuck in the castle and there are not enough places for you to visit, unlike the first one. Besides that I felt the game was slightly easier than its prequel and it wasn’t that challenging.

We’re all waiting for the release of the third game in the Mario & Luigi series, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. I must say I’m really excited about the game and I really hope it is as good as the two other Mario & Luigi games.  What I’m really excited about is the fact you get to use Bowser as one of the characters, sadly he’s not joining your party. Instead you’re inside his tummy!  Yep, that’s right.  Mario and Luigi are stuck in Bowser’s body and it’s up to you to get out of there. So if you’re really into Mario RPG games or you haven’t played any other Mario RPG game before, it’s a good chance to get this game on September the 14th.

So if you are looking for a game to buy this summer, try looking for one of the Mario RPG’s mentioned above. They’re fun and they’re not the typical RPG you play every day, like Final Fantasy. You will love the pale-looking scenarios such as the Boggly Woods in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and the hilarious stories in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. Try and look for the beauty in these games. If you don’t see it then I don’t think these games are meant for you.

Jamie Short Stories: The Announcement

As always, people would listen carefully at The Announcement, the most expected ceremony in the year.  It was meant for people to hear the words of the Sire, their very own leader.  Everyone would head over the open Auditorium on the 25th of the last month of the year and waited until trade began between the people of the auditorium and their Sire.  People knew that the exchange consisted on giving something people loved for truth.  Truth; however, was not material.  It was only one of life’s many secrets that society had not been allowed to discover.  Why is the sky blue? What is gravity? What’s a moon?

The Sire had never allowed them to find out about things, he said that curiosity was a sin and those who sinned would be lost for eternity.  Once the sky filled it self with silver-shining stars, the ceremony would begin.  Golden shards of un-built treads were creating what looked like a stairway.  The Sire, a wealthy man wearing a black tuxedo, descended gently from the sky, making its way to their planet.  He arrived and He began calling everyone, by singles.  Someone would ask Him something, whispering, and He would whisper back the answer, but that someone had to swear not to tell anybody.  Once The Sire gave someone a Truth, that someone had to trade something he or she loved.  So the first man to hear his own Truth gave The Sire his only son and then, once everyone had finished trading, The Sire would take the thing they loved the most with Him.

But as the man saw his son ascending from the human realm, by the side of many other people, and by the side of his Sire, he thought his Truth was very stupid, that the answer was quite obvious but nevertheless, he thought it was meant for asking.

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