For its 250th release, the omnipotent Virtual Console has decided to bestow upon us a thoroughly short, exceedingly simple, and absolutely charming little piece of software you might have heard of called Super Mario RPG. (As a dorky aside, this game is one of only three English Super NES games to use the special SA-1 chip, along with Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Dream Land 3, so obviously they've gotten it emulated on the Wii just fine.)


Oft-lauded as one of the Super Nintendo's last hurrahs, Mario RPG (as it is colloquially known) works because it is a quaint team-up between a then-to-fore cuddly license in the form of Mario's pudgy face and Squaresoft's slammin' RPG know how. The unholy union gives us atrocities like the yellow puffy thing Mallow, the stupid space-man toy robot thing Geno, and an addictive beetle shmup mini game that will last you a long while after the game is soundly walloped!

If you could have told my wallet-clenching younger self that this game would one day be available for eight paltry bucks I would have strangled you on the spot. Pick it up as soon as you can, while rationally ignoring this week's sent-out-to-die title, the beloved Clu Clu Land!