The RetroBeat: Why I’m wishing for Super Mario RPG’s Geno in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Nintendo is hosting another Direct tomorrow, and we’ll likely get another character announcement for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which comes out for the Switch on December 7. And I know who I’m hoping to see finally make the cut. No, not Waluigi. OK, that would be great, too. But I’d like to see Super Mario RPG’s Geno added to Nintendo’s fighter.

Super Mario RPG was an important game for me. It came out for the Super Nintendo in 1996, back when I was only 9 years old. I had some exposure to RPGs before. I’d rented games like Final Fantasy III (which is actually Final Fantasy VI) and admired them, but they were beyond me. Super Mario RPG maintains the core RPG concepts in a simpler game that my young mind could understand. It has turn-based combat, and you still gain experience points that you use to level up and become stronger, but you have less equipment to manage and fewer opportunities to get lost.