st231

GAMING REVIEWS

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack

OUT NOW at

SUPER MARIO RPG

RPG MULTIPLAYER

OUT NOW

Originally developed by legendary games company Square, you can see the bones of what Final Fantasy VI was, and what Final Fantasy VII would become, in Super Mario RPG , but lovingly infused with all your favourite

Super Mario characters, and some incredibly, uniquely weird enemies. Super Mario RPG hasn’t

changed its style or story from the original release, and it really didn’t have to in order to still be a bunch of fun. This remake is in all aspects a big improvement on the Super Nintendo version, looking and feeling like a modern Mario game with all the care and thoughtfulness of the original. While it’s labelled as an RPG, that's a slight misnomer, with the actual RPG elements being well on the lite side. The gameplay is incredibly easy to pick up. Combat cycles are fun and use a bunch of standard Mario animations throughout. It looks, feels, and plays exactly how you

imagine a Mario x Final Fantasy game should. The turn-based combat has a little bit of added spice, allowing you to boost attacks or negate those of enemies by timing button presses. It makes the brief and frequent battles a lot more interesting than they might ordinarily be. You can perform basic attacks, use limited items to restore health or revive fallen party members, or use special power moves, which are limited to prevent spamming. Super Mario RPG is a fun way to lose a few hours and not even know how. Its simple combat system and lite RPG mechanics make it a game that young’uns and oldies alike can enjoy. It’s meant to be accessible and enjoyable in the way that every Super Mario game has been in the past, and it passes that quality control check with flying colours. DN

ONE DOOR CLOSES… Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars – to give its full, original title – was the final Mario game to release on the Super Nintendo console, but proved to be very influential, directly inspiring both the future Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi game series.

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE III

ACTION MULTIPLAYER

OUT NOW

Combat and gunplay in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III are both as slick as an otter in a tub of baby oil. Which is everything you could ask from the market leader in FPS multiplayer, and it just continues to land in the most satisfying way. MW3 inches the bar higher by making some important quality-of-life upgrades.

to work out what suits your individual playstyle. The Call of Duty campaigns have always been carefully disguised tutorials for the main game, and the training missions do their job with laser-guided precision.

The single-player campaign missions finally take players off the rails. The cinematic gameplay is still here, including a prison break and a multistorey tower assault, which are satisfying in their own right but ultimately unique in that you won’t see these mission types anywhere else in the game. In their place are open combat missions, which allow you to pick your pathway to objectives with no wrong answers. They play using the Warzone mechanics for gear pickups, which lets you try out a multitude of weapon choices

ZOMBIES ATE MY SQUADDIES! If a bit of undead action is your go then fear not, as we get to face off against more zombies than ever before, with new weapons, classic power-ups, and several surprises, in Call of Duty's largest zombie map to date.

Once you kick into the main multiplayer missions, you find another excellent experience. There are many game modes to choose from, each providing a different angle from the map selection. It all looks pristine, runs smoothly, and hits as hard as a hurricane. New game mechanics allow you to play at the optimal level. Weapon upgrades and universal attachments are fun to use and respond exactly the way you want them to, except, of course, when you’re on the receiving end. Ultimately, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III delivers on its various promises. It’s a free-to-air Saturday afternoon action movie on steroids, multiplayer is quick and addictively easy, and the variety of gameplay modes hit the exact right tones. DN

44 JANUARY 2024

jbhifi.com.au