2023-12-04
Featuring Three Musketeers concept art
We're all having fun with Super Mario RPG on Switch, right? The return of this SNES classic has brought smiles to our faces with constant reminders of Nintendo at its weirdest, but, according to one Square developer who worked on the original title, it was almost a whole lot weirder.
In 1994, Jiro Mifune had just completed work on Live A Live (which also received a swanky Switch remaster last year) and was just about to get cracking on Chrono Trigger (which, unfortunately, did not) before he was brought onto Super Mario RPG. In the game's early development, Mifune sketched up several ideas for how the Nintendo mascot might transition into the world of an RPG and guess what, he's sharing those very sketches on Twitter!
Beginning earlier this week, @JiroMifune has been posting some of the wacky character art that the development team was originally throwing around when Mario RPG was still in the early concept phase. This included a 'Three Musketeers' theme (born out of Mifune feeling uncomfortable picturing Mario with a sword and armour) and a race of villains from the "Slug Kingdom".
While these ideas would ultimately go on to be scrapped for the RPG that we know and love today, it is a great bit of gaming history and an interesting look at what could have been, nonetheless. We have included some of our favourite pieces from Mifune's posts below, but you can check out all of the drawings that he has shared by flicking through his complete thread.
Mifune stated that his reason for uploading all of these pieces is to celebrate the "miracle remake" of the game on Switch. He wrapped up the thread by thanking all those who worked on the Switch version and wrote that he is enjoying watching everyone's playthroughs. Aww.
While we love the version of Super Mario RPG that we ended up with on SNES and Switch, we can't help but feel a little sad that we missed out on some Mario Musketeer action. Hey, we'll just have to wait for Princess Peach: Showtime! to see what the concept looks like IRL.
Source: Nintendolife.com
