After Neal's recent blog about the impact of Super Mario RPG in his life, we asked you to contribute your own thoughts on SNES game and the Mario RPG series that followed in later generations. Here's a sample of the great responses we received:

The addition of RPG gameplay to the Mario formula was a defining characteristic for some of you. MrPhishfood praises the simplified numbers game Mario RPGs use:

"The one thing I liked about the Mario RPGs I've played is their minimalist take on stats. Like in 1000 door your initial damage you could do is 1 and the most basic enemies had 2hp. Nearing the end of the game you could boost your attack power to something like 8. With numbers like that I can easily quantify the number of attacks I need to make, which lets me focus on strategy.

I've always disliked the ridiculous damage and hp stats in Square games that number in the thousands and tens of thousands, its mental arithmetic I can do without."

xcwarrior, on the other hand, views the lack of complexity in Paper Mario as a detriment:

"Loved Super Mario RPG. Using Nintendo characters in a Square Enix type of RPG was amazing. Plus you had the timely hits for bonus damage. Unique characters we haven't seen since unfortunately.

Paper Mario was a big disappointment in comparison. They aren't bad games, but as the person above me stated, they are really simplified. Good for some people, not good for those of us who love the complexity of the RPG genre."

The unique styles of each brand of Mario RPG were also a strong point of discussion. Adrock points to that of Super Mario RPG in particular:

"I like its simplicity though I liked how the later series were even simpler. Square didn't really seem to understand the lightheartedness of the Mario series at times, such as the Victorian-esque buildings in the Mushroom Kingdom. For the most part though, they kept things light and the game is filled with charm and humor. I hope Square Enix and Nintendo revisit Super Mario RPG one day with a sequel. I think there's room for a more traditional RPG in the Mario universe that's very different from Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi.
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Many of you, like Neal, had personal stories and particular memories surrounding the Mario RPG games. mustbeburt recalls the day he picked up Super Mario RPG:

"This game truly blew my mind. I actually picked up a copy sometime around 1999-2000.  It was in an SNES bargain bin at Toys-R-Us for $8 (this is also where I picked up Mario World and Mario All-Stars for $8, as well as Mario Kart and all 3 Star Wars games for $5). Pretty much my best haul ever. To finish the story I went right from Toys-R-Us to a friend's house and got stuck there because of a huge snow storm. All I wanted to do was brave the weather and drive to my house so I could try out SMRPG with my brother, but my friend's parents wouldn't let me leave due to the weather.  I can still remember reading the instruction booklet cover-to-cover on their couch where I crashed for the night.I bought SMRPG because it was a Mario game that I never actually heard of.  At the time I also didn't know what an "RPG" was!  This was my first RPG. I totally fell in love with it.  My brother and I were totally blown away by it because we never played anything in the genre before. We still just call it "RPG" to this day."

Ian Sane notes how unbelievable the concept of a Mario RPG was at the time:

"One thing that is really cool about Super Mario RPG is that it is totally a dream game of its time.  I remember the first time I read about it in Gamepro.  So it's RPG starring Mario so who is making it? Well of course it's Square!  Who else would you want making it?  Oh yeah and the graphics are pre-rendered like DKC.  Well of course because that's the super cool trend of the time! Nintendo is a rather notoriously unhip company.  Super Mario RPG is ridiculously hip for a Super Nintendo RPG released in 1996."

Red14 describes the profoundness of the Paper Mario series:

"I've played these games too many times over, and I'm not ashamed of it. I don't really think anything I say now though will amount to anything considering everyone's played all the Mario RPGs of course. I will say though that Paper Mario is an experience for me that speaks in a way of not really a typical game would, but how so that it's kind of a whole presentation of itself. I'd say that's what I like about Paper Mario more than the Mario and Luigi games. While M&L definitely can pull out some incredibly satisfying moves, in Paper Mario, instead of taking the gameplay so far, it puts on a kind of performance. A celebration of itself so to speak, and that is definitely not a bad thing in my eyes. Seeing the stage come out from behind a big red curtain, to hear the music kick off in a battle transition, putting on a show yourself as you pick off enemies one at a time... is what truly makes Paper Mario my favorite series of games. It's only the Mario and Luigi games that come so close to this formula after all, which is why I will now talk about Mario and Luigi.
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On the less serious end, Caterkiller has this story:

"Remember the jibberish Mario and Luigi spoke? Mario: Athupuputhepi! Luigi: Adoblaboblabado! My brother and I would have conversations like that just to get peoples reactions. My mom would ask me a question and I would answer "Athupuputhepi" and she would go "huh" and I would keep saying it until she realized I was playing around. I would answer my high school teachers like that as well. Every time they really thought I had something to say, and I was doing it in Mario's voice."

Thanks to everyone who participated!