Mario's Beach Crew

I just finished playing Super Mario RPG for the first time and it put me in the mood to make a bright'n'happy drawing.  I didn't have an SNES (we were Genesis kids), so I haven't played a lot of the classic RPGs that the system was known for.  It was seeing Chrono Trigger being played at someone else's house that really got me passionate about games; not just playing them but understanding their design and presentation as well.  Luckily, with the advent of emulation, I am now able to go back and pick up all of the old gems.  If anyone has suggestions about games for the SNES that they really loved, please comment so that I can round out my 16-bit experience.

SRPG has a lot of neat concepts that I am surprised more games didn't follow.  The biggest one is that party members gain XP even if they aren't on your main team, which allows you to change them out at any time to experiment with and not have to worry about grinding them up to the levels of the veterans.  Occasionally after battle you'll also have the option of a minigame which lets you double your XP or coins.  It's a simple cup-and-ball gamble, but it adds an interesting little risk-reward twist to the normal leveling experience.  When a character levels you may also choose between giving them bonus physical, magical, or HP traits.  This is one of the earliest examples I've seen of a JRPG actually allowing choice in character growth.  If you know of others, I'd actually be interested in hearing about them.