Geno Beam

The Geno Beam is a special attack that Geno starts with in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. It is a straightforward beam attack that hits one enemy. Timing it right will increase the amount of damage dealt. According to the instructions, to time it correctly, a player must press and hold button until the third star on the star meter appears. It requires 3 Flower Points.

It is one of the few moves in the game that does not add a sound effect when the player timed hit is done right, so the only way to know if it’s done right is watching the difference in the amount of damage dealt after using it and the amount of damage inflicted to the same enemy after trying it without pressing the button at all.

Unfortunately—at least in the American SNES version of the game—the “Geno Beam” is affected by a glitch or design oversight which renders the in-game instructions meaningless. To time it correctly, the player must instead tap the button once, without holding, right after the "instructions" banner at the top of the screen automatically disappears from sight, which is right about before the star meter starts charging. Care must be taken to not press the button too early, or instead the instruction banner will be dismissed early and the timed hit will fail. If successful, the damage delivered will be given the proper timed hit bonus.