The Paper Mario series began in 2001 on the Nintendo 64, but its beginnings start with Super Mario RPG even before that. As expected someone must have thought about putting Mario in all these different types of games – so an RPG was probably an easy choice. What was rather unusual was that these games were pretty good – they weren’t a Final Fantasy-esque RPG, but they created their own vibe and each game was rather fun.
While the world is eagerly awaiting the first true “Mario” game for the Wii, Nintendo has brought us “Super Paper Mario,” which is a game that seems to defy description – part platformer, part adventure and part role playing game. What makes this game so interesting is the twist that is added to it – the idea of “flipping” from 2-D to 3-D. This flipping helps you find things that you wouldn’t see on a horizontal platformer.
When starting the game you are presented a rather interesting storyline about Princess Peach getting married to Bowser, who is a pretty ugly creature. There is a suggestion that the princess was under duress when this happens, and their marriage is a sign of the apocalypse. Only a hero can get the hearts to undo the damage. Can you guess who that hero is? Hmm, can you? If you guessed Mario, congratulations, you have won.
As mentioned before, the game is part-RPG, and nothing says this more than the beginning of the game. While the dialogue trees to be cute, there is no actual voice acting – instead you are forced to read screen after screen of text. I know the capabilities of the Wii aren’t PS3 quality, but it is 2007 and I no longer expect to scroll through text without any sort of audio aside from the cutesy Nintendo music we’ve all come to know and love. Some of the comments throughout the game are interesting, but I am still averse to dialog such as this and wish there was a way to skip it. The text heaviness of the game probably will also chase off little kids who would love to play the game. While Super Paper Mario is rated E for everyone, you absolutely need a basic reading ability It is true that you are missing some of the backstory, but for me, I just want to start playing the game.
Once you get through the dialog, the fun does begin. The game is broken into chapters, just like in the old Mario days (ie chapter 1-1, 1-2, etc). At the very beginning, it’s just you (Mario) but as you progress you can obtain power-ups and eventually you will play as different characters with their own special abilities. For example, you will be able to play as Princess Peach, but if you do, you’ll lose the “flip” capability but gain the ability to float through the sky – helpful on those areas where you are unable to jump. You can also play as Bowser who has fire breath. In addition to these characters, you will pick up “Pixls” along the way. Although you’ll find a few of them throughout the game, you can only have one and the ‘default’ pixl with you at one time (the other pixls do stay with you but only one can be active). Obviously you switch to the pixl you need to complete the mission and it’s not very difficult to figure that out.
The control of the game does not require the nunchuck, but you will be using the Wiimote to the fullest. Normally you’ll hold it horizontally with the d pad on the left and the 1 and 2 buttons on the right. To flip modes, you will press the A button. However, your default pixl, Tippi, is always with you and can give you assistance – in order to use Tippi you then use the Wiimote like a wand and point it on the screen to either find hidden doors or ask Tippi for help about a character on the screen. It is a really creative way to receive assistance. The controls seem as intuitive as you would expect from a Nintendo game – they are quite good.
The gameplay is quite good; I would even say surprisingly good – I did not expect to have this much fun with this game. The RPG elements are bare bones – your character has hit points and inventory and levels up. Battles are real time and not turn based. There is more action than RPG in this game and probably more adventure than anything else. You’ll be ‘flipping’ quite a bit to find every last secret or coins or to avoid bad guys. Someone must have thought that by flipping all the time a player would miss the full enjoyment of the game, so there’s an arbitrary ‘timer’ where you can remain in 3D mode. If you are in 3D mode too long you will lose a hit point. When you revert back to 2D mode, you do fill up the “3D” meter and can go right back to that mode – so it seems rather pointless to have this timer in the game. That is really my biggest gripe with the actual gameplay.
