04-16-2007, 02:12 AM
Super Paper Mario
I should start off by saying that I have never played Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and the only Mario RPG I’ve ever played was Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (which I liked except for cut scenes that were pretty much the same every time) so I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into when I picked up Super Paper Mario. I read the gameplay gimmicks and the basic idea and it sounded interesting and since I had the time to play it, I went ahead and picked it up. From the moment I first popped the game in my Wii, I realized two things: 1) I was in for a very pleasant experience and 2) I wasn’t going to get anything done for a good while.
Everything about Super Paper Mario just screams quality. Everything about this game just screams polish and it can easily be seen that great care went into every detail. Style, graphics, sound, writing, design, everything are all top notch and this game deserves every bit of hype that it has received.
Presentation – 9.5
As stated above, Super Paper Mario is extremely polished. The game looks and feels incredible. The gamed definitely has a very stylized look that isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself (”what is this 2 button thing?” – “Oh, it’s nothing but someone knows what it means”). The Wii remote works very well with this game with the only motion controls being pointing at the TV to discover and shaking the remote to wake you up. The menus and general controls are also pretty clear and quick to pick up. All in all, the controls and menu were all nicely done.
It should also be noted that I found no bugs in this game, which is a very rare thing these days. It’s quite normal for a game to be shipped with minor bugs because they all can never be found and it’s even not uncommon to see a showstopper bug in a game, but Super Paper Mario has done quite a good job at polishing their game and eliminating as many bugs as possible. I’m not implying that the game does not have bugs, I’m sure it does, but I have spent a good amount of time with the game and I have noticed no bugs.
Graphics – 9.2
Super Paper Mario is a perfect example why a game doesn’t need ultra realistic graphics and top of the line hardware to look absolutely amazing. This game really is just beautiful, everything from the incredibly animated avatars to the wonderful 2D landscapes, it just looks amazing. The only hiccup is that sometimes the 3D landscapes just look very bare.
All the characters in Super Paper Mario look amazing. Each character moves and has a wonderful set of emotion. These may only be 2D characters that look like something you might see in a flash movie, but that doesn’t stop them from looking amazing. Each character and enemy in this game are all very well done and it is a great joy to watch them move and make their emotions.
The 2D world of Super Paper Mario looks great as well. All the colors are bright and finish the art style of the game nicely. Sadly, the 3D look good too, they just seem a little bare. This is understandable though since the vast majority of the objects in the game are 2D but it is still something noticeable.
Sound – 9.3
I know you might be getting tired of me keep using the word amazing, but it’s hard not to with this game. Just like almost every other feature in Super Paper Mario, the sound is amazing. True, there isn’t voice acting for the characters, but that does not matter at all in this game. Each character has their set of sounds that are all adorable. I still laugh every time Mario makes his falling sound when switching to the 3D world with nothing under his feet.
The music of the game is also very nicely done (see, I didn’t use amazing that time). Each world has its own score that gives each world its own feel. Even when you discover Flopside, it’s fun to listen to the differences in music from Flipside. The music definitely isn’t something that will pop out and make you listen to it all times, but rather blends in nicely to each environment and compliment that environment which is exactly what the music should do.
Gameplay – 8.5
The gameplay and writing of Super Paper Mario is simply amazing. I was worried that flipping between the 2D and 3D worlds would get old and tedious, but it never did. Every world remains completely fresh and while the game isn’t exactly hard, the puzzles are fun and there even a few that will leave you scratching your head for a good amount of time. That all being said, the gameplay of Super Paper Mario isn’t perfect; there are a few very obvious flaws in the gameplay.
Even though there are quite a few times in this game that there are very large walls of text to read through, it doesn’t matter because the writing is fantastic. Each character has personality and the story isn’t an award winning story, but it definitely is fun and fits the mood of the game perfectly. I’ve even found myself completing various parts of the several times just so I can see how the different characters react depending on what character you’re using at the time. That and the Francis-Peach dating sim alone make this game worth the buy.
As you progress through the game, you get different characters and fairy type creatures called Pixl’s. Each character and Pixl has their own special ability that adds a new and fresh aspect to the gameplay and even opens up new areas of the familiar world. With each new power the player possesses, whether it’s floating with an umbrella to being able to turn sideways to turn virtually invisible and fit through narrow places, a whole new realm of possibilities is opened for the player.
The flipping from 2D to 3D world was also very nicely done. I was at first worried that this flipping mechanic might get old or that it would become too much work to flip in every single spot so that I don’t miss anything, but it never did. I constantly find myself switching between characters so I can flip and find new areas and treasures. This action never gets tedious because it’s just fun. It’s fun to discover new areas that you could never see in the 2D world and it’s fun to find hidden treasures and pipes hidden behind objects.
Sadly, this game isn’t all lollipops and roses. There was one set of levels in particular that left a bad taste in my mouth, the space shooter level. This level just wasn’t fun, it’s that simple. It was fun for maybe a minute or two, but the novelty of moving through space shooting things with your alien stopped being fun quickly. There was no challenge in it at all and the fun factor wore off quickly. During these levels Peach and Bowser cannot use their special abilities and a good number of the Pixl’s were not needed at all and there wasn’t many options. The final nail in the coffin for this area was that moving around in the 3D world was impossible. You could move forward, backwards, left and right, but it was impossible to move up and down which is fairly significant. This level effectively took away every fun gameplay mechanic the game had worked to hard to give us.
The next complaint, and this is the real reason that the gameplay received an 8.5, was in Merlee’s Mansion. Shortly after entering the mansion, the player breaks a valuable vase and in order to pay for this, the player must work off a debt of 1,000,000 rubees. Now this sounds like a lot, but luckily there are three hints that the player can buy with rubees to make this work much easier. Sadly, two of the three hints are not cheat with the first being one rubee, the second being 1,000 rubees, and the final being 10,000 rubees. To gain the said rubees the player must work for them by either hitting a block or running on a hamster wheel to make electricity. The first thing the player can do is hit the block where they get anywhere from 2-5 rubees per hit (I’m not sure of the exact number; it was more than one and less than six). This would be simply enough to simply press the jump button several hundred times, but you have to avoid a spark so you actually have to pay attention. This was not fun. So after you get 1,001 rubees you move to the much easier hamster wheel method to earn rubees. For this, you simply have to hold right for a good ten minutes and you’re done. Once again, this was not fun. This probably could have been fixed by reducing the second two hints to 100 and 1000 rubees because with the current numbers just feel like punishment.
I can forgive the space shooter level and still give the gameplay a very nice high score, but the Merlee’s Mansion is simply unforgivable. It’s actually worse than a show stopper bug in my books. This is a mandatory part of the game that just feels like punishment. A game should never feel like punishment and having to hit a block a couple hundred times and hold right on the control pad for ten minutes is not fun. This part of the game seriously made me want to stop playing the game and that’s just unforgivable and it’s a shame that such a good game has a section like this. For that, the gameplay got docked some serious points.
Lasting Appeal – 8.5
Super Paper Mario definitely isn’t a game that you finish over the weekend but it’s also not one that will take you much longer than 20 hours. You can spend a large amount of time getting all the enemy cards, but there isn’t really much to the game other than the main quest. Sadly, this is also one of those games you’re likely to beat once and never pick up again. It could be fun to pick up the game a year or so down the line if you’re bored and want a pleasant experience, but this game just doesn’t have much replay value.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing. The game has a good amount of gameplay that will keep you entertained for a long time; it’s just a game that you shouldn’t expect to play over and over.
Overall – 9.0
Overall Super Paper Mario is a must have for any Wii owner. The gameplay is fresh is fun. The story is good enough to keep RPG players happy while light enough to keep people that simply want a good platform gamer happy. The extremely high degree of polish shows in the amazing graphics and is just a very enjoyable experience. Even with the games few flaws, I’m only happy for playing this game.
Scores Roundup
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Presentation – 9.5
Graphics – 9.2
Sound – 9.3
Gameplay – 8.5
Lasting Appeal – 8.5
Overall – 9.0
I should start off by saying that I have never played Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and the only Mario RPG I’ve ever played was Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (which I liked except for cut scenes that were pretty much the same every time) so I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into when I picked up Super Paper Mario. I read the gameplay gimmicks and the basic idea and it sounded interesting and since I had the time to play it, I went ahead and picked it up. From the moment I first popped the game in my Wii, I realized two things: 1) I was in for a very pleasant experience and 2) I wasn’t going to get anything done for a good while.
Everything about Super Paper Mario just screams quality. Everything about this game just screams polish and it can easily be seen that great care went into every detail. Style, graphics, sound, writing, design, everything are all top notch and this game deserves every bit of hype that it has received.
Presentation – 9.5
As stated above, Super Paper Mario is extremely polished. The game looks and feels incredible. The gamed definitely has a very stylized look that isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself (”what is this 2 button thing?” – “Oh, it’s nothing but someone knows what it means”). The Wii remote works very well with this game with the only motion controls being pointing at the TV to discover and shaking the remote to wake you up. The menus and general controls are also pretty clear and quick to pick up. All in all, the controls and menu were all nicely done.
It should also be noted that I found no bugs in this game, which is a very rare thing these days. It’s quite normal for a game to be shipped with minor bugs because they all can never be found and it’s even not uncommon to see a showstopper bug in a game, but Super Paper Mario has done quite a good job at polishing their game and eliminating as many bugs as possible. I’m not implying that the game does not have bugs, I’m sure it does, but I have spent a good amount of time with the game and I have noticed no bugs.
Graphics – 9.2
Super Paper Mario is a perfect example why a game doesn’t need ultra realistic graphics and top of the line hardware to look absolutely amazing. This game really is just beautiful, everything from the incredibly animated avatars to the wonderful 2D landscapes, it just looks amazing. The only hiccup is that sometimes the 3D landscapes just look very bare.
All the characters in Super Paper Mario look amazing. Each character moves and has a wonderful set of emotion. These may only be 2D characters that look like something you might see in a flash movie, but that doesn’t stop them from looking amazing. Each character and enemy in this game are all very well done and it is a great joy to watch them move and make their emotions.
The 2D world of Super Paper Mario looks great as well. All the colors are bright and finish the art style of the game nicely. Sadly, the 3D look good too, they just seem a little bare. This is understandable though since the vast majority of the objects in the game are 2D but it is still something noticeable.
Sound – 9.3
I know you might be getting tired of me keep using the word amazing, but it’s hard not to with this game. Just like almost every other feature in Super Paper Mario, the sound is amazing. True, there isn’t voice acting for the characters, but that does not matter at all in this game. Each character has their set of sounds that are all adorable. I still laugh every time Mario makes his falling sound when switching to the 3D world with nothing under his feet.
The music of the game is also very nicely done (see, I didn’t use amazing that time). Each world has its own score that gives each world its own feel. Even when you discover Flopside, it’s fun to listen to the differences in music from Flipside. The music definitely isn’t something that will pop out and make you listen to it all times, but rather blends in nicely to each environment and compliment that environment which is exactly what the music should do.
Gameplay – 8.5
The gameplay and writing of Super Paper Mario is simply amazing. I was worried that flipping between the 2D and 3D worlds would get old and tedious, but it never did. Every world remains completely fresh and while the game isn’t exactly hard, the puzzles are fun and there even a few that will leave you scratching your head for a good amount of time. That all being said, the gameplay of Super Paper Mario isn’t perfect; there are a few very obvious flaws in the gameplay.
Even though there are quite a few times in this game that there are very large walls of text to read through, it doesn’t matter because the writing is fantastic. Each character has personality and the story isn’t an award winning story, but it definitely is fun and fits the mood of the game perfectly. I’ve even found myself completing various parts of the several times just so I can see how the different characters react depending on what character you’re using at the time. That and the Francis-Peach dating sim alone make this game worth the buy.
As you progress through the game, you get different characters and fairy type creatures called Pixl’s. Each character and Pixl has their own special ability that adds a new and fresh aspect to the gameplay and even opens up new areas of the familiar world. With each new power the player possesses, whether it’s floating with an umbrella to being able to turn sideways to turn virtually invisible and fit through narrow places, a whole new realm of possibilities is opened for the player.
The flipping from 2D to 3D world was also very nicely done. I was at first worried that this flipping mechanic might get old or that it would become too much work to flip in every single spot so that I don’t miss anything, but it never did. I constantly find myself switching between characters so I can flip and find new areas and treasures. This action never gets tedious because it’s just fun. It’s fun to discover new areas that you could never see in the 2D world and it’s fun to find hidden treasures and pipes hidden behind objects.
Sadly, this game isn’t all lollipops and roses. There was one set of levels in particular that left a bad taste in my mouth, the space shooter level. This level just wasn’t fun, it’s that simple. It was fun for maybe a minute or two, but the novelty of moving through space shooting things with your alien stopped being fun quickly. There was no challenge in it at all and the fun factor wore off quickly. During these levels Peach and Bowser cannot use their special abilities and a good number of the Pixl’s were not needed at all and there wasn’t many options. The final nail in the coffin for this area was that moving around in the 3D world was impossible. You could move forward, backwards, left and right, but it was impossible to move up and down which is fairly significant. This level effectively took away every fun gameplay mechanic the game had worked to hard to give us.
The next complaint, and this is the real reason that the gameplay received an 8.5, was in Merlee’s Mansion. Shortly after entering the mansion, the player breaks a valuable vase and in order to pay for this, the player must work off a debt of 1,000,000 rubees. Now this sounds like a lot, but luckily there are three hints that the player can buy with rubees to make this work much easier. Sadly, two of the three hints are not cheat with the first being one rubee, the second being 1,000 rubees, and the final being 10,000 rubees. To gain the said rubees the player must work for them by either hitting a block or running on a hamster wheel to make electricity. The first thing the player can do is hit the block where they get anywhere from 2-5 rubees per hit (I’m not sure of the exact number; it was more than one and less than six). This would be simply enough to simply press the jump button several hundred times, but you have to avoid a spark so you actually have to pay attention. This was not fun. So after you get 1,001 rubees you move to the much easier hamster wheel method to earn rubees. For this, you simply have to hold right for a good ten minutes and you’re done. Once again, this was not fun. This probably could have been fixed by reducing the second two hints to 100 and 1000 rubees because with the current numbers just feel like punishment.
I can forgive the space shooter level and still give the gameplay a very nice high score, but the Merlee’s Mansion is simply unforgivable. It’s actually worse than a show stopper bug in my books. This is a mandatory part of the game that just feels like punishment. A game should never feel like punishment and having to hit a block a couple hundred times and hold right on the control pad for ten minutes is not fun. This part of the game seriously made me want to stop playing the game and that’s just unforgivable and it’s a shame that such a good game has a section like this. For that, the gameplay got docked some serious points.
Lasting Appeal – 8.5
Super Paper Mario definitely isn’t a game that you finish over the weekend but it’s also not one that will take you much longer than 20 hours. You can spend a large amount of time getting all the enemy cards, but there isn’t really much to the game other than the main quest. Sadly, this is also one of those games you’re likely to beat once and never pick up again. It could be fun to pick up the game a year or so down the line if you’re bored and want a pleasant experience, but this game just doesn’t have much replay value.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing. The game has a good amount of gameplay that will keep you entertained for a long time; it’s just a game that you shouldn’t expect to play over and over.
Overall – 9.0
Overall Super Paper Mario is a must have for any Wii owner. The gameplay is fresh is fun. The story is good enough to keep RPG players happy while light enough to keep people that simply want a good platform gamer happy. The extremely high degree of polish shows in the amazing graphics and is just a very enjoyable experience. Even with the games few flaws, I’m only happy for playing this game.
Scores Roundup
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Presentation – 9.5
Graphics – 9.2
Sound – 9.3
Gameplay – 8.5
Lasting Appeal – 8.5
Overall – 9.0
