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When I first heard that they were ditching the turn based combat in favor of side-scrolling gameplay with a few RPG elements mixed in, I was a little skeptical. Having played the original Paper Mario on the N64 and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on GCN, I came into this looking for a action packed game with loads of battles, item uses and character development. To my surprise, I found all of that and more.

Story
During the forced wedding of Princess Peach and Bowser, Count Bleck summons the Chaos Heart and kidnaps Luigi, Peach and Bowser. The Pixl Tippi appears and takes Mario to the town of Flipside. There he meets Merlon who tells him of the Dark Prognosticus, a book fortelling the end of the world. Mario must collect the 8 Pure Hearts and defeat Count Bleck.
This is actually a very good storyline. Its pretty hard to tell what's going to happen next and you'll often find yourself being surprised at how interesting the storyline is.
Within the first five minutes, you'll soon realize that the game does not take itself seriously. Even in serious moments a pun is told, a reference to past Nintendo games is made or someone does something stupid. You'll love all the references to 'Game Over' and all the other funny moments in this game.

Gameplay
The Wii Remote is held sideways like a NES controller. The 1 button uses the various Pixl powers and the 2 button makes Mario jump. The D-Pad moves Mario around the world in the 2-D plane. But the biggest part about this game is the A-Button. Pressing it allows Mario to flip between 2-D and 3-D. Most of the game is based around this tactic, so its a good thing that its been smartly implemented. All the puzzles feel fresh and new , even ones that have been used before get a 3-D twist to them. Often the only way to solve a puzzle is to flip to 3-D for a clue or to see a hidden object. It's all fascinating and a good move on the developer's part. Game lasts about 20 Hours.

Graphics
Very stylized look about the graphics in this game. It looks a lot better than the beginning screenshots from the Gamecube version, proving that the Wii is more powerful than the Gamecube. Though its a little too bad to say that I'm pretty sure the Gamecube could run this game, minus the 480p and Widescreen support.

Music
Umm...I really didn't notice it. And that's kind of a bad thing. You get so caught up in the gameplay that you barely notice the music. That seriously hurts the score.

Overall Scores

Story: 10/10 Brilliant crafted with a hilarious tone in the dialogue.

Gameplay: 10/10 Why can't every game let you flip between dimensions?

Graphics: 7/10 This game could run on the Gamecube. 480p and Widescreen really helps though.

Music: 3/10 You get so caught up in the brilliant gameplay that you forget all about the music. But the music that you do here is pretty good.

Overall Score: 9.9/10

[The Rooster's Seal of Approval]

If you don't own this game and you own a Wii, you're depriving yourself of a great Game! Why do that to yourself? Go buy this game!

awesome...def. looked like a good game...but i liked the n64 version and i seen that there wasnt as much RPG in this one....so that kinda turned me off...i wanted turn based battles and such...but still a great game

Ok ino this game rocks and all...but dont you think 9.9 is a little high?

I'm going to be giving my opinion now, and it may offend but that is definetely NOT my intentions, I simply want to help you. Of course if you feel like you don't need any help at all then don't read.

Ok, so, your review isn't too bad, it's pretty good actually. I just have some itsy bitsy problems. For one, when talking about the graphics I didn't learn anything about the game. All I know is that it looks better then a gamecube game and runs on widescreen. What's the style like? Did things look good? How were the environments? These and a lot of questions on the visuals weren't answered. Remember, that's a key, mention what everything looks like, not the technical stuff.

Your gameplay and story sections weren't bad, just try to divulge more of your opinion instead of the facts. Or the facts then your opinion, as a review is your opinion.

Music, music, music. We can't live without it can we? Frankly your music paragraph was rubbish. I can understand not hearing music sometimes, but here's the question, did you not hear it? Or forget it? Those are VERY different. If you forgot it then that would mean it's not very good perhaps. But if you didn't find you noticed it then it's probably fits very well, not noticing music would mean that the music fits. I know that in Twilight Princess I didn't always notice the music because it felt so natural. So remember that ok?

Alright, on to your scores. Well, to be frank, I think your being very generous. 10's? 10's mean ABSOLUTE PERFECTION. Do you think it's ABSOLUTELY perfect? Think about that before giving it a 10, I can't judge you on scores that much because it's your opinion, but still. 10 is perfection, 9 is glory, 8 is great and 7 is good. Think of it like that.

Also your music score, a 3? You say that the music is pretty good. So why a 3? You forget it while playing? Well, good. That means you are having fun and the music fits. So I don't understand the logic behind that score.

Finnally your overall. 9.9 'eh? But wait! Music got 3...and graphics 7? Now how did it get a 9.9!? Seriously, remember, 10 is PERFECTION. 9.9 is pretty much perfection. I don't average my scores, but I look at them all, take them into account then give a fair score. I can tell you didn't do that. Try to give them some more fair scores. I know it's your opinion but we know that all games aren't perfect.

Oh and here's something you should probably do. Get rid of your section titles, like graphics and stuff. Doesn't look proffesional.

I hope I haven't offended you, but please take all of what I said into account and your reviews will be ace!

And thats why they call him the "Review Master"

Good Review, I still need to get my hands on this game..

Very good review. I need to get this game as well. I'll yours to the game page.

You know you wantto send me that game in the post and i will play it just for you ..since i cant get it in the uk. Grrrr

I still don't see the fuss around this game. it looks reasonably good i suppose

I don't think it's worth 9.9/10, but It's a very good game. I would recommend it if you're a fan of the Paper Mario series or are a Mario fan looking for something a bit different.

Look you guys, I gave this game an uber score because it deserved an uber score. To be quite frank, this is one of my favorite Wii games released and I've played it much longer than the first run through

yes it does deserve a 9.9/10

Good Review! I so want this game!!!

Just beacuse its the best wii game to date doesn't give it the right to have such a high score.

What are you gonn do when a even petter game comes out? Give it a 9.99/10? How are you gonna show its better? You're not allowed to chnge the the score of the older game, its set in stone.
At least in professional view.


But its not like we're professional reviewers or anything :p, so w/e.

I just got them game yesterday, and its really good!

Woo.I knew you would end up buying it

I will get around to renting this game soon and posting a review. I want to see if its worth a 9.9/10 review. That would logically mean its on par with FF-VII and nearly as good as Ocarina of Time.

I can understand being as good as Ocarina, but not FFVII >.>

FFVII wasn't all that good. Awsome story, good gameplay, but it had plenty of bugs and errors.
That's partly the reason it did so well.. the plot holes let us think up what we want, thus giving a more satisfying story.

I loved it, but I've seen better.
It's too easy IMO, the main thing is the story.

The Story pwns, Gameplay pwns, what bugs do you mean? I think they would take out the bugs in the american version , since they put in the WEAPONS in the American version.

I don't rate games against each other. I rate them on par with how good the tile is. So if its better, then it'll get a good score. There is no scale here. Just trying to say how good this game is.