RSS
Nintendo marries the RPG and platformer genres and a must-play is born. Read our review and find out why.
April 6, 2007 | 11:37 AM PSTIf you’re expecting Super Paper Mario to play anything like past Paper Marios, you’re going to be surprised. The latest installment in the series, which was originally in development on GameCube and later moved to Wii, is unclassifiable. It walks the platformer walk and talks the RPG talk, hangs with the RPG hipsters and goes to school with the platformer kids. Nintendo’s biggest Wii game since launch is an unheard of combination, but we’re completely grateful the game’s developer, Intelligent Systems, delivered it.
One of the few things Super Paper Mario has in common with its predecessors is that it’s fairly story-driven –- at least compared to your average Mario game. The game’s opening plot isn’t unforeseen: it involves a kidnapping -- or mass kidnapping, rather. Brothers Mario and Luigi are in their home. Things are tranquil, and the two are perfectly safe. That is, of course, until they decide they’re bored out of their minds. They decide to visit Princess Peach at her castle. But not a second after stepping foot outside their quiet sanctuary, they learn that her castle is under attack by none other than Bowser. They rush to her aid to learn of an entirely different reality, however. By the end of the scene, Mario is left alone and Peach, Luigi, Bowser and his army are kidnapped by a top-hat and monocle-wearing character named Count Bleck.
Super Paper Mario’s storyline isn’t incredibly epic. The tale is no Final Fantasy and definitely no Metal Gear Solid, but the title does feature a lot of story, told through dialogue-driven cut-scenes. What makes the game’s story so enjoyable, despite its simple nature, is its writing. The half-RPG-half-platformer is overflowing with humor, and a lot of it is laugh-out-loud funny. However, the kind of humor here is definitely an acquired taste. Paper Mario constantly makes fun of not only itself but even nerds and gamers. What’s more, it breaks the fourth wall often, meaning characters will acknowledge the fact that they are in a video game and are being controlled by you. The game jokes about this truth regularly. We couldn’t help but smile while playing through the title, and the same will likely be true for you.
Despite the kid-friendly visuals and Mario theme, the game’s dialogue is populated by a rich and even sophisticated vocabulary. The writing surprises with its quality, and it’s clear the game’s writers enjoyed making the title. It absolutely shows. Even though the plot and story itself are both fairly cliché and ordinary at best, Super Paper Mario manages to captivate thanks to smooth pacing and a mesmerizing type of charm that only a Nintendo game can deliver.
Unfortunately, some of the storytelling is hindered by small nuisances, like the game’s speech bubbles. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which character on screen is talking, as the game doesn’t show the name of actively speaking characters anywhere on screen. Instead, speech bubbles point in the direction of talking characters. However, far too often, it’s unclear just who’s the one behind those witty lines. What’s more, the lack of character names in the dialogue boxes means you more often than not don’t know the names of characters. This dated design is in a way unforgivable.
The reason we write Super Paper Mario is unlike any of its brothers and sisters is because its gameplay takes a big departure from what has become the series’ recognizable foundation. Forget the random battles. They’re gone. Forget the battle system. It’s gone, too, and it’s nowhere to be found. And, to be honest, we’re sort of thankful, in a way. Replacing a RPG-like structure – random battles, for instance – is platforming-like level design. Nintendo fans are going to feel right at home the moment they start playing, as Super Paper Mario shares a lot in common with the Mario Bros. sidescrollers of the NES and SNES years.
The game is divided into different chapters and sub chapters. You make your way through each chapter by running forward, jumping up and over any obstacles in your path and hopping on any enemies that step in your way. Sound familiar? These things are the very infrastructure of the original Mario Bros. games. However, while the bulk of the game is made up of these so-called platforming segments, they leave something to be desired. None of the platforming is particularly impressive and never rivals, let alone challenges, what you’d find in a traditional Mario game. Mario runs considerably slower in Paper Mario than, say, Super Mario Bros. 3, and because of this, the game feels sluggish at times.
This shortcoming noted, Super Paper Mario feels more like a “light” platformer than anything else. Most of the level design is built around smart puzzle design rather than platforming. You’ll play as a small handful of Nintendo characters, most importantly of which is Mario. His special ability lets you flip from the game’s 2D perspective to a 3D one. This skill is indispensable, allowing you to see objects, characters, doors, items and much more that would otherwise be invisible in 2D. It’s even used to allow Mario to bypass blockades in his path, such as a too-high-to-jump-over pipe. Such a pipe might be impassable from a 2D perspective, but by flipping to 3D, it’s revealed that Mario can simply walk around it. Ingenious. Fairly early in the game, Peach will join your party, who can jump and float across lengthy distances that Mario would only fall into. The catch is you can only use one character at a time, so you’ll need to switch back and forth between characters depending which puzzle-solving skill you need.
Puzzle solving goes way deeper than simple character switching. Throughout his adventure, Mario will come across and enlist to his aid different floating characters called Pixls. There are a solid number of Pixls to collect along his 20-hour adventure, and each offers its own ability that is required to progress into the game. The title opens with one that allows players to point the Wii-mote at the screen and scan for secrets. The control technique for this is superb, and it doesn’t feel tacked-on one bit, despite that the game was once being developed without the Wii-mote in mind. Another Pixl you come across, meanwhile, can be used as a bomb to explode destructible obstacles in Mario’s path. Just like you have to switch between party members, you’ll have to switch between Pixls, however.
The puzzles in Super Paper Mario are usually very well-designed. In fact, some puzzles are insidiously crafty, employing trickery and challenge that will require you to really use your noggin’. Some puzzles, however, leave you wondering around in circles with no clues in sight. Usually, the answer is right under your nose, but regardless, these moments can be frustrating.
While the Wii-mote is used to point and find secrets on screen, it isn’t used much, otherwise. This would be fine, but there is at least one Pixl that you come to control that should have used the controller’s pointing capabilities but does not.
Directly contrasting the intelligent level design, which almost always challenges and satisfies, enemy fights, as well as boss fights, are disappointingly easy. There’s a good chance you’ll never die – not once – in your playtime with Super Paper Mario. Even bosses hardly put up a fight, and fights are over just as soon as they begin. This is due in part to the game’s lack of a battle system. Instead, there is hop-and-bop action -- a retreat to old-school Mario jump-on-its-head-to-kill-it action -- meaning there’s little depth as far as “battles” go. Still, we were surprised by the way Intelligent Systems implemented challenge through puzzle-based boss fights. These fights are some of our favorites, and despite their lackluster difficulty, they please.
Style is a big part of Super Paper Mario and a big reason why it’s so enjoyable. Its graphics are simple but still stylish. The game features the same paper cut-out visuals that earned the franchise its namesake. Environments and everything in them are made of paper, giving the game an instantly recognizable look. There is always propulsion of color on screen. A crisp, clean look is the window to distinct and imaginative level design. There’s eye candy in place, too. When bombs explode, a pixelated orange explosion illuminates the screen. Dust follows behind Mario’s feet as he runs through stages. One level is rendered in blocky visuals, resulting in the look of an ultra-pixelated arcade game. Another, Flipside, the game’s main town, is glued together by aging, cracked pillars covered in vines.
Unfortunately, when you flip to 3D, the environments seem to lose their detail. Paper Mario on GameCube, which released in 2004, featured what we feel are more detailed and lively environments, thanks to an abundance of detail, and they featured the same kind of quasi-3D visuals seen when you flip to 3D in Mario’s latest outing. Super Paper Mario’s 3D perspective in comparison is barren, lacking detail, and is even at times crude in appearance. As a whole, actually, the GameCube Paper Mario features prettier level design. While Paper Mario on Wii looks great, it sometimes looks a little empty and plain. Perhaps it’s because we prefer the levels, in general, found in the GameCube iteration over this Wii sequel.
The overly simplistic approach to backdrops and levels carries over to character design, too, unfortunately. While some characters, such as Mario, Peach and Bowser, are detailed, other characters in the game look like they were drawn by kindergarteners. Composed of basic shapes, like squares and circles, these characters look plain and unimaginative.
Despite some trivial graphical complaints, Super Paper Mario looks great. The game does run in 480p and 16:9, which means high-def ready gamers will be happy.
Final Word
There’s no denying it: Super Paper Mario is the first must-play since the Wii launch almost half a year ago. I don’t mean this in an insulting way – I really mean it as praise. This is a great adventure that blends RPG mechanics with platforming-style gameplay. Nintendo fans, in particular, are going to love the game. While the game is overly easy at times and some of the level design isn’t as likable or memorable as past Paper Marios, we absolutely recommend Super Paper Mario. It’s a great Wii game that just about anybody can enjoy.
One of the few things Super Paper Mario has in common with its predecessors is that it’s fairly story-driven –- at least compared to your average Mario game. The game’s opening plot isn’t unforeseen: it involves a kidnapping -- or mass kidnapping, rather. Brothers Mario and Luigi are in their home. Things are tranquil, and the two are perfectly safe. That is, of course, until they decide they’re bored out of their minds. They decide to visit Princess Peach at her castle. But not a second after stepping foot outside their quiet sanctuary, they learn that her castle is under attack by none other than Bowser. They rush to her aid to learn of an entirely different reality, however. By the end of the scene, Mario is left alone and Peach, Luigi, Bowser and his army are kidnapped by a top-hat and monocle-wearing character named Count Bleck.
Super Paper Mario’s storyline isn’t incredibly epic. The tale is no Final Fantasy and definitely no Metal Gear Solid, but the title does feature a lot of story, told through dialogue-driven cut-scenes. What makes the game’s story so enjoyable, despite its simple nature, is its writing. The half-RPG-half-platformer is overflowing with humor, and a lot of it is laugh-out-loud funny. However, the kind of humor here is definitely an acquired taste. Paper Mario constantly makes fun of not only itself but even nerds and gamers. What’s more, it breaks the fourth wall often, meaning characters will acknowledge the fact that they are in a video game and are being controlled by you. The game jokes about this truth regularly. We couldn’t help but smile while playing through the title, and the same will likely be true for you.
Despite the kid-friendly visuals and Mario theme, the game’s dialogue is populated by a rich and even sophisticated vocabulary. The writing surprises with its quality, and it’s clear the game’s writers enjoyed making the title. It absolutely shows. Even though the plot and story itself are both fairly cliché and ordinary at best, Super Paper Mario manages to captivate thanks to smooth pacing and a mesmerizing type of charm that only a Nintendo game can deliver.
Unfortunately, some of the storytelling is hindered by small nuisances, like the game’s speech bubbles. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which character on screen is talking, as the game doesn’t show the name of actively speaking characters anywhere on screen. Instead, speech bubbles point in the direction of talking characters. However, far too often, it’s unclear just who’s the one behind those witty lines. What’s more, the lack of character names in the dialogue boxes means you more often than not don’t know the names of characters. This dated design is in a way unforgivable.
The reason we write Super Paper Mario is unlike any of its brothers and sisters is because its gameplay takes a big departure from what has become the series’ recognizable foundation. Forget the random battles. They’re gone. Forget the battle system. It’s gone, too, and it’s nowhere to be found. And, to be honest, we’re sort of thankful, in a way. Replacing a RPG-like structure – random battles, for instance – is platforming-like level design. Nintendo fans are going to feel right at home the moment they start playing, as Super Paper Mario shares a lot in common with the Mario Bros. sidescrollers of the NES and SNES years.
The game is divided into different chapters and sub chapters. You make your way through each chapter by running forward, jumping up and over any obstacles in your path and hopping on any enemies that step in your way. Sound familiar? These things are the very infrastructure of the original Mario Bros. games. However, while the bulk of the game is made up of these so-called platforming segments, they leave something to be desired. None of the platforming is particularly impressive and never rivals, let alone challenges, what you’d find in a traditional Mario game. Mario runs considerably slower in Paper Mario than, say, Super Mario Bros. 3, and because of this, the game feels sluggish at times.
This shortcoming noted, Super Paper Mario feels more like a “light” platformer than anything else. Most of the level design is built around smart puzzle design rather than platforming. You’ll play as a small handful of Nintendo characters, most importantly of which is Mario. His special ability lets you flip from the game’s 2D perspective to a 3D one. This skill is indispensable, allowing you to see objects, characters, doors, items and much more that would otherwise be invisible in 2D. It’s even used to allow Mario to bypass blockades in his path, such as a too-high-to-jump-over pipe. Such a pipe might be impassable from a 2D perspective, but by flipping to 3D, it’s revealed that Mario can simply walk around it. Ingenious. Fairly early in the game, Peach will join your party, who can jump and float across lengthy distances that Mario would only fall into. The catch is you can only use one character at a time, so you’ll need to switch back and forth between characters depending which puzzle-solving skill you need.
Puzzle solving goes way deeper than simple character switching. Throughout his adventure, Mario will come across and enlist to his aid different floating characters called Pixls. There are a solid number of Pixls to collect along his 20-hour adventure, and each offers its own ability that is required to progress into the game. The title opens with one that allows players to point the Wii-mote at the screen and scan for secrets. The control technique for this is superb, and it doesn’t feel tacked-on one bit, despite that the game was once being developed without the Wii-mote in mind. Another Pixl you come across, meanwhile, can be used as a bomb to explode destructible obstacles in Mario’s path. Just like you have to switch between party members, you’ll have to switch between Pixls, however.
The puzzles in Super Paper Mario are usually very well-designed. In fact, some puzzles are insidiously crafty, employing trickery and challenge that will require you to really use your noggin’. Some puzzles, however, leave you wondering around in circles with no clues in sight. Usually, the answer is right under your nose, but regardless, these moments can be frustrating.
While the Wii-mote is used to point and find secrets on screen, it isn’t used much, otherwise. This would be fine, but there is at least one Pixl that you come to control that should have used the controller’s pointing capabilities but does not.
Directly contrasting the intelligent level design, which almost always challenges and satisfies, enemy fights, as well as boss fights, are disappointingly easy. There’s a good chance you’ll never die – not once – in your playtime with Super Paper Mario. Even bosses hardly put up a fight, and fights are over just as soon as they begin. This is due in part to the game’s lack of a battle system. Instead, there is hop-and-bop action -- a retreat to old-school Mario jump-on-its-head-to-kill-it action -- meaning there’s little depth as far as “battles” go. Still, we were surprised by the way Intelligent Systems implemented challenge through puzzle-based boss fights. These fights are some of our favorites, and despite their lackluster difficulty, they please.
Style is a big part of Super Paper Mario and a big reason why it’s so enjoyable. Its graphics are simple but still stylish. The game features the same paper cut-out visuals that earned the franchise its namesake. Environments and everything in them are made of paper, giving the game an instantly recognizable look. There is always propulsion of color on screen. A crisp, clean look is the window to distinct and imaginative level design. There’s eye candy in place, too. When bombs explode, a pixelated orange explosion illuminates the screen. Dust follows behind Mario’s feet as he runs through stages. One level is rendered in blocky visuals, resulting in the look of an ultra-pixelated arcade game. Another, Flipside, the game’s main town, is glued together by aging, cracked pillars covered in vines.
Unfortunately, when you flip to 3D, the environments seem to lose their detail. Paper Mario on GameCube, which released in 2004, featured what we feel are more detailed and lively environments, thanks to an abundance of detail, and they featured the same kind of quasi-3D visuals seen when you flip to 3D in Mario’s latest outing. Super Paper Mario’s 3D perspective in comparison is barren, lacking detail, and is even at times crude in appearance. As a whole, actually, the GameCube Paper Mario features prettier level design. While Paper Mario on Wii looks great, it sometimes looks a little empty and plain. Perhaps it’s because we prefer the levels, in general, found in the GameCube iteration over this Wii sequel.
The overly simplistic approach to backdrops and levels carries over to character design, too, unfortunately. While some characters, such as Mario, Peach and Bowser, are detailed, other characters in the game look like they were drawn by kindergarteners. Composed of basic shapes, like squares and circles, these characters look plain and unimaginative.
Despite some trivial graphical complaints, Super Paper Mario looks great. The game does run in 480p and 16:9, which means high-def ready gamers will be happy.
Final Word
There’s no denying it: Super Paper Mario is the first must-play since the Wii launch almost half a year ago. I don’t mean this in an insulting way – I really mean it as praise. This is a great adventure that blends RPG mechanics with platforming-style gameplay. Nintendo fans, in particular, are going to love the game. While the game is overly easy at times and some of the level design isn’t as likable or memorable as past Paper Marios, we absolutely recommend Super Paper Mario. It’s a great Wii game that just about anybody can enjoy.
November 20, 2009
