19.10.2011

Super Paper Mario was one of the first games I purchased for my Wii back in early 2008. Having never played any release from the Paper Mario franchise (which at present includes the self-titled N64 release, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on the GameCube and a forthcoming adventure on 3DS) but having been an avid onlooker from the confines of my Mario-free PlayStation 2, I jumped at the chance to join in with the Plumber's current-gen incarnation. Where the previous two releases were more straightforward Mushroom Kingdom RPGs with comedic overtones, Super Paper Mario takes the `Super' from Super Mario Bros. and transplants RPG elements onto the traditional 2-D platformer; melding some nifty side-scrolling action across eight,stylised worlds. The relatively servicable storyline sees Mario, Luigi, Peach and Bowser joining forces (and all becoming playable) to defeat a new antagonist and save the worlds of both dark and light. All too often, games relying to heavily on mash-ups of contrasting genres fall flat or become a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none: Super Paper Mario manages to juggle genres with aplomb, and ignoring a few mere fumbles, manages to keep things in the air until the curtains close.Where Super Mario Bros. and its subsequent incarnations have (largely) kept a straight face and kept to the usual `Bowser kidnaps Peach, Mario has to save the World' tack, offshoots like the Mario & Luigi series on GBA/DS and Paper Mario have always shuffled things up and tipped the Mushroom Kingdom on its head. Super Paper Mario is no exception, and the first hint that things are amiss is the total world-spanning cataclysm and the appearance of the game's villain, Count Bleck, to gatecrash Peach's inevitable forced-marriage to Bowser. Some evil wizardry later, Bleck rips a Void into the universe, sending (unwlling) bride and groom, along with wedding-crashers Mario & Luigi, through to inter-dimensional reality and the universe beyond. Waking up in the dimensional world of Flipside, Mario must then collect a total of eight pure hearts in order to open the door back to reality, each one hidden at the end of a four-level World. All four main characters (yup, even Bowser) are playable at some point or other; with the ability to swap out between them to access each character's special abilities, including Mario's dimension-flip (more on that later), Luigi's super-jump, Bowser's fire-breathing and Peach's umbrella glide. In addition to the character-specific abilities, Mario is joined by a wide array of flunkies, known as Pixls, which provide Mario with further powers: Cudge, who can turn into a wieldable hammer; Boomer, who can turn into a bomb to destroy scenery or enemies; or Fleep, who can flip enemies and confuse them for a short time. Efficient use of a mixture of Pixl powers, character abilities and deft platforming skills are required to navigate the thirty-odd levels on offer; clever switching between both characters and Pixls to navigate levels keeps it interesting and exciting, and Nintendo's superlative level design is out in force to form a learning curve that's almost perfect in pitch.The main meat of Super Paper Mario takes place in the two-dimensional platforming plane much like its Super Mario Bros. brethren, with enemies dispatched with a deft leap and a thump on the bonce, and everything controlled with just the Wii Remote alone; tilted to form a familiar replica of the NES controller of old. What differentiates the action this time, though, is the matter of Hit Points (HP); with both the playable character and monsters having attributes of health, strength, defence and the other usual statistics mainly reserved for stat-heavy RPG grinds. This all works rather well, with weak enemies (e.g. Goombas) being taken out in one hit, whilst stronger baddies (e.g. Hammer Bros.) taking two or three head-stamps to dispatch. A simple levelling system upgrades your attack strength and HP, with Mario losing HP (varying according to both the player's and enemy's stats) for walking into a monster or landing on spikes. You never really need to think about all of the statistics at all during play; simply focus on bashing heads in and kicking Koopa shells toward your foes. Plucking more from RPG titles, there's also an array of items that Mario can collect/pick up/buy and carry; restoring HP in the form of a Shroom Shake, or dealing damage with attack items. It all works rather well, and it's never much of a distraction from the main flow of the game. At the end of each World there's the obligatory boss-battle, with these nasties being able to absorb considerably more damage before keeling over, but they usually require merely repeated performance of a particular move or ability at a weak spot and so never put up much of a fight. Where there's little to challenge the player in the main game, the bosses will mark the only major hurdles; and even then, it unlikely you'll ever see be completely KO'd and be directed to a disheartening `Game Over' screen.While we've discussed the special abilities of those around him, we've not yet touched on the talents of Mario himself. The Paper Mario series has always seen everything being flattened to two dimensions - like a paper puppet show with characters, places and items all formed from 2-D prints; while that's still the case here, the magic verb here is: `Flip'. Mario's status as `The Hero' comes with the added bonus of being able to `flip' into the third dimension: While everything in the 2-D plane looks like an updated, cartoony version of Super Mario Bros., flipping to 3-D shows the world and characters as the cut-out characters they are, and there's nimble application of the `Flip' to solve puzzles, navigate past blockages in the 2-D world or find treasures hidden behind cut-out scenery. The curse of flipping, alas, is a limited time Mario can spend out of the 2-D plane; with a timer at the top of the screen counting down until Mario receives damage when it is consumed - it's an ingenious touch, and there's some excellent level design across the whole of Super Paper Mario to ensure that it doesn't go to waste. To boot, everything looks fantastic; whether you're navigating through the vast and varied worlds, the hub towns of Flipside/Flopside or whizzing through pipes to bonus areas - the cartoon style is to die for, and the character models for the multitude of nasties are wonderfully unique and varied: It's as much a treat for the eyes as the thumbs, and each world and level is painted to a different theme or scenery that all remain distinct, ranging from the familiar rolling hills and mushrooms of the first levels (which bring to mind Mario's first NES outing); to the 8-bit world where everything is pixels and beeps; to the coldness of outer-space, where Mario dons a fish-bowl space helmet and rides a baby squid in a side-scrolling space shooter. All of it is a delight.The main plot, and context of all these inter-dimensional shenanigans, is not itself a yarn-ripper, but a perfectly serviceable means to an end of dumping Mario into a brand new world that isn't the familiar Mushroom Kingdom, and giving him the cause to bounce around eight new worlds to locate eight new shiny treasures. Those shiny treasures are Pure Hearts, with one obtained for successfully completing a world, and unlocking the next world available from the level hub in Flipside. Given Super Paper Mario`s RPG leanings, it's no surprise that there's a lot of exposition detailed by cutscenes and in-game dialogue: While the story is adequate and fairly light-hearted, there's a slight over-emphasis on dishing out unnecessary plotpoints and handling superfluous chit-chat with various NPCs; gloriously witty though it may be. Marriage of the immediacy of Super Mario Bros. with typically plot-driven RPG mechanics serve only to slow down the rapid, platforming action and offer unnecessary barriers to the otherwise cracking pace offered by the main action. It's not something that irks immediately, but by the end, you'll be left feeling as though you just want to get on and beat that next boss rather than having to wade through several minutes of chatter (with said boss, no less) before you regain control and stomp its head in. Gratefully, the dialogue is well-written, humourous and light-hearted, but that doesn't stop it from spinning out the game experience longer than anticipated.It's not the only example of that, either - some concepts are relied upon too much to forcibly mix things up and attempting to pad out the game from a short platform experience to a more healthy 20-25 hours to suit the `RPG' aspect more. Super Paper Mario is the ideal concept for a short, sweet platform game; one that doesn't begin to run out of tricks near the end, one that tries to do something a little different, and one that doesn't outstay its welcome. As it is though, you can almost see the edges of the game bulging at the seams where the experience has been forcedly extended, and it reduces the impact of the sweet, simple mechanics that it should have been. A fine example is the `sweat shop' level, where Mario must physically run a treadmill in order to earn enough coins to hand in his P45; completely unnecessary to the storyline and shoe-horned in to blatantly wring out the game experience. Still, if you plough through the main game and are still left wanting more, then there's an array of collectables (which also improve battle abilities) to hunt down; including monster cards (representing the bestiary of the adventure), treasures hidden on a series of `X marks the spot' maps and a couple of Pixls which are not fundamental to completing the game but whom can be unlocked with some side-questing malarkey. If you're the impatient type, then Super Paper Mario can be finished in a good 12-15 hours; spend more time exploring and hoarding EXP, then you can easily double that. The game never provides much of a challenge, and this can be amplified even further if you're efficient at levelling and trounce as many nasties as possible along the way.That's not to say that it isn't enjoyable, or that `hardcore' gamers won't find much to like here - There's some fantastic action here, coupled with a relatively enjoyable story, and some of the character interactions will have you laughing out loud or cackling as it pulls in both comedy and references/parodies with gay abandon. Ignoring the main team of Mario, Luigi, Bowser and Peach, the new characters introduced are interesting and talkative, and the rather bland main antagonist of Count Bleck aside, his henchmen possess oodles of personality and charm. The bright, breezy levels combined with the gameplay seem to propel Super Paper Mario along relatively swiftly, even if the experience is held together by a rather weak plot and some game-extending mechanics duct-taped on. There's also the feeling that more could have been made of the hub towns of Flipside/Flopside, but there's really little to entertain there aside from locating the next Heart Pillar into which Mario must insert the most recent Pure Heart to unlock the next world. Sure, there's the usual range of RPG shops and taverns, but instead of bustling cities which are full of excitement for the next available world, they're just drab interludes to the main action, and which regularly become a chore to navigate. Which, in fact, rather sums up Super Paper Mario: As a concept, it works staggeringly well, but it would've worked so much better if it was a short, bouncy adventure rather than a protracted experience that attempts to deviate too far from the regular platformer tack but wants to retain such punchiness. It comes highly recommended, but with the warning that, once the initial charm wears off and you start to see the same themes recurring and same puzzles being recycled, that excitement will drop off near the end. That said, if punching coin blocks and pouncing on monster's heads to earn EXP sounds like your kind of bag and you're in possession of a funny bone, then you should fit right in.

30.8.2007

Super Paper Mario is a combination between the RPG and side-scrolling platformer genres. You collect points as you kill enemies, and those points count toward increasing your level. As your level increases, you increase either your HP or your attack power (it alternates, you don't get to choose which one).As with most games of this type, there are a lot of story-based cut scenes which do have an entertaining story to them, but sometimes get long and tedious, especially at the very beginning, where there's a lot of setup.You start out the game as Mario, after seeing Luigi, Peach and Bowser all sucked into some kind of dimensional vortex. You set off to find and rescue Peach,and recover 8 Pure Hearts to save the world. Along the way you also have a Pixl friend accompanying you to help you along. You find additional Pixls with different abilities (like creating bombs or giving you a super-stomp ability for flattening large objects). As you progress through the game, you find the other characters and add them to your party, and you'll use their unique abilities in different ways. Mario has the ability to do the dimension flip I'll talk about in a second, Peach can use her umbrella to glide long distances or hide from damage, Bowser can wipe out enemies with fire breath and does double stomping damage, and Luigi has a super-high spring jump. There are also at least a dozen or so Pixls with varying abilities that need to be used in different ways.The game itself is primarily the usual Super Mario action... you run to the right and jump over obstacles and on enemies. One cool thing is that you can shake the remote up and down after jumping on an enemy to get a bonus score. For enemies that take more than one hit, you can do this repeatedly for increasing bonus points. Sometimes you reach obstacles that you can't jump over. This is where the really interesting part of the game comes in.Early in the game, you learn the ability of "flipping" which is triggered by pressing the "A" button and turns the game world 90 degrees so you can see a different perspective. For instance, if you are going along and run into a really tall pipe that you can't jump over, flipping may show you a path as simple as just walking around it. Flipping also sometimes reveals hidden treasures or paths.The game overall provides enough challenge, leading you to switch characters and Pixls frequently to solve puzzles, but without getting tedious and repetitive. The space levels were particularly entertaining.I expect a casual player can finish the game in approximately 30 hours, and it's fun for adults as well as younger kids. It doesn't rely as much on fine motor control skills and precise jumping (though those certainly can help in some situations), but does focus more on making you think how best to use your characters and Pixls to beat certain obstacles or bosses.I would really only ding this game on replayability... it doesn't strike me as a game I'm going to be likely to pick up and play again once I've finished it. Not because it's a bad game, but because it just won't be different, so what would be the point?

17.9.2007

'Super Paper Mario' is the first Mario game (other than Mario Strikers and Mario Party 8) to hit the Nintendo Wii and what a great game it is. The game takes elements from all of the various Super Mario games (such as the 2-D platformer levels from the original Super Mario Bros/World series, the 3-D platforming levels from Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, the RPG storyline taken from the Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga and Partners in Time games and the 2-D paper style graphics from the Paper Mario games) and rolls them into one to create something completely new.The game begins as a regular 2-D platformer that we've all seen before, until Mario learns a new ability where he can "flip" between 2-D and 3-D dimensions.The technique can then be used to reveal hidden enemies, boxes, coins and items as well as access new and alternative routes to help him get to the end of the level. As the game goes on, Mario gains the help of Pixls which also give Mario new abilities to use, such as grab and throw items and enemies, place bombs and change him to be completely flat, enabling Mario to be invisible and transparent. As well as Mario you eventually get to play as Princess Peach and Bowser too. Each character has different abilities, so you will need to switch between characters every now and again to get past certain obstacles.Generally 'Super Paper Mario' is a good fun and well designed platformer with a lot of great features new to the Mario series. Flipping from 2-D to 3-D is a great new twist to a very old formula and is one that works surpisingly well. Most levels are quite long and fairly challenging, allowing you to use the characters' new abilities to the fullest. They also vary in design, ranging from hillsides to deserts to haunted houses.There are a few bad points that stop me from giving this a 5-star rating. First is the intro which goes on and on and on. It literally takes nearly 25 minutes before you even get to take control of the action. I do like games with a bit of a storyline, but for a platform game this is going a little to far. Next is the controls. Although it does make good use of the Wii Remote in that you use it side-ways, giving it a NES controller retro feel, it rarely uses any of the Wii's unique tilt and movement sensitive controls. Also, switching between characters is very fiddly and tedious as you need to hold 1 & 2 on the remote to open up the menu, then select a character.Overall this is a great game and a fantastic addition to the Mario series. Fans of both retro Mario and the newer Mario RPGs should love this and it should also keep you busy until later in the year when we get the next "real" Mario game, Super Mario Galaxy. With the possible exceptions of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4 (depending on taste) this is the best game on the Wii so far.

25.7.2008

Unfortunately, I've yet to play either of the other two entries to the Paper Mario series, but this quasi-platformer departure from the typical Mario RPG formula still has enough depth to make for an enjoyable experience.The game follows Mario into a new dimension he has been prophesised to save by defeating a mysterious being that plans to bring destruction to every dimension through the marrying of Peach and Bowser. While this suggests that the game holds many Mario RPG-style quirks from the beginning, things pick up as the story progresses with numerous jokes and parodies guaranteed to at least evoke a smirk,including many references to the Mario series on the whole.An interesting thing about the game itself is that it has too many RPG elements (like levelling up and making use of NPC shops) to simply call a platformer, yet too many platforming elements (such as the general 'get from point A to B' objective through the levels) to simply call an RPG, making for an intriguing mix.The majority of the game has you progressing through individual levels set across a number of dimensions as you make use of the likes of Mario's ability to flip from 2D to 3D, Peach's ability to lengthen the distance she can jump and defend herself with a parasol, and Bowser's extra strength and fire breath ability to save each dimension and their amiable inhabitants. In addition to each character's strengths, they can be strengthened further still with help from Pixls, peculiar life forms that cause a number of helpful effects like carrying characters over spiked pits, or shrinking characters to allow them access to places they couldn't normally reach. The main Pixl who offers her assistance from the beginning is also the game's main use of any Wii-style pointing functions as she can be used to provide hints on what to do next or how to defeat enemies that lie in your way, simply by pointing at them and pressing `A'. As I followed its development from back when this game was originally developed as a Gamecube game, I personally feel as though this function is tacked on, yet making use of it only seems to add to the enjoyment.While the main game itself does not hold a huge amount of challenge, those seeking more enjoyment from the title can venture through extra dungeons offered by the game, go treasure-hunting through the dimensions they've saved from peril or go to the in-game arcade when you need a break from questing, or just want to make use of the game's other Wii-specific pointing or motion functions.While not a full RPG or a full platformer, this game should offer full on enjoyment for those looking for some old-school fun.

18.6.2015

This is my favourite platformer for a number of reasons. The look of this game is heavily stylised, in a way resembling a 1980s title. Using 2 and 3D angles new avenues, hidden doors and even platorms become visible. The game is quite literally played in five dimensions. As with the Mario and Luigi RPG games, you are able to play other characters. In this title they are four in number, but as I am not a spoiler merchant I won't give anything away.The puzzle element to this game is great, and despite the negative criticism that this is an easy game you will soon find yourself stumped. The level of accuracy that one needs to reach certain platforms is very close to the point of being irritating,

24.1.2009

The Paper Mario franchise has always shown what Nintendo is capable of doing once it gets its hands on a stale genre. The RPG genre is one that has rapidly grown over the years thanks to games like the Final Fantasy series but the processes that define it, namely turn based battles and level grinding have led to a genre that can easily be critized for repeativeness. Nintendo helped change this.By using a turn based system that prioritised timed button presses and making character level progression work smoothly with progression the Paper series offered a streamlined RPG gaming experience. This game expands on the series further by turning the genre inside out,

19.9.2007

As today confirmed by nintendo there is a major glitch that makes the game crash if u dont perform a puzzle correctly. Heres the original message..."When you are playing Super Paper Mario in UK English, German or Spanish, a problem can occur in a very specific situation. Since the situation where the error occurs is so specific, it's very possible that you may not experience any issue at all.At the start of Chapter 2-2, you will come across a character called Mimi. She will tell you to go to the farthest room on the first floor to meet a character called Merlee. Enter that room and press the green switch. A trap will be triggered, and a spiked ceiling will descend upon Mario. Before the ceiling reaches him,

20.9.2007

As we all know, Paper Mario is an amazing RPG series with some of the most unique graphics ever, topped off with some hilarious humour (for Nintendo fans and others alike), as well as the unique...ish battle style. This time, Intelligent Systems decided to go for a Platformer Style with RPG elements. And did it work?I'd have to say... Definetley. Super Paper Mario is a brilliant game with unique effects such as using Mario to go into 3-D from 2-D, and even controlling the lovely Princess Peach, Evil King of Koopas Bowser and the coward we all know and love Luigi! Awesome!The story is like your typical Paper Mario's, where this time, Mario must collect 8 (Yes, 8 not 7) Pure Hearts (Sound familiar?

6.7.2008

For the most part Super Paper Mario is a side scrolling 2D platformer with a few elements of the RPG genre thrown in. It's USP as everyone knows is that you can flip into 3D from time-to-time, which you'll need to do to find your way through each level. It's a great feature which spices up a game which might otherwise be a touch unexciting.The storyline is not particularly compelling but it's adequate for a video game and it's told well using cut-scenes with speech bubbles. As other reveiwers have said, the scene at the beginning is a bit too long but once you get into the action the story is told in much shorter segments and only occasionally leaves you feeling frustrated.Thankfully,

10.1.2010

Surprisingly this is the first Mario game i have ever played, being more of a PC gamer. My flatmate brought a wii bundled with this, Zelda and Metroid. Lucky for me he was out of the house a lot and unfortunately for my dissertation i started playing paper Mario. Seriously after the first hour i was well and truly hooked. Zelda and Metroid hardly got a look in. The beauty of this game is it starts off simply and builds on its complexities the more you play. Its truly an original game, a platformer that feels anything but linear.You flick from 2D to 3D to fight baddies, find items and reveal secret pathways. It uses the wii controller wonderfully, making it a major part of the game and a real Wii experience.

27.10.2007

I just recently bought this game of amazon, and I am totally glad i did, this game is fun, funny and worth the cost, there is lots to do and it will keep you going for a long time.There are 8 worlds in all, each with 4 chapters and a boss. Starting at 1-1 it slowely introduces you into the game and lets your get to grips with the controls and your ability to flip into 3d, this really is a change on gaming, it allows you to explore places "outside of the box" so to speak.As you progress you meet pixls there are quite a few to find, and they basically help you do certain things, for example one allows u to pick up stuff and throw, one is a bomb. You can switch between pixls when ever you wish.There are a number of characters which you can bee,

6.10.2007

This is Mario's first proper adventure on the Wii and one that many Nintendo fans will love from start to finish. The graphics are bold and colorful, the ability to flip between 2D and 3D is a masterstroke and the Pixls Mario encounters all have ingenious abilities (my favourites being Fleep who can make u even thinner and Thudley who can smash things up).The Mario magic is there, but there are still a few things missing that stops it from reaching those five stars. For one it is a bit easy - compared to the last two Paper Mario games - and some levels feel a bit too empty. The scrolls of text might get annoying to some aswell, although it an absolutely funny adventure!

4.11.2007

This is a really great game and I was enjoying playing it until I got to world 2-2. This is where your Wii will crash and you have to turn it off and on at the mains!! This will then continue to happen and you will be unable to progress any further. The thing is, Nintendo announced this in September, but I didnt read the info online until tonight - but I bought this game from Amazon only a few weeks ago. Amazon already had a customer review which I have just read that told them about the fault, and I'm pretty sure Nintendo would have informed them seeing as the game is faulty in the UK, German and Spanish releases!! I've already had one of these games and had to send it back. Now I'm on my second.

20.10.2007

lets start with the positive things,its a classic 2d mario game with a fanastic twist,you can flip from 2d to 3d with the press of A.its a great way to work out puzzles and find secrets.its also one of the better looking wii games and really seems to fit in well with the game.the last good thing im mentioning is its very funny,the text is hilarious sometimes and always makes you smile.the negative stuff,when it gets to the end it becomes extremely dull.the text is funny yet very longgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg.the last thing is i think the stories to long for a mario game.in 99 percent of mario games the story and plot is only a minor factor in the game.graphics-9/10 great but the wii still

16.12.2013

This is the last game I have managed to complete. I'm 39 and I've played loads of games but because I don't have unlimited free time I find most modern platformers too hard! At some point or level I hit a wall and fall down.Paper Mario is said to be a bit easier and perhaps it is. I would prefer to say it is possible to complete it and follow the story to the end. I liked the mix of 2D flipping into 3D because it works. The rules are simple, the controls easy to use and I found it very rewarding. I also liked that I could buy power ups in the shops and save them for the bosses at the end of levels. I'm not great at defeating them and the edge given buy chucking fire at them really helped.The cut scenes with the story are annoying but you can button past them and at the end..

Super Paper Mario (Wii) - Reviews

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