Super Paper Mario is a game that does something that no game has ever done before. Some minor annoyances are offset by serius fun. To start with, the gameplay. At first glance, Super Paper Mario looks just like any other Mario platformer, and plays like one too. However, soon you get the the ability to flip from the second to the third dimension, allowing you to completely bypass most enemies and obstacles. This power is offset by the fact that you have limited time in the third dimension, balancing the abilities nicely. Almost immediately you find an obstacle that cannot be passed, giving you an example of the power of flipping. You will gain up to three different characters, giving you the advantages of horizontal jumping, vertical jumping, and double attack power. The attacks in this game are much more lethal than previous Mario games, which is offset by the fact that you can take a lot of damage before going down. The paper like graphics of this game are taken advantage of more than ever before. Some enemies will dissipear entirely whe turned sideways, and you can even turn sideways to get through narrow gaps. One of this game's best aspects is the storyline. While most Mario games have a fairly generic storyline, Super Paper Mario features an incredibly dark storyline, involving self sacrifice, revealing drama, and a traiterous twist. Some of the complaints of this game, are a lack of replayability, rather generic sound effects, and some segments that consume time, without really moving the story forward. Also, you'll find yourself using mainly Mario, or possibly the power character, while only switching to the others for a few seconds, because you must use the flip ability often, whereas the others only come in handy occasionally. This is another problem. While most abilities, including the flip, are wildly useful at first, they begin to fall out of use, giving the impression that the flipping ability wasn't taken as far as it could. Finally, this is an excellent game, that features never before seen concepts, and a storyline the likes of which the Mario series has never seen. Despite it's drawbacks, this is a story who's challenge and storyline will draw you in, and not let go.
The highly acclaimed Paper Mario series has been praised for its artistic and creative innovations. The first two games were unique in the fact that they were role-playing games, but fused with some light platforming ele... Read Full Review
Super Paper Mario statrted out as the GameCube-exclusive sequel to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It was quickly outnumbered by the next-gen system hype, and was, seemingly, completely lost. It was moved silently t... Read Full Review
