A spectacle to behold in modern platform gaming, Super Paper Mario is a must have for many.
The games graphics portray a simple yet original and distinctive world and set of characters, right off the bat this is something quite special for a platform game. The game also provides more something more original than just the grass world, the desert world, the ice world and really gets creative. But these are also coupled with a variety of equally shared animations for all characters, this is a bit of a double-edged sword though, as although the time you'll spend watching the delightful gestures of the minor characters the major characters are left to communicate in only a small range of ways, this wouldn't sound too restricting and it's not that bad but considering this game is so RPG based it's a bit of a step backwards for an otherwise very nice looking game.
The gameplay is really what you want from a modern platformer, jumping things and stomping enemies is a large part of this game (although the platforming itself isn't too challenging for the large majority of the game), it also presents that solid, almost Zelda-ish brain-wracking puzzle element that we've seen executed so well in previous Mario games in a whole new package and it combines an RPG element to the game reminiscent of the earlier Paper Mario games with your score helping you level up to increase your HP and attack and providing some really cool items to help you in combat. There are also cards and recipes to pick up throughout the game involving capturing monsters and collecting special items for cooking to fill up your lists, taking into account that this is at heart a platform game, just with very heavy RPG overtones the lists may seem quite extensive but they are not crucial to the game and unless your really worried about that 100% you can let them drift by almost completely unnoticed but can be quite fun if you do decide to dip into them. Some of the Pixls, the little friends of the world that'll help you with the game, are in some examples also quite original in their abilities. For me there was a slight wavering difficulty issue where the game may throw a very clever puzzle at you but follow it up with a little platform jumping and then a rather easy boss or something like that, in my opinion it's one of the games biggest fall downs but it's not a huge issue.
The music itself is good and usually backs up the quality and style of the levels themselves quite nicely. I wouldn't say it introduced any great tracks like we remember from the previous Mario games but this game almost feels a little wrong for that in its RPG-like form.
The story is pretty cool as well, maybe a little cheap in some places but it actually carries that same sort of Mario feel and message without bringing vomit inducing, cliché Disney-style dialog and plot. This game seems to touch a little deeper than that while still giving something out for the smaller children. If you really examine this game in detail you seem some almost spooky stuff in there but that's all I can say without giving out spoilers. The only downside here is the reels of unskippable text prevent this game from really being pick up and play.
Overall this is another one to jot down on the list of games that makes the Nintendo Wii worth playing, so turn your ol' console back on and get yourself into some real fun Mario style.