Nintendo's posterboy made its arrival to the wii a bit earlier than expected. While we were waiting for Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo released Super Paper Mario, originally intended for the Gamecube. The game is a bit of a departure from previous Paper Mario games. It's part 2-D platformer, part 3D platformer, part RPG. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. The story is very RPG styled. A mysterious villain named Count Bleck attacks the Musroom Kingdom and sucks its inhabitants into an alternate dimension, leaving Mario out. He's awaken by Tippi, a creature known as a Pixl, who teleports Mario to a town called Flipside where he learns that Count Bleck is using an artifact called the Chaos Heart to destroy the universe as we know it. In order to defeat him and counter the Chaos Heart, Mario must find eight pure hearts. The gameplay in Super Paper Mario takes elements from platformers and RPG. The combat isn't turn based anymore. Instead, its some good old fasioned Mario stomping across 2D environments. But fear not, this game packs the best elements of RPG's. Everytime you kill an enemy, you receive points. Level up high enough and your strentgh and health will increase. As you progress, your party becomes larger, each with its own unique abilities. Mario has the ability to swap between 2D and 3D, which reveal some impressive blending of both dimensions into levels. This reveals some hidden items and passageways required to beat the level. Peach can use her parasol to float across large gaps. Bowser is the heaviest and toughest, plus he packs strong firepower. Finally, Luigi can jump the highest. You'll probably using Mario the most since he has the best power. Also, along the quest, you'll be collecting Pixls, which grant you secondary powers like ground-pounding, throwing, and bombing. You can also collect items to help you in battle, which are activated by online instructions of moving the remote. The graphics are colorful, much like the previous Paper Mario games. You control the game by holding the remote sideways, such as a classic NES controller, but the developers have added some motion sensitivity to the game. If you point the remote at the screen, Tippi will give you information on anything you click. Then there's the items I have already mentioned. While the game may seem easy at first and short at the beginning, the difficult will gradually start to increase. Another problem I had with the game is that its too wordy. Sometimes you just want to start playing, but the chatty characters just won't shut up. But its easy to forgive because the game is funny. If you are up for a few laughs, you will find them here. Overall, this is a fine addition to the wii's lineup. It's a great blend of different genres that add a new flavor to that classic Nintendo feel we all love.
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
