Many gameplay innovations and a witty script make Super Paper Mario a truly unique experience.
The most notable highlight of the Paper Mario games is that almost every tangible object is paper thin, hence the title. In the first two games, the player could move in a 3D space in almost all directions. This time around, you can only move left and right, in a side scrolling fashion, similar to the 2D Mario games. The major innovation this time around is the ability to flip the world 90 degrees into a full 3D view, allowing you to find hidden enemies, treasures, and switches.
The town of Flipside acts as your main hub throughout the game. You'll come here in between chapters to rest, stock up on items, progress the story, or fulfill side quests. There are eight chapters in all, with four sub chapters in each, adding up to a total of thirty-two playable sections of the game. Each one will have you defeating enemies, finding pathways, solving puzzles, talking to townsfolk, and more. Each chapter is a new experience that fits in with the story nicely. Each chapter takes place in a different setting, and they all have traits that will keep your attention the entire time.
The main gameplay systems consists of you as either Mario, Princess Peach, or a few other characters, going through the level, doing all of the tasks set in front of you until you reach the end. There are a few different ways to defeat enemies, such as using items, jumping on them, attacking them with your partner character, among other methods. They don't just all die in one hit like in the older Mario games, though. This is where the RPG elements come in. Mario and his party all have hit points (HP), as well as your foes. Every time you attack them, damage will be dealt. The amount of HP taken from you or your foe shows above said character's head when they get hit. In the top center of the screen, there is a counter of your "score." You get points for defeating enemies and using stylish moves. When you achieve a certain number of points, your level goes up. This increases you attack, defense, and HP.
Every character you play as has their own unique ability. Mario can flip into 3D, Peach can float long distances with her parasol, Bowser can breathe fire, etc. Replacing the partner characters from the previous Paper Mario games are "Pixls." Exactly as it sounds, Pixls are pixilated creatures that follow you around, and can help with puzzles and in combat with their abilities.
The game is controlled with the Wii Remote alone, but turned on its side, similar to the NES controller. The 2 button makes you jump, the 1 button uses your partner character's ability, and the A button is to use your own ability. Motion controls are kept to a minimum. You'll have to perform certain gestures to use items, and shake the Wii Remote to perform stylish moves. After you jump on an enemy, if you perform a chain of stylish moves you can earn extra points towards leveling up.
The story is not particularly deep, but it is extremely interesting and fun to experience. Mario and Luigi are sitting in their home when Toad arrives and tells the Mario Bros. That Princess Peach and her castle are under attack. They find out that Peach, and Bowser of all people, have been kidnapped by Count Bleck, an evil wizard trying to fulfill a prophecy written in an ancient book called the Dark Prognosticus. Bleck has hypnotized Peach into marrying Bowser. The union of a pure maiden, Peach, and an "evil" being, Bowser, will create a Chaos Heart, which Bleck hopes to obtain the power of in order to have his malicious way. Overall, the story has a nice set of plot twists to keep you entertained, but it is a bit slow moving.
The actual writing of the plot is what really shines here. There's a lot of text, but it is a lot of fun to read. Almost every line of dialogue is humorous in some way, like the older Paper Mario games, but this one really pushes its comical limits to the top. You'll constantly find yourself laughing and joking along with the characters. The writing and translation teams really did a wonderful job with the script and every moment of it is pure fun.
The entire package is brimming with a sick amount of fan service, and this really shows in the stages and script. A lot of the levels are recreations of stages from the original Super Mario Bros., and it's a lot of fun to see what they look like from a 3D perspective. In a section of Chapter 3, many pieces of Nintendo memorabilia are visible on shelves and desks. Furthermore, the script makes numerous allusions to other Mario and Paper Mario games.
Visually, Super Paper Mario looks wonderful. On the technical side of the graphics, there really isn't anything that couldn't have been done on the GameCube. The attention to artistic detail is what really shows, though. Everything is richly colored; character designs are creative and bursting with visual flavor, and many different features of levels will catch your eye.
The music is wonderful. There are tracks taken and remixed from previous Mario and Paper Mario games, and the soundtrack is a lot of fun to listen to. For the most part, it's pretty upbeat and very catchy. Unfortunately there isn't any voice work to speak of, but it's probably for the better considering the nature of most of the characters.
There are a ton of side quests to keep you busy once you finish the main quest. You can collect all of the cards scattered throughout the world, create and find all of the food items and their respective recipes, and play the mini games for coins. Also making a return from older Paper Mario games is the infamous Pit of 100 Trials. It's a little different this time around, but the rewards are just as great.
Super Paper Mario should take upwards of about twenty hours to finish, not counting the numerous side quests. It's not the best in series, but it is a very diverse, unique experience on the Wii that just really shouldn't be missed.