Paper Mario 3 is flippin awesome! 8.8/10
With the help of a wizard named Merlin, you'll be guided to the worlds where the location of the Pure Hearts are. Merlin even gives the ability to switch from 2d to 3d worlds, and this function will help the dozens and dozens of innovative puzzles that are to come. Some routes, ? blocks and other items are found only in the 3d dimension.
You'll be united with 3 more heroes and several Pixls. Each hero and pixl has their own unique abilities. One pixl lets you ground pound, one grabs and throws enemies, one serves as a bomb, and one will even shrink you to the size of a speck. All these abilities combined with 2d and 3d flipping has given Super Paper Mario extraordinary puzzle solving. If you ever get stuck, aim and point with the Wiimote (the only control scheme is the Wiimote turned on its side) and the area may give you a clue as to solve the puzzle, making the difficulty just right. The motion sensing isn't used much. When you do use it, mostly on items and just aiming and pointing, it's accurate. The D-pad works overall pretty well.
These different worlds are also imaginative. The one that sticks out in my mind is the "Whoa Zone" in which gravity and flipping are intertwined resulting in a masterpiece. You'll be in outer space, "Underwhere" and "Overthere", underwater, and even in a mine. The flippin of dimensions is never dull as they always bring new ideas to the game. Outside of the switching 2d to 3d, the gameplay is generally the same and is what you would expect to see from other Paper Mario games.
Paper graphics give the game a nice visual effect. The 2d to 3d graphics also give it a unique perspective. The graphics don't provide much detail, and occasionally seem to be somewhat incomplete. The 8th world is literally nothing but pitch black and white border lines with enemies that have colors.
The sound effects are appropriate to each hit and piece that makes the game. There is no voice acting aside from the occasional short Mario phrases. Everything else is written in text. There is a LOT of texting, more than the game could ever possibly need. It is a funny game, some good humor you'll encounter once in a while, but some of it is completely pointless and just time consuming.
At the end of each world, you'll have a boss battle. The boss battles aren't good and could easily have come up with something more inventive, and more challenging approaches. Worse, you'll fight some bosses 2-3 times throughout with only a slight twist that doesn't make it much more of a challenge than it was last time. Another big problem is the pacing issues. Some worlds take much longer and is merely fill in. Sometimes (especially 6th world) is repetitive as in one point you go in literally the same procedure 15 times or so.
Super Paper Mario's main quest takes about 16-18 hours. Additional replay value includes the "Pit of 100 Trials", some mini games, a couple side quests, and recipe making. Overall, Mario fans, RPG fans, and anyone up for some fantastic puzzle solving should definitely pick up this game.