Another good notch in the mario franchise
Another hit in the mario franchise, and another hit in the “paper mario” franchise. A platformer, and also at the same time, manages to compete as an RPG. In this game you play as Either Mario,Peach,Luigi, or Bowser. However at the begging you only can play as mario, you unlock the other characters as you go along.
The game see’s you using these characters and their abilities to fight the evil Bleck. No, not bowser. The Game is a 2-D sidescroller, but when pressing A on the wiimote, it allows you to flip into 3-D mode with Mario. Which I have to say is one of the coolest features on A mario game I’ve ever seen.
There are 8 worlds, altogether following the traditional mario style, in numberings.
E.G 1-1,1-2,1-3,1-4
So it’s good to get back to basics.
The story
Mario and Luigi are going to rescue peach from bowsers castle, seems like the same old mario plot line. But as this is happening, the mysterious Count bleck appears, and pulls you into another dimension, whilst loosing your three friends. Once pulled into the dimension you find yourself in flopside, a strange city, run by elevators. Now merlon tell’s you that Count Bleck is planning to destroy the world, with this dark protaganist book, and you have to stop him.
Which leads me onto my next point, Nintendo need some praise for this storyline. Because not only have they managed to differentiate from the traditional Mario storyline completely, they’ve managed to make it work. The plot works smoothly and brilliantly, and you’ll find yourself getting engrossed in the story. The new characters, dimentio, Bleck, all have their own broad personalities, and their all interesting characters to hear about. However, as the story is quite Huge, it needs to be told a lot of the time. Which introduces my main problem with the game, the amount of text in the game. Every 10 seconds it would seem, someone will talk, or the story will be told by a narrator, or otherwise, and you’ll find yourself reading writing for half of the game. It would of been better if they could of cut it down, because you don’t want to have to sit there reading through the story for the whole game.
In this game you turn the wiimote sideways, and play with it like a controller
The story overall is brilliant, the only problem is the way it has to be told through the text. Good characters, funny moments, massive plot twists.
Gameplay
Easily the best thing about the game. The game play’s as a 2-D mario platformer game, but at the same time it is also a RPG game. There is incredibly innovative design in the game, which is shown through the ability to turn to 3-D with mario. It’s like looking behind the scenes of all the mario games you’ve played. Not only is there 20 odd hours of this gameplay, there is also a huge amount of secret rooms, secret cards to collect, Secrets galore. And the fact that its just so darn fun will keep you coming back to play it again and again.
The new sidekicks, known as pixls are also a fresh idea to the gaming world, which allow you to utilize special abilities with them. These can help you solve puzzle’s, kill enemies, or just advance through the story. It is fun obtaining the new pixl’s throughout the game, as their abilities range from Shrinking down small, to Whacking people with a hammer.
Controls
In this game you turn the wiimote sideways, and play with it like a controller, which is very easy to pick up. There is also a chance to use some of the wii functions, for example pointing at the screen to look for secrets, and shaking the wiimote when you are frozen.
Sound
Not the best soundtrack in the world, some songs are good to have in the background, some songs are just throwaways.
Overall
I hadn’t really heard much about the paper mario franchise, I didn’t think the old games were that good, but buying super paper mario, has changed my outlook. I reccomend this to any previous mario fan, and any wii owner, as this game will offer hours of entertaining gameplay. Untill I get Mario kart, It will be my favorite wii game.
The Bad: Way too much text to read.
Gold Y Award