From the moment I turned off my Gamecube, and flicked off the TV after beating one of my favorite games of all time, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, I didn’t think that Paper Mario game, and even a sequel could beat its excellence. Well, guess what? I was absolutely right. When they first announced the sequel to Paper Mario 2, Super Paper Mario for the Gamecube, I was in instant happiness, but well, I knew it’d happen some day. In fact, I was so excited, that when I read that it was going in a different direction and into this new Platforming style, I instantly knew that this game was never going to be better, or even as good as Paper Mario 64, or Paper Mario 2. Why you ask? Well, I was in denial. But once everything came together, and how they were making it for the Wii, then I instantly became more aware that this game could very well be the best game on the Wii, besides Twilight Princess of course. So once I got my hands on it, and beat it, I actually didn’t feel that bad. Super Paper Mario is a solid game, but I got to say, it was a disappointment overall.
Peach, the sweetheart of Mario’s for the whole existence of Nintendo, is suddenly awaken to the site of a wedding ceremony, but who’s getting married you ask? Peach of course, but to who? Bowser. That’s right, Mario’s arch enemy, the Koopa King himself, Bowser. But why is she getting married to this monster? Well the answer is simple, she is being ordered to by, the main villain of Super Paper Mario: Count Bleck. When you first see Count Bleck, you notice how he looks like an evil villain, so you can safely assume that he’s in fact the main villain. But why is Count Bleck ordering Peach and Bowser to wed? Well, the answer is that Count Bleck possesses the Dark Prognosticus, a book that predicts the end of all world, and to do this, Peach must Marry Bowser. A void is opened in reality and it threatens to swallow up everything unless the hero, Mario, can get seven life hearts, which are like the Stars in the other Paper Mario’s, which will, as said in the Light Prognosticus, help Mario in defeating Count Bleck and destroying the void. The story is a typical Paper Mario story, with the little cinematic’s in between every Chapter’s end. The only problem with the story is that there’s tons, and I mean, tons of reading. By the end of the game, you’ve probably read through about the whole Lord of the Rings book, plus some. Well, no, I’m being sarcastic a bit, but there still is too much reading, even more than in past Paper Mario games. It also has a very predictable ending.
Super Paper Mario pretty much looks exactly like Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for the Gamecube. Since Super Paper Mario was originally made for the Gamecube, and using the Gamecube for half of the development, makes the graphics pretty sub-par compared to what the Wii can really do. But, the games looks beautiful, no doubt about it. Every area you go in is colourful as a rainbow. The art style that was made famous in Paper Mario 2 made it’s return with most of the creatures in the game being made out of paper, and some of the enemies being in a cool folded style in 3D. Now, all this I’m talking about is when you’re playing in 2D mode, but when you switch over to the 3D side of things, it can get pretty ugly. Not ugly as in, ugly textures, or characters lose pixels or anything, I mean ugly as all of the colours just disappear because they’re all off to the side of the screen. It seems pretty cool when you see things from Mario’s viewpoint, but when you see that there’s absolutely no colours or anything, it makes you quite disappointed.
Again, the music and sound in Super Paper Mario is about the same as in Paper Mario 2, with some more forgettable tunes. But some tunes are still stuck in my head with its catchy tunes, so it’s not all horrible. I really wish though, that Nintendo would get rid of this MIDI music it keeps using over, and over and over again. It’s time to get with the time and start using some real music. But all in all, Super Paper Mario still has the charming sounds it usually has like the “BOP!” when you jump on an enemy, or the “DUA DUA DUA!” when you hit a ? Block. It’s all still here. Mario also has most of his grunts and sounds that he usually makes, all probably from past Paper Mario games because non of them sound any different.
Super Paper Mario’s switch to a Platforming game was pretty great, but nowhere close to perfect. Now, you can kill enemies in real time, instead of going to the old battle scene, stopping you from moving forward in the game. Now, Mario can just jump on enemies, bit it’s not like old Mario games. This time, enemies have health, which is a certain number, and whenever Mario jumps on the enemy, it takes off some of the damage and tells you right away in the form of the ol’ star. You can also shake the Wii remote to gain extra experience which will eventually level you up, just like in past Paper Mario game. But the experience is different in Super Paper Mario. Instead of Star Points, you now just collect points that add up to your total. Then, once you reach a certain amount, you level up. There’s also no flower points anymore, so when you level up, only your max HP, and attack power moves up, but you can’t chose which one to raise. The controls are simple. You hold the Wii Remote sideways like a classic NES controller with the 1 and 2 buttons being beside each other like A and B. The directional pad moves Mario left, right, up and down, while the 2 button makes Mario jump, The 1 button uses the Pixl you’re using at the time, who are little friends you collect on your way through the main quest.
Pixl’s are like partners in other Paper Mario games. These Pixl’s let you do all sorts of things like turn paper thin, use a hammer, ground pound, and even shrink to almost the size of an ant. I like the idea of the Pixls, but sometimes it seems like some of them were just put in there because they couldn’t think of anything better. You can also play as 4 characters in total: Mario, Peach, Bowser, and Luigi. Mario can switch into 3D, Peach can float over surfaces with her umbrella, Bowser can breath fire, and Luigi can super-jump, which are really high jumps. You will probably end up using Mario for the most part because he’s the only character that can turn into 3D. Once you get past a certain part where you gain a certain ability, you can change the perspective from 2D, to 3D. Once in 3D, you have a time limit bar, which will run out eventually if you keep using it for too long. Once in 3D, things that seem impossible to go to become possible, and you can do things that you were never able to do in past Mario games. At one part in the game, there’s a giant cliff that you can’t jump over no matter what. But once you switch to 3D, a hill in the background goes over the cliff and lets you walk across it with ease. There’s also items that you can use that heal you, and certain items can make you stronger for a period of time. To use some items, you have to do a certain thing with the Wii Remote in order to get the top usage out of the item. Sometimes you must tilt the Wii Remote a certain way, sometimes you have to shack the Wii Remote, and sometimes you have to point at a certain spot, but it all works out at the end. To get into the mini-menu, you press both 1+2 together, but sometimes you accidentally press one of them first and causes you to do something you didn’t want to do. All in all, Super Paper Mario has some great gameplay, but it’s not perfected yet.
Yes, after you have beaten the final boss, you can save afterwards and continue to try to collect everything. The things you can still do after you beat the game is pretty much play the mini games at the arcade, and try to collect all of the recipes, there are no more Badges to collect. Collecting everything might take time, but I’d rather just play the game over again because it’s not an entirely long game, took me about 20 hours, but it’s not entirely short either, so it can be beefy, if you make it out to be.
Like I said before, I was right when I said no other Paper Mario game will ever be able to beat out the excellence of The Thousand Year Door, but Super Paper Mario is still a fantastic game, no doubt. There are some drawbacks in the gameplay, but there’s also drawbacks from the Music/sound department, and form the graphical department too. But to say that Super Paper Mario is as good, or even better than other Paper Mario’s before it is ridiculous. Super Paper Mario is a great game, but nowhere close, does it come to past Paper Mario game before it.
Peach, the sweetheart of Mario’s for the whole existence of Nintendo, is suddenly awaken to the site of a wedding ceremony, but who’s getting married you ask? Peach of course, but to who? Bowser. That’s right, Mario’s arch enemy, the Koopa King himself, Bowser. But why is she getting married to this monster? Well the answer is simple, she is being ordered to by, the main villain of Super Paper Mario: Count Bleck. When you first see Count Bleck, you notice how he looks like an evil villain, so you can safely assume that he’s in fact the main villain. But why is Count Bleck ordering Peach and Bowser to wed? Well, the answer is that Count Bleck possesses the Dark Prognosticus, a book that predicts the end of all world, and to do this, Peach must Marry Bowser. A void is opened in reality and it threatens to swallow up everything unless the hero, Mario, can get seven life hearts, which are like the Stars in the other Paper Mario’s, which will, as said in the Light Prognosticus, help Mario in defeating Count Bleck and destroying the void. The story is a typical Paper Mario story, with the little cinematic’s in between every Chapter’s end. The only problem with the story is that there’s tons, and I mean, tons of reading. By the end of the game, you’ve probably read through about the whole Lord of the Rings book, plus some. Well, no, I’m being sarcastic a bit, but there still is too much reading, even more than in past Paper Mario games. It also has a very predictable ending.
Super Paper Mario pretty much looks exactly like Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for the Gamecube. Since Super Paper Mario was originally made for the Gamecube, and using the Gamecube for half of the development, makes the graphics pretty sub-par compared to what the Wii can really do. But, the games looks beautiful, no doubt about it. Every area you go in is colourful as a rainbow. The art style that was made famous in Paper Mario 2 made it’s return with most of the creatures in the game being made out of paper, and some of the enemies being in a cool folded style in 3D. Now, all this I’m talking about is when you’re playing in 2D mode, but when you switch over to the 3D side of things, it can get pretty ugly. Not ugly as in, ugly textures, or characters lose pixels or anything, I mean ugly as all of the colours just disappear because they’re all off to the side of the screen. It seems pretty cool when you see things from Mario’s viewpoint, but when you see that there’s absolutely no colours or anything, it makes you quite disappointed.
Again, the music and sound in Super Paper Mario is about the same as in Paper Mario 2, with some more forgettable tunes. But some tunes are still stuck in my head with its catchy tunes, so it’s not all horrible. I really wish though, that Nintendo would get rid of this MIDI music it keeps using over, and over and over again. It’s time to get with the time and start using some real music. But all in all, Super Paper Mario still has the charming sounds it usually has like the “BOP!” when you jump on an enemy, or the “DUA DUA DUA!” when you hit a ? Block. It’s all still here. Mario also has most of his grunts and sounds that he usually makes, all probably from past Paper Mario games because non of them sound any different.
Super Paper Mario’s switch to a Platforming game was pretty great, but nowhere close to perfect. Now, you can kill enemies in real time, instead of going to the old battle scene, stopping you from moving forward in the game. Now, Mario can just jump on enemies, bit it’s not like old Mario games. This time, enemies have health, which is a certain number, and whenever Mario jumps on the enemy, it takes off some of the damage and tells you right away in the form of the ol’ star. You can also shake the Wii remote to gain extra experience which will eventually level you up, just like in past Paper Mario game. But the experience is different in Super Paper Mario. Instead of Star Points, you now just collect points that add up to your total. Then, once you reach a certain amount, you level up. There’s also no flower points anymore, so when you level up, only your max HP, and attack power moves up, but you can’t chose which one to raise. The controls are simple. You hold the Wii Remote sideways like a classic NES controller with the 1 and 2 buttons being beside each other like A and B. The directional pad moves Mario left, right, up and down, while the 2 button makes Mario jump, The 1 button uses the Pixl you’re using at the time, who are little friends you collect on your way through the main quest.
Pixl’s are like partners in other Paper Mario games. These Pixl’s let you do all sorts of things like turn paper thin, use a hammer, ground pound, and even shrink to almost the size of an ant. I like the idea of the Pixls, but sometimes it seems like some of them were just put in there because they couldn’t think of anything better. You can also play as 4 characters in total: Mario, Peach, Bowser, and Luigi. Mario can switch into 3D, Peach can float over surfaces with her umbrella, Bowser can breath fire, and Luigi can super-jump, which are really high jumps. You will probably end up using Mario for the most part because he’s the only character that can turn into 3D. Once you get past a certain part where you gain a certain ability, you can change the perspective from 2D, to 3D. Once in 3D, you have a time limit bar, which will run out eventually if you keep using it for too long. Once in 3D, things that seem impossible to go to become possible, and you can do things that you were never able to do in past Mario games. At one part in the game, there’s a giant cliff that you can’t jump over no matter what. But once you switch to 3D, a hill in the background goes over the cliff and lets you walk across it with ease. There’s also items that you can use that heal you, and certain items can make you stronger for a period of time. To use some items, you have to do a certain thing with the Wii Remote in order to get the top usage out of the item. Sometimes you must tilt the Wii Remote a certain way, sometimes you have to shack the Wii Remote, and sometimes you have to point at a certain spot, but it all works out at the end. To get into the mini-menu, you press both 1+2 together, but sometimes you accidentally press one of them first and causes you to do something you didn’t want to do. All in all, Super Paper Mario has some great gameplay, but it’s not perfected yet.
Yes, after you have beaten the final boss, you can save afterwards and continue to try to collect everything. The things you can still do after you beat the game is pretty much play the mini games at the arcade, and try to collect all of the recipes, there are no more Badges to collect. Collecting everything might take time, but I’d rather just play the game over again because it’s not an entirely long game, took me about 20 hours, but it’s not entirely short either, so it can be beefy, if you make it out to be.
Like I said before, I was right when I said no other Paper Mario game will ever be able to beat out the excellence of The Thousand Year Door, but Super Paper Mario is still a fantastic game, no doubt. There are some drawbacks in the gameplay, but there’s also drawbacks from the Music/sound department, and form the graphical department too. But to say that Super Paper Mario is as good, or even better than other Paper Mario’s before it is ridiculous. Super Paper Mario is a great game, but nowhere close, does it come to past Paper Mario game before it.