If you're wondering what the hell we're doing stamping a sub-90% score on a Mario game that looks like it should make the clouds part and a choir of harp-strumming Yoshis flutter down from heaven... well, think GameCube's Super Mario Sunshine.
Just as that game left us with a sense of slight dissatisfaction we weren't used to from Mazza's usual ceiling-shattering spectaculars, so Super Paper Mario gives us the vague feeling that we've left the table having not eaten a big enough dinner.
Still. 88 points means a brilliant game, and Super Paper Mario is exactly that - brilliant. It's shaped around a remarkable idea that we can barely believe no one's thought of before. 2D worlds that aren't actually 2D. With a press of the A Button, the camera swings round for a side-on 3D view - revealing all the platforms and staircases and enemies as the cardboard-thin bits of stand-up scenery they really are, and letting you run behind, around and under things that were previously hidden or in the way. The first 'wow' moment is a seemingly miles-away 2D background of rolling hills suddenly being exposed as a hump-backed 3D bridge across the back of the level - but there are 100 moments like this to give you the same stomach-lurch you get when you spot the dalmatian in the seemingly random pattern of dots.
Caught in the action The game itself is more of an action-RPG than the platformer you might be expecting: you'll mostly be puzzling and searching for items rather than hauling Mario's 'mushroom belly' safely across platforms. It's a consistently superb adventure - turned into something approaching Zelda or Metroid by your ever-growing collection of item-chucking, ladder-revealing, info-providing, wall-bombing Pixl helpers.
That's not to say it's as mind-reelingly imaginative as our old friend Twilight Princess: there are too many 'open this door by running somewhere and coming back' moments and there's enough meandering room-mazes to make you eat your own trousers in befuddle-wandering frustration. But it's the gratifying RPG-like adventure feel that makes this the perfect complement to New Super Mario Bros' (and, hopefully, Super Mario Galaxy's) purebred platforming: progress is often only by genuine brainwork; finally stepping through the door to the next chapter always feels like a job well done and worthy of a biscuit.
And, naturally, we have a few standout moments: the fluffy cloud world of Chapter 7-3 that's the perfect antithesis of today's waves of po-faced super-brown next-gen mud-worlds (and looks fantastic in 3D); the bit where Luigi is thrown so far up in the air by a bouncy platform that he briefly ends up in space; stumbling upon lady-loving geek-frog Francis's huge treasure trove of videogame memorabilia - guarded by a robot in a French maid outfit, worryingly.
Not every area is a stunner (and we'll come back to that) - but, even when you're ten hours in and thinking you've seen everything Super Paper Mario could throw at you, you can be suddenly knocked sideways by, say, a shimmering mid-space neon cavern that sees Mario walking on the ceiling and stomping on shrinking polygon-pigs, or the bit where you're strolling through the 'wreckage' of an entire level that's been blasted to bits - a completely empty white background and a few remnants of drawn lines. Oh, and if growing to a screen-high pixellated Mario and stomping through bricks, Koopas and everything else doesn't end up as one of Channel 4's Top 100 Mario Moments, we'll be writing a very strongly-worded letter.
Karma comedian True, the sense of humour of the guy who translates Intelligent Systems' self-referential games is really beginning to grate - the long list of hi-lar-ious computing terms that the first level's boss dragon spits out is a sign of the head-shaking rubbish to come, culminating in a gobsmackingly tedious boss fight that's done in the style of a TV quiz show. But Super Paper Mario still has that Nintendo magic: a living encyclopedia of former Bros enemies, powerups that happily reference old stuff like Fire Flowers and POW Blocks, the ability to slip into Bowser's shoes for once - there's a comfortingly familiar Mushroom Kingdom vibe to much of Super Paper Mario, especially as you're forced to flip the remote sideways for old-fashioned D-pad and A button play.
Interestingly, Nintendo's team of game-programming warriors envisioned that the 2D-3D switching would make it more accessible to 'casual' gamers - and that's really the game's biggest problem. Super Paper Mario has a tendency to feel (and look) a bit lightweight. It's the mid-space level where we first noticed it: where all you get for trekking forward is a few enemies half-heartedly roving your way, and swinging the camera around only reveals a vast disappointing ugly static nothingness. Compared to The Thousand Year Door and even the original Paper Mario - which had bustling towns, intricate multi-layered worlds that unfolded like origami flowers, a virtual building site of things to climb up on and jump atop and headbutt as you desired - Super Paper Mario can sometimes seem like a hollow run from one unimaginatively bland place to another.
There's just a specialness missing from Super Paper Mario - the kind of specialness that oozes from mere screenshots of Super Mario Galaxy. The proof: after fighting through the tough-but-attractive final levels, you probably won't feel much like playing through the game again - especially as there are too many unskippable cutscenes and painful back-to-the-main-menu deaths, and not quite enough of the really good bits - like the underwater levels and the mind-fuddling 3D recreations of classic Super Mario Bros stages.
Wrap it up Don't get us wrong: Super Paper Mario is a tidy little package of pleasure, and that 2D/3D idea never fails to tickle your brain's pleasure armpits. At least half the disc must be etched with extras as compulsively addictive as Zelda's hidden heartpiece searches: some people won't even find the hidden Flipside Arcade, there's a beautifully subtle touch involving a goldfish - and you can revisit earlier levels with Peach, Bowser and Noel Edmonds (our codeword for the secret character we don't want to spoil for you). Which means bringing 1,000C Bowser wrath down on the insipidly-designed enemies from Chapter 1-1.
You know, we feel like we've been a bit negative about Super Paper Mario in this review: believe us, it is absolutely blindingly good - a satisfyingly puzzly and frequently ingenious game that glows with that Mario greatness. But we're duty bound to remind you that the N64's original Paper Mario costs just £7.50 from the Virtual Console, and - whisper it - you'll probably have just that bit more fun with it than this.
NGamer Staff
// Overview
Verdict
We blame Super Mario Galaxy: with every screenshot we see of that, the more unimaginative Super Paper Mario feels. But it's still a glitteringly brilliant multi-dimensional Mario adventure.
Why is CVG and its related magazines obsessed with pricing N64 games on the Virtual Console as £7.50? If it's 1000 points for an N64 games, and £7 each for batches of 1000 points, then surely it's not too hard to work out?
CVG you have to agree that this isnt a Wii game is was supposed to be released on the gamecube befoe they killed it off -- same with Harvest moon - magical melody
If Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is anything to go by, Super Paper Mario looks fun to play. However, why has a decision seemingly been made in the Wii generation for Nintendo to make many games that have WORSE graphics than the Cube (even though it was originally meant to be released on the Cube?) In fact, they are more like graphics for a very souped up SNES. It seems like a deliberate tactic to draw in people who were previously non-gamers who presumably break out into a sweat when they see more than a few polygons. It's as if the N64's huge 3D worlds never happened.
Why is CVG and its related magazines obsessed with pricing N64 games on the Virtual Console as £7.50? If it's 1000 points for an N64 games, and £7 each for batches of 1000 points, then surely it's not too hard to work out?
Well most of the places I know sell 2000 points for £15, so according to my maths that's £7.50 per N64 game.
Look, its not the best game out there, but its definately one of the better Wii games currently available. Its worth checking out. Only gripe i had with it was it being fairly short.
And that post is the very reason the 8.8 rating was probably too high. It's been out for like 2 days and you sound like you finished it already. Now what are you going to do with it? Play it through again in a single afternoon? Then what? A premium priced coaster.
The 2D/3D thing is cool, but it's just a gimmick that doesn't seem to have been explored as much as it should. Imagine a version of Super Mario World using the same system - 96 levels of switching mayhem, with the potential for even more hidden paths and stuff than it already had. That's proper content
If I'm going to pay £30+ quid for something, I want more than a couple of days use out of it.
I'm loving this at the moment, I'm taking my time, looking for secrets and playing in the fabulous arcade and this is the single best game I've played on the Wii since launch. Fantastic fun for anyone who has enjoyed either Paper Mario or regular 2D Mario games. There seems to be quite a lot of stuff to find and do after you've completed the game and IMO, it's well worth £30.
And that post is the very reason the 8.8 rating was probably too high. It's been out for like 2 days and you sound like you finished it already. Now what are you going to do with it? Play it through again in a single afternoon? Then what? A premium priced coaster.
Not sure if he's completed it in two days - a lot of people in here got the game months ago on import
And that post is the very reason the 8.8 rating was probably too high. It's been out for like 2 days and you sound like you finished it already. Now what are you going to do with it? Play it through again in a single afternoon? Then what? A premium priced coaster.
The 2D/3D thing is cool, but it's just a gimmick that doesn't seem to have been explored as much as it should. Imagine a version of Super Mario World using the same system - 96 levels of switching mayhem, with the potential for even more hidden paths and stuff than it already had. That's proper content
If I'm going to pay £30+ quid for something, I want more than a couple of days use out of it.
your saying that but gears of war only took me about 8 hours to complete so you could say thats a waste of money, it all comes down to how long your willing to sit down a play a game for in one sitting, most games now days are only about 10 hours long and can be completed in a day if u want to. i racked up 20 hours on paper mario but i was looking for alot of secrets too.
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