Super Paper Mario

I know what you're thinking: who would go through the trouble of reviewing a 2 year old video game? Me, so strap in!

Super Paper Mario, despite being 2 years old, is still the latest rpg installment of the mario series. While i'm certain dozens of people have already reviewed it and anyone who's going to play it has already done so, i'm still going to review it. Just as in my previous video game review (The World Ends With You), i'll cover this one in sections.

Gameplay and Control

Control is entirely done using the Wii-mote and only the Wii-mote. This is kind of refreshing since almost every other game in the Wii's library requires some kind of "add-on" in the form of the nun-chuck or classic controller, if not out of necessity, then simply for ease of control (i'm looking at YOU, Super Smash Bros Brawl). It's kind of annoying when you learn one set of controls based on add-ons you own, only to go to a friends house and have to learn an entirely different set of controls based on the add-ons they have. Since this is mostly a qualm about what the Wii system comes with, i'll try not to dwell on it. Bottom line: either sell all "optional" add-ons together as "one controller" (wii-mote + nunchuck + classic controller) or don't have any add-ons at all!

Anyway, the control is actually very fluid. It's sad that i have to even point this out, but until every single video game developer on the planet gets on the trolley and learns how to make fluid controls for their games, i guess it's the curse of the reviewer to mention them for every game they play, good or bad.

Gameplay is straight up, goomba-smashing fun with rpg elements at its finest - done away with are the random battles of most (all?) of the other mario rpgs (thank you, nintendo). The game consists of 8 worlds, mostly broken into 4 chapters with the 4th chapter containing a boss fight. Yeah, it's unimaginatively stock mario game format, but don't mess with what works, right?

While most of the world's are very fun and entertaining (the bit-lands being a particular favourite), there are a few that are nothing short of annoyingly aggravating. While there are several examples of things that could've been ditched in development, from the top of my head i'd say anything that requires you to navigate a maze of doors should be first. Even though these mazes are almost always relatively short, they're still incredibly monotonous due to the bland backgrounds that are employed to make all the areas look similar. The space world was a particularly egregious offender for this one. The whole land looked similar and ended up being spectacularly dull.

As for the in game fighting, most of the enemies go down quite simple and the boss fights are largely a joke despite being horribly intimidating at first. There are a couple challenging boss fights, but even they become easier once you figure out their one weakness and exploit the hell out of it.

That's not to say the game is a walk in the park - a brisk stroll, maybe, but certainly not a walk. There's lots of little puzzles to solve and the pit(s) of 100 trials offer quite a bit of extra challenge for those of you who need to die repeatedly before you feel accomplished.

Graphics and Music

It's Mario. And he's paper. See the picture? That's pretty much how he looks in the game.

Actually, the graphics are a bit better than that. The characters do resemble "realistic" paper characters (whatever that is) and even though the whole game has a cartoon-y feel, it's quite charming in its own way. Essentially, anyone who thinks the graphics are "lacking" is seriously missing the point.

Music is good and serves its purpose. It doesn't stand out too much, but it doesn't really define itself either. Just the standard Mario style music you all know and love. Is that good? It does its job, i suppose, but it would've been nice to be able to pick out a "favourite song". Mostly it's unremarkable, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Story

Ah, story! The SOUL of an rpg! Well, just like all rpg franchises that last more than one game, if you've played the previous titles, you probably know exactly what to expect. That's not necessarily bad. I mean, the Final Fantasy games have been doing the same thing successfully for years, right? (The first fan who swears their favourite series stories' are drastically different gets bashed in the head - or somewhere where it might do damage.)

The real charm in Super Paper Mario comes from the extremely self-aware sense of humour the game has about itself. While other games would push really hard to have the "darker and edgier"-er feel, Super Paper Mario opts for the more light-hearted approach. Many standard video game tropes (as some would call them: see tvtropes.org) are openly mocked, but in a feel-good sort of way. There's even an entire level that makes fun of "nerd culture" and fanboy-ism that's particularly humourous and fun.

The rest of the story is very simplistic and clearly set in place just for the point of having a conflict. Nintendo kind of has to do it this way, though, since the mario-verse is already so heavily saturated with games that it doesn't leave much room for any original plots. This is a problem in general when dealing with a character like mario who's pretty much "done it all". I mean, what can he really do that would surprise fans now? Mario on vacation? Mario Sunshine. Mario in space? Mario Galaxy. Mario sports? Oh god where to begin! Mario getting drunk and beating the crap out of other nintendo franchise characters? Super Smash Bros.

Ok, maybe Mario wasn't drunk for that last one, but i certainly was - and i'm betting some of the developers were, too.

Anyway, the story is predictable, but the intrigue is in the execution. It's all kinds of fun to watch the game characters get confused by obvious "plot-twists" with hilarious results.

Characters

The greatest improvement over previous Paper Mario games is definitely in the characters department! While the previous titles had mario teamed up with allies like... goombario and kooper (who?), Super Paper Mario has him teamed up with actual Mario characters like princess peach, bowser and luigi. Finally! It took 3 games to get it right, but damn!

Considering how many characters the mario-verse has to choose from, i don't know why it took nintendo this long to get it right but it's certainly a HUGE improvement for the series. There's just something about being able to play as characters you recognize in a franchise you know and love that makes it that much more enjoyable. Is that so hard to understand? Well, i guess so since it took nintendo THREE GAMES to figure it out.

Final Comments

Though i've mostly praised the game in individual sections above, i do have to say the entire experience of Super Paper Mario just feels somehow... unremarkable. While ultimately i'd say the game is well worth playing and will give you many hours of fun, it still ends like a horribly mediocre movie. When the credits roll, you say to yourself "that's it?" and leave the theatre never to mention it again.

All in all, i give Super Paper Mario 2 kidnapped princesses (let's say, Daisy and Peach) out of 3 (Daisy, Peach and Rosalina). That's roughly 66%, but i'm gonna call it a B.