N-Philes

Super Paper Mario

Posted April 17th 2007 by Jared Thomas.

Peach has been kidnapped, Bowser's been overthrown at his own castle, and the end of the world draws near. It feels like Mario's been here before...

But such is the duplicity of the nefarious Count Bleck! The sinister villain – who dons a very dapper white cape, top hat, and monocle – has armed himself with the Dark Prognosticus, an ominous tome that predicts the end of all worlds. To fulfill the apocalyptic prophecies within the book, the Count hypnotizes Princess Peach into marrying Bowser, and in doing so succeeds in creating a tear between dimensions that threatens to grow until all existence is deleted. Clearly, a hero is needed; mustache and jumping experience preferred.

Mario's back in style for his sixth foray into the RPG genre, and this time he's got his work cut out for him. With the Wii in a post-launch software lull, Super Paper Mario sets out to bend 2D landscapes into 3D space, to blend platformer and role-playing game into one show-stopping adventure. Armed with these fresh new ideas and an unforgettable cast of new and returning characters, our hero pulls together the first truly must-have title in the Wii's library.

At the core, we're still dealing with a Paper Mario RPG title. Mario's main objectives are walking around, talking to locals, backtracking, and solving puzzles. He's got hit points and attack power, both of which can be leveled up as he gains experience points, and plenty of items new and old that help him along the way. The only major change to the formula is that it's played out in eight chapters of four levels each (1-1, 1-2 – familiar eh?) and, of course, it's presented as a sidescrolling platformer. Initially.

As the ultimate realization of the 2D-meets-3D theme of the Paper Mario franchise, the latest in the series really explores the idea of that third dimension beyond a simple visual gimmick. In Super Paper Mario, everything exists in a 2D sidescrolling world and functions like an easy-going platformer; jump over pipes, hit blocks for coins and goodies. But wouldn't you know it, eventually there's a big wall in the way that you just can't get past. Here comes the hook.

Soon enough into the story, Mario is gifted with the ability to literally traverse to a new "dimension" by flipping his entire world 90 degrees and viewing the landscape in 3D space. That tall pipe blocking Mario's path? Suddenly he can walk right around it. A sheer cliff becomes a series of stairs running width-wise that Mario can only climb once his movement involves depth. It's all very much like the "leap of faith" sequence near the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where a bridge seems invisible to Indy only because he views it at a certain perspective. But even beyond the immediate glee of optical illusions, or the interests of discovering new paths or finding hidden secrets, it's more than that. There's a long-held yearning that is satisfied for anyone who grew up on 2D gaming and felt a subconscious awareness of the limitations of the medium in terms of immersion. Not everyone will understand this, but there's something symbolic and therapeutic about breaking free of a flat frame and being able to stretch out into a 3D world.

It sounds gimmicky, and at first it is. The game's progression allows players to get used to the subtle nuances of the flip system, with simple tricks that help show off how it works, like walking around obstacles or finding items hidden behind rocks. The enemies in the game are mostly 2D, and can't follow Mario into the third dimension. Sometimes a group of tough enemies will be presented to force Mario to flip, and in doing so he'll find a new avenue. In various ways the game succeeds in making the flip idea second-nature, and a meter that decreases during 3D play and fills back up in 2D play guarantees that it also remains a clever theme that keeps flipping from an all-encompassing obvious answer to every fork in the road.

The only problem with the whole system is that the remote (held sideways in "classic" style) isn't especially well-equipped to playing 3D games, especially those starring flat heroes. A 2D character trying to hit or land on a 2D block in 2D space is an easy task for the D-pad. Trying to do the same in 3D space can be a headache. The game is slow-paced enough that it will never spell disaster, but the control is the one tarnish on an otherwise sterling presentation (which yes is a painfully ironic problem for Wii to have with so many of its games).

The motion controls are only used during micro-games that determine the effectiveness of items you use (comparable to the techniques used to determine the power of attacks during battles in the previous games) or to make Mario spin in the rebound after jumping on an enemy for bonus points. The transition from GameCube to Wii is nearly flawless, but these minute advantages are countered by fairly minute problems. It ends up feeling like maybe the Wii Remote has one button too few.

In another change from previous Paper Mario games, there are no magic abilities that use up "flower power". Rather, each of the four characters (Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser) have only one unique ability each. Other abilities are granted by Pixls, small fairly-like beings that look like neon signs, who grant the team abilities like butt-stomping, laying bombs, shrinking, and other moves.

The 1 button is dedicated to using the Pixl's power, with 2 used to jump and the A button curiously relegated solely to Mario's flip ability. Up on the D-pad works as the "action" button (talking, reading signs, opening doors, activating switches) and down is used for the secondary characters' special attack. It's hard to imagine why the remote wasn't constructed to allow the B trigger to be used when held in Classic style, because whether Nintendo likes it or not, most contemporary games need that many buttons. And all they had to do was flatten the B trigger's edge a bit and it would be a perfectly working button. It boggles the mind.

The control itself isn't much more than an annoyance, because the platforming elements are mostly slow-paced and the RPG elements are shallow. Somehow it works, and the gameplay is helped in large part by a memorable cast and enviably witty writing. I don't hesitate to call this the funniest game I've ever played.

Mario's been no stranger to comedy in his role-playing romps, but Super Paper Mario feels especially well-honed and tightly-scripted. Drawing heavily from the irreverent, self-aware wit of the Mario & Luigi handheld adventures, Nintendo has once again put together a story that's as fun to read as the game is to play. Poking fun of the RPG genre is still present, but there's a noticeable lack of slapstick and outright jokes; often the game relies on situational and character-driven comedy. It even dares to spend an entire chapter of the eight making fun of the kind of person most likely to buy the game. When a comic book nerd chameleon draws Mario's fire, the near-entirety of the dialogue is geared towards mocking internet nerds and their penchant for sci-fi, use of geeky catchphrases, and love of "going on message boards and complaining about games [they've] never played!"

Far and away the most entertaining character in the game, outside the vapid-yet-theatrical Count Bleck himself, is the original boss of bad, Bowser. It's high praise, as the Count's own band of misfit minions qualifies as an excellent counter to Mario's group both in combat and in wacky wordplay. But Bowser's constant bullying, jealousy of enemy castles, and general Cartman-like attitude make each game session worth starting and difficult to stop. When the big guy drops lines about how anyone who wears a monocle deserves to have their face smashed in, it's hard not to daydream about the triumphant return of Mario to television. Hey, it could work, provided they stuck to comedy rather than the X-TREME corporate image that brought back everything else that was popular in the late '80s to rape our childhoods.

The verbal exchanges between characters in-game is dictated by which character is in use when the sequence begins, so it's worth playing through the game multiple times to see what the different characters have to say at each situation. For the first run through, it's probably best to use Bowser whenever possible, since he has most of the best lines. Mario is also the only mute character in the game, so pretty much any sequence involving him is garbage. It's especially damning because Mario is the most useful character in the game, and thus the most likely to trigger sudden cutscenes. I can understand Link not speaking, but honestly I can't think of one good reason why Mario shouldn't be able to speak more than a 2 second sound bite. As excellent as the Paper Mario scripts are, they suffer when Mario's stripped of all dialogue, especially given that he doesn't bother any longer with the comical mime-work that made Super Mario RPG so entertaining.

The story of Mario and his friends battling against Count Bleck and his own misfit band of minions comes to an earnestly exciting crescendo, due in part to an original and very effective musical score. Opening in the cubist, pastel town of Flipside (the home base between missions), the music swirls about in an appropriately Parisian theme. When Mario sets off on his quest, the music doesn't fall behind the tricks of 3D flipping, and launches into a jaunty parade theme that accentuates the stylized, absurd adventure. A low-tech techno with bleeps and zips accompanies Tron-esque labyrinths, and the G-rated versions of Hells find a tone similar to Danny Elfman's Nightmare Before Christmas score. Right down to the energized final battle, the game's music lives up to the presentation that runs through the rest of the title.

Heartstopper - You will FLIP for it!

Coming from a series with high praise and high expectations, Super Paper Mario makes two impressive steps for Nintendo: it transcends the formula of the Paper Mario series in a way that few franchises have done since the jump to 3D, and it marks the point where the launch window closes and the Wii begins to build its future on impressive software rather than hype. Yes, it's a GameCube port and no, it doesn't use the Wii hardware in any compelling way. But just as titles like Mario Kart DS and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow were important for the DS specifically because they succeeded without trying to tie together all the handheld's features into a one-man orchestra, Super Paper Mario is a work of simplicity that uses the Wii remote to simplify the process rather than complicate it. The stylized visuals, the clever gameplay, and the drop-down funny story will win you over. This is the end of the Wii's beginning, and if Super Paper Mario is any indication, the beginning of something big.

Posted in: Reviews

Comments (0) | Permalink | Digg | Reddit