Super Paper Mario
Wii
It is kind of hard to believe that I have reviewed about 90 games for this blog without managing to review a single Wii title. Somehow, every time I would look for a new game to play all of this system's offerings would slip through the cracks. But once I noticed that I had not reviewed a Wii game I made it my mission to change that fact.
What better game to play than Super Paper Mario? I had owned this game for about 7 or 8 years but for whatever reason had never gotten around to playing it. I always thought it looked good, though. I have been a Paper Mario fan since the days of the Nintendo 64. What I knew about this game coming in was that it carried over RPG aspects from the old Paper Mario games but shifted the game play over to 2D platforming action rather than turn based combat.
When I fired up the game, one of the first things I noticed was that it had come out in 2007. That took me aback for a moment. I have always thought of this as a "new" game in my head. Then I find out it is 10 years old. Jeez! It made me feel super old. When I bought it, I had told myself that there was no rush. I would get around to playing it eventually. But I really took my sweet time getting around to it, didn't I?
The game starts up with a rather lengthy and boring cut scene. Bowser has kidnapped the Princess and is about to force her to marry him. A mysterious new villain named Count Bleck appears and throws everything into chaos. He is out to destroy the whole universe. In order to save his own skin Bowser is forced to team up with Mario, Luigi, and the Princess to defeat this Count Bleck before he can kill them all.
The story is nothing particularly original or exciting. It does get a little better at the very end. But I didn't expect much in that area from this game, as Paper Mario titles are definitely no Final Fantasy when it comes to having an engrossing story line. It is very cutesy and kid friendly. It is a little bit too kid friendly in my opinion. There are a lot of really long cutscenes where the characters just jabber back and forth with each other, seemingly about nothing. Clearly these scenes are meant to be funny, and maybe they are if you are under the age of 10. But to me they just come across as annoying.
And for me that is the main problem I had with the game. It is too obnoxiously slow moving. I wanted to dive into the world and really lose myself in the game, but that didn't happen. I felt as if the constant dialogue and annoying character banter made the game begin to feel like a chore. Again, I am sure a 9 year old would love this game. Hell, I would have loved this when I was a kid. But playing it now: no.
Whenever I am forced into watching a Disney or a kids movie I always sit through it in discontent because I would rather be doing something else. This game's dialogue scenes gave me that same feeling of discontent. I just wanted to get on with it.
When you finally do get to control your character, game play is all right. The shift to 2D doesn't do much to change the essence of Paper Mario. You navigate the game's main city in 2D mode - visiting shops, talking to people, and buying things. To advance in the game you need to collect "Pure Hearts". These can only be found in the game's 7+ main levels.
These levels play out similarly to classic Super Mario Bros. levels. Each level is composed of 4 stages. The first 3 stages are 2D stages with a specific beginning point and an end point you reach to move on to the next stage. The 4th stage is usually a boss fight of some kind.
You kill most characters by jumping on them, but you do learn new tricks and moves as you go along. The ability to pick things up and throw them is a big one. You can switch back and forth between characters at will, depending on what is happening in the story at the time. Also, each character has different attributes you can utilize. For example, Bowser has fire breath attack that can hurt enemies that are invulnerable to jump attacks. The Princess can float across long distances. You will need to learn your characters strengths and weaknesses as you advance in the game.
One of the big twists of this game is that the game isn't fully limited to 2D. You can flip to the 3rd dimension, where your viewpoint shifts and you can move up and down in addition to left and right. Switching to 3D uncovers hidden passages and helps you advance in the stage if you are stuck behind something. Say there is a big wall in front of you that you can't pass when you are in 2D. Simply switch to 3D and you can walk around the wall.
There is a catch though. And it is an irritating one. You can only stay in 3D for a limited amount of time. When you switch to 3D it initiates a timer that counts down. When it runs out, you take damage. So you can't stay in 3D for long. This bugs me because you have to spend a lot of time in 3D and it is time consuming to have to constantly be popping out of 3D to recharge the timer.
There are items in the game that you can collect and use from the pause menu. Mainly there are healing items or items that improve your defense. One of my favorite things about this game is that it gives the classic NES Mario games a nod. There is an item that surrounds you with little NES Mario sprites, complete with classic jumping sound effects. As you move, they move. They act as a shield, taking damage for you. There is also a mushroom that turns you into a giant sprite character from the original Mario game. This character can only be used for a limited time, and it destroys everything it comes into contact with. This looks super cool and always gets you excited when it happens. But really, all you do when you trigger this is run in a straight line from one direction to the other. You don't really maneuver it much.
In between each level, during each level, during each individual stage, expect to read a lot of text. The characters are very chatty, as I had mentioned before. I would be okay with this if the chatter actually advanced the plot, but a lot of it is repetitive nonsense. This really slowed down the game for me and made me lose interest in parts.
Plus, the 2D side scrolling stages weren't very interesting to me either. I felt like the game couldn't decide if it wanted to be a platformer or an RPG. And it only did a mediocre job being both. The gameplay pales in comparison to classic Mario and the story itself isn't that entertaining to begin with. I had an okay time with this game, but I kept feeling it could have and should have been a lot better.
The game does make an attempt to mix things up, I have to give it that. The stages are pretty diverse. There is a big colorful cast of characters. You have different tasks and goals to accomplish in each stage. There's a swimming stage. One of the levels is even laid out like a 2D side scrolling shooter in space. I appreciated the creativity that went into this. The makers of the game get an A for effort. But again, I feel as if the game doesn't do any one thing particularly well.
The whole thing was just mediocre to me. Cute graphics. Nice level design. The game had a little bit of charm with some of the items and nods to the classic NES Mario. But it was too boring. I was never able to get into a rhythm playing the game because of the constant dialogue scenes interrupting the action. And then when I did get to play I was underwhelmed by the game's slow place. You spend a lot of time in between levels in the hub world, looking around for pillars that you have to place Pure Hearts in to. You must do this in order to unlock the next level which contains the next Pure Heart.
But a lot of times the game doesn't give any hints as to where you are to go next. I spent way too much time running around in the hub world, lost and looking for a hint on where to go. And any time it seems like you are making progress, bam - dialogue scene. Everything comes to a screeching halt.
Playing this, all I wanted was to fall into a rhythm where I could just PLAY the game and unwind and have a good time. But this game doesn't have a rhythm. At least not until later in the game. As I began to get toward the end, I started to like the title a little more. But by then it was too little too late.
I know I have been complaining about this game a lot. I didn't entirely hate it. This game does a lot of things right. I will give it that. But even though it is very well made, that doesn't necessarily mean much if it isn't any fun to play. It had its moments, but it was lacking in across the board consistency for me.
Reading other reviews, most people seem to really like this game. I am usually pretty easily entertained. I totally expected to love this. But it bored me. I don't know what to say. To each his own. Not my cup of tea. Insert any other similarly generic statement that comes to mind.
I just was not crazy about this game.
Overall:
C-
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