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Flippin' Awesome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 185 / 200
Date: April 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Super Paper Mario, like the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, was originally a Gamecube game that was moved on over to the Wii. Still, it's definitely a game we've been waiting for and definitely a game worth getting a hold of. Simply put, this is one of the games Wii owners ought to want.

The storyline in Super Paper Mario isn't really anything special, but it's certainly one to honor for its fine script and clever writing. An evil magician named Count Bleck plans on taking over the world, and as Mario you'll need to stop him by finding the pieces of the purity heart that'll allow you to do so. In truth, the storyline is actually really crazy, but I'd rather not give too much away. It's actually a really enjoyable story Mario fans will love in the long run.

The game is very dialogue heavy but at least its creative. Much of it is very humorous and will have you laughing quite a bit. But when I say dialog heavy, I'm not kidding. You'll be mashing on the 2 button a lot. It wouldn't be so bad if characters didn't go on to explain such things that were useless.

Super Paper Mario is truly something remarkable in terms of its gameplay. It mixes Platforming and RPG elements. There's still a need to level up and Mario has his set of HP but all the way, this is a platformer. It plays very similar to Super Mario Brothers on the NES. However, a slight problem with this kind of gameplay, is that those who were really addicted to side scrolling Mario games and were used to holding down a button to run will be surprised to learn there is no button to run! It's no big deal, but if you're feeling nostalgic (as you probably will playing this game) it's actually something long time Mario fans may have to get used to, especially because Mario doesn't move very fast.

During the game you can press the A button and flip the screen from the 2D world to the 3D world any time you want. Most of the time you'll be playing the game in the 2D realm, but there's plenty to be done in 3D too. It's a necessity to getting past some of the games puzzles. If you're ever stuck on puzzle just try flipping. It's also used to get past environmental objects. If a pipe is too tall for Mario to jump over, for example, then you can switch the game to the 3D view and simply walk around it. You can't stay in 3D forever. If you stay in 3D for too long Mario will take damage.

The problem with the gameplay is that the game is far too easy. Most enemies are easily dispatched and don't do much damage to you anyway. Even boss battles are of little challenge. The boss fights are fun, at least, requiring you to fight them in interesting ways, but they're still on the easy side. If you're an expert gamer, I don't predict you'll die anytime soon throughout your adventure.

Mario also isn't alone. He'll be joined by Peach, Luigi and Bowser throughout his travels, and each of them has an ability they can do. Peach can float, Luigi has a high jump and Bowser can spit fire. You can switch between them at any time, and there are moments when you'll actually need a certain character to do things. However, the game relies heavily on the mechanic of going from 2D to 3D and only Mario can actually do this. Despite that you've got other characters, you'll still play through most of the game as Mario.

Throughout your adventures you'll also collect Pixls. Little fairy like creatures that give Mario and company other abilities he can use. For example, early on in the game he meets a pixl that allows him to grab enemies and other objects and throw them. There are plenty of other powers. Needless to say, Super Paper Mario is filled with secrets.

The wii remote works well with this game. As noted you'll hold it like an NES controller and play the game in basically the same style you played the original Super Mario Brothers. The Wii controls, however, feel a little tacked on. You can point the remote to search for hidden doors or scan enemies. You can also shake when you jump off an enemy to get more points. The wii remote doesn't have a big impact on the gameplay, though.

Visually, of course, the game looks like a late generation Gamecube game. However, the games unique style alone warrants its beauty. The 2D landscape is far better looking than the 3D landscape, though. The 2D backgrounds are beautiful, and the background environments really shower a lot of detail. 3D doesn't look as good, though because it's just not as pretty and filled with life. Most of the level designs themselves are also pretty plain. As far as platforming goes, there's nothing too intuitively designed either. The levels also aren't filled to the brim with enemies. There's a lot of jumping, but not a lot of obstacles in your way.

The game also sounds really good. There's no voice acting to speak of, really. Which sucks for a game as text heavy as this, but most gamers who've been gaming for well over a decade probably won't care about this, anyway.

On the whole, Super Paper Mario is a must own title for the Wii. It's been ingeniously designed; it's full of humor and has been cleverly written. And to top it all off, it's just a lot of fun to play.

Pros:
+Well crafted dialogue
+VERY humorous game
+Strikingly original gameplay elements
+Simple easy gameplay to get a hold of
+Good music
+Plenty of things to do in the game
+Cleverly designed puzzles

Cons:
-The game is far too easy for experienced gamers
-Tacked on Wii Remote controls
-Very dialogue heavy; it's GOOD dialogue, but there are moments when you really just want to play the game

Solid Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 50 / 53
Date: April 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's a shame that so few people have Wii's in North America. Otherwise, I would imagine that "Super Paper Mario" would have tons of reviews at this moment. This is an incredibly solid game.

Less "Paper Mario" than "Super Mario", the game returns Mario to his 2-D roots. Gone are turn-based battles, and in their place, good 'ole hoppin' and boppin' fun, like in the old days, but with one clever twist. When your character is faced with, say, an impossible jump, you can simply "flip" yourself into three dimensions, the result of which is often the opening of a new path, or the emergence of a hidden pipe, etc. It's a clever twist on the 2-D goodness of the old "SMB" games of the Nintendo and Super Nintendo.

If I had one complaint with the game, it's that it's a bit too easy. With the ability to level ones character, the challenging aspects of the original "SMB" games gets a bit lost (in particular, the character will NOT die from falling in a hole, and can sustain multiple hits before running out of heart points, which can be replenished by items, or even hidden mushrooms). But make no mistake - while the game is never particularly challenging, it is always fun. The dialogue is snappy (the "dating sim" send-up is incredibly humorous, e.g.), the controls are good and responsove (I would have liked to see the nunchuk controller used a bit, particularly for the 3-D sections, but this is a mild complaint), the graphics are pretty...interesting, and the whole experience is trippy, in a "Katamari" sort of way.

All in all, a solid Wii outing - this is one of those games that makes you happy to own the system.

Great Whole-Family Game; Perhaps a Bit Short

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 21
Date: April 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Super Paper Mario for the Wii brings a fantastic new dimension to the 2D fun of paper mario. You can now switch - on the fly - between a 2D and 3D view of your world.

This brings a whole new twist to the idea of puzzle solving. You run along your 2D path and think you've hit the end. But when you take a look at the 3D view, you might find a tunnel hidden behind a rock, or a whole new path pointing out at a 90 degree angle.

There's a fun storyline, full of cute dialogue, but really in games like this you aren't worrying about deep plots or soap opera style intricacies. You play to jump on mushrooms, hit blocks, and search for those secret locations.

The game is clearly pointed towards a young audience, but it's a credit to its design that even adults have a lot of fun hopping along towards the goals. For some reason you can't run here - which can be frustrating sometimes - but in general you get the same mario fun from previous games. You learn new skills as you go, can throw items, change characters, locate new helpers, and level up.

The game is nicely broken up into short segments, again perfect for its target audience. If a kid has only 1/2 hr of "video game" time available in a given day, they can still make progress and feel like they've achieved something. The puzzles are never so tricky that they drive you completely insane. A careful perusal of the spot you're in will usually provide the answer.

An adult might complain that because of this, if you actually have control of the TV and a full weekend of gaming laid out, you could easily beat the entire game before the weekend was up. While this is true, you can always go back through after that and challenge yourself to find even more points on each level.

And for those with youngsters around, it really is great fun to play together. The game is very 'friendly' - if you step in sludge or fall off a cliff, which most games would kill you for, here it usually is just a minor setback.

In a world of zombie games, kill-everyone games and horror games, it's nice to find something that you can play with all ages and have fun with. It doesn't require a ton of dexterity or a complex understanding of role playing setup. You just run, jump, and puzzle-solve.

Highly recommended!

This is the best game ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: April 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Well, after two hours of game play I gotta say that this is one FUN game.
My sister bought it with her B-day money and I wasn't so sure she'd like it at first. Well, I was wrong. xD Both my sisters love it (10&6) and so do I!

The grafics are just like Paper Mario, TTYD. So thats cool! The characters are all lovable. Bowser is funny (My fave charrie) And its just a cute, funny, FUN game. Its really awesome going from 2D to 3D to! Everything looks like paper, Its really neat. The pixles are so cool to! I like the butterfly. :P

I was surprised at this, but the controlls are very easy! You hold the Wii remote sideways, and that works very well.

I've been a fan of Paper Mario64, Then Paper Mario TTYD(The thousand year door) and now this! All three are super fun. This is now one of my favorite games, I'd give it more stars if I could!

Overall, I'm very happy with this game, and my sisters like it to! :)

~Jackie

Full to the Brim with the Charm, Simplicity, and Fun Nintendo is Known for.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: April 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Super Paper Mario is a game that brings back the fond memories of playing the Super Mario Bros. games from the NES days and the Super Mario World games from a console generation later. The truly unique component of SPM is that the player can "flip" between the two-dimensional realm and the three-dimensional realm. The player can traverse through a level in 2-D, but may need to flip to 3-D to uncover a secret tunnel or passageway that would be impossible to see from a 2-D perspective.

The gameplay is solid and carries on the core style from previous Paper Mario games. The primary difference is that there are no more classic RPG elements like turn based battles. All enemies are fought on screen in the 'Old School Mario Game' way. You'll be able to control different characters and use other abilities to help you along.

The game is full of funny and wholesome humor that really amused me. There is one particular part of the game in which the player encounters a "super geek" and the entire scenario is done exceptionally. All the things that make this individual who he is, from his hardcore obsessive nature, to his laptop usage, comic book collecting, and fear of females is articulated through the in-game text in a very clever way. There are many other times throughout the game where I laughed out loud because of the dialogue.

The nostalgia factor is huge here. My sister who was watching me play this game, someone who never touches a video game, actually wanted me to hand her the controller. And she played...for a good while. Why was she interested? The reason is simply that she remembers the Mario Bros. magic from two decades ago that SPM rekindles. The memories of playing the classic Mario Bros. games will come flooding back to those that play this game and remember the old days. The Nintendo charm is what truly separates this game from everything else on the market. Everything is very endearing and even the "bad guys" are adorable...I'm looking at you, Bowser. The level design, characters, story, music, and humor all seem fairly simple, but yet are not simple at all. They all have been soaked with quality, a quality and depth that keeps you playing and playing until the end.

A "flipping" good time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: June 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I never played the original Paper Mario, so I don't have a basis of comparison with this game, but I think the game stands on its own merits.

Super Paper Mario is a combination between the RPG and side-scrolling platformer genres. You collect points as you kill enemies, and those points count toward increasing your level. As your level increases, you increase either your HP or your attack power (it alternates, you don't get to choose which one).

As with most games of this type, there are a lot of story-based cut scenes which do have an entertaining story to them, but sometimes get long and tedious, especially at the very beginning, where there's a lot of setup.

You start out the game as Mario, after seeing Luigi, Peach and Bowser all sucked into some kind of dimensional vortex. You set off to find and rescue Peach, and recover 8 Pure Hearts to save the world. Along the way you also have a Pixl friend accompanying you to help you along. You find additional Pixls with different abilities (like creating bombs or giving you a super-stomp ability for flattening large objects). As you progress through the game, you find the other characters and add them to your party, and you'll use their unique abilities in different ways. Mario has the ability to do the dimension flip I'll talk about in a second, Peach can use her umbrella to glide long distances or hide from damage, Bowser can wipe out enemies with fire breath and does double stomping damage, and Luigi has a super-high spring jump. There are also at least a dozen or so Pixls with varying abilities that need to be used in different ways.

The game itself is primarily the usual Super Mario action... you run to the right and jump over obstacles and on enemies. One cool thing is that you can shake the remote up and down after jumping on an enemy to get a bonus score. For enemies that take more than one hit, you can do this repeatedly for increasing bonus points. Sometimes you reach obstacles that you can't jump over. This is where the really interesting part of the game comes in.

Early in the game, you learn the ability of "flipping" which is triggered by pressing the "A" button and turns the game world 90 degrees so you can see a different perspective. For instance, if you are going along and run into a really tall pipe that you can't jump over, flipping may show you a path as simple as just walking around it. Flipping also sometimes reveals hidden treasures or paths.

The game overall provides enough challenge, leading you to switch characters and Pixls frequently to solve puzzles, but without getting tedious and repetitive. The space levels were particularly entertaining.

I expect a casual player can finish the game in approximately 30 hours, and it's fun for adults as well as younger kids. It doesn't rely as much on fine motor control skills and precise jumping (though those certainly can help in some situations), but does focus more on making you think how best to use your characters and Pixls to beat certain obstacles or bosses.

I would really only ding this game on replayability... it doesn't strike me as a game I'm going to be likely to pick up and play again once I've finished it. Not because it's a bad game, but because it just won't be different, so what would be the point?

One of the best Wii games out there

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Super Paper Mario, without a doubt, is one of the best Nintendo Wii games out there. If you loved the old school days playing all the Super Marios then you'll love this. It takes the classic 2D gameplay and gives it a little extra spice with the ability to switch into 3D whenever you want.

In the beginning all the heavy dialogue was a bit tedious to go through (it lasted about 15-20 minutes) because I was anxious to just get into playing the game. However, it's not as bad as some of the other reviewers are making it out to be. If you're interested in the story and the characters it's quite enjoyable and the storyline is very creative and amusing. You just have to give it a chance and allow yourself to get into it.. it won't disappoint, I promise!

Playing the game is relatively easy, but some of the levels are hard to figure out (at least for me!). I recommend the game for young teens and up because children might find some levels difficult and probably won't want to sit through reading all of the character text.

SUPER MARIO FUN!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: July 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am a 26 year old recent Wii purchaser (that was an ordeal) and have been out looking for games. I now have:

Wii Sports
Wii Play
Excite Truck
Rayman Raving Rabbids (the reason I bought the system, my wife was flipping over this when she saw it)
Resident Evil 4
WarioWare Smooth Moves
and now
Super Paper Mario

I used to play Mario as a kid both on my NES in the late 80's and Super Nintendo back in the early 90's, along with F-Zero and some other games I had. I had a 3DO after that for a while, but then have not gamed for over a decade.

The Wii has marked a triumphantly FUN return to gaming: as above, I am 26 and my wife is 21 and we are both having lots of fun. As for Mario, I must say that Super Paper Mario, for a former-Super-Mario-World player is just a TOP NOTCH experience.

Getting through the "RPG-style" story in the beginning (a style of gaming which I remember seeing friends play on their gameboys) was initially a concern of mine (because I think that stuff is boring), but the sarcasm and self-awareness of what they do is quite amusing and sucked me into the game.

The gameplay is very amusing, especially flipping back and forth between 2D and 3D...a new hilarious take on old Mario side-scrolling convention.

This is my personal favorite Wii game of the list above, because I like fun and it is just sheer fun. All others are awesome (Wii Sports is timeless, Resident Evil is epic and haunting, Excite Truck is EXCITING!, Wario is hilarious, etc.), but this is a big, enjoyable and clearly long-lasting game, since we don't play "hard," just casually.

Great, but too much talking.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you buy games for the story, you'll probably hate this one. The game play is unmistakably fun, but the story is so poor and dumb that you'll probably wonder how long they actually spent writing it! The first 20 or so minutes is just talking! other than that, the controls/puzzles are enough to buy the game. I like it. (P.S. I would also recommend Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.)

Great game ruined by excessive dialog

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This could be an excellent game if the developers had cut 75% of the reading. There are periods where you have to sit through 10 minutes of character conversations before seeing any action. Reading like this might be appropriate for some games but for a mario platformer .. no thanks.

The 2-D to 3-D is a great concept, hopefully Nintendo expands on this in the future .. minus the dialog.

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