Super Paper Mario
Previewed by David C. on 3/16/07
Opening Statement
Super Paper Mario is looking to be one of the best games for the Wii this year, and definitely this quarter. This game has all of the 2-D platforming that we all love with 3-D, RPG, action adventure, and puzzle elements thrown in for good measure. With all of those elements packed into one game, that should be a truly amazing experience. Some people even call it a 5-D game due the fact that you can flip worlds from 2-D to 3-D at any time with Mario after you get that ability. This is the first game to ever have a 2-D to 3-D flip. This game will be one-of-a-kind.
Gameplay
In this game you have to reach the star block at the end of each level to clear the stage, or chapter as they refer to it (ex. Chapter 1-3 or Chapter 1-7). The levels in this game are much larger than the ones in, let’s say, New Super Mario Bros. (NSMB), and they have a lot more depth. On NSMB the only thing for you to collect are the three Star Coins on every stage. In this game, you can collect item to use for cooking recipes, like in the other Paper Mario games, you can find treasure chests with new Pixls in them. Pixls are tiny creatures that help Mario, Peach, Bowser, or one other secret character to chose from, by giving them new powers. One of them lets Mario place bombs wherever he is standing in order to destroy things like cracks in walls or enemies. Another lets you point the Wii Remote at the screen and use it as a flashlight to find hidden objects. Another lets Mario turn paper-thin to slide through cracks or other tight places. Nintendo stated that there would be many more in the game.
You can chose to play as Mario, Peach, Bowser, and another character that has not been revealed yet. Each character has there own special abilities. Mario is the only one who can flip the world to 3-D. When you do, the entire level gets flipped, changing your perspective. When in 3-D mode there are many things that you can not see in 2-D mode. Enemies could appear, a path could disappear, you might see items, or things might disappear. They’re many differences when you switch to 3-D mode and vice versa. Sometimes you have to switch to 3-D to solve a certain puzzle like going around a really tall Warp Pipe, or finding a hidden door behind a bush. There are many puzzles in the game and they all add to the experience of the game. Peach can glide through the air on her parasol. Bowser can use his flame-thrower to roast enemies and do extra damage. All of the characters must be unlocked, but you have to start with Mario at the beginning of the game and you can’t use your flip power at the beginning either.
There are also many rules that don’t apply in standard platformers, such as falling down a hole. Falling down a hole normally would kill you, but in this game, you only lose one Hit Point (HP), and sometimes you can even fall into secret levels, like the secret recreation of 1-2 from the classic Super Mario Bros. In this game you do have HP, so if you get hurts, you just lose a certain amount of HP instead of dying after three, two, or one hit. Mushrooms heal HP instead of making you larger, and a star makes you turn into a massive beast, 8-bit Mario, and ram through the stage, obliterating everything in your path. In this game, your score is like the Star Points system in the previous Paper Mario titles. If you gain so much, you will grow a level and become stronger with more HP.
Super Paper Mario does not use the Nunchuk attachment at all. Instead, you must hold the controller sideways, like a steering wheel in racing games, and move Mario with the plus direction pad, jump with the 2 button, bring up the pause menu with the + button, change characters at any time in a stage with the – button, and use the characters special ability with the A button. The controls are pretty nice and work fine. The game also does not let down on playtime. In an interview with a Nintendo representative, he stated that the game would take the average player about 40 hours to complete the game to the credits. To finish the entire game, he said would take much longer (I think up to 70 or 80 hours) and not even he has finished it yet. To finish the entire game, I mean to collect every item or collectible in the game (i.e. characters, items, recipes, etc.).
The items in this game are like the ones in every other Paper Mario game. There are Mushrooms, Attack Items, Recipe Food, and much more. Every item has an effect that does something to Mario or the enemies around him. I also forgot to mention you can tilt a shake the Wii Remote to pull off stylish moves when you jump on an enemy. The way that you tilt and shake the controller determines the kind of stylish move you pull off and how many bonus experience points get added to your score. Watch the videos from GDC 2007 at the bottom of this page for more information.
Presentation
This game shows all of the characters as cardboard cutouts like in previous Paper Mario games, hence, the "Paper" part of the name. This game is one of the most stylized games out there for the Wii. It blends pixely graphics with great, clear visuals, once again making it one the most unique games ever to come out on a console. The colors are bright, vivid, and crisp and are really amazing to watch. The game is very fluid, does not slow down at all in term of the frame rate. This game really blends in all of the elements of every kind of game out there. The game does run in 480p and 16:9 widescreen, so it does have a visual boost being on the Wii instead of Gamecube.
Closing Comments
This game is looking really amazing and should definitely be one of the best and most revolutionary ones to hit the Wii this year. This game does not let down at all with great control, graphics, and gameplay. This is one of the games that I recommend you should definitely pick up on April 9th this year. The date is getting closer. So far, I give this game
a 9.4 out of 10 for having a little bit of every element of game out there and being so revolutionary and fresh.
Screenshots
For videos see below:
GDC 07: Super Paper Mario Developer Walkthrough
Wii Stage - Super Paper Mario GDC Trailer
GDC 2007: Super Paper Mario (Level 1-2)
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