The Observer, April 20, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 25
Wii owners make do with Super Paper Mario
Wii owners cannot be too pleased right now. Sure, Twilight Princess was excellent and WarioWare: Smooth Moves is a great game to have when friends come over, but it seems that both Nintendo and its third party allies were unprepared for the months after launch. Licensed shovelware and rushed ports of PS2 games have been flooding the system, with little to look forward to on the horizon. Keeping that in mind, you should definitely pick up Super Paper Mario. This inventive adventure may not be perfect, but it seems to be the only game worth playing in the immediate future.
Though Super Paper Mario may be your next purchase by default, the game would stand out even in a more substantial library. Whereas the original Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door were both RPGs with some light platforming elements, Super Paper Mario has more in common with the original Super Mario Bros. games. While Mario remains a paper cutout, much of the action is shifted to a side-scrolling perspective as he runs from one stage to another. When he jumps on enemies, he still gains experience points, but the turn-based battle system has been completely abandoned. Mario is aided by "Pixls," crudely drawn creatures that allow him to set bombs, wield a hammer, and more. Peach, Bowser, and a mysterious plumber in green will also join your party and can be called upon at any time through a somewhat clumsy menu system.
Though the multiple playable characters add an interesting twist, Super Paper Mario's big gimmick is that environments can be flipped around for a 3D perspective. For instance, if a wall or pipe is in your way on the 2D plane, you can turn the world 180 degrees to see the world from an over-the-shoulder view. In this mode, impenetrable objects and enemies can be avoided simply by walking around them. It's a bit disorienting at first, but this ability gives the game its depth (no pun intended). Secret paths and items are cleverly placed so that they can only be seen in 3D, while condensing the world back into 2D can make certain areas more traversable. Unfortunately, by the time you reach the middle chapters of the game, this mechanic is no longer able to surprise. Puzzles that seemed clever earlier are recycled too often. Even so, I've never seen anything like this before, and I'd love to see it expanded in a sequel.
The story begins with the sudden marriage of Peach and Bowser. This forced arrangement fulfills the requirements of an ancient prophecy that threatens the town of Flipside. Obviously, Mario and company arrive to save the day and collect the obligatory seven magic objects (in this case, "Pure Hearts"). While this may sound derivative, Super Paper Mario humorously breaks the fourth wall on a regular basis. Players will visit a nerdy Chameleon's castle where all of his robots are designed to talk about his favorite science fictions shows and message boards, clear jabs at this game's intended audience. Later on, Mario will discover where all of the "extra lives" wind up when they land on spikes or plummet down bottomless pits. The only times that the story gets in the way of the action are between levels, when you're forced to run errands in the poorly organized town.
The game started out as a Gamecube game (like Twilight Princess), and it shows. Even so, from an artistic level, the game is beautiful. The crisp sprites are all animated well, and the surreal, almost cubist world is always imaginative. The 'Cube roots are also displayed in the tacked-on remote functionality. In order to discover hidden doors or keys, sometimes you need to point the remote at the screen to find them. Unfortunately, there are rarely visual cues letting you know when to start searching. The placement of hidden areas seems completely arbitrary.
In the end, Super Paper Mario is a thoroughly enjoyable game despite its flaws. I'm disappointed with the poorly implemented motion-sensing controls and undercooked 2D/3D flipping, but this is as close to a traditional Mario platformer as we're going to get on a console. I don't know when the Wii's prospects will improve, so savor this game until the landscape improves.
