Super Paper Mario

I picked this up the other day because I was bored, I didn't expect anything spectacular but nothing bad either. I was in for a surprise, this game is quite good. I had read some reviews on line saying the controllers were finicky and the game play was to simple...

I disagree. The controls are just fine. Holding the wiimote sideways is surprisingly natural (if you've never done it before, you'll be surprised) and controls just great. Kind of a classic Mario feel to it. Even the 3D controls were great, I mean they suffered from the usual 3D platforming problems....but since the 3D "depth" dimension is the same as the 2D left and right dimension theres really no problem at all.

I also read that the game play was to simple like earlier Mario's (this didn't make sense to me - weren't the older Mario's great?) but its not. Almost everything is puzzle based. You pick up new skills and characters as you go (kind of like Zelda, new abilities to solve new puzzles). The characters have different abilities (Peach can float, Bowser can breath fire, etc) which you can use in different situations. Character switching is incredibly easy with no load time so no worries there. So far I have 8 abilities and 3 characters and I'm still only on the fourth world.

The RPG aspects are pretty faint in this one. You level up as your score increases (you get points for doing just about anything, its pretty much just exp) and when you level up you either get 5 hp or 1 attack power. There are ways to increase your score (if you wave the controller after jumping on an enemy you will do a pose, and you can land on an enemy again to do another pose, racking up points).

There are also items but the system is kind of like Super Mario 3's, but there is a wider variety of items (many healing items and some to attack enemies) and you can use items at any time. An interesting item is the "catch card" which allows you to capture enemies as cards. If you have the card for an enemy type you can do double damage (or more if you have more cards). So...gotta catch 'em all.

Also there is the ability to switch from 2D to 3D. This is a great dimension (ahahha...haa) to add to the game. Somethings can only be seen in 3D and in general it just makes for a cool aspect especially with puzzles and secrets. You can also use this to dodge enemy attacks among other things. This was really well done and implemented just great.

The dialog is sparse for an RPG but heavy for a Mario game. The localization team put a lot of effort into it - every character has a pretty distinct and noticeable (and some, hilarious) personality. I found myself chuckling frequently during the dialog sections. Mario doesn't speak but he has some gestures that get his meaning across.

The graphics are pretty sharp (yes I just said that a 2D game with paper characters). No seriously, the animation is smooth and crisp and everything has a nice style. Even though it was 2D I could definitely tell I was playing a next gen game. The sound effects and music fit quite well, although the music is nothing special. I didn't really expect epic music in a Mario game anyway.

Overall quite good so far. I haven't finished yet, the game is pretty long. I'll update if my opinion changes!