So the much ballyhooed Super Paper Mario is OUT! I gave it a couple hours last night, and so far it’s excellent. Can I interest you in a few random thoughts?
Pros:
+Great visuals. Not really much different/better than Paper Mario Thousand Year Door on the Cube, but still very sharp and fluid. The screenshots don’t really do it justice - it looks great in motion.
+Very funny dialogue and story (again similar to Paper Mario TYD)
+Lots of items to get and secrets to discover
+The dimension flip thing is very cool
Possible cons:
Some gimmicky use of the remote (just a little - explanation below)
About the remote usage: I was really happy to read that for almost all of the game, you just hold the remote sideways and use it like a normal controller. For the most part you just hold it sideways and use the D-pad and three buttons (A, 1, and 2). I was worried that they’d make you swing the remote around to do simple stuff like dimensional flipping, jumping, etc, but fortunately that’s not the case.
I’ve only seen remote-specific functionality used in two situations: 1) Pointing at the screen to look for secrets and 2) shaking it to use items. The shaking is the part I don’t understand, as it seems pretty pointless, but at least it’s not something you have to do constantly. I’m only about 90 minutes in at the moment though, so it may make sense later in the game.
The gameplay itself is interesting. It’s kind of a mix between Thousand Year Door and traditional Mario games. There are some platformer elements, but if anyone is expecting a straight platformer (like New Super Mario Brothers) they’ll be disappointed. The game is more about exploration and solving puzzles. That’s not a bad thing though, the gameplay works very well and I’m really enjoying it so far.
I just got this today, too, and am having a lot of fun with it. A perfect mix of RPG and Mario action. The gameplay is very unique, and some of the jokes are very funny (the first boss battle features a reference to a familar Wii graphic as well as an infamous quote from Zelda 2, and there is a very funny joke about convoluted RPG plots after defeating the first boss). Nintendo has outdone themselves yet again.
I’ve gotten through the first two chapters (and explored a bit of the Pit of 100 Trials through the first bail-out point). El Perro Fumando is downstairs right now, trying to finish up the second chapter in her savegame.
The game is fun. Damned fun. I’m not sure I can call it the “killer app” that Wii has been waiting for, but it’s definitely worth playing.
I noticed the Zelda quote, missed the other two things from that boss battle. Could you point them out?
I’m liking the game a lot so far. More than the other Paper Mario games. I like the way they work in flipping dimensions. It’s a simple idea that’s very well executed. Nintendo is very good at doing that kind of thing.
When the dragon activates his computer system, his eye transforms into the loading graphic from the Wii Shop. As you caught, when he malfunctions, he says a number of stereotypical computer-not-working quotes, but also “I am error.” After the battle ends, Mario talks to a woman who explains the history of the Dark Prognosticus, which leads to a long story- so long, that Mario falls asleep in the middle of it (luckily, we don’t have to hear it). I’m guessing this is supposed to be a joke about the often long-winded plot expostitions of RPG games.
I agree that the whole flipping thing is very unique- that, combined with the hidden things you can find with it, is the best example of the whimsy and sense of discovery Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario’s father, often talks about when describing video games. And I love the humorous character traits of the new villains- O’Chunks’s pathetic attempts to let his bosses give him another try, Count Bleck’s tendency to attach his name to every sentence he speaks, and especially Nastasia’s corporate-speak.
For clarificarion, the quote “I am error” from Zelda 2 was actually a glitch.
From Wikipedia: “In the town of Ruto, there is a character whose initial line of dialogue is “I am Error.” This is correctly translated from the Japanese word for error (エラー). The character name Bagu is likely a misinterpretation of the Japanese word for bug (バグ), which would connect the two characters with computing terms.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelda_2
The Wikipedia quote you use doesn’t make it sound like “I am Error” is a true error or glitch. It’s just a man introducing himself and telling you his name- a really unusual one. The humor in the Mario callback makes reference to the line and the fact that “error” also means a mistake or problem. And, this also gives me an excuse to post my favorite page from the clever Zelda/MySpace parody, HySpace.
This game was made for old school gamers, and I love it. After being constantly bombarded with this “teh hardcore gamer” shit (thanks Sony, now go choke on your failure), it’s nice to have a game made as a tribute to those who literally grew up with Mario.
Have you noticed the brief flourishes of old school Mario music mixed into the tunes? Excellent. This thing is jam packed with references and inside jokes. I love the nerdy lizard creature. His dialogue reminds me of every game forum to ever be.
And even though Super Paper Mario is pure awesome, the game reviewer slobs are trying to poke holes in it with as much perceived flaws as they can while they give every cookie cutter WW2 shooter an automatic pass. The IGN reviewer said that it’s “simply not for kids” because of the text. Yeah, because children can’t read. :rolleyes: No wonder our ability to speak and write properly is declining.
Granted, there is a lot of text. And it does get annoying. It’s funny, but there’s a bit too much of it. Still, how the hell can that be a flaw worthy of bringing a game’s grade down by more than 10%?
I’ve got it. I’ve been playing it, and I enjoy it.
However, I’ve just got to agree with many aspects of the reviews – the amount of (admittedly funny and witty at times) text is just absurd. Really no need for that. Also, the game is just TOO EASY. Granted I’ve only played up to 3-2, but it’s just so brutally obvious when you have to switch characters or when you should flip to 3D. As far as “puzzles” go, it’s rather lackluster.
Most reviews put it in the high 8s, which is just where it belongs IMHO.
In that case, I’m finding Super Paper Mario much more compelling. The combat was a little too simple in TYD and I wandered off after a couple of hours (I’ll go back and finish it eventually). SPM has been interesting throughout so far (about 6 hours in).
But the combat’s even simpler in Super Paper Mario :dubious:
You may want to give Thousand Year Door another chance though. The battles get a lot more involving later in the game (despite being hinged on the samebasic framework).
