Super Paper Mario is a game I've been eagerly waiting for ever since it was announced it seems like a year and a half ago. I loved the Paper Mario for Gamecube, and it seemed like this new one would be great too. This ended up being true, but a lot happened in between. The developers announced that all fighting would be real-time platforming based instead of turn-based, the chapters would be the traditional 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 format and I'd now have the ability to turn the world into 3-d. I love platformers, but I wasn't sure I wanted any platformer in my Paper Mario. Turns out, the 2-d aspect of the game actually didn't change the way the game felt all that much. Some of the boss fights were hampered by their real-time natures. I remember some of the boss fights from Thousand Year Door being awesome and hilarious because of the turn-based fights and the way dialogue would be delivered in between turns. Super Paper Mario tries to replicate this sometimes but it doesn't really work. The good news is, for the most part the platforming elements make the game really fun. I miss my party from Thousand Year Door and all their unique back stories and personalities (the Pixls just aren't quite as interesting except maybe Tippi), but a couple of the characters you meet in Super Paper Mario top anything Thousand Year Door offered. On the other hand, the overall quality of the story seemed to be a little below that of the Gamecube version. Granted, this might be nostalgia, but it hurt me sometimes that there was no mystery in the train or Glitz Pit wrestling matches. Occasionally, I'd think there was this type of equivalent coming up, but it never panned out. And the story, as well documented, bogs down at the end where you have to collect fruits and traverse through annoying black and white mazes. Worth it to witness the next cutscene, but not really that great in itself. Overall, this is a great game and you have to pick it up but I'm not sure yet whether it can hold up to my love for Thousand Year Door. Guess I'll just have to play it more, which I'm sure I'll be able to handle.
The highly acclaimed Paper Mario series has been praised for its artistic and creative innovations. The first two games were unique in the fact that they were role-playing games, but fused with some light platforming ele... Read Full Review
Super Paper Mario statrted out as the GameCube-exclusive sequel to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It was quickly outnumbered by the next-gen system hype, and was, seemingly, completely lost. It was moved silently t... Read Full Review
