Recently, I bought a "Zelda Wii U Bundle", and I have loved my Wii U so far. All the games I've played have been great, and I'm very much looking forward to playing more. So naturally, I realized this also provided me a fantastic opportunity to play all the original Wii games I never got to play, since I never owned an original Wii. I saw "Super Paper Mario" on the bargain shelf, and I thought to myself,
"Surely, this must be a great choice. It's a Paper Mario game with the updated technology of Wii. I bet it's going to be amazing, since I loved the original so much."
Nevermind the fact that I never got to play 'Thousand Year Door' on the Gamecube, I just happened to miss that one regrettably. I now have a new regret: buying this game.
The biggest thing that holds this game back is the fact that they took the full 3D exploration aspect of the previous two games and turned it into something you can only do once in a while. All of the RPG aspects of the previous two games have been totally removed in favor of the platforming gameplay: the same tired old Mario gameplay that we all know and love. No longer do you do anything RPG related, except for the fact that you have a health meter. It's basically the Paper Mario form of New Super Mario Bros.
The only thing that keeps this game from being absolutely bad, is the fact that it has a serviceable story. The humor still remains, and the graphics are still a treat. But this is not a Paper Mario game, this is an imposter Paper Mario title trying to cash in on a fad. Paper Mario was such an original and rewarding role-playing game, and a spiritual successor to "Mario RPG" for the SNES (a game that I loved dearly). Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom are a perfect match for a deep and un-casual role-playing game, and Nintendo needs to return Mario to the turn-based combat / exploration format of the first two Paper Mario games.