Super Paper Mario Preview: Chapter 4: "I Will Break You!"

We update briefly as we roll up our sleeves and prepare to bust some heads in Mario's new Wii adventure.

Super Paper Storyline

This official movie from Nintendo shows some key moments from Paper Mario's upcoming adventure.

Metaphorically speaking, Super Paper Mario has been an easygoing, cute, and fluffy bunny who showed up at our house to play. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the game have been fun and challenging (in a good way) and hooked us completely. Continuing with the metaphor motif, Chapter 4 of the game is where you notice something odd on the cute bunny's fur, and, upon further investigation, see the fur fall off to reveal a T-1000 robot of doom come to take your lunch money and blow up your house. What happened you ask? Four words: Pit of 100 Trials.

When last we wrote, Mario and company were on a roll, coping with kidnapping and socially awkward chameleons and making new pixl friends. All seemed right with the world. After the now-standard check-in with Merlon in Flipside and a visit to the local fortune teller for some advice on where to head next, Team Mario seemed poised for another successful run to get a pure heart. Then we got sidetracked. We did some housekeeping and went back for a new pixl, Barry. This spiky dude lets you form a temporary shield around your playable character that damages anything it hits.

On the way out of town, we took some time to explore the different floors that make up the town of Flipside, which is laid out in MC Escher-esque fashion, and you must ride assorted elevators to get to them all. By using our new pixl posse, we were able to access new parts of town and came across a rather interesting warp pipe that sent us to the Pit of 100 Trials. The pit is a serious kick in the pants that offers a sharp contrast to the modest challenge of the game thus far. The pit channels the unholy challenge of older Mega Man games and tasks you to go through 100 rooms with no save points in between room 1 and 100. Your goal in each room is to get a key off an enemy and open up the door to the next room. Every 10 rooms, you'll get a chest with an item and also occasionally come across a shop to pick up items. Once you get past room 50 or so, get ready to work. The game gets old-school hard and throws an increasingly difficult assortment of foes at you. You'll need to be smart about which characters, pixls, and items you use to get through. We've been fairly successful so far, but acts of god and poorly timed exclamations from coworkers have led to some disappointing setbacks we intend to overcome shortly.

We'll be checking back in soon with an update on the rest of Chapter 4 later this week. We understand that there's a world to be saved, along with Luigi and the other hapless folk Bleck kidnapped, but this whole trial-pit thing is personal. We'll be back on mission later this week, but until then, we've got rooms to clear. Look for more on Super Paper Mario in the days leading up to its launch next month.

103 Comments

  • Noobtralizer

    Posted Apr 7, 2007 5:51 pm PT

    I agree with supersonic

  • 1357900

    Posted Apr 7, 2007 3:22 pm PT

    Wii mote to be used for the pit of 100 trials? Hopefully not too much movvement needed, because closer towards 100 ya get, the more wore out, and tired you'll probably be.

  • SonicXAmy

    Posted Apr 7, 2007 9:46 am PT

    The mentioning of the Pit of 100 Trials brings back horrible memories of the numerous times that I died before I finally managed to beat it. It was NOT a fun experience...until I got more powerful, that is. Still, I'm wondering how this version of the Trials will turn out.

  • Mindchamber

    Posted Apr 7, 2007 9:45 am PT

    ricarrdo needs to learn how to speak up. his lisping and mumbling is totally annoying. alot of these dudes need to take acting classes or just stick to writing.

  • supersonic49

    Posted Apr 6, 2007 7:11 pm PT

    Gamespot is going through the chapters so quickly that theyr'e review might be done before the game even hits the shelves for us guys on Monday.

  • hoanghiep2111

    Posted Apr 6, 2007 11:56 am PT

    Only a few more days until this game come out. I will have to get my hands on it as soon as possible. Look great, sound great and seem to be hilarious just like the previous PM. If you have a Wii...this game is a must.

  • BangaaPride

    Posted Apr 6, 2007 4:01 am PT

    I hope for another full blown Mario RPG someday. Maybe even with Square's collaboration, with like a cutesy version of both the Gambit and ADB systems. Having said that SPM earns points in my book for having multiple heroes ala SMB2 so that gets a yay automatically!

  • Bucktooth_tuba

    Posted Apr 5, 2007 4:52 pm PT

    Comes out in 4 days, baby!

  • twilight7896

    Posted Apr 4, 2007 3:17 pm PT

    I can't wait for it

  • 1357900

    Posted Apr 4, 2007 12:42 pm PT

    Booyah!

  • KingKoop

    Posted Apr 4, 2007 12:25 am PT

    Why is it Luigi always manages to get kidnapped?

  • link631

    Posted Apr 3, 2007 9:23 pm PT

    yay

  • musthaveWii

    Posted Apr 3, 2007 6:49 pm PT

    Wow, the Pit of 100 Trials???
    That's... suprising...
    Yeah... I beat the pit in TTYD. Bonetail isn't really that hard, but I guess I just had good badges.
    ...hurry up and release the game!

  • sonofashrub

    Posted Apr 3, 2007 2:06 pm PT

    dear Shadow_Fire41
    It's still an RPG, it's just not turn based. RPG and Turnbased are not synonymous. Plus this game actually requires skill, RPGS (Though good) are too often interactive stories.

  • Omnichrono

    Posted Apr 3, 2007 11:05 am PT

    Definitely not a gimmick. Though, I will have to wait to play it myself to say if it feels gimmicky. Just because something FEELS gimmicky doesn't mean it is a gimmick. To say something's a gimmick implies it was merely tacked on, thus negating its gimmickiness. Eh, whatever... let's talk about cute and fluffy bunnies who show up at our houses to play.

  • GimmieThatGun

    Posted Apr 3, 2007 6:55 am PT

    heve u ever played a paper mario? cause they are played identically to mariorpg

  • Shadow_Fire41

    Posted Apr 2, 2007 7:45 pm PT

    they have takin the last good part of the mario genre, the RPG genre, and turned it into a platformer, why Nintendo, why?
    i loved Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars because it was a Mario game RPG gamers could enjoy, when Paper Mario came out i said, "a RPG mario game again? finally" though it wasnt as good as SMRPG:LotSS, i liked it, the second one the siimply added a different villan and more extras that actually made it good to, but now, they took the last bit of Mario genre i held dear, and now Nintendo must be punished!
    or they can make another thats a RPG again, either one is fine.

  • syta

    Posted Apr 2, 2007 5:47 pm PT

    This is gonna be awesome! im gonna get it as soon as I can!

  • unclejohn0525

    Posted Apr 2, 2007 3:38 pm PT

    Just payed off my reserve for the game! Can't wait. Not reading the coverage cause I don't want spoilers.

  • Chargeagles1

    Posted Apr 2, 2007 3:04 pm PT

    ck02623 NSMB? North Shore Mountain Biking? Why do people use acronyms that only they know?

    Have you heard of New Super Mario Brothers or are you joking.

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