The best Paper Mario game yet.
The story follows Mario's quest to rescue the Princess and obtain the seven crystal stars to stop the evil force known as the X-Nauts. Bowser this time wants to obtain the crystals for himself rather than just trying to stop Mario directly. The game's story structure is similar to the first game, not only in terms of your overall goal, but also that each journey to a crystal star is set up episodically. While the story may not seem like nothing special just reading this it is certainly much better than that. All of that is thanks to the great characters, humor, and writing.
The game follows the same concept as its predecessor. You will be traveling through a variety of 3-D environments interacting with various characters made to look like paper cut-outs, which gave the original, as well as this game, such a unique charm. You'll also occasionally solve some puzzles which are just challenging enough to make you think for a little bit. You will come across many likable and memorable characters that help you along your journey (many of which are similar to the characters in the original Paper Mario). Each character that joins your party has a unique ability suited for solving certain puzzles and obtaining new items. Even the various villains you face come off as rather likable. New to the series, however, are various abilities Mario will be cursed with, such as the ability to transform into a paper airplane to fly to certain areas or turning sideways to bypass certain obstacles. These abilities can help you reach new items as well as help with some puzzle solving. The game also switches over to Bowser and Peach every now and again for their own story purposes.
The simple and effective battle system from Paper Mario makes a return. The game has a turn based battle system where you can attack, use items, switch party members, etc., mixed with some timed button pressing gameplay, in which you'll have to perform the move correctly to get the full effect. The game's battles are set up in front of an audience as if they are watching a play. The characters can either cheer you on or throw stuff at you depending on how well you are doing. Unlike the first game your partners now have their own hit points and you'll now need to keep a watchful eye on that. You level up by collecting Star Points from defeated enemies. Once you collected 100 of them you can either level up your HP, Badgepoints (for wearing badges to use new skills), and Flower Points (for using special abilities).
Much like its predecessor this game features some of the most technically beautiful graphics on the system. The environments retain that great Mario atmosphere, full of bright colors and a great cartoonish look. The character models look fantastic and the simple animations look great as well. The music is what you would expect out of the series: Catchy and memorable.
PROS:
-Bright and colorful environments. One of the best looking games on the Gamecube
-Charming and witty humor
-Great story
-Likeable characters
-Solid gameplay
-Great music
-Cool bosses
-Puzzles with just the right amount of challenge
CONS:
This just a pure gem of an RPG, plain and simple. If you enjoyed the first game, you'll instantly fall in love with this one. For those new to the series and have a Gamecube or Wii, this is a definite must have, because you would be missing out.