The Paper Mario series was created to continue Mario's RPG adventures and the first two games were extremely successful in this regard. Intelligent Systems then decided that it was time for a mix up with the franchise and they set out to make Super Paper Mario. Now that we have it in our hands, is it worth them moving our two dimensional hero from his turn-based roots? Or should they have stuck to what they know best?
The story behind Super Paper Mario is pretty interesting, the evil Count Bleck has kidnapped the Princess as well as Bowser. His evil plan is to get them to marry unwillingly in order to power the Chaos Heart so he can destroy the world. Mario's goal is to collect the Pure Hearts in order to counter the Chaos Heart and put an end to Bleck's evil plans. It sounds simple on the outside but is actually very different and the most interesting a Mario story has ever been. In this way, Super Paper Mario is superior to the previous Paper Mario games, even Thousand Year Door. It also helps out that the game is well written and is quite humorous.
The gameplay is where things have changed for the worst, unfortunately. Instead of exploring a 3D environment and getting into turn-based battles, you explore a 2D environment and jump on enemies to damage them like in the old side-scrolling Mario games. There is nothing wrong with this idea, especially since there is a lot to explore still, but the gameplay is slightly boring without the turn-based combat. You still level up as you kill enemies, but the lack of RPG elements is a disappointment. There are more puzzle elements this time around, Mario has the ability to turn the 2D world 3D and the objects in the environment change. This allows the game to have some pretty interesting puzzles.
You also get more characters to play as, such as Peach. Each character has their own abilities, such as Mario's flip ability. There are bosses at the end of each chapter, which are separated into Super Mario Bros. style stages. The game is of RPG length, so the gameplay can drag, but it's still enjoyable overall, thanks in part to the story and humor.
The music is enjoyable and the sound effects are good. There is still no such thing as voice work so the music needs to carry the game. The music is bouncy and joyful like Mario is known for, but it also has it's sad moments. It's a great soundtrack.
The visuals are still as good as they were in The Thousand Year Door. The character sprites still look great and thanks to it being mostly in 2D, the 3D objects clash a lot less. When flipped, things look interesting and you can notice they were being a lot more creative this time around with the flat art style. The enemies and characters look interesting and are created using lines and shapes and makes the game look unique. The stages look great as well. Overall, the game looks best when it has you flipping back and forth to see the genius of the art style.
PROs
- Great, interesting story
- Unique and fun gameplay
- Good soundtrack
- Full of interesting ideas
- Full realization of the visuals
- Character sprites look really good
- Noninvasive use of motion controls
- Interesting mix of 2D and 3D exploration
- Lengthy adventure
- Count Bleck is awesome
CONs
- Very few RPG elements
- Not a proper Paper Mario game due to lack of turn-based combat
- 3D objects still look simple and poor on their own
- Still no voice work
- Gameplay gets repetitive
- Combat is not combat at all
Overall, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remains the best Paper Mario. Super Paper Mario is a fun experiment, but Intelligent System should stick with the formula they perfected in the second game. Of course, this game has an interesting story and some attractive visuals along with interesting ways of fighting the bosses. It isn't as good as we were expecting, but it's more charming and more fun than we thought.
Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 8.0/10
Audio: 8.5/10
Presentation: 9.0/10
TOTAL: 9.0/10