Over the last couple of years, there has been a growing trend for games to mix-and-match game genres.  Time was, you would get a FPS and it would involve a collection of guns, a mountain of ammo, and a linear run to the finish.  Now, just about every FPS has elements of the RPG: take Medal of Honor: Airborne and it's weapon upgrading or games like Battlefield where your experience in the field unlocks new tactical options.  Super Paper Mario for the Wii takes the same evolutionary principle and applies it all over the platform game, with interesting results...



OK, so it's not the first time this has happened: the mixing of Mario's traditional platform-hopping and RPG elements began in 2001 (in the US and Europe) with Paper Mario for the N64, though this, in itself was a sort-of sequel to Super Mario RPG for the SNES.  The developer, Intelligent Systems has produced each of the Paper Mario games, and each has been subtly different in gameplay mechanic, with past iterations using a more RPG-like, turn-based battle system.  Super Paper Mario, on the other hand, is more of a platform game at heart; albeit one with an important twist.

The twist is literally that!  For almost all of the game, at the press of a button, you can rotate your view of the traditional 2D flat world, and see into the third dimension.  This is an absolute genius touch, which means that Mario (and pals) can suddenly hunt behind blocks for coins, slip behind  enemies (almost all of them are 2D, so 'flipping' the view into 3D means that only the edge of the 2D 'sprite' is visible) and discover whole new pathways stretching off into the z-axis!  There are some fantastic visual tricks such as holes in the backdrop that are barely visible in 2D, but readily apparent in 3D, tubes in the foreground that lead to tubes in the backdrop, and seemingly impossible jumps up platforms that are easy in the 3D world.  In fact, it's so useful that you would probably spend your whole time in 3D if it wasn't for a timer ticking down on each 'flip' which removes health when it runs out.  Again, this works excellently, forcing you constantly think about what dimension you need to be in, where your objective might be, and how to get out of trouble.


RPG elements play on the 3D nature of the world, by having a central 'hub' town (actually two towns, but in mirror image) with characters to talk to, shops, an inn and secret bits to discover.  In a similar way to the Legend of Zelda games, parts of the town will be inaccessible until you have the right tools to get through.  These come in the form of Pixls – little 'sprites' that you discover as you make your way through the game that provide skills that are often vital for progression.  Tippi, the first Pixl you meet allows you to use the Wiimote as a kind of torch, highlighting dark areas, hidden blocks and doors and describing objects.  Other Pixls allow you to plant bombs, hit things with a hammer, and float across spikes.  Standard RPG conventions such as hit-points and an inventory with items to collect are all present and correct (even if your inventory is restrictively small).  You even have the choice of using Luigi, Peach and Bowser as your character throughout various parts of the game which adds variety in your approach to problems, as they each have a different skill.

At it's heart though, Super Paper Mario is a platform game.  There are eight different worlds for you to explore, each with 4 chapters.  Each world has a different theme and feel to it.   There's grassy plains, trips through clouds, prehistoric caves and even the depths of space.  Some of the chapters work brilliantly and bouncing across platforms feels as good as ever, with your character's movement and inertia coded using that trademark Nintendo 'feel'.  This is definitely enhanced by the Pixls and flipping: many of the chapters are giant puzzles, requiring constant movement through the third dimension and changing of your Pixl 'powers'.  During the best chapters, you will find yourself slipping into a happy rhythm of assessing the surroundings, jumping, flipping, selecting, reassessing, jumping, etc. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, it's usually the more 'traditional' platform levels that succeed the best at this.  Where the game falls flat on it's multi-dimensional face is when the developers have tried to mix things up a bit.  One whole world sees you foraging through space for one of the Pure Hearts  (your primary goal is to collect 8 of these).  This plays out like a kind of tedious side-scrolling shooter (think of a crappy Defender-like game), with a few sparsely-placed bad guys, featureless backgrounds that mean you have no landmarks so get lost, and a huge number of identikit portals.  The 3D flipping does nothing but highlight the odd power-up here and there, and the endless traipsing through portals makes you disorientated and frustrated. 


Unfortunately, the boredom and frustration of the space level is indicative of another, more deeply-rooted problem with the game.  Each chapter is made up of small individual sections (maybe 5-10 screens long).  Some chapters make up for the shortness of each section by stringing scores of them together with identical doors and then making you wander backwards and forwards through them to complete goals.  In contrast to the originality of the levels themselves, the goal for each section is usually a key to open a door (wow!  never heard of that in a game before!), or to go and fetch something for an NPC.  In places it is obvious that the developers have placed the goal, and the item required as far apart from each other as possible to make each section take longer to complete.  For instance, start at point A, make your way to point B 5 paces away where you speak to a kindly old man/samurai/rockman; proceed throughout the entire level to the end until you reach a locked door at point C; find out you have to see the man at B again, walk to B and back to C to open the door.  I haven't seen level design this lazy or sadistic for a while and is the major reason why this game won't find itself on the pedestal alongside the likes of New Super Mario Bros or Super Mario World.  Other notable instances of poor design include having to type 'please' in five times to get an NPC to help you, earning at least 10,000 coins by constantly pressing right on the d-pad for approximately 10 minutes and memorising a 20-jump sequence of blocks which you can't make one mistake on.

You get the sense that the developers were trying as hard as possible to be funny, and to create humorous puzzles to solve and characters to interact with.  Sometimes this works, especially if you are a connoisseur of the Nintendo universe.  There are lots of little spoken and visual references to Ninty products, Mario and Luigi start the game by being bored because they haven't had to rescue Princess Peach for ages and Bowser laments his lack of success at nabbing Peach.  The level of wit however, is aimed squarely at the level of fart gags and constant jokes about people with moustaches and stupid names.  As an adult be warned, the constant forced silliness and childish humour might start to grate, but if you happen to be a 10-year old gamer, you will probably be rolling around on the floor in hysterics!


One 'elephant in the room' with Wii games is the implementation of the motion-sensitive controller.    You may be glad to hear that it has been handled very well, without too many token Wiimote-waving techniques.  Control is via the good old d-pad, with the Wiimote horizontal, held in both hands.  As mentioned previously, pointing it at the screen highlights objects, whilst other movements are limited to a wobble after bouncing on a foe to enhance the point reward and angling the wiimote in a certain way to activate power ups.  The Wii's limited graphical grunt has also been used to fair effect, with crisp graphics and the odd flashy visual trick masking the simplicity of the 3D environments.  The level art and NPC designs are all very imaginative and colourful (although the colour scheme is occasionally eye-bitingly bad!) and there's some great 21st century updates of NES visual and sound effects.  In fact there's plenty to keep a Nintendo veteran gamer happy, from the remake of a Super Mario Bros level to the 'Game and Watch-style' graphics on the optional levels or the sound effects and musical updates.


All in all, Super Paper Mario has the trappings of a fantastic fusion of the genres.  When it works, the platform jumping is great, the 3D twist imaginative and fun, and the RPG elements gel with the platformy side very well.  There's loads of extra stuff to see and do, from optional 100-level trials to card collecting, meaning it's not short on longevity either.  But, it is let down cruelly by some poor level design and a very childish sense of humour.  If you have a high boredom threshold, or don't mind coping with the frustrating bits to get to the enjoyable heart, you'll love it!

Gameplay	75/100	Some classic platform action, fused with great puzzles, marred by occasional boredom and frustration due to poor level design
Graphics	85/100	Nothing stunning, but a good standard of colourful, varied environments with some brilliant visual tricks mixed in.
Sound	86/100	Classic sound effects, and some nice updates to classic tunes, which somehow never quite get tired
Value	85/100	A 20+ hour main campaign with lots of extra stuff to see and do.  You probably won't want to replay the main game though.
Overall (not an average)	79/100	A platform/RPG hybrid that is often great fun, but let down by lazy design and a childish sense of humour