littlelilycat
4 reviews liked by littlelilycat
Super Paper Mario
2007
One of the first games I cried to. I remember sitting at Bertucci's pouring my heart out to my family over the bread sticks about this masterpiece while everyone awkwardly nodded while having no fucking clue what I was talking about.
Super Paper Mario
2007
This review contains spoilers
I'm so conflicted about this game. On the one hand, it's one of the most unique games Nintendo has ever published, with story beats they've never attempted since it came out. I think it's a great follow-up to TTYD and the last great game in the series before Sticker Star.
HOWEVER, this game also has some of the worst padding I've seen, horrible backtracking, and weak platforming by Mario standards.
Story:
This game is like if Romeo and Juliet were an anime, and Mario characters were half-hazardly shoved in. A background story in the game is revealed between chapters, and it paints the protagonist and antagonist as very sympathetic characters. You really feel for their relationship and hope it works out. The individual levels also have great stories. One section takes place in "hell," and you must go to "heaven" to save the angels. I couldn't make this shit up if I wanted to, and it's crazy to think it's in a Mario game.
Gameplay:
While the story is this game's main course, the gameplay is the horrible appetizer we all try to forget. At times, it has substantial platforming and mixes with the RPG elements in a way that works. At other times, it sucks. I don't think I need to mention the part where you hold "Right" in a hamster wheel for 10 minutes. There are many other sections that feel like the developers are trolling you, but it also makes the game interesting. It reminds me of old Flash games that pull tricks on you.
Overall, Super Paper Mario is a mixed bag—an ambitious story with greater ambitions that had no thought put into its gameplay. However, I respect it for trying so hard.
Also, what was with the green otaku?
HOWEVER, this game also has some of the worst padding I've seen, horrible backtracking, and weak platforming by Mario standards.
Story:
This game is like if Romeo and Juliet were an anime, and Mario characters were half-hazardly shoved in. A background story in the game is revealed between chapters, and it paints the protagonist and antagonist as very sympathetic characters. You really feel for their relationship and hope it works out. The individual levels also have great stories. One section takes place in "hell," and you must go to "heaven" to save the angels. I couldn't make this shit up if I wanted to, and it's crazy to think it's in a Mario game.
Gameplay:
While the story is this game's main course, the gameplay is the horrible appetizer we all try to forget. At times, it has substantial platforming and mixes with the RPG elements in a way that works. At other times, it sucks. I don't think I need to mention the part where you hold "Right" in a hamster wheel for 10 minutes. There are many other sections that feel like the developers are trolling you, but it also makes the game interesting. It reminds me of old Flash games that pull tricks on you.
Overall, Super Paper Mario is a mixed bag—an ambitious story with greater ambitions that had no thought put into its gameplay. However, I respect it for trying so hard.
Also, what was with the green otaku?
Super Paper Mario
2007
This game's standout imaginative moments are fantastic. Unfortunately, most of the game is dull platforming in dull areas. The hub town screams "INSERT SETTING HERE." I think I'd like this game more if it didn't occasionally become so completely brilliant that having to return to the tedium feels outright painful.
Super Paper Mario
2007
This game is so good, but it has a huge drawback; the pacing.
There's a looooot of padding in this game.... the dungeons/levels/chapters you're going through are agonizingly long with very little interesting environment to look at. I felt myself bored to tears at times with some of the levels, and it's really unfortunate because there's some things this game does really well.
Another misstep is that the companions you collect that give Mario his special abilities are painfully stale opposed to the colorful cast of characters in Paper Mario 64 & Thousand-Year Door. Its really unfortunate that this game is doomed to be compared with it's predecessors in such a way, but it's really shocking that they couldn't come up with more visually interesting partners.... Especially since the villains in this game have REALLY good design. What happened?
Despite all of that, this game redeems itself with one aspect-- the plot.
The plot is good. Really good. The dialogue is incredibly witty and entertaining as well. Peach, Bowser, and Luigi are given really great characterization and you can tell the writing team put in their A-game for this one.
The gameplay is alright. They took out the strategy aspect of it. As a fan of the last two Paper Mario games, I remember being incredibly disappointed that they nixed the turn based combat, but with how long the game is I can see why they did it. I try to be a little kinder about it now, but at worst its just nothing to write home about. You hop or pound enemies to fight them and they explode into coins. Its a much more streamlined battle system.
This game should be played!! It's a story you don't want to miss. Pushing through the long bits is worth it, in my opinion, but if you can't well... look up the cutscenes on YouTube or something.
Anyway. Mr. L.
There's a looooot of padding in this game.... the dungeons/levels/chapters you're going through are agonizingly long with very little interesting environment to look at. I felt myself bored to tears at times with some of the levels, and it's really unfortunate because there's some things this game does really well.
Another misstep is that the companions you collect that give Mario his special abilities are painfully stale opposed to the colorful cast of characters in Paper Mario 64 & Thousand-Year Door. Its really unfortunate that this game is doomed to be compared with it's predecessors in such a way, but it's really shocking that they couldn't come up with more visually interesting partners.... Especially since the villains in this game have REALLY good design. What happened?
Despite all of that, this game redeems itself with one aspect-- the plot.
The plot is good. Really good. The dialogue is incredibly witty and entertaining as well. Peach, Bowser, and Luigi are given really great characterization and you can tell the writing team put in their A-game for this one.
The gameplay is alright. They took out the strategy aspect of it. As a fan of the last two Paper Mario games, I remember being incredibly disappointed that they nixed the turn based combat, but with how long the game is I can see why they did it. I try to be a little kinder about it now, but at worst its just nothing to write home about. You hop or pound enemies to fight them and they explode into coins. Its a much more streamlined battle system.
This game should be played!! It's a story you don't want to miss. Pushing through the long bits is worth it, in my opinion, but if you can't well... look up the cutscenes on YouTube or something.
Anyway. Mr. L.