Pocket Change - Shopping Blog

The first video game that I (and many others) ever played was the original Super Mario Brothers. I remember the days of watching my neighbor play, but being too scared to actually pick up the controller myself. When I finally did work up the nerve take control of the Italian hero I was hooked forever. Since that time I have become far more mature in my gaming needs. Now I find myself always looking for more sophisticated role playing games with things like “deep storyline” and “meaningful character development”. You could imagine my joy when I first heard that the new Paper Mario game was going to attempt to recapture the glory of the original Super Mario Brothers games, but with RPG flair. In fact, I believe that my initial reaction to the seeing game play video was something akin to, “holy 2d side scrolling action Batman.” Unlike a few other games that I’ve been excited about for the Wii, this one actually came out paid off.

The game starts out somewhat slow. In typical RPG fashion, the storyline must set itself up before the player can take control. Thankfully, the entire setup is nothing short of hilarious. Mario and Luigi are bored. They’ve saved Mushroom Kingdom, and now they are stuck just sitting around not having anything to save. They decide to go to Mushroom Castle and visit peach. Just as they are leaving, Toad shows up and tells them that the Princess has been kidnapped and that they must go save her. So far it isn’t much different than any other Mario game. When Mario arrives at the castle he finds that Bowser is there setting up for a massive attack. Unfortunately for him, it turns out that the Princess has already been kidnapped. This is where we meet the villain of the game, Count Bleck. Count Bleck shows up and admits to stealing the princess, and decides to steal everyone else while he is at it. He leaves Mario all alone in Mushroom Kingdom, and takes off to another dimension. Mario then gets some help from a PIXL, and starts his epic quest to save Mushroom Kingdom.

Once you take control of the game, you begin to realize how much fun you are going to have playing it. The game is controlled by turning the Wiimote sideways as you would in a virtual console NES game. It controls nearly exactly like Super Mario Brothers on Virtual console, but with a few twists. First, by hitting the A button you switch into a 3D mode that is used for puzzle solving and finding hidden treasure. But pointing the Wiimote at the screen you activate one of your PIXLs that will identify creatures, find doors, find chests, and just be a general help to you along the way. The motion sensing controls of the Wiimote are used for everything from shaking yourself out of sleep effects to doing a series of motions required to use items or abilities. As simple as the control scheme is, it is really one of the best implementations of the Wiimote I have seen in any game to date.

Combine the quirky storyline, fun boss fights, and great controls and you get a game that really does satisfy the traditional gamer and RPG fan alike. It may be a sight bit easy for those who are looking for an RPG with the depth of a Final Fantasy game, but one cannot go into these types of games with those expectations. If you own a Wii and are looking for a very solid game to pick up, then I highly suggest giving Super Paper Mario a try.

Here is a video of one of the more enjoyable boss fights (slight spoiler warning):

Kris