Super Paper Mario’s shipping date was supposedly April 9th, which usually means the game wouldn’t go on sale until the next day. I stopped by Nintendo World after work on Monday to see if they had the game in-stock. As it turned out there were plenty of them on sale, so I grabbed two copies (one was for my friend!).
This is the first Paper Mario game I’ve ever played, so it was all new to me. I was worried I wouldn’t understand the whole “flipping” thing, but it wasn’t hard at all to grasp. Super Paper Mario has a very good way of telling a story without being tacky and generally keeps things light-hearted and fun. As in most Wii games there is a lack in voice acting or narration, but you know it’s not a Mario game without the little guy’s trademark exclamations. Maybe it’s the humorous hand gestures they’ve added, but the way Mario says “Yes!” is too funny and never gets old.
I’m fine without the voices though, because the creators try to keep the reading enjoyable. The characters keep talking about the “Legendary Hero” and describing his outfit — red cap, blue overalls and “mighty ’stache”. At one point a character refers to the mustache as “the celebration of follicles dancing on your upper lip”. There’s also some mild punnage, which isn’t necessarily my thing — but the second Pixl you get is named Thoreau, which caused Jon to point out: “Get it? You throw him…that’s why he’s Thoreau”. So that was amusing. (Please forgive him, he’s just the PCS webmonkey after all…)
The game also has a sarcastic side, which I appreciate. This is especially the case with the goons working for Count Bleck (the evil guy you must stop). They’re all pretty entertaining and each has very different personality. O’Chunks is the muscle of the group; he looks a little bit like a bulked-up & cracked-out version of the Simpsons janitor. Meanwhile Natasha, Count Bleck’s right-hand henchwoman, goes around hypnotizing everyone and converting them to follow Count Bleck’s evil side without a care. Weirdly, Count Bleck himself has the least personality (at least as far as I’ve seen); he reminds me a bit of Count Cannoli in Wario: Master of Disguise.
I can’t write a complete impression of the game yet only because I’ve spent about 6 hours with the game over the past two nights. Last night, I finally played Chapter 3 of the game which deals with “geeks” believe it or not. Everything in this dimension is in 8-bit style. At the beginning of this stage, a geeky looking iguana, Francis, kidnaps your Pixl, Tippi, who happens to be a “pixelated” butterfly (I think he grabbed her with his tongue…yuck). Francis, is probably the geekiest Mario character you’ll ever meet…(I may be wrong)! He uses the phrase “high-technical” with just about everything. Even with my Mario currently at level 7 (about 25 hit points) it still took me a couple tries to figure out some of the puzzles. This was probably the longest chapter so far.
Tally’s Tip: Remember to use the Pixl, Slim, you can overcome a lot of obstacles (moving spikes on the ground *cough*) by using this and standing STILL, you won’t get hurt!
I do like it that each chapter has a unique feel to it, but what irks me is you can’t seem to return to your homebase in Flipside town at any given point without losing your place. That is, there are no checkpoints, so if you do return to Flipside you better have a good reason for it or else you’ll just have to redo each sub-chapter again. I guess this just makes it more rewarding after you’ve beaten a chapter and the option to jump into any sub-chapter becomes available.
After work is done today, I shall go back and continue on my quest to collect the other Pure Hearts. Right now, I’m currently very jealous of those people who got to stay home and play the game.
Chapter 4 takes place in space (^_~)b I can’t wait to explore it!!!
