Contrary to what far too many other reviewers have been saying, “Super Paper Mario” is not a great game. No, it’s more like a surreal, vivid state of dream. It is like the sort of dream you have just before you wake up. You know the ones I mean — the dreams where you are aware of what is happening, so much so that you can control some events in the dream, but it still turns out weird anyway, no matter what you do. Well, I’m advocating calling that phenomenon “Super Paper Mario” syndrome.
While playing this game, I thought about the character’s in L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” as they wandered into the patch of poppies.
In the book, Dorothy and her colorful friends sit amongst the poppies, and as the pollen fills their noses, they tire and and drift off into a sleep. They know that they need to get up and run from the field, but the pollen comforts them, and they submit.
That is almost exactly what sitting down to play a session of “Super Paper Mario” is like. Once I sat down to play, I saw problems with the game, yet in my desire to play a new Mario game, I drifted into a state of Zen-like calm while playing.
First of all, the story is ridiculous. It makes little sense and the characters are prone to over-explanation, so you’ll get to read a lot of the lame plot throughout the game. Other people would walk into the living room and watch me playing, and they would ask what was going on or why I had been playing this same game for three hours. I honestly couldn't give them an answer. The game’s story is convoluted and hard to explain, as is the strange sense of comfort you will get from completing each of the chapters in the game.
The game is similar to previous “Paper Mario” tiles. In the title, the word “paper” refers to a “pen and paper” game, which is also called a “role playing game.” (RPG)
How can “Super Mario” and his mushroom-eating, turtle-stomping ways get transformed into a RPG, you ask?
It is simple. The game is still very much like the original two-dimensional “Super Mario” titles, only now Mario picks up items that he can carry and use for health or to strengthen his attacks. He will also earn experience points for every enemy he dispatches and those points will eventually upgrade his level, allowing him to attack harder or to absorb more punishment from enemies.
Also, like “Super Mario Brothers 2,” Mario is not alone on this journey. Throughout the title, there are three other playable characters, a helpful sprite named Tippi and a bunch of floating characters called “Pixls,” all of whom you will need to use to progress through the game.
The “Pixls” add a neat aspect to the game. They each have a specialized talent. Some help open pathways, some blow up and one even shrinks Mario to a size so small that all the enemies forget about him.
The “Pixls” are great, but their talents are no match for what each hero can do. Obviously, you will be playing as Mario for most of this game. His talent is that, as the protagonist of both two- and three-dimensional games, he has learned the ability to switch dimensions. This means that, at any time in the game, Mario can switch the world around, and instead of running through a two-dimensional world, fighting two-dimensional villains, one button press flips him to three-dimensions. This makes the two-dimensional enemies flat and harmless and often shows Mario new doors or secret areas to access.
However, this is extremely disorienting. After playing for a while and flipping through the dimensions, I had to pause the game for a moment to get my bearings.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this to most gamers. Even though it does feature a beloved character and it is a well made game, there are long stretches that aren’t fun, and you find yourself playing just to see what happens next. (There’s a whole section where Mario has to do repetitive chores in a prison factory to make money.) It is a good game, but “Super Paper Mario” takes forever to get an interesting plot going, and its charm doesn’t last after the game ends.
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