By Boot Scraper

Yet again we are seeing a Nintendo system being hit by a severe lack of third party support. The Wii has the least number of games out of the three systems and it doesn’t look too bright in the future either. Even the few third-party games that do make it to Nintendo’s new device are terrible ports of okay titles as developers send their worst teams to develop for the Wii. Thankfully Nintendo is hard at work making the quality games they are known for. The newest of which is Super Paper Mario.
Super Paper Mario is the newest in the line of Mario role-playing games which first started at the end of the SNES’s life with Mario RPG. Since then the games have grown more silly and ridiculous, and this game is no exception. The game starts off with the arranged marriage between Peach and Bowser. The only thing is that neither Bowser nor Peach arranged it. A new force more evil than even Bowser that goes by the name of Count Bleck uses the fake marriage to start the end of all worlds. It’s then that Mario, Luigi, Peach, and even Bowser team up to stop the mass chaos. And what follows is a bunch of silly twists, crazy characters, and great inside humor for fans.
This team-up also leads to great gameplay as each character has certain special abilities that will help you get through the game’s many puzzles and bad guys. For example, Bowser does high damage, Peach can float long distances with her umbrella, Luigi can jump over high obstacles, and Mario can switch between 2d and 3d to reveal hidden routes. This combined with the little helper pixls (which can allow you to shrink, use a hammer, blow stuff up and much more) leads to a wide range of ways to accomplish your goals. Most of the game plays more like traditional Mario side-scrollers and features none of the turn-based combat featured in other games in the series. This is probably the only time I will ever miss turn-based combat in a game because it was done with such humor that it was actually fun to wait your turn to hit people.
It all controls fairly well with the Wii-mote which is held sideways to give a more old-school feel. The only real problem, though, is the fact that it doesn’t really utilize the Wii’s motion sensing abilities. It seems like a growing trend as most of the great games on the Wii do not use the Wii-mote to it’s full potential. It makes it look more and more like a gimmick.
The graphics and sound are all very well done with a lot of unique style. Having said that, this game could have easily been made on the N64. The graphics are nothing more than basic polygons and sprites. Although it makes sense with the game’s humor and story, it’s just another thing that makes this game seem last-gen. The same thing goes for the sound. There isn’t even any spoken dialogue. Just text boxes. Shouldn’t we be past that by now?
The only other gripe I have with this game besides the fact that it could have been made two generations ago is that it has no real replay value. No multiplayer or different endings. Once you beat the game, all you have left to do is go back and play the same levels again. At least it’s a fairly long game that lasts from 15-20 hours. Especially considering that most games these days only last from 5-10 hours.
All those little annoyances will never overcome the pure fun of this game, however. It’s also one of the few games that are actually worth playing on the Wii. It’s a definite buy for any fans of Mario and a must-buy for people with a dusty Wii.

Score 9 out of 10.