Ever lament that Mario, eternally stuck in two dimensions, can't just walk around all those evil mushrooms and turtles instead of having to jump over them? In Super Paper Mario, he can: one press of a button, and the 2-D world "flips" into three dimensions, revealing a whole new world of hidden secrets. Add a story and graphic design that are as wacky as the gameplay concept, and you've got the Wii's latest must-have game.
The unique paper-doll graphic style is lifted from Nintendo's Paper Mario role-playing games, but the gameplay is now more action-oriented. So instead of engaging enemies in turn-based strategy battles, you'll attack them directly as you move through the game's wild variety of different levels, which include bizarre scenes like an otaku's apartment and an underworld where game characters go to die.
As you might have guessed, Super Paper Mario is an unabashedly self-referential goof on gaming culture. The game's hilarious script mocks the Mario series and stupid game tasks in general, taking delight in making the player do senseless things like run on a hamster wheel for minutes on end.
If Super Paper Mario has a weak point, it's that in attempting to straddle two genres, it doesn't do either as well as the series' more straightforward games. The run-and-jump action that feels so good in games like New Super Mario Bros. gets a bit repetitive here towards the game's end. But that shouldn't keep you from enjoying one of the most original games of the year.
__—__Chris Kohler
WIRED 3-D flipping mechanic is clever and exploited well, hilarious writing
TIRED Doesn't do platforming as well as its predecessors
$50, Nintendo
Rating:
(Note: I originally put in the wrong score of 8. It should have been 9. A thousand pardons. - CK)
