Paper Mario

"It's about damn time!"

Finally, Nintendo has brought us Paper Mario, the long-awaited pseudo-sequel to Super Mario RPG for the SNES. Paper Mario nicely fills the RPG void on the N64, previously uninhabited save for the almost universally hated Quest 64 and the strategy/RPG Ogre Battle 64. Admittedly, Paper Mario isn’t a “true” RPG either. Rather, it’s a unique mix of RPG and platformer elements, blended together for maximum enjoyment.

GRAPHICS: 8/10
Possibly the most unique aspect of Paper Mario, the graphics are certainly something interesting to behold. The backgrounds are strictly 3D. However, a large majority of the characters are 2D. This creates an interesting “flipping” effect when you turn your character. It can also be funny, such as when Mario falls from high up and floats the ground like, well, a piece of paper. Problems do begin to occur when the camera zooms in on a character, and it becomes pixelated.

SOUND/MUSIC: 6/10
Nothing special here, with just typical Mario sound effects and music. Paper Mario was probably limited in this area due to the N64’s power (or lack of). At least if you don’t like the battle sound effects, you have the option to change them with certain badges.

CONTROL: 10/10
Unlike most RPGs, control is important to Paper Mario, due to its platformer elements. Thankfully, it’s pulled off fairly well. For example, how far you push the control stick determines how fast Mario walks, which is crucial to getting past some enemies. Also, though they are not hard to cross, pinpoint jumping sequences are thankfully few and far between.

STORY: 4/10
Guess what? Bowser kidnaps the Princess, and Mario has to save her! Betcha didn’t see that one coming! Paper Mario’s “reasoning” behind this is that Bowser has stolen the Star Rod, which is capable of granting any wish, and granted himself great power. He has also kidnapped the seven Star Spirits responsible for the Star Rod. It’s up to Mario to save them so they can grant him the power to defeat Bowser once and for all. And it just so happens that every time Mario saves a Star Spirit, he also helps a certain group of creatures, whether it be Yoshis, Koopas, or even Boos.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
Discovery/Exploration
Most of Paper Mario is spent walking around, talking to people, going into buildings, and the like. Most conversations are pointless, with a few providing hints or advancing the story. They are also accompanied by annoying sound effects supposedly representing the person talking. While exploring, you occasionally have to solve puzzles. Most can be solved by using a party member’s ability, but there are a couple of trickier ones. There are also a few jumping puzzles, contributing to the platformer feel.

Also of note in this area are the sequences at the end of each chapter, which IGN Guides refers to as “Peach Gear Solid.” Using Peach, they involve sneaking out of your room and avoiding guards so you can get useful information to help Mario. How does Mario get this information, you ask? Well, Peach is accompanied by a Star Kid named Twink, who delivers the information to Mario. Also, Peach can find items in the castle and put them in a special chest so Mario can retrieve them.

Battle!
The fun starts when you spot an enemy (none of that random battle crap). Your first goal is to get the “First Strike.” This means hammering or jumping on an enemy to start the battle. This results in Mario doing some damage before the first turn of the battle. Of course, the enemies can get a First Strike as well, so you have to be on your toes. Battles do require a certain amount of strategy, as either jumping or hammer attacks can be ineffective against certain types of enemies. This isn’t one of those RPGs where you can just keep hitting “Attack” while you’re battling, however. Once you get a certain item in the game, you can attempt to increase the damage you do or decrease the damage you receive by pressing certain buttons at the correct times. Some of these are easy, while others require more skill. Either way though, you have to pay attention to what’s going on.

When you start the game, Mario is a weakling, with only 10 Heart Points (think Hit Points), 5 Flower Points (Magic Points), and 3 Badge Points. Every time Mario collects 100 Star Points (Experience Points), however, he will go up a level, and you can choose one of those three stats to upgrade. Badges can do many things, which is discussed later. The main importance to battle is that Badges can add FP-using moves to Mario’s arsenal, which can make him more of a force to be reckoned with.

Of course, Mario is not alone in battle. Over the course of the game, eight characters will join your party, ranging from a Goomba to a Lakitu. These members also get a turn in a battle to use a move they possess, whether it be an attack, or possibly a move to increase their own or Mario’s abilities. These allies don’t have Heart Points like Mario does...instead, occasionally an enemy attack will knock them out of commission for a few turns.

Finally, each time Mario rescues a Star Spirit, he gets a new ability to use in battles. There is a separate “Star Point” bar for these abilities, each of which requires a certain amount of Star Points to execute. These Star Points regenerate slowly every turn, or Mario can Focus to regenerate them quicker. These abilities greatly vary from each other. A couple restore Mario’s HP, a couple attack the enemies, and a couple affect the enemy’s status.

Collection
No platformer (even if it’s an RPG/platformer) worth its salt is without items to collect, and Paper Mario has a bunch of them. Firstly, there are 160 Star Pieces. These can be found out in the open, given to you by other people, by answering quizzes, or even hidden under the ground. The significance of Star Pieces is that one person will trade you Badges for your Star Pieces. (Badges are covered separately below.) There is also a person in town that can cook foods for you based on items you give her. There are 50 recipes to be discovered this way.

Badges are the real meat of the game, and there are supposedly 80 of them to collect. This isn’t really the case, however, as some of those 80 are duplicates. A majority of these Badges are found somewhere out in the open. There are two other ways to get them though: you can buy them from a person in town, and you can trade your Star Pieces for them with a certain person. These badges give Mario a world of new abilities, such as giving him new attacks, making him more powerful, or even changing the sound effects within a battle.

Of course, Paper Mario has typical RPG items, such as HP and FP restoring items. There are also items that attack enemies or affect the enemy’s status.

REPLAY: Medium
If you collect everything you so desire to collect your first time through, there’s no reason to play through Paper Mario a second time. Collecting everything could take a long time, however; possibly 30+ hours. If you don’t collect everything, you can probably beat the game within 20-25 hours.

CHALLENGE: Low
The only part of Paper Mario with any difficulty is at the very beginning, when you’re low on HP and faced with hordes of enemies. Soon enough, however, the game becomes a cakewalk. The bosses won’t even prevent you much of a challenge; I personally defeated them all with only one attempt.

BUY/RENT: It depends...
If you’re looking to collect everything in the game, you should probably buy it, since it’s worth that much money for 30+ hours of gameplay. If you’re like me, however, and just want to beat it, it’s probably better to rent the game a couple a times and play it religiously during that time to beat it. You’ll have saved $30-40 will still experiencing everything you wanted to experience.

PROS: Fun battles, unique mix of platformer and RPG.
CONS: Story weak for being an RPG, not worth playing through twice.

OVERALL (not an average): 8/10
Being one of an endangered breed on the N64, Paper Mario is definitely a must-play. It will deliver solid enjoyment while you’re journeying through the adventure. However, whether it’s worth $50 for twenty hours of gameplay remains to be seen. The weak story really detracts from the overall experience, especially for it being an RPG. Still, it’s a sold effort to introduce N64 owners to a different genre.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/01, Updated 01/07/02