Paper Mario

"The sprites aren't the only thing flat here!"

Admittedly, I wasn't so sure about this game even before I bought it. I knew I would inevitably compare the game to the god-like Mario RPG. And I wasn't too pleased with all this talk about the flat graphics, either. While I'm all for experimentation, some things aren't meant to be. It turns out that flat characters would be the least of my worries....

Plot Summary:

Bowser kidnaps the Princess. Revolutionary, eh? Let's not waste space reiterating the obvious and get to the review, shall we?

As usual, the good first:

Graphics: 7/10

The experiment was successful. The characters are all 2D sprites that are paper thin, hence the name ''Paper Mario'' (I really shouldn't have to explain that, should I?). While that fact isn't earth shattering, what is more impressive is that the characters move around in a fully three dimensional plane. That could have been a recipe for disaster, but I was pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly these two conflicting elements merged together.

As is usual for a Mario game, the graphics are vibrant and just generally well done. They set the mood quite well. All of the races (Goomba, Koopa, etc.) look just like their 8 and 16 bit cousins, but are more detailed. This is a change from the earlier Mario RPG, where the graphics had more of a dull sheen. This style is much more reflective of the Mario universe.

As for some negatives, the graphics just seem a tad generic to my eyes. There wasn't any real eye-popping stuff going on here. And the font just didn't really cut it with me. It's hard to read from far off. It's got a kinda Vagrant Story-ish handwritten style that looks only a step above a first grader's print.

Music: 5/10

Let me start by saying that the tunes are all solid. There isn't one really bad track on the whole game. The problem is that there wasn't any really good music, either. The music is middle-of-the-road average all the way. What would have made the music is some remixes of standard Mario tunes. Admittedly, my memory for a game's music is poor, but I don't recall very many old-school songs.

Sound: 8/10

I usually score Sound with Music, but it most definitely deserves its own section. All the old sound effects are present. The jump sounds the same. Jumping on a Koopa sounds the same. It's always nice to have a bit of nostalgia now and then, just as long as you don't live in the past. Like I tend to do...oh, well. This is another area where Mario RPG is surpassed. It's also the last.

And so the hatchet job begins.

Difficulty: 4/10

Maybe it should read ''Lack of Difficulty''. This game was obviously made for an elementary school student. While things can be a bit difficult early on due to an insanely low starting HP, things just get easier as the game progresses. That would be the opposite way of doing things, kiddies. Put a check by that. The only thing that will be tough is to try and find something tough. Combat is both extremely simple and repetitive. And with that smooth transition:

Gameplay: 3/10

And now we come to that section of the review known as ''The Flaw'' or ''The Game Killer''. It would be Number Two in this case. The core of any good RPG is its battle system. It's what you do more than anything else, so if it suffers (pay attention, Koudelka designers!) then, in my eyes, the rest of the game suffers. What we have here is an extremely easy to use battle system that only people named Earl would find challenging to use. I don't have a problem with easy to use systems just as long as there is meat to them. In keeping with that line of thought, this system would have the title ''Vegan Paradise''!

In a blatant theft from the preceding Mario RPG, an attempt at making combat more interesting was established. You know, timing the attacks, blah, blah, blah. But where the two differ is that you absolutely must time the attacks or do the little button and stick combinations for the attacks to be even a little effective. It might just be me, but holding the stick to the right for two or three seconds or bashing B until your thumb bleeds is not the way to go. Combat is more of a redundant labor than an integral part of the game.

As for the actual controlling of Mario on the field, there aren't quite as many problems. They're just worse. First off, Mario moves like a slug on depressants. I'm talking slow, people! It takes way to long to walk to the other side of town. Thankfully, this is remedied by a spin move that whisks you forward. But who wants to spin everywhere you go? Not I! The jumping seems to be a bit off, as well. It might well be my imagination, but Mario seems to have lost a few inches of vertical air. You don't have to jump too often, but when you do, it can be a real pain. It's also tough to line up jumps at times, too.

Well, there you have it. While not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, it's good for a rainy day when there's nothing else. Just consider yourself forewarned!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/01, Updated 04/02/01