Paper Mario

"Paper + Mario = Instant classic"

Paper Mario. The two words together bring curiosity to most gamers, and the game itself greatly rewards those who listen to their curiosity. Released by Nintendo in late 2000, Paper Mario captivated the minds of many as being a fun, light-hearted, and interesting Mario RPG. While the name Mario brings side scrolling or free roaming levels for many, Paper Mario incorporates both ideas and sticks a compelling story line in to sort of break the mold that traditional Mario gamers have come to love and cherish. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You still get to collect coins, smash enemies and attempt to save the beautiful Princess Peach, but it’s now done in a more interesting RPG fashion. With gameplay and story comparable to the legendary Super Mario RPG (SNES), who could possibly shun this game? I read praises similar to these from friends before I bought the game, so I thought I’d give a stab at it and see what it was all about. Blindly handing over $70 (Canadian), I hurried home at the fastest legal pace.

After finally getting home, I excitedly tore the shrink-wrap off like a 3 year old on Christmas day, and stuck the cartridge into the Nintendo 64 with haste. For the next 15 hours, I was glued to the chair with dazzling FMV’s, awesome battles, and an engrossing plot that could bring light to even the darkest soul.

Story

The game starts off with Mario being invited to a party of Princess Peaches. Of course, being the humble plumber that he is, he accepts and goes to the castle, oblivious to the darkness that lurks ahead. Princess Peach summons Mario to a quiet hallway outside the main area to thank him for coming. But Bowser has his own ideas as he crashes through the window. Mario knows he can beat Bowser, but Bowser is undaunted this time. Before gallivanting into the castle, Bowser stole the Star Rod from Star Heaven, which means he now has the power to grant any wish to himself. But still, Mario can beat Bowser right? Wrong. Bowser knocks Mario aside with ease and succeeds in the prologue to his evil plans. Bowser then uproots the castle and has it suspended in the stars above to make sure Mario has no chance of reaching him. But not all hope is lost. The little power that the star spirits have left is given to Mario to revive him, and from that point on, it is his sole mission to recover the seven owners of the stars and return Princess Peaches kingdom to its former glory.

Sure this sounds like any other Mario game, but I must say again that this is much different from the others. Throughout the game, there are many plot changes and side quests to add depth. There are many well wishers and evildoers aplenty but the evil doers shouldn’t be a problem if you have good fighting skills. The length of the story is also quite impressive for a Mario game. I found that just going through it once takes the average gamer 15 to 20 hours. Which is excellent considering you can blaze through the first Super Mario Brothers in 45 minutes. A classic Mario story molded with an in-depth story makes Paper Mario the pick of the litter in my opinion. There are just so many great things (that I don’t want to spoil) in the game that you would be crazy not to play it through at least once. It may not have the stature of Super Mario RPG, but it sure as hell deserves it.
10/10

Gameplay

I’ve never really reviewed an RPG type game before, so I’m just figuring out how to make an effective gameplay review. To accomplish this, I am going to divide it in to ‘Out of battle exploration’, ‘Battle/Battle System’, and last but not least ‘Items and Experience gain’. Hopefully I’ll be able to cover all of it so here it goes!

Out of battle exploration

Surprisingly, there are a lot of things to do outside of battles in Paper Mario, whether it is Quiz shows, mini quests, or just plain exploring. The areas in this game are just MASSIVE, just brimming with items and secrets for you to uncover. One drawback that I found though was the fact that Mario is very slow when it comes to traveling. It may just be the fact that he is so small compared to the surroundings on the screen, but it takes forever to get to and from most places. You would think a paper thin character would be pretty aerodynamic, but what can you do?

There are many worlds in which Mario must explore, whether it is a dense and lush rainforest, or a baron and unforgiving desert, its well designed. With Mario’s speed problem and the size of some of these levels, you might be thinking that non-linear travel is out of the question, but everywhere you go, there’s some sort of reward, whether it be a coin block, an item you’ve been looking for, or a badge that you are in need of. These rewards greatly enhance the RPG feel, and maybe future role playing games could learn from this game, because it was just done right.

Another great thing when you’re out of battle, you can see your enemies. It reminds me a lot of Chrono Trigger, since before then, RPG makers were rather prone to having random battles, which can be a pain in the butt after a while, or when your trying to save your health. So if you’re trying to make it to somewhere while protecting your HP, you can just dodge your enemies. But beware, not all enemies are easy to dodge, and sometimes you’ll be forced in to battle. Thankfully, Nintendo used a simple, yet effective way to judge who gets the first turn in battle. If you see an enemy on the screen, and it comes towards you, you must hit it first to get a preemptive strike in battle, if they strike you before you get the chance, they get the first attack. Sadly, this doesn’t work with bosses so that’s out of the question. On to how the battles really work!

Battle System

Like many other elements in the game, the battle system is simple, yet effective. Once you enter battle, it is up to you to figure out the best way to dispose of the enemies at hand. You can do so by jumping them, hitting them with your hammer, using items, or Star Power. To jump your enemy is just to stomp them on the head, it isn’t some kind of exaggerated jump like in other role playing games, just a simple bop on the head, but there are some enemies where jumping isn’t the most effective method of killing them. That’s where the hammer comes in. The hammer is upgraded throughout the game, and basically all it does is use Mario’s forearm power to greatly exert force on an enemy. If you feel like using a more magic oriented approach, that’s where items and Star Power come in. Both of these have varying attacks that can damage anywhere from one to all of your enemies at once.

But you aren’t just limited to Mario. Mario accumulates a variety of partners throughout the game that are benefited by working with Mario, and Mario gets the benefit of there fighting powers. All of your partners have unique attacks that are powerful against certain types of enemies, and they’re really handy in battles, because not only do you get Mario’s turn in battle, you get your partners too.

The attack system is very basic. Your party attacks, the enemies attack. It just goes back and forth until one side is wiped out, and hopefully you’re not on the side that’s dead. This approach to turn based combat makes a lot of sense to me, and sometimes I wonder why other games haven’t bothered incorporated it into their games. It may be simple, but it works. I must congratulate Nintendo for making such a simplistic, yet entertaining battle system. Anyone could get an idea of how it works almost instantly, which is a big help.

Experience gain and Items

As with almost all role-playing games, Paper Mario gives you experience points at the end of battle. But instead of using an ever-progressing number to tally when you have enough experience points to move on, Paper Mario uses star points. After every battle with a common enemy you get 2-3 star pieces per enemy. Once you reach 100 Star Points, you are given the chance to level up one of three things. There are the health points, which give you extra HP. There are the flower points, which act as an MP by letting you pull off extra moves. And last but not least, there are the badge points. Badge points, unlike the others, give you room to use power from badges. Say you had the +5 HP badge and you decided to equip it? Well your total HP would go up by 5 points. It’s completely up to you how you level up, which is the great thing about this game. It’s so customizable! You could be a super HP warrior with 110 health but no special moves, or you could be a 10 HP screaming target for attacks, but be able to unleash furious moves with your flower points, or you could just have lots and lots of badges equipped for special moves too! It’s all up to you!

‘But are there any items?’ you ask. Well, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of different items throughout the game, but I wish there were more. I mean there are many different items for many different purposes like attacks, health, or even just quirky items you need for quests. But I still think they could have added more. After you reach the midway point in the game, many of the items in the game are accessible to you, and I just don’t like that idea. It leaves no room for changes later in the game.

As you can see, Paper Mario is full of exciting things to see and do. The sheer amount of places and things to explore is almost mind-boggling. From the amount of stuff I covered in the gameplay section, you know this is a game you can’t miss. But I’m not done yet!
10/10

Graphics

Like the rest of the game, the graphics are not run of the mill, or even great…they are excellent! Never in my life have I seen lush, detailed 3 dimensional worlds collide with 2 dimensional characters and come out of the rumble looking so good. Mario looks so clean and crisp in his paper state, and so do all the other characters. Not only that, but also when you turn around or something, you see no sign of 3D animation, just the pointy, paper-thin sides of Mario.

Mario’s partners and even the creatures in the background are well animated. You can tell there was an attention to detail when every character in the game is unique in some way. For instance, when you walk into a village, all its inhabitants look different in some way, whether it is their clothes, their hair, or their face. It all goes together to make a great experience.

Last but not least, the backdrops and buildings look absolutely breathtaking. A few examples would be the Ice area, and the Rainforest area. In the rainforest area, there is dense foliage surrounding the land. Beside some of the areas are pools of crystal clear water that shimmer with the beauty of nature. But in contrast, the Ice level is full of snow (that you can leave footprints in) and ice that is almost more impressing than the water is. You will awe at the beauty that the ice mirrors have and just remember, this game is full of levels like this! I must say that Nintendo has outdone themselves with this game.
10/10

Sound

C’mon, this is Nintendo! What do you expect? A crappy soundtrack? Well if that’s what you think, better think again, because Paper Mario has one of THE best soundtracks for any game on the Nintendo 64. Each world has its own theme song that somehow gives you a feel for the area you are in. For example, the desert level plays a song with an Arabian feel, to make it feel like the actual cities in the deserts of Arab countries. It’s the same case in many levels; the music reflects your surroundings. And for me, I think that idea works.

Sure its all good on the outside, but once you get in battles, it gets even better. The battles don’t blare dark songs that make you almost panic and want to quit; they play quirky tunes that give battles a lighter feel. It really helps in clearing the mind so you can figure out which attacks to use. Also, the attacks all have sound effects, which can be altered via a badge, which is a little extra fun. When it all boils down to it. The use of sound in Paper Mario is above average, but just not classic.
9/10

Controls

Nintendo 64 is known for its wide array of buttons on its controller, and I am glad to say that Paper Mario has taken an odd controller, and mapped it well enough so that you can play long amounts of Paper Mario without your hand getting tired. One thing that bothers me though, is the fact that Mario is so slow. I mean he can’t really run, he can’t really do much other then jog and walk. Guess our fat little plumber is saving his energy for the battles. But still, everything else in the game is a breeze to pull off with these easy to learn controls.
10/10

Difficulty---Easy

Hey, I’m usually not that good at RPG’s, I struggle through most of them barely making it by the final bosses. This was the first one I had no trouble with. The weaknesses of the enemies are almost clearly stated every time, which is kind of a letdown if you’re looking for challenge. Its lack of difficulty is sort of a let down for many RPG lovers, but this it’s a great way to introduce a young gamer or someone who has never played a role-playing game to the genre.

Replay Value

Yet another bad part about Paper Mario is its dismal replay value. I won’t ruin the ending, but it doesn’t make you want to play through the game again, and the fact that it freezes at the end (as in there is no way to save it after you beat it) really annoys me. Nintendo could’ve changed this… why didn’t they? WHY NINTENDO?? WHY?! If you were really gripped throughout the story, then I bet you’ll want to play through a few more times, which boosts the replay value, but doesn’t make it great.
3/10

Pros
-Great story
-Great battle system
-Great graphics
-Great music
-Great almost everything else

Cons
-Awful replay value
-Too easy

The pros far outweigh the cons in Paper Mario, which is the way all Mario games have been, and how they should be. That’s why Mario games have always set the standard for what video games should be and other games have followed. In the media today, I’m sure that Mario is more known and popular than any other video game character out there. And it’s because of games like this that he has that reputation. If you are in the market to either buy or rent this game, don’t hesitate to buy it. It combines a great platform game with a great RPG to get astounding results. I repeat, don’t hesitate, and buy immediately. Even if its $50, spring for it, you’ll be glad you did.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/02, Updated 08/20/02