Look at me, putting words on the internets. Okay, so anyways, I just got a chance to finish Super Paper Mario, and now, as chief director of cheify direction, and the guy who spends a lot of time thinking deeply about video games, I decided to write another review. So this is how I start things off.
Super Paper Mario is a video game, which is super, made out of paper, and features everybody’s favorite overweight Italian plumber. But he’s probably my second favorite. SPM starts off the same as every paper game, Mario sitting at home talking to his brother. The two chat about the days events… well Luigi chats, Mario nods and says “Oh Yeah.” Luigi claims that it’s been a while since Bowser has been up to any kidnaping of princesses. So the Giga Crush Brosephs make their way to Bowsers castle, only to learn that he hadn’t kidnapped Peach, and he was just getting ready for a night on the town. So anyways, stuff happens and then this rather dapper gentleman, wearing space shows up. He calls himself Count Bleck and says Bleck a lot and narrates his life, much like I do, Mico noted. Anyways, Bleck is a bad dude, and he’s packing heat. He sends everybody away except for ol’ fatso who meets up with a rainbow butterfly named Tippi. So red-shirt here goes to a town called Flipsville where he meets this old wizard named Merlon, Merlon sends him across the multiverse to find these things called Pure Hearts, and by pure I mean real. Mario just tears out people’s hearts and shoves them into magical pillars revealing doors that take him across the many planets and spaces. The Pure Hearts are also needed to counteract the Chaos Heart, which was forged in the fires of Mount Doom, or Bowser and Peach’s wedding. Yes, I did just say that, Bowser and Peach are forced into marriage, which Bowser was all for, you know, until it created the sole means to destroy everything ever, and this marriage convinces Bowser to join Mario’s side, you see, in this game instead of playing as just Mario and some minion the player gets to control Peach, Bowser and Luigi, all of which have special abilities necessary for the achievement of total world domination… Oh, what’s that? Right, right. I mean the exact opposite of that.
Speaking of playing as four different chums, this game doesn’t handle the same as other Paper Marty-o games. This game doesn’t feature turn based combat, instead you just jump on things heads and get over with your day. Which almost makes this game a lot easier, another difference in enjoyment is that the game doesn’t take place in 3-D space, I mean it does, but it doesn’t, but it also kind of does, but that’s not where it takes place. This game is a side-scroller for the most part, but Mario gains the ability to flip things into all three of the dimensions giving you a whole different out-look on life, and it really makes you wonder if life is just some kind of mystery, you know?
So anyways, it’s a whole lot different, and in a totally good way. I was personally expecting that I’d just play the game just to beat it, since I’ve already got the first two under my belt, I mean literally. But I was surprised with how the game drew me in, at first it was all mustache jokes and nerd parodies, then all of a sudden they tell this deep story, and the game quickly goes from “omg dis faunny :)” to “omg dis make me delete my facebook account :(” at the end I was a volatile whirlwind of emotion, and the fantastic music doesn’t help me get my pride back after weeping for 45 minutes. The fact that the music can make you feel how it wants you to feel just as soon as it changes songs is a whole other story that could take me months just to scratch the surface of the psychology Nintendo was mounding under some treble clefs. Go to Youtube and search “Super Paper Mario O’Chunks theme”, then go and search for “Super Paper Mario Promise” (The links are at the bottom) the difference in the music that plays within 2 minutes from each other is amazing, and yanks your feelings around like a kid with a leash. One song sounds like you’re gearing up for some kind of epic fight, then all of a sudden you’re hearing about this tale rivaling Romeo and Juliet. This game is deep, the story is touching yet without losing that comedic overtone Paper Mario games have, seriously Chapter 3 makes the entire game worth playing, and the word “crag”. It’s hi-technicaaaaaaal brah. lol
I could hype this game up for a long time, and I’m gonna keep on hyping it up. Not only did I invest 20 hours through the span of the last 2 days to beat this game, but I’m debating doing it again just to soak in all the Papery goodness. I sort of miss the traditional Paper Mario feel, and in my opinion The Thousand Year door was the definite experience, it had everything a guy wanted, but Super Paper Mario just overwhelms you with a sense that this is a world that you want to keep around.
On a scale from My Little Pony to something fun Super Paper Mario gets around a well-placed mustache joke. If you got yourself a Wii and like 20 bucks, pick this crap up!