As a Mario title from Nintendo, “ Super Paper Mario” for the Wii offers up the expected candy-coloured visuals, a squad of your favourite Mario-universe characters and an engaging mix of 2-D and 3-D gameplay. It also avoids many (not all) of the nerdy RPG (role-playing) elements of its “ Paper Mario” predecessors seen on GameCube and N64 in favor of more breezy, platform-hopping action.
Generously infused with humor, albeit in a wordy, text-heavy way (which might blunt some of its charms for younger gamers), half of Mario's new gig is like his earlier ones: 2-D side-scrolling, platform-hopping challenges with jumps, attacks, perils and power-upa intact. The other half, the new part of the new part of new gig, is that gameplay can suddenly and regularly estrude into a complete 3-D world behind world, or perpendicular to it, hodong just beyond the 2-D facade, as it were. You can't stay in that fleshed-out world for a very long without taking damage, so whatever you do there, you do quickly.
A single button press flips the perspective, which is candy when Mario's progress in the 2-D side view is impeded by some seemingly insurmountable barrier or, for example, a hallway-long chain of altenative, deadly stomping-stones, so a quick jump to 3-space shows that the “obstruction” is nothing more than a skimpy piece of paper-thin set dressing that can be maneuvered around on the hotherto-invisible Z-axis. Similarly, you'll see doorways “ahead” of you in the 3-D view that were not visible in the side-scrolling view (as they would have appered side-on, as mere line marking an object's edge. Get it?)
You also play as more than just Mario-more like your own private coalition of the willing. Mario is by far the most useful, mind you, as he's the only one who can traverse the 3-D, while the others, restricted to the classic Mario side view, have their own unique abilities.
Bowser can hunker down and wipe out enemies simply with a belch of flame, Peach can float and glide gently across gaps that would defeat other characters and Luigi can jump to great highs with a single bound ( the show-off). Ultimately, it all comes back to Mario, but the others are fun to use in as they're needed.
You'll also utilize a collection of fairy-esque companions called Pixls, menu-selectable assistants that can decrease Mario's size, pull hidden 3-D objects to there forefront of the 2-D world or offer hovering platforms on which to hop, etc.
Between the clever challenges, good control, simple minigames and crack-in-that-wall side quests, ” Super Paper Mario” is worthy of the ingenious Wii. Better still, it doesn't force-feed you with any contrived gesture-based mechanics, just usable ones
