Paper Mario

Mario makes his triumphent return to the world of Rpgs, but this time with a new developer. When it comes to making rpgs Square soft is king. Unfortunately this time around Mario had to settle for Intelligent Systems, but this is not a bad thing. Intelligent Systems did a damn good job of creating what will be the last Mario title on N64. They came up with a very innovative way of presenting the standard Mario story line that we are all familiar with.

Ok here's the story, Mario goes to visit the Princess at here castle, when all of a sudden there's a rumble as Bowser's castle rises from below the Princesses and carries it into the sky. Mario fights Bowser, but Bowser is immensly powerful because he has stolen the star rod from star heaven, which grants the wishes of whoever holds it. Mario must then travel through all kinds of different terrains to rescue the seven star spirits if he hopes to ever defeat Bowser and rescue the Princess. Ok while this story is basically the same thing that we've seen from Mario ever since Super Mario Bros. appeared on the NES, the way it is presented keeps it fresh and interesting.

With the highly addictive gameplay and the fact that this is a Mario game, I found myself playing this game for hours on end. Like most other rpgs, whenever you get enough experience points from fighting battles, you gain a new ability plus you meet up new characters that join your party. This kept me wanting to continue playing to see what new move I would learn or what character would join my party next. This game is also good for those who are not use to playing rpgs. the game starts off simple and works up and the controls are well done and simple. As for gaining expereince, everytime you defeat an enemy you gain star points. How much they give you depends on how difficult the enemy is for how powerful you are. Once you accumulate 100 star points you level up. You have the choice of upgrading your Heart Points(health), Flower Points(Which lets you use magic type attacks), and Badge Points(Lets you wear more badges). You may be saying "Badges we don't need no stinkin' badges!" Well you do actually. Wearing badges allows you to do certain attacks you couldn't do before plus increases resistance to certain attacks as well as many other effects. As for party members, there is a total of eight. I was upset to learn however that you can only use two at a time. This makes it alittle unfair when it comes to battling several enemies at once. But the party member variety is very good, with members ranging from a goomba to a ghost and all with unique attacks. I have one major gripe about this game though, and that is during the battles. In a normal rpg you could attack almost any enemy you want with any character unless they were airborn and you had no means of attacking them. However in Paper Mario this is not true. Being as the game is 2-D based in battle modes, you can only attack the first enemy in the line unless you have a jump like attack or your party member can fly. The same is true for your enemies. In most rpgs the enemies attacked different party members at random. In Paper Mario, only Mario gets beat on. This wouldn't be bad except for the fact, if Mario dies, the game is over. Occassionally the enemies use an attack which will disable your other party member, but other than that the attacks are always against Mario. Along those lines, Mario is the only one who can use items. So if you are hurting for energy you have to waste a turn, which sucks because Mario has some of the strongest attacks in the game. While these features add to the difficulty of the game I found them to be irritating at times. As for game time, I had this one beat in under 24 hours, but I still have more items to collect and secrets to search for, which increases the replay value greatly.

Alright, graphics. I know you've all seen pictures and maybe even videos, but until you've played it you have not experienced the visuals fully. Yes, Mario and all the other characters are 2-D. Regardless the 3-D backgrounds were done nicely and add to the entire graphic concept and that is to give the game a storybook appearance. The 2-D characters interact nicely with the 3-D background. When Mario falls a great distance he glides back and forth, like a piece of paper, when Mario rests in an Inn to recharge his health he slides underneath the covers, all adding to the comical value of the game. It's almost as if the designers were making fun of themselves for using 2-D characters. Another element that adds to the storybook quality are the backgrounds during the battle scenes. During battles if you look in the background you will see clouds hanging from ropes that look like a bad prop from a school play. All in all the graphics are not bad or cheesy, they are just different. I think the graphics illustrate very effectivly what Mario is, and that is a children's book story. A hero rescuing a princess from a dragon like creature...cmon if that aint a children's story I don't know what is. So in essence Intelligent Systems used graphics very fitting for
the subject.

Let's talk about audio. It's not great, it's not terrible. It's well......a Mario game. If you've played any Mario game before, then you'll find the music to be very familiar. The different tunes fit well with the different environments, the music picks up pace during battle sequences, and the sound effects work nicely. The audio in Paper Mario works for what it was designed for, but it's nothing Nintendo is gonna put on a cd and market.

The Good!		The Last Word(s): It is very hard to be non-biased as I am a huge Nintendo and Mario mark but,this seriosly is a very good game. I thought the combination of Mario and a rgp format was a good idea the first time, and this is no different. It is very enjoyable to play through the game and meet up with all the recognizable Mario characters from years past. The innovative appearance will keep you interested though not for very long as you can trek through the game in several days. The bottom line though is that this is the last Mario title on the N64 and it lives up to the trend set forth by every other Mario title on any system. Final Rating: 90% Hotter than Prison Sex!
Innovative gameplay and graphics. Dozens of recogonizable characters sure to take you back to your NES and SNES days. Easy to pick up, even if you aren't used to RPGs. It's MARIO!
The Bad...
Pixelated graphics at times. Relatively easy to beat, can be completed in several days.
The UGLY.
The whole gayness of giving only Mario the ability to use items. It's not that bad, but it just pisses me off.