Super Paper Mario

Mario adventures primarily come in two flavors: platformer and RPG. Super Paper Mario combines elements of the original sidescrolling Super Mario Bros. platformers with the paper-thin style and RPG-based shenanigans the Paper Mario series is known for. The result? A game that is incredibly trippy. Or perhaps I should say flippy.

The story of Super Paper Mario doesn't attempt to change the old "Peach gets kidnapped, Mario runs off to rescue her" motif, but it certainly applies some interesting twists. A mysterious magician with a Caesar complex named Count Bleck kidnaps Peach just before Bowser can initiate his "awesome" plan to do the same. Everyone but Mario is swept away to another dimension by Count Bleck, who forces a marriage between Bowser and Peach - King Koopa's dream come true, but a nightmare for all worlds as the union sets in motion a cataclysmic prophecy. It's up the world's hardest-working plumber to save the day once again.

Although the introductory sequence is a little long in moving players into the gameplay, the witty writing more than makes up for it. The game is hilarious, and in only a few hours of play I've already burst out laughing more than is probably healthy. Where else but in Super Paper Mario would you find a giant mechanical dragon whose eyes flash with the Wii Shop's loading circle just before going berserk (must have been a server error), then starts rambling off classic lines like, "Your keyboard has malfunctioned, press any key to continue"? Even with its lighthearted tone, the game manages to take itself seriously enough to generate feeling of suspense and genuine interest in the broader plot.

Boss fights in Super Paper Mario are on the scale of Zelda bosses, but much funnier.

Although Super Paper Mario began as a GameCube project, the controls translated smoothly in the move to Wii. Players hold the Wii Remote sideways, jumping with the 2 button and moving with the D-pad. Accessing items and swapping characters (more on that in Stage 2) is done in the menu, accessed via the (+) button. After a Pixl (a pixel fairy that grants Mario a certain ability) joins the party, the 1 button will allow players to employ various powers.

The Pixl Thoreau, for instance, can be thrown at enemies or objects, perhaps to activate a switch or just so Mario can toss an unsuspecting Goomba into a river of quicksand. Your first Pixl, Tippy, makes use of the Wii Remote's motion-sensing abilities. Players can point the Wii Remote at the screen and ask her to reveal invisible objects or provide information about an on-screen enemy, which is all the more helpful because everything on-screen stops moving during that time. Previous Paper Mario games have employed a character like Tippy, but the motion controls make the information-gathering process more seamless (and therefore more useful) than it has ever been before.

Super Paper Mario's biggest innovation is found in its 'flipping' mechanic. During gameplay, a press of the A button will cause a mouse cursor to draw a box around Mario and switch him between 'dimensions', that is, between 2D and 3D. Flipping is crucial to puzzle-solving, and Intelligent Systems proves here that great puzzles are not exclusive to Zelda games.

For instance, there's a grumpy-looking spiked boulder careening down the mountain towards you, and it's too large to jump over. Quick, what do you do? Flip! Mario switches into 3D while the previously unavoidable boulder remains in 2D, which allows players to sidestep out of the way. Later stages combine flipping with Pixl powers for some fairly elaborate puzzles that are sure to invoke a feeling of satisfaction upon completion. The inability to stay in the 3D world for prolonged periods of time without having some life drained adds a further element of strategy to your flip timing.

Flip, you cheeky plumber, flip!

Super Paper Mario differs from its predecessors in that it's not a turn-based RPG. All the RPG elements like Hit Points (HP), leveling-up, items and explorable towns are present, but all actions occur in real-time. Because of this, the pacing is significantly quicker than previous Paper Mario games, but combat is no less entertaining or deep. Most enemies have their own HP and jumping on them or using an item will usually do the trick, with experience points and coins earned after their defeat. Some enemies, however, will require some creative use of flipping, Pixls or a combination thereof in order to vanquish. The most entertaining method of combat so far actually involves no fighting at all - hit a special block, grab the Starman and watch as a giant 8-bit Mario is sketched on screen and let loose to annihilate everything in his path.

Visually, Super Paper Mario is sharp enough to give players a paper cut. The colors are bold and bright, the 2D sprites and 3D models are clean, the animations serve the humorous dialogue well, and the worlds overflow with a trippy sense of style. Watching a new stage draw itself before your eyes when first starting makes the game feel like a storybook truly come to life. The upbeat music, including both original tunes and remixed Mario themes, adds more flavor to each world. They are all looped tracks, but this aspect doesn't detract from the aural pleasantries.

Super Mario Galaxy may be hogging much of the attention, but Super Paper Mario appears to have all the right elements to make it Wii's must-have game for the spring season. Will the mustachioed hero continue to fly in a favorable wind or slip through the cracks? Check back for Stage 2 to find out!

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