the resigned gamer, everything I hate about the thing I love the most

Super Paper Mari-zzzzz

Posted by Doomeru Woebashi at 2:59 PM on Monday, June 4, 2007

doomeru woebashi's soggy cardboard-covered exhaust grate, the resigned gamer I'm a big fan of the Wii. A huge fan. I believe it will be a success in the same way I believe Mass Effect will be the end-all, be-all of D&D style RPG's. Reality check notwithstanding, once the Wii has more than two worthwhile games that don't involve making caricatures of Richard Nixon and Jesus, my feelings for the system will be born out.

I wish Super Paper Mario had been one of these games. 12 hours in, and it hasn't gotten any harder than World 1-1. I was never a big fan of the Paper Mario series; I prefer my RPG's without timed button presses, but I bought S.P.M. based on its quality appearance and reported platforming elements. 12 hours spent, at least 9 hours of which have involved paging through dialogue that I skip with only a slight measure of guilt. Since when did Mario need plot?

At first it seemed cool that I could level up Mario, finally having a reason to stomp all the bad guys instead of just jumping past them. But all that level-raising doesn't count for much in such a consistently easy game. Your stomping power increases, as does your HP. I've got 40 HP now and you'd have to be blind or accidentally using a Genesis controller to lose.

So, is this a Mario game or not? I can jump on enemies, but I can't run. I can fall down pits but it only shaves off one HP. It has a plot, but it sucks and I can skip it. I've never felt so ambivalent about a game before, and yet here I sit, playing along with Mario until some other game comes along.

1 comments:

alexis [kn0thing] said...

Perhaps you should read a serious analysis from a credible source like Gamespot.

I think you'll find that Super Paper Mario brings Nintendo's quirky role-playing series to the Wii with great results.