March 12, 2007

This past week, a number of new facts and details emerged about the hyper-anticipated Nintendo title Super Paper Mario. Things like game mechanics, controls, and of course, graphics have been shown off in a demo that Nintendo was generous enough to share at the Game Developers Conference last week. And of course, now the anticipation for this game has now been amped up ten-fold. Thanks, Nintendo.

So what's new in Super Paper Mario? Pretty much everything save for the fact that Mario is still made of paper. First of all, we know quite a bit more about the mechanics and format of the game. Although the previous Paper Mario games have played like an RPG with platformer elements, this one will be the exact opposite: a platforming-type game with RPG elements. You run around jumping on your enemies (in true Mario style) and fight bosses in real-time, instead of the turn-based fighting featured in earlier Paper Mario games. But you'll still be commanding a party, earning experience points, and having control of several other elements that are RPG-esque.

Another very cool thing that will be different in Super Paper Mario will be that Paper Mario will be able to jump to the third dimension. Now of course, he will still be two-dimensional, but you'll have the option of using your Wii-mote to change the view of the level from 2-D to 3-D. So imagine you're facing an obstacle. You can't find a way around it. You flip to the third dimension, and find out you can simply walk around the obstacle. How cool is that? But the third dimension is not something you can move into permanently. Paper Mario has a time limit in the third dimension, and if he exceeds that, he'll start to loose (lose) hit points.

Controls will have you turning your Wii-mote sideways and holding it like you would when playing a NES game on the Virtual Console. You'll use your directional pad to move about, and you'll use the 2 button to jump and perform special moves. You can also use the Wii's motion sensitivity to perform additional special attacks. The A button is also used to shift Mario from 2-D to 3-D, and vice versa.

There's also a new power-up system that utilizes little characters called "pixls". These little guys will help you out by giving you extra abilities like the ability to use bombs or give you extra skinniness to help you get through some tight spots. One pixl even gives you the power to become a giant 8-bit Mario (like in The New Super Mario Bros., but pixilated in 8-bit style).

Graphics look superb in both 3-D and 2-D. This game is one of the first for the Wii to include progressive scan, which allows the game to run in a sharper widescreen format. Paper Mario walks around in a smooth and beautifully detailed environment in the third dimension, and in the 2-D mode, the graphics are reminiscent of every old Mario game you ever loved.

Super Paper Mario still looks like a great game, and it looks even better now that we know even more about it. It releases next month, so we'll all see soon enough if Super Paper Mario is worth the hype that early looks seem to be generating.

By Amanda L. Kondolojy
CCC Freelance Writer

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