Paper Mario

Plugging Paper Mario into your N64 is like plugging in a piece of 
history.  From the openining story to the final credits, the game is 
vintage Mario.

Comparisons to Super Mario RPG are nearly impossible to get away from, 
since Paper Mario started out as a sort of "Super Mario RPG 2".  Having 
said that, I'm glad to also say that the game compares quite favourably 
to it's Square-built predecessor.

One of the things Super Mario RPG did really well was mixing the design 
of the Super Mario games with the design of a traditional RPG.  It made 
for an entertaining "action RPG" that played quite a bit differently 
from any other role playing game available at the time.  Nintendo's own 
Intelligent Systems has taken this mixture of gameplay to a new level in 
Paper Mario.  For starters, the game allows you to "stomp" your 
opponents, or whack them with a hammer, before entering the battle 
screen.  This makes travelling around the maps much more of an action-
oriented affair than Super Mario RPG, and in fact, it feels a lot like 
playing a classic Mario game.  The camera perspective and two-
dimensional character graphics help as well - they give you a sense of 
playing a side-scroller, even though the game is three-dimensional.

The battles also take Square's design a step further.  The "timed hits" 
from the original game are expanded to a variety of controller stick 
motions and button pushes.  It adds some variety to the fighting, and 
the battles definitely require more dexterity than the average menu-
based RPG.  The game also simplifies pretty much all of the statistics 
that are normally associated with roleplaying games; by the end of the 
game, you'll be lucky if Mario can cause more than 8 HP of damage with 
his most powerful attacks.  This isn't necessarily bad, in fact, like 
many of the other design changes, it makes the game feel more like a 
Mario game. Enemies aren't supposed to have thousands of hit points in 
Mario's world.  They're usually lucky if they can withstand one lousy 
attack.  This game acknowledges that, but usually (although not always), 
manages to maintain enough complexity to still be interesting.

I've been plodding through matters of design so far, so why not take a 
break and talk about something more simple, like graphics?  A lot of 
players have claimed disappointment with Paper Mario's graphics, but 
personally, I think they're rather clever.  You really need to play the 
game to appreciate how well the flat characters have been integrated 
into their environments, and some of the cute tricks the game pulls, 
such as Mario floating back and forth like a sheet of paper when he 
falls a long way.  Having said that, the character sprites are rather 
small, and there are some places where the camera zooms in so close on 
them that they turn into somewhat less attractive blobs of anti-aliased 
pixels.  I didn't find this that annoying, unlike some other reviewers, 
but it certainly isn't impressive.

The environments are sort of three-dimensional, but as I mentioned 
earlier, the game uses a fixed perspective that gives it a two-
dimensional feel.  It's reminiscent of old-school beat 'em ups like 
Final Fight and Double Dragon.  The environments are decent all-around, 
though certainly not as impressive as more sophisticated N64 games.  The 
game also sports some pretty neat special effects, my favourite being 
the "disco ball" lights that appear in certain places, such as Star 
Hill.

The sound effects are just as wacky as you'd expect from a classic Mario 
game.  There are no voice samples here, just lots of bleeps and bloops.  
The soundtrack is quite appropriate (and really impressive in a few 
places).  I especially liked some of the little "bonuses" Intelligent 
Systems hid around the game, such as the phonograph that plays the 
original Mario theme according to how quickly you press the A button.  
That thing is almost as much fun as playing the Ocarina in Zelda.

 The gameplay is all quite familiar, although a few minor additions have 
been made.  Fighting is quite exciting, compared to many turn-based RPGs 
and it's nice that you can see your enemies before fighting them - it 
makes it possible to avoid fights when you want to.  I have one minor 
complaint which is sort of one part gameplay and one part design: There 
is a pretty strict limit on how high Mario's levels can go.  This is a 
bit annoying, because the game allows you to collect "badges" which 
power Mario up, but you can only wear so many badges, according to how 
high your badge points are.  The limit on Mario's levels (and therefore, 
his badge points) is so low that there are a lot of badges you will 
probably never use - they just aren't useful enough to warrant throwing 
away all of those badge points.

As far as depth goes, the game is not bad at all.  Players who were 
afraid that this game might go the way of Yoshi's Story needn't worry.  
I have heard mixed reviews on exactly how hard the game is; I actually 
found myself dying a lot more than I do in most RPGs, but most players 
complain that the game is too easy.  Either way, it should provide you 
with at least 20 hours of gameplay, which is not bad at all, and the 
average player will probably require more like 30 hours to beat the 
game.  The game also includes a number of mini games and distractions 
(such as Luigi's diary) to keep you occupied after you've finished off 
Bowser.  Still,  I have to admit, there isn't quite as much depth here 
as in Super Mario RPG.

The one other area where Super Mario RPG wins is in the storyline.  Say 
what you will about Square, but they know how to write an entertaining 
story.  Paper Mario's story seems to be sort of a shadow of Super Mario 
RPG.  It has some good jokes in it, and it's more compelling than the 
average Mario game, but it just can't stack up to Super Mario RPG in 
terms of character development and originality.

Nevertheless, it is an incredibly fun and addictive game that really 
captures the spirit of Mario.  And let's face it, on the N64, RPGers 
can't be choosers.  This game is probably tied with Ogre Battle 64 for 
best RPG on the system, in my opinion, and it's great fun for Mario 
fans.  I highly recommend it.  I should note, finally, that I'm probably 
giving it a slightly higher score than I should, simply because it's 
been so long since I played a good RPG.  If I owned a Playstation, I 
probably wouldn't rate it so highly, but Paper Mario still deserves a 
high score on any console.

Rating: 94%