|
Quick Summary: In Mario's second RPG, and his first one for the Nintendo 64, Bowser steals the Star Rod and makes his wishes come true. He kidnaps the Princess and defeats Mario, leaving him "dead". But Mario is not dead after all! He must gather and work with eight friends, rescue the seven entrapped Star Spirits, earn the Star Beam, and defeat Bowser in a rematch. Scoring Comments: All fields will be scored on a scale of seven Stars. If a field is absolutely perfect, I will give it seven Stars and a Twink. Story Line: Mario fans will appreciate the story line, and I liked it myself, but it could have been much deeper because this game is an RPG. In most RPGs that I know of, the story is very intricate, and not all is revealed until after the final fight, or very shortly before then. In Paper Mario, nearly all of the plot is known right away. It's not even an especially original plot. There are a lot of cinema scenes at first, but later in the game there is only one after every chapter or so. Nintendo could have done better here. Graphics: Most reviewers that I know of pan the graphics as being bad. I don't think they are bad. To me bad graphics means inconsistant, like one object may look fine but other objects just don't look right. All the graphics are made the same way; everything looks like paper except for this one bird flying over the water. My complaint is that Nintendo could have gone all out with a 3D adventure that looked 3D. Super Mario RPG looked really good for a Super Nintendo game, and the graphics there looks better than in this game. After seeing Mario's latest games, including this one, Yoshi's Story, and the Parties, where the 3D images can often be found in other games, I wonder if the staff at Nintendo is fully capable of making 3D graphics on their system. Music: I thought the music was very pleasant. It is either intricate or long and non-repetitive, so I never felt like I was getting tired of the music. There are a lot of songs that can be placed back to earlier Mario games. Though I don't know why this was chosen, the music that plays when Mario levels up is Grass Land, from Mario 3. Yes, Mario's original theme is in here too. Environments: The worlds in this game are spread out over very diverse areas, which is odd considering that the world map isn't really that big. I was very impressed with the assortment. The only thing that prevents this category from being given the Twink is that I wish there were more worlds. If there were, I'm sure they would be really interesting, and you can always use a longer game. Control: Just like in this game's predecessor, the controls are very easy to use and are explained well. Everything in the game can be done with the simple press of a button or two. My complaint is that Mario can't jump very high in field mode, and he is sort of slow. It makes moving around annoying sometimes. Field Mode: This is one area of the game I was impressed with. First off, there are a lot of puzzles that need to be solved, some of which are rather interesting. There are many items to be found, some hidden, and you can't leave any tree or patch of grass on the path unsearched. Most interesting, I thought, is that you really have to pay attention when there are enemies nearby, because if you attack the enemy with a jump or a hammer then you will attack first when battle mode starts up, but the enemy attacks first if it nails you. I couldn't give the highest score because, although the game is 3D, there are many invisible walls, and the game actually becomes almost linear. Also, Nintendo liked its puzzles so much that most of them are in there more than once, so… Battle Mode: This mode is fun! No more blowing away your enemies in this game. That's because you only start with 10 HP and you level up slowly, and even leveling up won't raise your pitiful attack power; only finding Mario a better hammer or boots or Mario's friends a level up box will do that. You can't even train a lot to make the enemies easier, because when you reach too high a level for an area, the baddies there stop rewarding you with the Star Points you need to advance. This means that nearly all enemies are a challenge, often even those you encountered several chapters ago. It also makes timed hits more important because the one HP point you give or prevent as a result of it is much bigger than it looks on, uh, paper. In this game, every attack operates differently in terms of when the action button must be used to receive the bonus. The necessity of the action button forces the player to be alert, or they will not be attacking properly. Sometimes battles become intense. After one boss battle I was really tired out because I kept having to press the A button to get stuff to stop clinging to me. Despite my rave review, this category can’t get a Twink because, unlike in Super Mario RPG, you can’t usually get the edge by using a magic power the enemy is weak to. But, there is strategy in deciding who to attack. Mario can only hammer enemies that are in front of the opposing line, and he can't jump on enemies with spikes on their head. Strategy: There is a lot of strategy in this game. The most important element of strategy, I think, is determining what badges to wear. Mario can earn some badges, such as the ability to safely jump on a spiked enemy, but wearing these badges costs BP (similar to FP, which is also in the game), so you need to pick and choose from all your badges. Tough! There was never a point in the game when I felt I had BP to spare. You also need to decide what to take when you level up: 5 more HP, 5 more FP, or 3 more BP. You need to choose which of your eight friends to have active, based on what puzzle is in the room or who the enemy is going to be, and which friend to select when you find the coveted level up box. All this and more. But that last Star is lost as a result of repetitive puzzles and the inability to attack an enemy's weakness. I really miss that! Characters: I was hoping to see a lot of new characters in this game to add to my list. There were a few, many of them bosses. Most of the enemies came from previous games. My big complaint here is that although I never found that the battles became boring, there weren't that many different enemy characters. Most areas had just a few. I could probably list nearly all the enemies in the game in a minute, and most of the ones that I would leave out would be ones whose names I forgot. It was fun battling against familiar characters though. I like Bandit :) Items: There are a lot of different items in this game, and you are going to need their help because when your max HP is 50 (barring certain badges), even a Mushroom that restores 5 HP is helpful. In addition, there are many secret items. Try bringing stuff to Tayce T., who will cook with them and may give you a better item or a useless Mistake. You need to be very selective in choosing your items because you can only carry ten. Here I thought an N64 game would be able to remember your having lots of items, but the good folks at Nintendo don't allow it. You can also store thirty-some-odd items in the stores. By the way, I also like how the stores work. You can pick up a checked item at any store, and rather than buying an item from a list, you walk up to an item and can see it, the price, and a description. Cool. Ending: I don't want to give it away, but I do want to say that I wasn't impressed with it. I was hoping for a cool snazzy ending, but it just wasn't that exciting (trying hard not to spoil). I will say this though: I was disappointed that Luigi never had an important role. I thought he would because the manual said "but will he play an important role in this one?", or something like that. Oh well. No Koopalings either. Difficulty: This game was pretty easy. The battles were tough, but I never actually lost one, I just had to backtrack to a Toad House to heal after a lot of them (especially in chapter eight). I do like easy games, but this one was a bit too easy I thought. First, again, many of the puzzles appeared more than once, so when you solved it the first time you were set. One of your friends had the ability to tell you stuff, like really good hints on how to solve the aforementioned puzzles the first time. And for a measly five coins, one character in the central area gives really good hints. His hints, by the way, also prove how linear the game actually is. He knows where you are and what needs to be done next. I have never received a piece of information that I wasn't looking for. Replay Value: The game is fun for people who like Mario and cutesy games, and the battles are both tough and fun. I imagine most players won’t mind playing it again soon after they finish, and then at various times in the future. Still, a longer game with a better story line would be more fun to play again. And finally… Fun Factor!: Despite all my complaints in the previous fields, I found this game to be really fun to play. Once I got the game, I just couldn't stop. I received it on a Friday, so I did chapter one that night, chapters two through four on Saturday, five and six on Sunday, seven on Monday, and the end on Tuesday, for a total of 30 hours of play in five days. That's 25 percent of my time during those five days, more if you take away time for sleeping, eating, and doing various work that got in the way. Fortunately I had done most of my update for that Sunday earlier in the week, so I didn't have much left to do for it. Recommendation: If you like Mario, or games where you have to explore, or games that require strategy, you will probably like this game. RPG fans may also enjoy it, but probably not as much. This game may not be the best game you ever played, but I think most people will find it enjoyable, at least the first time through. Myself, I was so excited that I kept finding myself skipping past what characters were saying so that I could move on to the exploring part. If you have fifty bucks to spare and aren’t sick of Mario, I suggest you get Paper Mario.
Want to review a game yourself? Email
me!
|
