by N Rumas - 01.22.10

A random question for you this fine Friday. Super Paper Mario is a game that’s always been a subject of divergent opinions among the 4cr staff, and since I’ve recently been getting the urge to revisit it, I thought I’d ask you what you think of the all-but-forgotten Wii game.
Personally, I’ve always loved it. The experience may be a bit on the slow side, and the visuals are quite plain, but I enjoyed every moment I spent its world. The title’s pointer implementation is still one of the best examples of how subtle motion control can enhance a game, and the mini-games, one of which is pictured above, were downright fantastic.
It’s always seemed to me, however, that the haters of SPM have outweighed the defenders. What about you? Do you think the game deserves a better reputation than it has? Worse? Was it okay but nothing special? Hoping for another entry? Chime in.











It was a great game interrupted by dialogue and inventory management a bit too often. You’d think three people and a giant turtle could collectively carry around more items than that.
Kyattsuai - 01.22.10 7:51 pm
Yeah. Had its quirks… like trying to be an RPG even though it wasn’t really. I never got to the Minigames because it wasn’t obvious to me where they were. I’m sure they just found SOME way to cram them in when they realized it would be for Wii.
Overall, though, I love the game and any other Paper Mario game. Even if there is a lot of text, most of it is well written or hilarious.
ZaxCG2 - 01.22.10 8:19 pm
Agreed. Having played the original ‘Paper Mario’ and ‘SPM’ (Though I own it, I’ve yet to play “Thousand Year Door”), I’ve always hated the limited inventory and “Store it at the Shop” system. Would’ve loved it if Nintendo had taken a cue from Animal Crossing: Wild World and allowed me to use the remote cursor to drag and drop items between character inventory and storage. I think Nintendo need to drop the light world / dark world motif (Though I loved them, both Metroid Prime 2 and Twilight Princess are relatively recent examples of this). And yeah, the dialogue got crazy wordy at times. But all that said, I still felt the writing was great and the overall game very enjoyable.
K0na - 01.22.10 8:21 pm
I remember being very upset when SPM was announced, because I really wanted it to be more of an RPG; in retrospect, I preferred the first two Paper Mario and the first Mario and Luigi more than many of the Mario platformers (I know, it’s blasphemy). As I guy who loves point-and-click adventure games, I’m fine with pages and pages of dialogue.
With that said, I really liked SPM when I played it–I thought that there was an adequate platforming-to-dialogue ratio, and a lot of funny and memorable moments. Any game that includes stuff like the Peach dating sim, Mr. L, the game show in Merlina’s basement, and the Fracktail fight is fine with me.
Still, I remember feeling a lot of the game moved too slow–just the fact that you had to go up and down the tower in the incredibly slow elevator between levels drove me crazy, and certain parts like paying off Mario’s debt messed up the game’s pacing terribly. But more games need to have things like the multi-character system and clever puzzles.
BoringRocks - 01.22.10 8:41 pm
♥ Sequel please, and the return of Francis of course. nerrrr
Francis - 01.22.10 8:57 pm
Hated it. Also hated Thousand Year Door, especially the idiotic hundred button press requirement.
This is a shallow RPG disguised with Mario trappings. The battle concepts were neat in that it was Final Fantasy with Mario elements to help your attcak, but that was it for me. No thanks.
I gave away my copy of Wii Paper Mario someone who wanted to play it. Good luck them and good riddance. It shouldn’t command the $ that it does, and replayability is nil.
Squashua - 01.22.10 9:00 pm
I actually gave up at the part where you had to go in that wheel for 10 minutes. I didn’t really even hate that part, I guess just subconsciously it made me not want to play…
“Also hated Thousand Year Door, especially the idiotic hundred button press requirement.”
Ok, you’re totally allowed to not like it, I just don’t what the hundred button press thing you’re talking about is.
yanipheonu - 01.22.10 9:40 pm
Someone asks you to agree to them about a hundred times in the cloud city where the tournaments are or whatever. I think that’s where it takes place. It’s been some years. Also, I heard there was a shortcut to the 10 minute wheel thing to cut it down to 10 seconds or 1 minute. I recall figuring out the shortcut and thinking about people actually going to 10 minutes.
Squashua - 01.22.10 9:55 pm
I liked it a lot better than the RPG entries in the series, but it was still much more dull than it should have been. As soon as you flipped the perspective, you were confronted with spare, unfinished-feeling level design that was very atypical of Nintendo, especially the AAA game that Nintendo was forced to present it as during the long gap between Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy.
What it accomplished was to build up my anticipation for Galaxy…. and even moreso for Fez.
raindog469 - 01.22.10 10:38 pm
I think I was expecting another RPG. I don’t complete many games straight through (I usually have to come back to them) but somehow Thousand Year Door kept my attention. I think that first boss battle with the dragon was too much. I didn’t want to jump on enemies but select a jump attack or special item. Maybe I’ll get “the urge” to revisit it as well.
Stuffed - 01.22.10 10:50 pm
Considering Paper Mario is one of my favorite RPG’s it really hurts to say how much I disliked Super Paper Mario. It wasn’t that it was terribly bad, just really bland, easy and mostly pointless. I didn’t care about any of the character (aside from O’CHUNKS for some odd reason) or the story, the carious mechanics were mostly pointless or came off as gimmicky, and overall it just wasn’t all that enjoyable.
Then Galaxy came out and made it all better. My friend actually tried playing Super Paper Mario after Galaxy and stopped after a few minutes and asked what the point was. Haha.
Oh. And all the talking. WAY too much talking and NONE of it mattered and very little was humorous. Actually I don’t remember laughing or even acknowledging any funny at all, but I can’t say it lacked it entirely as I truthfully don’t remember the game that well as I’ve played too many better titles since.
Malons - 01.23.10 12:15 am
Pretty much what Malons said. Loved Paper Mario, but Super Paper Mario was just kind of a disappointment. The humor wasn’t as funny as the previous Paper Mario games, or as the Mario and Luigi games that came after. On top of it all, they took themselves too seriously at times, to the point where it just got awkward. It certainly wasn’t the worst game, but there is so much better, it sometimes feels like a chore to pick it back up (it took me months to beat it. But not because it was hard or long!)
NewishTrish - 01.23.10 12:38 am
I loved, loved, loved TYD. There should be, like, some kind of monument to the dev team for Thousand Year Door on the Japanese equivalent of the national mall. That said, SPM, while nice, isn’t as good as TYD. I never really got into its half-assed platforming the same way I got into TYD’s incredible RPGing.
Fun fact: Peach and Bowser are married in the beginning of TYD… AND THE MARRIAGE IS NEVER ANNULLED IN THE REST OF THE GAME.
Whoa.
Carl - 01.23.10 12:42 am
Sorry, beginning of SPM.
Carl - 01.23.10 3:50 am
I got pretty far in it, and liked it from what I can remember (it’s been a few years). Liked the Pixls. I quit playing in World 8. I think it had to do with the Mini-boss: O’Chunks. Been meaning to go back to it for a while now, just like Twilight Princess (which I only got about half way through). I’d give it a 7/10.
Boots - 01.23.10 10:37 am
I think it was a very humourous game looking back on it, and it that regard it didn’t take itself too seriously. However it was a shame that there weren’t the more pronounced RPG elements that the first game had, that might be quite a big reason why I don’t feel compelled to complete it again.
That and the ending of the game really dragged, and slowly sucked away all the positive feeling I had about it at the time.
Michelle - 01.23.10 10:56 am
I personally really liked the game (and I’m a fan of the other Paper Mario games too). I’m not sure why people thought it was unhumorous, I found it hillarious at times (Hiiiiiigh Teeeechnicall! even). I would maybe have liked if they’d gone more into the platformer or RPG genres with it, it is true that it’s kind of something that isn’t really either of those and I could see why some would get turned off by that. Still had a lot of fun with it though, and I didn’t think the graphics were plain, actually. I really like that sharp, poppy Paper Mario style, and some of the effects were especially cool (the Pure Hearts especially). Also, it would get points for Mr L alone.
The 9th Sage - 01.23.10 2:37 pm
It deserves a worse reputation than what it has obtained! This game is in every Wii buyers guide list that I have seen and has a 85% score on metacritic. I only picked it up after reading the positive reviews. I had also endured the Thousand Year Door and did not think it could be as bad, but it was worse. The game has it’s moments but it is the least fun game that I have played that Nintendo has released. The game is extremely slow and might be the worst rpg game released by Nintendo, I usually love any and all rpgs that Nintendo releases.
MAL - 01.23.10 9:35 pm
It felt like a downgrade to the series to the point where I would have more happily accepted a cookie-cutter sequel in regards to the old formula. My biggest problem was Bowser on the hover pixel was way too powerful, and once I got that ability I never wanted to use anyone else. Such an easy game from that..
BudDudandSlash - 01.24.10 6:10 am
I found it to have way too much . Don’t get me wrong, I love the story but I’d really like to play the game for more than 10 consecutive minutes without being updated on what every character is thinking
imaginarythomas - 01.24.10 1:40 pm
I have a love-hate relationship with the game. I might have liked it more had I played it during a different part of my life. Cynicism kept me from really enjoying the story. It moved so slowly, yet I kept on slogging through it. I was so bored that summer that I beat all the 100-guy duels. Not many of the puzzles were all that clever(especially the flipping mechanic, which I thought would have more puzzle mileage), and the Pixls didn’t add too much to the game. There were some great levels, but there was also really sparse levels (both graphically and design-wise). As for the minigames, they seemed to have really low production values. Also, it didn’t seem like it was worth it to play as long you had to in order to win the items. Especially when compared to Mario Party minigames. The first one in the series is still my favorite. The game was too easy. The game gives mixed messages as to its side quests (it makes fun of Francis for spending so much time collecting stuff, and yet it has a laundry list of trading cards it challenges you to find). But yeah, I played all the way through, and I actually did have fun with it.
Cheeseball701 - 01.24.10 7:49 pm
Found it a bit one-sided, but loved it.
Nat - 01.24.10 11:43 pm
Yeah, the lack of a way to easily skip the brutal amounts of text along with the slow pace wrecked it for me.
12 dogs - 01.25.10 1:55 am
I loved Paper Mario on N64, liked the GC one and the Wii one was… ok. The gamer nerd level was a highlight but other than that, the magic was gone.
lores - 01.25.10 7:03 am
The platforming. It wasn’t even platforming. IT WAS LIKE SOME KIND OF BASTARD SON TO PLATFORMING
Garfogze - 01.25.10 7:15 am
Given that the game sold 2.28 million copies, I’d argue that it just has a very vocal set of detractors. It was inferior to Thousand Year Door, though.
WizarDru - 01.25.10 8:35 am
It was decent. It never really hooked me but I kept playing. Every so often the game would come to a complete halt when I needed to point at the screen to find a hidden door with out being given any hint to do so. If they had cut that out of the game I probably would have liked it a lot more. But it still wouldn’t be that great.
Taker - 01.25.10 3:32 pm
i freakin’ loved this game AND tyd. graphics were awesome. story was awesome. i did all the trails and mini-games because i WANTED to and had a blast, not because i was bored. i’m super suprised at all the comments hating it.
matt terror - 01.25.10 4:43 pm
trials not trails.
matt terror - 01.25.10 4:45 pm
SPM wasn’t a horrible game by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn’t particularly compelling, either.
I greatly enjoyed PM:TTYD (which is probably my favorite jRPG after Chrono Trigger) and liked PM (N64) well enough, but SPM didn’t live up to its pedigree. The platforming wasn’t nearly as solid as in a real SMB/SMW game and the characters and RPG mechanics were far less compelling than PM/TTYD’s.
eM - 01.25.10 8:03 pm
I liked it, it was really good but too short, and clearly padded for length in some areas.
I never found the minigames (bought the game, beat it quickly and resold it on ebay), but that one you screenshotted looks fun.
Simon - 01.25.10 8:27 pm
I just love the game! I want a sequel! The music, story and characters are awesome! No matter if it’s not really using the traditional RPG system… it was really ingenious! Mixing the classic Mario Bros with a touch of RPG… that was brilliance! I want a sequel! I want more Blumiere and Timpani and also Dimentio and Francis! Wish Nintendo hear the fans!
Lady Timpani - 02.07.10 4:06 pm
Doesn’t live up to paper mario and tyd. They definitely strayed too far from the turn-based battle and customization in badges, hp, fp, and bp.
Tom - 02.08.10 9:24 pm
Loved it. I only played it for a short time as I traded it up for Galaxy which is an overall better game. But, SPM is definately on my list to pick up again. I found it fun and engaging and while wordy, I found the dialog quite funny.
Kyle in DE - 02.09.10 2:32 pm