Review: Super Paper Mario
by John Walker on Sep.19, 2007, under The Rest
Sorry it’s been so quiet around here recently. Extraordinarily busy, and building up to Very Exciting Things to happen soon, elsewhere.
Meanwhile, here’s what kept me from writing anything over the weekend – mad, rambling Super Paper Mario review on EG.
Let’s begin by trying to explain exactly what Super Paper Mario is. Which is no mean feat. It’s not quite an RPG. It’s not quite a platform game. It’s not quite an adventure. Draw the three points on a piece of paper, creating a genre triangle. Then plot a mark for SPM… somewhere on the wall behind you. Glance at it, and you’d think it was a standard platform game. Look at the menus and you’d think it an RPG with as many fiddly options as Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door. Play it for a few moments, and you’ll discover how the 2D levels can be “flipped” into 3D, completely changing all the rules for how to approach a level. Let’s accept it doesn’t really fit into any category, and be rather delighted by that.
13 Comments for this entry
1 Trackback or Pingback for this entry
-
Review: Super Paper Mario — Online Game Playing
April 27th, 2008 on 09:31[…] the Paper Mario series? Or perhaps its: Is it as funny as the GBAs Superstar Saga. Worry source: Review: Super Paper Mario, […]
September 20th, 2007 on 21:25
yeah, the review was really cute. i was, for a sec, tempted to go out and buy Wii with Super Paper Mario and stuff. sadly, i just never get around to actually play on those consoles as the young people call them. once bought PS2 and sold it a year later, having tried about 20 minutes worth of Resident Evil Code Veronica X.
anyway, i’m posting to get my tasty John’s Review of New Fall TV Shows articles rather sooner than later. what’s taking so long?
September 20th, 2007 on 21:28
oh, just wanted to add that i’m especially interested in Californication, Cane, Gossip Girl, Journeyman, K-Ville, Life, Moonlight, Pushing Daisies, Reaper and Tell Me You Love Me (alphabetical order). K-Ville is probably crap and Californication / Pushing Daisies have my highest hopes of the bunch.
September 21st, 2007 on 10:56
watched Prison Break s3e1. really bad. the series has hit a low that maybe can’t be recovered from…
September 21st, 2007 on 19:15
I’m a bit behind on shows. I thought I’d wait until most the new shows have started, and then round up then.
September 21st, 2007 on 21:45
pharoahe: Californication and Journeyman are abominably-written, which is a shame, because I like the actors; Pushing Daisies is almost everything you’ve heard it is. I think John’s already done Reaper.
September 21st, 2007 on 21:55
Steve, that’s such nonsense! Californication has the best writing I’ve heard in FOREVER. It’s so deflty scripted.
I’m concerned that as it goes on the cliches are creeping in, but the first three or so were so refreshingly free from trite dialogue. I’ve been adoring it.
Pushing Daisies is wonderful, and I haven’t found the energy to write about it yet, despite watching the pilot three or four times.
September 21st, 2007 on 22:47
John: I’m surprised that you have the time and energy to watch some pilot so many times, even if you really like the show.
September 21st, 2007 on 22:57
Wait until you see it.
And of course each time is to show it to someone new.
September 21st, 2007 on 23:14
Admittedly, I only watched the pilot of Californication. But the only reason I watched to the end was Duchonvy, who seemed to be in a much better production than everyone else. It was a while ago I saw it, but a scene which sticks in the mind was the one in the cinema, where his character destroys the mobile phone of a persistent nuisance, resulting in a round of applause from the patrons. It made no sense to me, and was a horribly unsubtle indulgence on the part of the writers. As was most of the episode. This may be the point, and I’m just not “getting it.” With smarter, sharper dialogue it might have worked. This isn’t a slur, but I can see why you liked it. He probably burns someone’s umbrella in the second episode or something.
However, we’ve (my g/f and I) seen the Pushing Daisies pilot twice – and will be subjecting ourselves to it again before the series starts proper. Oh, what hardship!
September 21st, 2007 on 23:17
Addition: I’ll strongly second the “someone new” comment about Pushing Daisies. Entertainment vampires indeed.
September 22nd, 2007 on 21:06
That cinema scene is interesting. It’s fanciful, but I think realistic. I was at a live show recently, and these two morons were chatting loudly. Eventually I got up from my seat and went over to them, to ask/tell them to shut up as they were spoiling it. On the way back a number of people complimented me, or thanked me. (All of them nearer the idiots, but too lazy to do anything themselves). The same happened at a gig a couple of years back, when some awful girls were shouting over the performance at the side. Eventually I waded through the crowd to have a word with them, and on the way back through was patted on the shoulder and back by everyone I passed, them all thanking me. (Them all nearer to the girls, and shockingly, too lazy to do it themselves).
So I can see exactly that scene happening.
However, any problems you could have are surely removed by a line in episode two or three, when Hank (Duchovny) is explaining how his ex and her new fiance got together at a dinner party.
“They fell head over heels for each other. Well, in Laura’s case it was heels over head.”
September 22nd, 2007 on 23:50
I’m glad that happens for you, and so I can see how the scene might resonate. Maybe I’m not doing it right, but all I get in thanks on the numerous occasions I speak up in a cinema is angry glances and tutting from the idiots I’m trying to make the experience better for.
Even one time when I saved someone’s life in the auditorium (best first date ever), upon the return to my seat I was met by embarrassed shuffling of feet, deliberate lack of eye contact, and downright hostility from those who’d failed to shift their eyes away from The Mummy sodding Returns while an old woman choked to death before them. I want my applause. I deserve my applause! Duchovny, give it back.
And back to the point: yeah, so the scene certainly didn’t resonate for me and came across as a minor wish fulfilment fantasy. But I trust you enough when it comes to the telly that when Californication appears on Channel Five in a couple of weeks, I’ll give it one more go.
September 24th, 2007 on 22:53
watched the first episode of Tell Me You Love Me, mostly for the slogan (relationship drama by HBO, these guys are mostly good, right?!) and that girl from Sleeper Cell. and it wasn’t bad! not sure if i’d stay with them for the whole run, but even the sex scenes were nice stuff. there is rarely a good movie with sex scenes in it, so HBO has exceeded my hopes, even if it is not technically a movie.