Super Paper Mario

 

    Be prepared for anything except an unbiased review, because catch me on one of my more pretentious days, and I'll say that Super Paper Mario is my favorite Mario game of all time. I always hold it up as a rare sparkling diamond of storytelling amidst the dirt of tradition Nintendo usually finds themselves in, and admire how forward-thinking it was in terms of that very storytelling and the various games it would come to influence. It has been my favorite for a while, and I assumed for the longest time that a lot of other people loved or at least liked the game to some degree. That is, of course, until I search for the game online, and see an entire cottage industry of GIFs mocking every single minute aspect of the game in frankly astonishing succinctness. Yeah, turns out, Super Paper Mario is more divisive than I initially thought, and even though I still love the game, I can see why someone would bounce right off of it.
    The gist of the gameplay is that unlike the games preceding and following it, Super Paper Mario is a 2D platformer with elements of real-time RPGs and adventure game puzzle-solving, combining the format of the former Paper Mario games with platforming reminiscent of the original 2D Mario games. From the 2D Mario games, there are eight chapters with four levels a piece, each of which are tied together by a unifying theme, and you go about stomping baddies in real-time and maneuvering obstacle courses. Everything else mostly comes from the Paper Mario games; talking to NPCs, leveling up your character's strength, exploring around open areas and finding partners that help solve contextual puzzles. Exclusive to this game is a dimension-flipping mechanic, where you can switch from a 2D to 3D perspective at any time to explore areas you might not be able to in the other, as well as the ability to also play as Peach, Luigi and even Bowser, each with their own abilities. I assume that's what's got some people down on the game, as people expecting a 2D Mario adventure will find huge piles of story and bizarre new mechanics, and those expecting a Paper Mario game will find a considerably shorter, more fast-paced experience.
    Having said that, I wonder if the switch to real-time combat spooked the developers a bit with how much it speeds up things, because I will fully admit that the one major fatal flaw with this game is when it goes to frankly extreme lengths to pad out the runtime. A fair few of the puzzles are just lock-and-key hunts, nothing that bad in and of itself, but you often have to backtrack across pretty sizable chunks of level in order to get what's required, and it becomes easy to forget where the heck you were going when the levels start getting more maze-like. On top of that, there are also a couple instances where it'll stop you in your tracks entirely to have you do some mundane task just to make sure you don't get through the game too fast. There's one bit in the second chapter where Mario accidentally breaks an expensive vase and ends up in massive debt because of it, and the game requires that he get inside a giant hamster wheel and continue running in one direction for a solid fifteen minutes at minimum. I get that it's meant to be a parody of level grinding in typical RPGs, but it's still cheap.
    I don't think any of these isolated incidents are enough of a dealbreaker to detract from the overall enjoyment, though, as the core gameplay itself is still inherently fun and well-realized. For every kinda boring or tedious moment, there's at least five more moments that provide a good challenge, serve an interesting story purpose, or are just wildly creative and funny. On that note, the main reason why Super Paper Mario still sticks out in my mind among the Mario series, and even among most Nintendo games, is that it's far and away one of the most surreal, inventive, and genuinely daring games the company has ever put out, and probably ever will. The developers have gone on record saying that they wanted to evoke the feeling of traveling to a world that was entirely unusual from the norm, and you can feel that in every step. Every world is lovingly realized, with some absolutely insane amounts of writing and interactions within, and seeking it all out is always worthwhile. Even the most unimportant NPCs have something funny or interesting to say, and the sheer amount of effort and unique one-off mechanics it puts into its big comedic moments is second to none.
    The game's tone overall is what strikes me, as it feels very much like a step on the evolutionary ladder that would lead to the modern indie RPG. There were plenty of quirky RPGs before this game, the Mother/EarthBound series and Moon spring instantly to mind, but Super Paper Mario is one of the earliest examples I can think of that has the modern blend of emotion-driven existentialism hiding underneath a distinctly Internet-y sense of humor. The fourth wall simply does not exist in this game; the game routinely replaces terminology like “death” with “game over”, even in the most serious instances, and moments like the third chapter within the nerd castle feel prototypical of the kind of thing Toby Fox would write. It calls attention to the artificiality of its universe in interesting ways with how the visual aesthetic is wholly in its own zone, environments made of vector art and new characters being made from simple primitives and mouse pointers. It uses it all as framing to a greater story lurking underneath it all, setting up its pieces so that it can take a pretty dramatic shift to the dark two-thirds of the way through. I seriously don't want to spoil it, but all I'll say is that Tippi, Count Bleck and Dimentio are some of the most detailed and artfully written characters to come out of any Nintendo game, and it's no wonder they remain fan favorites to this day.
    This is all leading up to the idiomatic other shoe dropping, and that's that while I adore the risks this game took to tell the story it wanted, I can pretty clearly see why it's something Nintendo wouldn't want to repeat. From their perspective, I can understand why seeing a game in the Mario series that raises questions about the inevitability of death might not be something they'd want the series to become known for. It's no wonder that midway through the Wii's life, any game in the series would be put under something of a creative lockdown, with any attempts at intricate stories or brand new characters being throttled in favor of catering to nostalgia. They've eased up on that initiative considerably in the Switch era, but it's still interesting to look back on this game as the weird, miraculous masterpiece that it is. It's definitely flawed in a few key areas, but I still say it's worth playing at least once for the sheer audacity of its writing and to see Luigi become an insane robot-piloting caped crusader.