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GameCube has one more Mario game left in it, and it’s shaping up to be pretty cool. Check out our full preview of the game inside.
June 26, 2006 | 2:01 PM PSTby: Phillip Levin
Though one glance at any major Nintendo website might have you believing there’s nothing left for Nintendo’s purple-box-that-could, GameCube, that’s not entirely true. Indeed, it’s true that Nintendo’s switching its focus from GameCube to Wii, but there are still a few good GameCube titles on the horizon, including games like Super Paper Mario.
Don’t feel alone if this is the first time you’ve heard of Super Paper Mario. The game was quietly announced at E3 2006 and was not even mentioned during the Big N’s press briefing. Instead, Nintendo released a trailer of the game and some information about it through its online media site during the week of E3. In fact, the title wasn’t even playable at the company’s E3 booth. Gamers lucky enough to travel to the World Hobby Fair in Japan, though, got a chance to check the game out in playable form.
At first glance, Super Paper Mario looks to be nothing more than a new installment in the Paper Mario RPG franchise, but truth is the game has little at all to do with either Paper Mario on Nintendo 64 or Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on GameCube. That said, the title definitely looks a lot like both games. For instance, it features a 2D, paper-shaded-look to it that screams Paper Mario, and its overall play style definitely shares similarities with Intelligent System’s other two RPGs.
Nintendo hasn’t gotten into the details of the game’s storyline, so there isn’t much at all to say on the subject, but we know a decent amount about how the game plays. Players can switch between controlling Mario, Peach and Bowser at any time. Each character has his or her own unique moves. For instance, Bowser can breathe fire, while Peach can jump the highest and use her dress to float. Most exciting, Mario’s special move rotates the game’s camera by 90-degrees, giving players a 3D view of things.
Gamers move Mario and friends across the screen in familiar sidescroller fashion. Super Paper Mario features mostly 2D gameplay, but with Mario’s special move, gamers can switch back and forth between 2D and 3D gameplay by pressing the R trigger. While playing in 2D, gamers make their way primarily back and forth across the screen. Switching to 3D, though, they can move in and out of the level, allowing them to progress past obstacles that would normally be impassable.
One level on display at the World Hobby Fair required using this new feature. Here, Mario had to make it over a gigantic abyss. While he couldn’t jump the distance, by morphing to a 3D view, he could walk across a hill that, while in 2D, was only visible in the background. Super Paper Mario seems to be all about this unique usage of 2D and 3D puzzle solving.
Super Paper Mario
Just like the game merges 2D and 3D gameplay in one admittedly strange package, it also blurs the line between both the sidescroller and RPG genres. Like in past 2D Mario games, players must platform their way across a number of different levels -- stages overflowing with obstacles, enemies and bosses to dodge -- but they’ll also encounter many RPG-esque elements. While they still can collect mushrooms by jumping and hitting blocks, these mushrooms no longer increase the size of Mario. Instead, they give him more health points. That said, one item lets Mario grow to an enormous size, filling-up a huge portion of the screen – New Super Mario Bros. DS-style. What’s more, gamers will come across red and blue flowers that make Mario move faster and slower, respectively.
The game also features a new item system, although a whole lot of information on it is not available. A small item icon drags behind Mario and friends at all times. Players can use any items they pick up by pressing the X button and throwing them.
This item-usage came in handy during a snake boss fight at the World Hobby Fair. Gamers had to get on top of a huge snake flying through the desert. Once on top, they had to scale their way past enemies to the boss’s weak point. By grabbing items off the back of the snake, they could use them to damage the snake by throwing them at its weak point. Sounds kind of like Shadow of the Colossus, no?
Super Paper Mario
Super Paper Mario is scheduled to release on GameCube this October. Of course, the game will also be playable on Wii, so brand new Wii-owners can look forward to testing out the system’s backwards compatibility with at least one more great GameCube game.
Don’t feel alone if this is the first time you’ve heard of Super Paper Mario. The game was quietly announced at E3 2006 and was not even mentioned during the Big N’s press briefing. Instead, Nintendo released a trailer of the game and some information about it through its online media site during the week of E3. In fact, the title wasn’t even playable at the company’s E3 booth. Gamers lucky enough to travel to the World Hobby Fair in Japan, though, got a chance to check the game out in playable form.
At first glance, Super Paper Mario looks to be nothing more than a new installment in the Paper Mario RPG franchise, but truth is the game has little at all to do with either Paper Mario on Nintendo 64 or Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on GameCube. That said, the title definitely looks a lot like both games. For instance, it features a 2D, paper-shaded-look to it that screams Paper Mario, and its overall play style definitely shares similarities with Intelligent System’s other two RPGs.
Nintendo hasn’t gotten into the details of the game’s storyline, so there isn’t much at all to say on the subject, but we know a decent amount about how the game plays. Players can switch between controlling Mario, Peach and Bowser at any time. Each character has his or her own unique moves. For instance, Bowser can breathe fire, while Peach can jump the highest and use her dress to float. Most exciting, Mario’s special move rotates the game’s camera by 90-degrees, giving players a 3D view of things.
Gamers move Mario and friends across the screen in familiar sidescroller fashion. Super Paper Mario features mostly 2D gameplay, but with Mario’s special move, gamers can switch back and forth between 2D and 3D gameplay by pressing the R trigger. While playing in 2D, gamers make their way primarily back and forth across the screen. Switching to 3D, though, they can move in and out of the level, allowing them to progress past obstacles that would normally be impassable.
One level on display at the World Hobby Fair required using this new feature. Here, Mario had to make it over a gigantic abyss. While he couldn’t jump the distance, by morphing to a 3D view, he could walk across a hill that, while in 2D, was only visible in the background. Super Paper Mario seems to be all about this unique usage of 2D and 3D puzzle solving.
Super Paper Mario
Just like the game merges 2D and 3D gameplay in one admittedly strange package, it also blurs the line between both the sidescroller and RPG genres. Like in past 2D Mario games, players must platform their way across a number of different levels -- stages overflowing with obstacles, enemies and bosses to dodge -- but they’ll also encounter many RPG-esque elements. While they still can collect mushrooms by jumping and hitting blocks, these mushrooms no longer increase the size of Mario. Instead, they give him more health points. That said, one item lets Mario grow to an enormous size, filling-up a huge portion of the screen – New Super Mario Bros. DS-style. What’s more, gamers will come across red and blue flowers that make Mario move faster and slower, respectively.
The game also features a new item system, although a whole lot of information on it is not available. A small item icon drags behind Mario and friends at all times. Players can use any items they pick up by pressing the X button and throwing them.
This item-usage came in handy during a snake boss fight at the World Hobby Fair. Gamers had to get on top of a huge snake flying through the desert. Once on top, they had to scale their way past enemies to the boss’s weak point. By grabbing items off the back of the snake, they could use them to damage the snake by throwing them at its weak point. Sounds kind of like Shadow of the Colossus, no?
Super Paper Mario
Super Paper Mario is scheduled to release on GameCube this October. Of course, the game will also be playable on Wii, so brand new Wii-owners can look forward to testing out the system’s backwards compatibility with at least one more great GameCube game.
November 20, 2009
