Paper in 3D (cont.)

Of course, since Super Paper Mario is a platformer, it will differ in quite a few ways from its predecessors. However, it also shares a few similarities. For one, Mario and his companions will still level up and become stronger during the course of their adventure. Every time Mario stomps an enemy with his famous "jump of doom", he will gain experience points. When the player gains enough of these experience points, they will level up and become stronger in a variety of different ways, such as gaining more HP (hit-points) capacity, gaining more attack strength and becoming more durable to enemy attacks. With this comes another concern. Mainly because there are the RPG elements of becoming stronger, there is the worry that the game may rely too much on levelling up and less on actual skill, the latter being something that all platformers require. Since Super Paper Mario is a platformer, it would be a big blow to the game if the necessity of platforming skill was taken away.

Characters

The game also sports two playable characters other than Mario. The two characters are Princess Peach and Bowser, who both have their own unique abilities and attributes. Princess Peach has the ability to jump higher than both Mario and Bowser. She also has the unique ability to use her parasol to float across long chasms and long strings of enemies. Bowser, being the largest of the three is also the slowest. However, he makes up for this by being incredibly strong, and he has the unique ability of being able to breathe fire to dish out large amounts of damage. Mario's attributes are well-rounded and he is the only character able to flip between two-dimensional views and three-dimensional views.

Mario will also meet new allies called Pixls during his adventure which grant him even more new abilities and power upgrades. These Pixls have been confirmed to use the Wii Remote's unique motion sensing abilities in order to carry out commands. For example, one Pixl named Tippy requires the player to point at an enemy with the Wii Remote and then push the A button. Tippy will then bring up detailed info and statistics on the enemy. Players will also use the Wii Remote to interact with certain objects in the game. However, Nintendo has not revealed how this is done.

As was said above, power-ups also make a return in Super Paper Mario. Mushrooms restore the player's health, Red Flowers make the player move faster, while Blue Flowers make the player move slower. But the StarMan is really what's interesting. When players get a hold of a StarMan, their character will grow to immense proportions and fill up the entire screen! The player can send their character on a complete rampage, mowing down everything in their path like Godzilla. Players of New Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo DS will have memories of this power-up.

In terms of graphics, Super Paper Mario will boast upgraded visual effects thanks to the Wii's stronger hardware. Nintendo has said that the game has undergone a bit of a visual revamp since we last saw screenshots of the game, so we can't be sure what the game really looks like yet. Still, the game already looked pretty damn good before Nintendo mentioned this 'revamp', so things are looking good on the technical side.

Glossy Paper or Toilet Paper?

All in all, Super Paper Mario is definitely one to keep your eyes on if you own a Wii. The game is really shaping up to be yet another entry in Nintendo's staggering line-up of must-have games. Super Paper Mario hits store shelves sometime in Q2 2007 - be there!