The GHZ Forum

Well, I have <i>my</i> copy. And I'm quite enjoying it right now. Writing is superb (did you really expect any less of the <i>Mario</i> RPGs?), and gameplay's pretty good (although yeah, I'd sure like myself a run button). That 2D-to-3D gimmick's fun to play around with, although it's annoying how quickly those 3D segments go (well, assuming you mind losing health)... You really have to keep toying with that; any time it even remotely looks like a dead end, chances are you're missing something that you'd see in 3D. Most of these are "well DUH" moments (like when you're stuck in a pit, only to go into 3D to reveal a hole leading out of it), but I've seen a few tricky ones already (ie: hiding the required path around halfway into a dead end, with your clue being an ordinary-looking 2D rock that just happens to have an arrow on top of it in 3D).

I have way too many items on my hands, though. I mean, really. I haven't had much need for healing items yet, since the game's easy enough that I can get by with minimal damage (but bear in mind, I've only just reached Chapter 2-1). I suppose the later stages will make me grateful for having them, but right now... not so much?

Anyway. I like the Scottish guy, even if he was a really easy boss fight. Not sure what to make of Count Bleck, though. He sure likes to say his name a lot... He's not at Fawful levels of absurd awesomeness yet, to be certain (but then not many people are), but I'll see if my opinion grows over time. Also I'm under impression that they're playing the "bad guy is doing the wrong things for the right reasons" card already (you'll see what I mean just prior to the first stage, I believe), though I'm not sure where they're taking it.

So, anyone else playing it, or am I alone here?

So am I right to assume this is more of a gimmick-dependent puzzle-solving adventure game, and not much of an actual platformer?

And no, just because you run left to right and jump on enemies doesn't mean it's a good platformer.

Unfortuanately, this still doesn't have a European release date yet. It seems Nintendo think giving Europe Mario Strikers Charged Football first along with online gameplay is some kind of consolation.

Don't get me wrong I am still looking forward to Strikers but if I have to pick between a Mario platform adventure game and a Mario sports game I know which one I'd go with.

But you Brits are simply mad about the "football"! Goaaal! With a pip pip and a cherio and a soccer riot with bangers and mash!

I bet it'll beat Winning Eleven/ Pro Evolution Soccer just because it manages to be fun.

About SPM, it looks fine as a homage to the original NES game in certain stages, but I'm not very sure if it can live up to be a decent platformer either.
Wasn't it being originally developed for GameCube? Does it control well (by that I mean "please, tell me how do you walk, jump, flip, walk and jump when fliped, what changes when you play as Peach or Bowser and stuff"), or is kind of obvious that it's a rushed out port?

I haven't played it, but I know that in a nutshell, if you know how control Super Mario Bros. on the NES, you know how to control Super Paper Mario. You press A to switch the scenery angle over, but you can only go 3D for so long before Mario starts losing HP, for whatever reason. Peach and Bowser can't use the scenery flip, just Mario. Peach has got a parasol for extended jumping moments and Bowser's the typical bruiser (breathes fire and does a lotta damage).

I have way too many items on my hands, though. I mean, really. I haven't had much need for healing items yet, since the game's easy enough that I can get by with minimal damage (but bear in mind, I've only just reached Chapter 2-1). I suppose the later stages will make me grateful for having them, but right now... not so much?

Is it as bad as in Mario & Luigi 2? That game dumped so many damn items on you every 50 feet you never had to buy any.

Zeta wrote:But you Brits are simply mad about the "football"! Goaaal! With a pip pip and a cherio and a soccer riot with bangers and mash!

That's quite enough out of you. We don't want it to come down to...fisticuffs.

Shadow Hog wrote:(although yeah, I'd sure like myself a run button)

You can obtain the "Dashell" Pixl, which enables dashing, by finishing the Flipside version of the Pit of 100 Trials and beating Wracktail.

I don't have the game yet--my funds are currently being stockpiled for a copy of Pokemon Diamond and the Player's Guide--but I do have the Official Nintendo Player's Guide for SPM--so if anyone needs help with it, I can give advice and the like.

Mmm. Pokemon Diamond.

In retrospect, I'm a tad surprised SquareEnix is still holding onto the rights for all the stuff they made for Super Mario RPG. I can't see what they could use them for without it looking weird. Rare gave Nintendo all of it's Nintendo-inspired characters when they left for Microsoft. It seems a bit nonsensical that SquareEnix hasn't done the same thing. I mean, what the hell are they ever going to do with Boshi, Mallow, Geno, Booster, Valentina, and Smithy? Super Geno Bros?

Stick them in the next Kingdom Hearts games to taunt all the Nintendo fanboys.

Man, now I <i>hope</i> they do that.

Hm, i do have a GameCube, and I have been looking forward to playing it, maybe i'll pick it up today.

Oh yeah, I forgot. IT'S ONLY ON WII NOW. :|

Hey, remember when Nintendo promised it was staying on GameCube? LOL

FlashTHD wrote:

I have way too many items on my hands, though. I mean, really. I haven't had much need for healing items yet, since the game's easy enough that I can get by with minimal damage (but bear in mind, I've only just reached Chapter 2-1). I suppose the later stages will make me grateful for having them, but right now... not so much?

Is it as bad as in Mario & Luigi 2? That game dumped so many damn items on you every 50 feet you never had to buy any.

I never played <i>M&L2</i>, funnily enough. The first one, sure, but not the second. Thus, I cannot provide a fair comparison. However, you only get to stock up 10 items or so (wouldn't surprise me if there was an expansion for that like there apparently was in <i>The Thousand Year Door</i>, although I never found <i>that</i> one), and that does fill up pretty fast. I was being told I had too many items as early as near the beginning of Chapter 1-4.

As for controls, it controls quite well. Actually, the Wii-specific gimmicks (ie: shaking the controller for "stylish moves", using Tippi's Tattle-like ability) work with the control scheme more than they did for <i>Twilight Princess</i>. I do wonder how it'd have been on the GameCube had it not switched consoles so abruptly, but as a Wii game it works fine.

Shadow Hog wrote:I never played <i>M&L2</i>, funnily enough. The first one, sure, but not the second. Thus, I cannot provide a fair comparison. However, you only get to stock up 10 items or so (wouldn't surprise me if there was an expansion for that like there apparently was in <i>The Thousand Year Door</i>, although I never found <i>that</i> one), and that does fill up pretty fast. I was being told I had too many items as early as near the beginning of Chapter 1-4.

Good for you, M&L2 sucks. You know how in the first one, the plot was so well written and off the wall that it could suprise you with a crazy twist or new direction at any moment? In the sequel, there's some crazy twists, but no crazy new directions ever. Once you start after the first cobalt star shard, the rest of the game sticks to this formula:

Go to past and enter new area > solve several puzzles > find and defeat sub-boss > enter new area > solve several more puzzles > find and defeat boss > get star shard* > return to Peach's Castle in the present* > short cutscene/learn new bros. action* > repeat.

(* There are occasional breaks from the last three.)

There's a host of other ways Alphadream screwed it up, such as not using the time travel aspect for anything more than area-to-area warps, and goddamn tutorials for everything, but there you go. It's a paint-by-numbers Mario RPG and completely fails to live up to the first one in any way. The item situation, BTW, is that there are item blocks all over the place (at least one in more than half of all the rooms in the game) and you get way too much from each one, particularly the attack items (which replace the bros. attacks completely).

Anyway, to get the Strange Sack in Paper Mario 2 and boost your item space to 20, get to level 50 of Pit of 100 Trials and pop open the big treasure chest. It's not that difficult to do early on...the earliest you should attempt to grab it is about before chapter 3.

And Yami, omg I must know about this new Pit. Get out that guide and tell me everything you can.

Is this meant to be an RPG or what? Because it looks like a straight-up platformer.

Genre: Mixed bag.

Segaholic2 wrote:Stick them in the next Kingdom Hearts games to taunt all the Nintendo fanboys.

Man, now I <i>hope</i> they do that.

They should scrap the Gummi ship, since they have this:

FlashTHD wrote:Yami, omg I must know about this new Pit. Get out that guide and tell me everything you can.

Okay, so you know how there's Flipside and Flopside in this game? Each town has its' own Pit. The Flipside version is fairly normal (as far as such things go), as you go through waves of increasingly difficult foes, stopping every 10 floors to snag some treasure. The boss for the Flipside Pit is Wracktail, a recolored and more powerful version of Fracktail (that dragon-thing that's the boss of Chapter 1). If you have Luigi in your party, the battle will actually be easier as you can use his super jump to smack Frack's little knob-thing directly. Beating the Flipside pit nets you the Dashell Pixl, which enables you to run at double speed by holding down the (1) button.

The Flopside Pit, on the other hand, is somewhat more interesting. The basic layout is the same (fight waves of baddies, treasure break every 10th floor), but all the enemies are "dark" variations, meaning that they're basically all-black shilouette versions--a bit of a challenge if you haven't memorized what each enemy looks like. You also have to go trough the Flopside Pit TWICE in order to combat the "Pit Master"--a being called Shadoo, who fights you as dark versions of Mario, Luigi, Bowser, and Peach.

The guide suggests equipping Cudge as your defauilt Pixl, with Barry and Boomer as backups. It also states that if you're having trouble in any of the battles, flipping to 3-D will automatically drop you to the bottom of the level.

Will that do for now?

I'm about to begin the space stage (world 4) in SPM and so far I've really been enjoying it. All of the 2D-to-3D puzzles so far have been clever, the writing has been funny ('specially Francis the Lizard), the music's good, it looks good, the controls are really comfortable... it's just all good.

I do think the game balances the RPG/platform stuff very well. It's mostly platforming, but the mansion world especially has a lot of RPG elements, and is then balanced out by a lot of platforming in World 3.

I'll post more thoughts as I get further.

Also!

Segaholic2 wrote:So am I right to assume this is more of a gimmick-dependent puzzle-solving adventure game, and not much of an actual platformer?

Enough already! Gimmick gimmick gimmick. Everybody just say it a million times now to get it out of your systems and we can move on.

Will that do for now?

Quite, thanks. How well written and useful is that guide? I might pick it up without the game or the Wii to play it on if it's at least as good as the one they put out for Paper Mario 2.

Green Gibbon! wrote:Is this meant to be an RPG or what? Because it looks like a straight-up platformer.

Platformer with experience points/leveling up & items menu.

As far as SMRPG guys, since Disney owns Power Rangers, they could put the Axems in as optional bosses for a PR world in the next KH.

I've played SPM for a few hours now. It is definitely a puzzle-oriented platformer in the vein of games like Klonoa, rather than a more action-oriented platformer like the traditional Mario titles. If the game has had a focus so far, it is using your 2D-3D flipping ability to get past various obstacles.

But SPM also seems to throw a lot of level-specific challenges at you that are pretty unique from one-another, gameplay wise. (Sort of like Psychonauts, which was also full of a lot of gameplay deviations from stage to stage.) Sometimes it's action-oriented, sometimes it's focus on precision platforming, sometimes it's all about the puzzles, sometimes it's about collecting and using items adventure-game style...

Combined with the weird art aesthetic, the game feels like a serious case of creative ADD. But it leads to a lot of neat things, including a lot of strange plays on gaming convention -- both in the story's humour and in the actual gameplay. This is the closest Mario has ever come to being "experimental". It might be the most self-aware Nintendo game ever. It's Super Meta Mario!

The "RPG" elements are pretty much limited to upgrading your HP, carrying lots of items and spending a lot of time talking to people. In other words, it's about as much of an RPG as your average Zelda game. In fact, it's exactly that much of an RPG.

I'm really enjoying it so far. The flip-based puzzle solving is pretty clever, and the dialogue is definitely funny. (Although, like most translated titles, it's somewhat overwritten in English.) But like I said earlier, the "feel" of the game changes pretty rapidly from level to level. I think I'll have to play some more to really get a handle on what this game is all about.

Well, I still think superstar saga is the best Mario RPG ever…

FlashTHD wrote:

Will that do for now?

Quite, thanks. How well written and useful is that guide? I might pick it up without the game or the Wii to play it on if it's at least as good as the one they put out for Paper Mario 2.

It's quite useful--it gives you all the info you need without spoiling the story too much, and it's just as good if not better then the PM2 guide. (I have the Official Ninty guides for all three Paper Mario games so far. NINTENDO > PRIMA!)

(I have the Official Ninty guides for all three Paper Mario games so far. NINTENDO > PRIMA!)

Except when it came to the Twilight Princess guide. The Nintendo one really sucked, and the Prima guide had bios for every single fucking character in the game. It was pretty awesome.

Okay, so there are the rare exceptions to the general rule, but Prima also went out of their way to make TWO SEPARATE VERSIONS of the TP guide as well, so there you are.