Wow, what can I say, I haven\'t played it, but this game sort of came out of no where.
First off, Gamespot gave it a
9.2. That itself is worth noting because any game scoring a 9.0 or higher from Gamespot is the real deal.
Here\'s just a few excerpts from the Gamespot Review:
This new role-playing game from Nintendo and developer Intelligent Systems is truly inspired. It\'s practically overflowing with wonderful, funny characters, memorable subplots, inventive gameplay, and beautiful visuals, and it\'s lengthy and quite challenging to boot.
This coming from a game that didn\'t really have a long developement time, I don\'t even believe it was announced until a couple years ago. Nintendo scores big, but they could have done better promoting it, it slid under the radar.
On the whole, the world of the game is brilliantly imagined and fully realized: It\'s filled with just about all the weird characters you may have seen in past Mario games, and yet here they\'re mostly just going about their day-to-day business, trying to make ends meet. The effect is reminiscent of Pixar\'s computer-animated movies (such as A Bug\'s Life or Finding Nemo), whose fantastic storybook worlds are believable partly because, in a lot of ways, they\'re mundane--not so different from real life. That\'s exactly the effect that Paper Mario goes for, and it\'s hugely successful at achieving it.
Sometimes it\'s the simple things that make a game successful.
The game\'s storybook look also paves the way for some unique play mechanics, in how Mario actually has paperlike properties in the game. It\'s a level of abstraction that works beautifully in this surreal setting. Basically, Mario will learn how to slip through narrow gaps and gratings, glide like a paper airplane, roll up into a tube, and more. These unique abilities--which he learns in some of the game\'s funnier moments--allow you to gradually gain access to new areas. You\'ll also upgrade your hammer and your shoes during the course of the game, opening up even more venues to explore in the process. The gradual "unlocking" of the world is done quite subtly, actually. You\'ll gain some surprising new ability and then start to notice parts of the world in which the ability could come in handy. Of course, some of these abilities aren\'t just for exploration--they\'re also good for beating the tar out of Paper Mario\'s dozens of different bad guys.
This is what you expect from great games, something new brought to the table, and that\'s what it has done.
Full Review - Gamespot I can\'t honestly say I was anticipating this game, to tell you the truth it sort of came to me. I was just parusing around and figured I\'d check out the review, I was amazed when I read it. I plan on picking this baby up on Thursday or Friday. I can\'t judge now, but this game looks like it could rival Fable for RPG of the year. I reccomend this to all of you Gamecube owners, the few of us there may be.
Buy it, Rent it, do whatever, tell me what you think.
