Toga!

We had a pretty awesome Toga Party at my house this weekend, the kind of party that despite only inviting close friends attracts random people off the street. The kind of random people that wander into my bedroom and decide they want my laptop more than the free beer we were already providing. So yeah, my laptop was stolen on Friday. I still have my desktop, but I pretty much haven’t used it since I discovered the joys of internetting from the comforts of my bed many months ago. Aside from the occasional, but increasingly rare need for a Windows machine I hadn’t turned on the computer I’m currently writing this on in close to a year.

In the last few days I’ve found it quite strange, and I suppose amusing, by how much my daily routine has been altered by not having my laptop. Any day I didn’t have to wake up early for something, which is generally well over half of them in my current state of post college laziness, I’d roll over around noon or 1 and grab my laptop off the floor. I’d then sit in bed and read up on gaming news, maybe write a blog post, and chat with a few friends for an hour or two. Around 3, I’d actually get out of bed and take a shower, then start whatever it was I wanted to do that day. Usually I just ended up migrating to the couch in the living room to play some games. My parents must be so proud.

I’d also generally end my days by crawling into bed around 3 A.M. and repeating my waking procedures before falling asleep around 4.

This morning however, or I suppose I should say this afternoon, I woke up and realized I had to get out of bed before I could do pretty much anything. I still ended making a few phone calls before getting up, but the point is I was forced to get out of bed before I could really start my day. As silly as that sounds, I have gotten so used to my laptop that I just laid in bed almost dumbfounded about what I should do. It eerily reminded me of when I quit playing World of Warcraft back in 2005. I had spent a few months doing damn near nothing but going to class, sleeping and playing WoW. Once I quit, on a total whim I might add, I was left wondering what it was I used to do to occupy my time for about a week. That’s how my day started today, though within minutes I ended up just getting out of bed and booting up my desktop.

God, no wonder nerds have such a social outcast stereotype surrounding them. Everything I’ve mentioned so far, aside from the toga kegger my roommates and I threw make me sound like a total recluse. Oh, and I guess the shower. If it makes me sound any better, I was actually busy enough that it took me almost two days to realize my laptop was even gone. Of course that might just make me sound worse, depending on how you look at it.

Anyways, I’m getting my desktop back up to speed and will soon be back into my pre-laptop routine of just getting out of bed and moving to my desk in the early afternoon. It’s going to be harder to find things to do when I visit my parents now though. Maybe I’ll actually start using my PSP again, or maybe I’ll get a real job using my education and be able to afford all kinds of new electronic devices. My sound system has been acting up since the party as well; perhaps this is all a sign for me to grow up. I doubt I’ll listen, I hardly ever do.

Isolation

After playing through Metroid Prime 3: Corruption over a year ago I was left thinking just about everything was on par or better than Metroid Prime 1. The Wiimote aiming system is still the only use of motion controls that I've felt added anything to the gaming experience, the puzzles were solid and the boss fights were spectacular. Yet I kept feeling like something was missing that made the first one the better game. I should probably also mentioned I haven’t played the second.

I thought about it awhile and I think the reason I like the original better is the sense of isolation conveyed throughout the game. As a player you only ever receive distress beacons and updates from your suit. You never have contact with anything that isn’t trying to kill you. After landing on Tallon IV it’s just you and your arm cannon against the world. You have no idea what is lurking out there.

In Metroid Prime 3, Nintendo actually introduces a civilization. They’ve always talked about the society Samus comes from, but it has always been vague and somewhere in the manual, never in the game. Corruption starts off with a fight on a military space station with tons of people. Samus is actually saved by a fellow bounty hunter near the end of this section after a ridiculously awesome fight with Ridley. Throughout the rest of the game you are constantly updating your superiors on your mission, returning to the space station, and discussing plans with the weird A.I. things. Because of this I never felt like I was too detached from the outside world. In Prime 1, if I died no one would ever know what happened to me. In Prime 3 I got the vibe that if my health meter dropped too low that someone would know about it.

This feeling of isolation has always been a staple of the series and even came through nicely in Metroid Fusion despite the computer you were constantly going back too. I didn’t know a handheld sidescroller could be scary until I played Metroid Fusion. Sadly, Corruption’s expanded universe and extraneous characters seem to be the trend Nintendo is taking with the franchise, if this trailer for their new Tecmo collaboration is any indication. They also seem to be giving Samus a voice for the first time ever and adding all sorts of drama and convoluted plotlines characteristic of Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden universe. I may be getting ahead of myself however, that is a lot to infer from a two minute trailer.

The new gameplay from their joint effort looks incredibly promising, but it is sad to see what made the world of Tallon IV so creepy seemingly disappear with these new additions to the franchise. Let’s just hope Team ICO doesn’t team up with Team Ninja for their fourth project. Ueda games without their incredibly desolate and abandoned venues wouldn’t be the same at all. ;)

Vintage Game Club plays Alpha Centauri

The Vintage Game Club is something I’ve been interested in for a while and finally got around to joining this last month. It’s basically just a forum started by Michael Abbot of The Brainy Gamer where members vote on and then play a classic game together every month. They then discuss segments of the game with each other. Think book of the month club, but for video games. This idea immediately appealed to me and they do it at an incredibly casual rate so that anyone can join in despite busy schedules. However there is the obvious problem of non-linear narratives and branching story lines causing issues with organized discussion.

The club is just about to finish up their playthrough of Alpha Centauri. It’s the first game I’ve played with them and my first Sid Meier game. Alpha Centauri is one of those games I mentioned above that doesn’t break up easily into discussable parts. The game can start off several different ways based on which group you choose to play as and the possibilities skyrocket from there. In order to discuss the game, the topics were divided into Early, Mid, and Late Impressions, Strategy, Narrative, and various others.

This didn’t seem to work well, but I wonder if it is more because of the structure they chose or the game itself. The reason I say it didn’t work well is because compared to the other games they’ve played, all of which are fairly linear, the amount of discussion is considerably less. I don’t think the problem was with the topics chosen; they seem to cover all the major aspects of the game. The problem, at least for me, was with the game.

Like I said, this is the first Sid Meier game I’ve ever played and from what I understand he has gotten exceptionally better at teaching his overly complex games in more recent years. Alpha Centauri has almost no tutorial for controls and an incredibly overwhelming tour guide of all the many menus for managing your civilization. I found this to be an immediate turnoff, but gave the game the benefit of the doubt and played it for several hours. I can honestly still say I have very little idea about how to play the game and it should be noted I spent an additional hour or two reading the manual as well. I suspect all the other newcomers encountered similar problems, grew wary and gave up.

The experienced players on the other hand ran into a completely different problem. It seems the genre has evolved and changed so much with Civilization 3 and 4 that playing Alpha Centauri proved to be a lot more tedious that everyone remembered. It’s interesting to see what was once considered excellent now be thought of as tiresome because of changes in sequels. It happens with tons of series and genres, for instance I played the original Halo at a Xbox LAN party a few months ago. We were super excited when we found out someone brought enough copies for us to play. After about an hour we decided the game was crap, or at least was different enough from Halo 3 that we didn't want to play it anymore. This was the first time most of us had touched Halo 1 since Halo 2 came out. Yet there are still plenty of others whose early games stand just as tall as the later ones. The big three Nintendo franchises, Mario, Metroid and Zelda, all come to mind.

Alpha Centauri didn’t seem to resonate with the players in the way required to get everyone interested. It’s kind of funny considering it was voted for and won, but I’m guessing most of those votes came from either people like me that were curious or fans biased by nostalgia. Nostalgia is a powerful thing when it comes to games. We as gamers tend to jump to the next big thing almost immediately, but it wasn’t like that when we were children with limited income. We would play the same games for years. Looking back on those games, we have nothing but fond memories of our youth, but games have changed immensely over the years and what was acceptable then hardly is now.

It’s a shame that Alpha Centauri didn’t spark the same caliber of discussion all the other games did. I really wanted to like it and I did enjoy what everyone else had to say, this game just wasn’t for everyone. I encourage everyone to join the Vintage Game Club however. It’s a great idea and I wish I found the time to participate during their previous games. They are playing a Zelda game next and I guarantee that one will spawn more discourse than I’ll have time to read.

More Like Baller's Gate! No, You Shut Up!

Anyone remember that Baldur’s Gate console spinoff series from last gen? I just played through the first one with a friend of mine. I think I can safely say that co-op is this games only saving grace. Or to put it another way, this game sucks. It is just a dungeon crawler and the only story is relayed through a few NPCs that become sparser and sparser as you progress. I think there are six or seven total. It was fairly well received back in 2001 according to MetaCritic and only God knows why. Were we that naïve eight years ago? If this game came out today it would be immediately shunned. Still, I found it amusing enough to finish, something I would have never done alone.


What is it about playing a crappy game with a friend that makes it so much more enjoyable? By today’s standards Baldur’s Gate looks terrible, the 360’s emulation was hardly adequate causing plenty of slow down especially early on, and the story can be summed up as “bad things are happening and you have to stop it.” Yet most of the obvious shortcomings of the game became the subject of our jokes, which proved to be very entertaining. Much more so than the game could ever hope to be, anyway. The dated graphics led to us to do stupid things like take all the armor off the Elven Sorceress to see her ridiculous character model. The slowdown ended up adding a hilarious slow motion effect to some of the games more “dramatic” moments. Taking the armor off the Sorceress while playing by yourself would just be weird and creepy, and the slowdown would be annoying, but by having a friend to laugh with made it infinitely better.

The gameplay also consisted of very little. The Warrior spams A, the Archer switches between A and B, and the Sorceress spams B. This is an oversimplification, but not really by all that much. Rather than making the game arduous and boring it ended up causing the game to become more of a backdrop for a conversation. Similar to talking with friends while music plays in the background, we were just chatting while playing Baldur’s Gate. Occasionally the game would provide material for the conversation, such as the jokes mentioned above, but unless we were trading items or what not the game was rarely the centerpiece of what was going on.

There is something very enjoyable about sharing an experience with a friend and game makers have been cashing in on this for years. The old sidescroller beat ‘em ups like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage are essentially dungeon crawlers and those never lost popularity. Games like Castle Crashers and the new TMNT remake are proving we still very much want this kind of thing. It’s also nice to see developers going beyond these genres and trying to create more meaningful and teamwork oriented co-op experiences. Games like Army of Two, Resident Evil 5, Left4Dead and Lost Planet 2 all are trying to require teamwork rather than just throwing a second person into a single player game. Imagine how fun those are if people are willing to trudge through Baldur's Gate? Well, except for Army of Two, that one was still pretty weak.

Playing a game with human interaction is irreplaceable what makes co-op so enjoyable (pretty much by definition). While this isn’t the case for all games, it definitely applies to plenty. That would also explain why I think playing multiplayer games in a LAN setting is often more fun than over the internet. One thing’s for certain, there is definitely some appeal or I never would have gotten my roommate to finish Eternal Sonata with me.

UFC 2009 Undisputed (literally)

UFC 2009 Undisputed knocking out the competition

Talk about coming out of nowhere. UFC 2009 Undisputed surprised everyone when a demo was released in late April for Xbox Live and PSN. Here was a game with virtually no hype at all, not a lot of media available at the time, and fans of the sport worrying that this might be a sloppy cash-in on the UFC license by THQ. How wrong we were! The first week out, the demo opened at number 7 on Major Nelson's Top 10 Live titles for the week. It peaked at number 5, right behind Gears of War 2. As of the end of May, the demo is still holding its own in 6th place. This level of hype and word-of-mouth surrounding a demo is virtually unprecedented, especially going on a month and half after release.

The attention was not unwarranted. THQ had quietly crafted the best MMA game and one of the best fighting games in years right under our noses. In 2007, THQ acquired the UFC license which had gone without a game since 2004's UFC: Sudden Impact. Yukes, with their history of working with THQ dating back to 2000's WWF Smackdown!, was given the opportunity to bring the first UFC game to next-gen consoles. Over the next two years, Yukes would develop four wrestling games, each generally well received, though none of them prepared us for the leap in quality that came with UFC 2009 Undisputed.

Previous UFC titles and MMA games alike have been known for their clunky controls, stiff animations, clipping problems, and no proper AAA treatment to fans' dismay - until now. Undisputed was built from the ground up with a brand new physics-based engine that takes into account weight distribution , timing, angle, velocity and mass. There is virtually no clipping to be had between fighters, even when jockeying for any number of ground positions. Animation is silky smooth and moves between hundreds of punches, kicks, slams, and ground transitions without ever looking too robotic. Controlling your fighter is daunting at first, as no button or stick on your controller goes unused. A 45 minute tutorial is included to get you started on your way to making use of all of your abilities.

Having a solid foundation to build the game upon was the first thing Yukes needed to get right and they did it in flying colors. With the core of the game created, they piled on features - over 80 UFC fighters, historic fights with classic footage (which also appeared in Yukes WWE Legends of Wrestlemania), career mode, six fighting styles, TV-style presentation and announcing, and great, if not flawed, online play. Quite an accomplishment to pull this all together in two years and not have any one part of the game feel rushed or sacrificed. Most importantly, this all adds up to create the best MMA experience to date and a game that is truly fun to play match after match. Never before has a game conveyed so well the feeling of kicking someone's ass with a knee to the jaw or making them turn purple with a rear naked choke. Truly satisfying, and even impressive when it happens to you.

None of this hard work would matter if no one played the game. Luckily for THQ and Yukes, their hard work paid off in dividends. Last week's NPD numbers indicated a resounding success. The demo buzz and word of mouth added up to just over 1 million copies sold across 360/PS3. Could the series of events worked out any better for a game no one was talking about a month and half ago? Credit has to go to THQ for not getting too ahead of themselves with Molyneux-esque previews that over promised and under delivered, instead opting to keep a low profile throughout development (as of last June they were still mum on who was developing Undisputed) and reveal features when they were certain they would make the final cut. This secrecy culminated in a summer blockbuster that no one saw coming.

Get used to this screen, you'll be seeing a lot of it

Still, Undisputed isn't without its flaws and omissions. Noticeably lacking is cage work, southpaw stances, more fighting styles, penalties for rage quitting online, fighters with big hair and they could stand to get rid of layers upon layers of menus that each have slight loading screens. All of this and more is sure to be addressed with the quickly announced sequel, UFC Undisputed 2010.

In the meantime, you can catch me online playing the best fighting game of 2009 so far. I've clocked over 20 hours with it and I'm just getting started. But, we can't forget that right around the corner is another sport getting its first true next-gen treatment in Fight Night Round 4. Only time will tell if it will enjoy the same level of success as Undisputed.

MadWorld

I’ve played most of the big “hardcore” releases for the Wii. All the major Nintendo franchises, No More Heroes, and I’ve now finished up MadWorld, a game I was super excited for. Being a whore for all things visually interesting and all things made by Clover Studios, though I’ve yet to try God Hand, made MadWorld seem like a perfect fit.

MadWorld did manage to deliver visually, but throughout most of the game I found it just called to attention the inaccuracies and sometimes over-accuracies of using a Wiimote for precise control. MadWorld is a hack and slash game and like all good ones it tries to add some strategy in, especially for the boss fights. This is fine with a controller because quick accurate movements like dodging can be done with a thumbstick and button press. With motion controls however, a dodge is done by swinging the nunchuck. Dodging in a certain direction is done contextually based on what the enemy is doing with no extra input required from the player. The difference between a vertical slash and a horizontal one isn’t always as clear as it should be depending on the angle you’re holding the Wiimote and sometimes just adjusting where you rest your left arm can have catastrophic results.

All of these gripes seem to be hardware issues. Of the “hardcore” Wii games I’ve played, this is the first to really heavily rely on motion controls and it is quite clear now why other developers, including Nintendo, have avoided them. MadWorld makes up for it by making the game overly easy, but this isn’t exactly a great solution. Damage sustained is generally minimal, health items are fairly abundant and death does not reset the damage inflicted on opponents. These make the lack of controller fidelity manageable, but take away from the satisfaction felt after nailing a boss fight in a game like Devil May Cry 3 or Ninja Gaiden.

Sadly, the game also had its fair share of software problems, mainly the camera. I have yet to see a camera take control and reorient exactly how I would like it too and MadWorld is no exception. Every time the camera tries to do its own thing I had to fight it to get a view of what I actually needed to see. This was especially noticeable while running away from a fight, which is pretty much the worst time to be wrestling for a good view of the escape route. The gameplay also starts to get a little repetitive, but they put such a ridiculous amount of ways to kill in, that its almost your fault if you find yourself doing the same things... almost.

Like I said earlier, they did nail the graphical style of the game. I was continually amazed by how excellent everything looked with only black and white to give them depth and texture. Another unexpected plus was the game is hilarious. There are two announcers narrating the show that are very reminiscent of the two guys on MXC, only actually funny. The violence is also more over the top than I could have ever imagined, the game rewards you with a higher score for being as brutal as possible and you need those points to unlock the boss fights so violence is definitely encouraged. The games sense of humor is hardly for everyone, but if you were at all interested for its other merits than the humor should be to your liking.

MadWorld is a good time for the six or seven hours it will take you to complete, but I found little reason to play once the credits rolled. It’s a decent game that didn’t quite live up to the potential I think many people saw in it. My biggest problem has to be the inaccuracies brought on by the motion controls, which is sad because it seems like every good game I’ve played on the Wii would have been more enjoyable if I could have only used a GameCube contoller, barring Metroid of course. I’d still definitely give it a shot, it was a worthy first attempt for a studio I expect wonderful things from in the future.

Old School Puzzles

I’ve been juggling between newer and older games a lot lately. There is something inherently different about older games, something more than just cosmetic and I think I’ve finally figured out what it is. That difference is in how we are asked to solve puzzles.

Every time I go back and play an old game, something at least as old as the mid 90’s, I end up getting stumped by something stupid. After solving whatever was causing the hindrance I always find myself more frustrated rather than relieved or proud. The puzzles that cause this always have been completely random and illogical solutions. Once I know the answer, I’m usually flabbergasted trying to understand why anyone would logically work this puzzle out in his or her head. My favorite example of this is from Ocarina of Time and I know I’m going to get some flack for this, but even 10/10s have flaws. Especially when you play them for the first time almost ten years after release.

Anyway, the conundrum I’m talking about is how to acquire the fire tunic in order to enter the Fire Temple. To get the tunic you must bomb a small Goron that is rolling around his village. He then stops, talks to you and hands over the tunic. This minor part took me around three hours to figure out. Upon figuring it out I didn’t feel that lovely sensation I got after solving a particularly difficult part in a game like Braid, instead I just wondered why anyone would bother bombing that rolling guy for any reason other than already having exhausted all other options. Even the conversation you have upon acquiring the tunic seems out of the blue. The game teaches you that you can bomb the rolling guy, but doesn’t give you any real reason too, at least not one you would expect to advance the main quest.

Compare this with Twilight Princess, Nintendo’s latest major foray into the world of Hyrule and you’ll find something quite different. All the steps to gain access to each dungeon made perfect sense. For instance, around the middle of the game you are tasked with melting Lake Hylia. You know you must use your partner, Midna, to teleport an object to the lake to accomplish this. You should also remember walking by a giant molten rock an hour or two earlier in the game. The game lets you know early on that the item will be right next to one of your very finite teleport locations, which further helps you jump to a quick conclusion. This puzzle can be solved by thinking rather than trying everything you can until blindly stumble forward.

However, as much as I welcome this new way of puzzle presentation, it is not without its faults. Games these days are traditionally far too easy and Twilight Princess is no exception. I was never stumped for more than a minute or two by the dungeon intermediary puzzles in the main quest line. This seems to hold for plenty of other games as well, especially JRPGs. The most complex puzzle in the last JRPG I played, FF12, consisted of little more than pressing a few switches.

I understand why games have arrived at the way they are now. It’s simply better design to make puzzles that adhere to logic. I also get why they’ve gotten so much easier. Simply put, making difficult and clever puzzles is not easy. I don’t necessarily have a solution other than spending more time trying to add complexity though I definitely think we are heading in the right direction. I’ll take a puzzle I can think my way through over one that requires me to scour the entire game world any day.

Project Natal

I hate to be the cynic, but after seeing the video for Microsoft’s new camera input device I can’t help but think, “yeah right.” I can’t imagine the technology required for that to work even reasonably well isn’t something that exists right now. If it does, it sure as hell isn’t cheap enough to mass produce for a game console. Maybe I’m wrong and Microsoft has some crazy new tech that makes it all work wonderfully, but I’m not holding my breath. Remember when Sony announced something similar this time last year? Funny thing, the virtual pet hasn’t been mentioned since. I’m sure it is still being worked on in some capacity. We’ll see what ends up happening with that I suppose.

Another reason I’m finding it hard not to be cynical is the biggest Project Natal announcement so far is from Lionhead. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Fable 1 and thought Fable 2 was pretty good too, but you can’t deny Peter Molyneux’s tendency to overhype his games. He seemed like he was getting better with Fable 2, but then he ended up going off about some new experiment of theirs that will blow the collective minds of gamers everywhere. He couldn’t mention anything about it other than how awesome it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned out to be Milo.

My other problem is, if it does work, will the games be as lame as the ones in the video looked? the racing one looked okay, but changing tires as a pit crewman is not exactly my idea of a great time. Hopefully once the technology is readily available, excellent uses of it will start popping up. Then again, I still haven't seen this fully realized with the Wii and that's been out for almost four years.

One thing that gives me hope is Johnny Lee’s recent blog post explaining how excellent the tech is. He kind of comes off as a PR robot in his post, but I’ve seen his videos and several of them show things I wouldn’t have thought possible.

I hope everything they claim comes to be and then a whole lot more, but like I said, I’m not holding my breath.

Super Paper Mario

My RPG stint continues with Super Paper Mario! I guess it’s not really much of a stint seeing as my last three games weren’t RPGs and this hardly qualifies, but whatever. I still have a lot more RPGs on my plate lately than normal, and Fallout 3 is on my horizon.

Super Paper Mario is one of those mystical Wii games aimed at the hardcore that are supposedly so hard to come by. Though I guess when it was released, it was one of like four. Anyway, Paper Mario is one of many games that were planned as a GameCube title, but had motion controls retrofitted into it since it was delayed so long that no one cared about the GameCube by the time it was done. Luckily there are barely any uses of the Wiimote, which is good because most of the few feel tacked on. The most prominent of these is the games hint system that uses the pointer. The only other uses are small mini games to maximize the benefit of certain power ups and flailing the controller when frozen. The rest of the time the Wiimote is turned sideways and is used almost as an NES controller. Only now there is a giant A button near your left thumb.

Unlike previous Paper Mario’s this one plays a lot more like the original platforming sidescrollers. The game is still has plenty of RPG elements, specifically leveling, but gone is the turn based combat and whatever else was different. I never actually played the previous titles. :) Super Paper Mario works wonderfully as a hybrid except for one fairly annoying fault. The game has way too much story. It’s a largely unecessary story too, some evil guy is trying to destroy the world, Mario needs 8 Pure Hearts to stop him. There is also a surprise twist that isn’t really because of the major clues dropped several hours before the big reveal. This kind of thing probably worked better when the combat was turn based. The previous games must have proceeded at a much slower pace overall so the interruption in interactivity wasn’t as noticeable.

Incidentally, I still found the writing to be one of the games strongest attributes. Despite the story being derivative, the game has a very sharp sense of humor. There were several parts that poked fun at gamers and an entire world devoted toward making fun of nerd culture. Another world parodied old martial arts movies. Multiple times, in game characters would refer to the player, breaking the fourth wall with very humorous results. The game managed to be consistently funny, something I wasn’t even expecting it to try to do.

The humor blended nicely with the games art style. As you may have guessed, the game is called Paper Mario because everyone and everything is entirely 2D. When you turn around it appears as though a cut out of Mario is being flipped over. Everything is also all very cute looking. It looks great and fits the humor well. If you’ve played any of the previous games it won’t be anything new in the character department. The backgrounds did get quite the overhaul, however.

Like most Nintendo games, the gameplay and level designs are rock solid. The bulk of progression is done through puzzle solving and as the game progresses new powers are unlocked. By the end of the game you can choose between four characters all with a unique ability and close to a dozen Pixls each adding an ability to your arsenal. It’s done slowly enough to not be overwhelming and leads to some pretty ingenious puzzles reminiscent of Zelda dungeons of old. The coolest power, and the games main selling point is Mario’s ability. Early in the game you obtain the power to flip the world from 2D to 3D. Several things are hidden in the 3D world that aren’t visible from the 2D, including pathways going into and out of the plane of the screen. This makes the puzzles that much more unique and interesting.

The game has a few shortcomings, but almost all of them were rare enough to be overlooked. For instance there are a few fetch quests that require a decent amount of backtracking through a levels. Once you actually backtrack though, you realize you really hadn’t come that far to begin with, it was the explorative diligence that originally took time. There’s no reason to constantly flip to 3D and check every nook and cranny on your way back and the destination is always a memorable spot. Another problem, and many people will probably disagree with this, is puzzles that require nothing more than searching every inch of the area to discover how to move on. I only noticed this once, but I found it incredibly frustrating. These kind of tactics were used a lot more in old games and I am happy to see them fading.

My biggest issue with the game was the camera believe it or not. I didn’t know you could mess up a 2D camera, but they did just enough for me to take notice. The camera stayed vertically in place throughout the whole game. It would always be fixed right below the initial thing Mario was standing on. Therefore if you needed to jump down to a platform or up to one above the screen, it was a blind jump. Once you safely landed the camera would readjust, but then stay there now blinding you of plenty of other obstacles. Simply jumping in place in order to get a peak did nothing. The problem proved annoying, but not terribly hindering throughout the entire game.

Finally, there was a bit of a difficulty spike in the last world of the game that caught me off guard. I think I died three or four times throughout the rest of the game and I easily doubled that throughout the last two levels. Still, this wasn’t too huge of a problem because most of the games time consumption is spent on puzzles. Even if I spent thirty minutes progressing into the level, retracing my steps took only a few minutes. The difficulty spike was unexpected, but not unmanageable if you made it that far.

Super Paper Mario is a fun romp that is worth dusting off your Wii for. It isn’t the best thing Nintendo’s put out, but it’s a nice throwback to the Mario games of the late 80’s and early 90’s that we all love so much. It did get tedious at times with the story, but enough of the writing was clever and silly enough to hold my attention. Shortening the game by a world probably wouldn’t have hurt, assuming you’re part of that camp, but I still recommend it as is. Besides, it’s not like you are using your Wii for anything else.