GDC 2007: Playing Super Paper Mario

Nintendo of America was on-hand at the Game Developers Conference 2007 with a handful of playable Wii titles, including the anticipated platformer/RPG Super Paper Mario. We took the gorgeously stylized sleeper for a spin and walked away completely dazzled. The title, which was originally planned for GameCube before it made the jump to Wii, is a sequel to the hit GCN game Paper Mario and bears many similarities to its predecessor. For one, it is brought to life with a quasi-2D style made possible with cardboard cut-out visuals. Mario is literally paper thin as he walks through colorful storyboarded environments complete with blocky clouds and skinny enemies. In addition, the title is neither a dedicated platformer nor RPG, but a combination of the two. That being said, in our experience Super Paper Mario leans closer to the former than the latter, as some of the turn-based battles of previous games have been thrown to the wind in favor or new real-time action. But the commonalities seem to end there because Super Paper Mario takes the 2D/3D relationship several steps farther and really bathes itself in new and improved play mechanics, which are deeper and more engaging than ever before, even as it oozes enough style to satiate any desire for nostalgic presentation.

In Super Paper Mario, gamers control not only Nintendo's classic Italian plumber, but also Peach and Bowser, too. The characters become unlocked and join Mario's party, so to speak, as he progresses through the adventure, which Nintendo promises will be lengthy and challenging. In fact, a company representative suggested that the title could take some players upward of 40 hours to complete. Gamers grip the Wii remote classic style and move the mascots through the levels with the D-Pad, sacrificing true analog controls - and trust us, nobody is even going to notice. The 2 button causes the selected hero (or heroine) to jump into the air and the 2 button executes special moves endowed by floating collected Pixls, which we'll explain in detail momentarily. But the most important function falls to the A button, which literally transforms the play field from 2D to 3D in an instant.

full article at ign