Paper Mario means so much to so many different people.
It practically defined my experience with an entire generation on the N64, and I know
it was the same for many others on the Gamecube with an unforgettable sequel.
We've already talked at length about its charm, memorable characters and satisfying
gameplay, but we have one more era to discuss to wrap up our series on the paper franchise:
What happened after the first two games in Super Paper Mario and Color Splash.
One is divisive to say the least, and the other is essentially panned across the board,
but I wanted to talk about my experience since I basically played both of them fresh for
this video.
Do they hold a candle to the originals?
Well, let's talk about it.
First off, I know a lot of people are gonna ask about Sticker Star, but I'm not covering
this one for a couple reasons - 1) I don't have a way to record 3DS footage, and 2) from
what I've seen, it has a very similar structure to Color Splash, so any criticisms I make
would probably be the same for both games here - we'll basically kill two paper birds
with one paper...rock paper scissors.
But first we have to talk about Super Paper Mario, the black sheep of the family.
Remember, Thousand Year Door was a nearly flawless sequel that expanded the original
in unprecedented ways, so it already was going to be a tough act to follow.
But you also have to keep in mind that Nintendo likes to switch things up with their new installments
- rarely do you see a follow-up that doesn't change the gameplay in any significant way.
So the key difference they decided to run with this time was Mario's ability to change
dimensions and go from a 2D perspective to 3D.
Now on it's own this is by no means a bad addition, in fact it looks pretty cool from
a marketing standpoint and the potential was pretty high for where they could take it,
but they removed a lot of the fundamental elements that the Paper Mario series had become
known for along the way.
The biggest turn off for me, and the most obvious shift was from a turn based battle
system to real time combat.
Things resemble Mario's older games a lot more this time around, jumping on enemies'
heads and throwing objects to cause damage, but the physics aren't nearly as crisp as
the italian wonder's other platformers.
There's no more experience points or picking which stat you'd like to upgrade, instead
you level up based on your total score and it picks a predetermined stat to boost, taking
away any agency you have on customizing your build.
Badges are gone, upgraded equipment is nowhere to be found, and forget about party members
while you're at it - everything is streamlined toward jumping through obstacles and completing
stages in this adventure.
In fact, the 2nd thing that rubbed me the wrong way at first was the four-act structure
of each chapter.
The fact that each level wraps up with a star block to hit feels anticlimactic and much
more linear than the exploration and traveling to different interconnected worlds of the
first two games.
Each setpiece is accessed from the same location in the hub and plays out like a level-based
platformer.
Sure there's rising action and climax in each one, and of course more occurs than simply
running to the right, but this new presentation style and massive gameplay shift was very
jarring coming off the heels of Thousand Year Door and the improvements it had made to the
formula.
When each chapter used to wrap up with a story summary of where Mario should head next, it
was endearing and driving, but now since it shows up after every section, it slows the
pace way down and feels like we didn't even accomplish anything in between each activity.
So my first hour or so with the game was spent more or less grumbling about how it was way
too different from past Paper Mario games and how annoyed I was at this new adaptation,
but I gotta admit, after awhile I got used to it and the strengths really started to
shine through.
This game is fantastically written, just like the originals.
Some of the new scenarios you face are amazing, like knocking over a priceless vase and having
to pay back the cost through hard manual labor, or taking a pit stop in the middle of space
because your alien buddy really has to go, or my absolute favorite - infiltrating a nerd-castle
of an anime loving, dating sim playing, chameleon fanboy who steals your butterfly companion
to take pictures of it.
It's unbelievably wacky, catches you by surprise with some of the switch ups, and
feels like a good next step as far as the overall story of Paper Mario goes.
The main villain is fascinating, and while there is certainly more dialogue this time
around, I think it's just as creative as before and kept me intrigued to see what happened
next.
Luigi becoming a brainwashed villain is a perfect twist that we haven't really seen
before - there's a reason many claim Super has the best narrative of the entire series.
But the coolest thing to me was the addition of new controllable characters.
Like I said, Nintendo likes to try new things with its sequels and this seemed like the
logical progression for the series - instead of just flipping dimensions with Mario, now
you can float across gaps with Peach's umbrella and even take control of King Koopa himself
to pulverize baddies and destroy obstacles with your flame breath - harkening back to
the Super Mario RPG days.
Having Bowser on your side is always a good call in my book.
Utilizing your arsenal of abilities combined with the powers of your various pixls is where
Super Paper Mario shines best.
It takes a little bit to take off, but around chapter 3, the gameplay gains a very satisfying
sense of flow where you switch back and forth between all of your maneuvers to climb this
massive tree.
Hitting blocks, blowing up walls, reaching far ledges and burning up roots all while
checking different perspectives to make sure you didn't miss anything was just exhilarating.
It's a little hit and miss with how often it will require your assortment of moves,
but when it's at its best, I really enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, it just doesn't reach that full potential because of the other elements
it scaled back so heavily.
Having Pixls you recover from chests is definitely a downgrade from party members with unique
personalities and backstories.
These guys only speak like once and then they're just defined by the new gimmick it allows
you to do.
Using Peach and Bowser is great but the menu is much more clunky this time around, mainly
due to the limitations of the sideways Wii Remote - having to open the full menu to swap
pixls, characters or use an item got old pretty quickly.
And honestly the whole game felt a lot more slow and cumbersome - entering doors means
you have to sit through this long spiral transition, guess I just gotta sit here and wait while
it draws my mega-powerup, and why in the world can you skip the elevator cutscene everywhere
else, but with this particular one you can't.
And maybe this is just a personal thing, but I really didn't like the design of the Flipside
residents, they're rather odd and all look the same, plus they're the only race of
people here - you know how past games would have visitors from other realms, making a
more cohesive environment?
Well, everyone is segregated into their own worlds now.
This caused Flipside in general to be uninteresting to explore since there wasn't any distinguished
features to set it apart, and condensing a massive town into a 2D viewpoint made it more
annoying to navigate.
As I said, the 3D perspective changes were a good concept, but the puzzles feel either
really basic or so obtuse that you just get mad at the solution.
Half the time you're holding right as an invincible 8-bit madman, running down empty
corridors to collect keys, or simply turning the screen sideways to find the hidden door,
and the other half you have to talk to a random NPC to know the arbitrary solution to a puzzle,
or jump around looking for the way out until you remember that sometimes things are just
invisible until you point at the screen with your controller.
Some things are creative, but for the most part it feels like a dumbed-down Mario adventure,
I personally believe because of the level-based structure and unwieldy execution of the controls
and mechanics.
I'll tell you what, here's what I would have done if I were to recreate Super Paper
Mario to be a proper sequel to Thousand Year Door.
First and foremost: ditch the 4-part installments of chapters, and make the stages accessible
from different parts of the hub like the old games - no more of this 8 doors atop the tower
nonsense.
A huge reason the first two games are admired so heavily for their integrated worlds was
because of how you uncovered the next hidden chapter.
Flipside has a lot of potential - you can still run around swapping dimensions and using
new abilities, but hide the next locale behind some of these secret pathways.
Keep the 3D perspective shift, I like this - but can we make the scenery a bit more appealing
than just a lengthy barren hallway?
Make these trees pop out, put other obstacles in my way.
I would get rid of the time limit on this ability, and make it just as interactive as
the regular view, instead of simply changing to it for a quick solution now and again.
The Pixl maneuvers are cool, but they really need to be full blown characters - you already
have all these new species and villages, they don't even have to be Mario-specific dudes,
make them aliens, cavemen, maybe even little chameleon henchmen that switch sides, I don't
know.
The Pixls feel lazy and more like an item than a party member.
And finally, but most important: the turn-based combat has got to come back.
Now this was hard for me because Thousand Year Door amplified the original in so many
cool ways, it would be really hard for Super to keep the train rolling.
I wracked my brain trying to think of how it could continue to innovate while still
keeping the structure the same - and then it hit me: use the 3D dimension swapping in
the combat.
Throughout the game, there's all of these pillars that have hidden notes on the side
of them that you can only see from a certain angle.
What if battles had that too - like a boss who has his weakness written on his hand but
you can only read it if you turn sideways.
There's already this annoying blooper fight where you can only damage it by attacking
the red tentacle, what if you could see all of them at once, but identified the right
one by seeing it from another direction.
You could hide weak spots behind other objects, utilize different parts of the stage as a
reward for looking around, here's a crazy thought: what if Mario didn't have to be
in a battle at all times - what if he was just one of the characters you can switch
out, so you could have any combination of Bowser, Peach, Luigi, your cool party members,
and they all had useful abilities that would help you take down specific threats.
Maybe Peach can reach attack points that no one else can, Bowser can be the tank that
soaks up hits and deals out heavy damage but is slow and only attacks once every other
turn, maybe even have enemies that adapt to how they can be damaged based on your attacks,
like how others did back in the first games.
If Mario is the only one who can change perspectives, perhaps they could award bonus experience
for taking down baddies in a unique way instead of brute forcing your way through.
Look, I'm no game design expert, but the boss fights were easily the weakest part of
the game for me, and I think making everything happen in real-time turned it into a snoozefest.
Each battle is super easy and normally has one way to kill them that either requires
waiting for an open period to attack or can be cheesed without using any brainpower.
They have all these special items to help in battle, but there's basically no point
because you can just stomp through any situation, and the lack of experience or customization
leaves you wondering why you're bothering fighting nonessential enemies at all.
I don't think you'd have to carry over all the different mechanics from the originals
like stylish points or audience members affecting the battle, and I certainly don't believe
that it would have to be more of the same to be good either.
Some people have said they just want another Thousand Year Door adventure and they would
be happy - but I really do empathize with the desire of wanting to stretch the genre
and see what new heights they can reach.
Flipping the perspective and having different playable characters was the right direction
to go, I just think they strayed too far from what worked to be considered a classic.
The foundation of a great Paper Mario game is there, but unfortunately it's buried
under the muck of other design decisions.
Color Splash on the other hand - hoo boy, I think it's beyond saving.
Which really sucks because, I mean just look at it!
This is exactly what I would picture a Paper Mario game in HD to look like in today's
day and age, it really is beautiful.
If this latest entry on the Wii U has anything going for it, it's strong visuals and great
writing.
Jokes are top-notch, it definitely has the humor that the series has become known for,
and the different paper-aesthetic changes the environment goes through are clever, reminding
me of Kirby's Epic Yarn or Yoshi's Woolly World.
And...eh, I guess smacking stuff with color was pretty alright too.
Look, I'm sorry guys, I really tried to come up with more good things to say about
it, but that's about all there is.
I think there's two major problems that rob the rest of the experience from truly
being enjoyable, and the first is probably the most common complaint people cite about
this game - they took away any originality from the characters and instead replaced them
with generic toads.
Toads everywhere!
This is the most peculiar change I can think of for a Paper Mario game, the unique and
interesting people you meet along your journey is exactly what set the series apart from
other titles.
64 had a town full of toads, but at least each one had a different look, name and personality.
The only thing separating these characters from one another is their color and the occasional...scarf.
They sort of use the fact that they all look the same as a joke here and there in the gameplay,
but it's more than just toads - all the enemies you face are equally boring and cookie-cutter
in their appearance.
Sucking the life out of paper beings seems like a Shy-guy thing to do, but where are
all the other types of Shy guys that we've seen before?
They aren't even different colors.
Goombas, Koopas, Cheep-cheeps, they're all based off of the most common version of what
you'll find if you google image search their names.
But the stripping didn't stop there.
Mario no longer has any form of party members, and the combat is scaled back to the most
basic form I can think of.
No experience, no badges, no leveling up and choosing your stat upgrades.
Instead, now you have disposable ca-huurr.
Sorry I almost threw up there, disposable ca-huuuur.
CARDS.
What were they thinking?!
It's like they heard feedback from Super Paper Mario and said, "hey the kids prefer
turn based combat instead of this real-time stuff, let's do that but nothing else, take
away anything appealing or worthwhile about it.
They just want to take their turns now".
There's so many problems with this system, the most blatant being that there's no good
reason to even want to do these battles anymore.
Without experience, the only real benefit you get from winning are these little hammer
icons that increase your maximum paint storage, but that isn't exactly helpful since you
hardly run out of paint anyway and you can just smack stuff in the environment to get
more.
So all that happens when you fight random baddies is you waste the one-time use cards
in your deck that you potentially will want to save until you need them on the required
battles down the road.
The cards themselves are mostly uninteresting but the fact that they go away after putting
them into play presents a bunch of new issues the games never had before.
There are these special Thing cards that show off insane cutscenes and take out foes in
funny ways, which I guess are kind of like the Power Star abilities from previous games,
but instead of recharging over time, once you use them they're gone, and the only
way to get them back is to travel all the way to the docks of Port Prisma and buy them
again, one at a time mind you.
Now this is a bit more of a personal preference, but I also hate that you can't tell exactly
how much health an enemy has.
As you smack or jump on them you can see their color start to fade away, but you also can't
tell how much damage YOUR attacks do either, so it's basically a big guessing game.
One time I might use more cards than needed to finish off a crowd of baddies, which sucks
because you lose any card you've played even if it's not employed, but then the
next time I'll be more conservative with the cards I use and for some reason that enemy
won't take nearly the same amount of damage so I'll have to wait a whole extra round
to finish the job.
Knowing your adversary's stamina and the output you're capable of dealing is what
made the originals so strategy-intensive.
Planning 3 steps ahead or adjusting your actions based on how a boss reacts was thrilling - I've
already talked about how the overall lower numbers and exact science made everything
more manageable compared to other RPG's.
Here, you start with 50 health and I never really got below 30.
It's way too easy and forgiving with health drops, and it feels like a crap-shoot of whether
your attacks will be enough to kill a particular guy or not.
But this is all compounded by the worst aspect of the entire game, the fact that everything
is so SLOOOOW.
Combat is just one of the many components plagued by snail-like pacing.
To attack you have to select your cards from a big ol' list of them, and sorting doesn't
help because it puts your items on top for some reason?
Instead of, I don't know your best abilities first.
Then you have to paint them to power them up, then swipe up to wait a few more seconds...and
finally begin your turn.
Yes there's action commands but they're one of like 3 categories and only involve
pressing the A button at the right time.
Combined with the fact that there's no reward, it just makes the prospect of any optional
battle a huge hassle and very annoying when you accidentally bump an enemy or get jumped
by an unavoidable goon.
But it gets worse - Color Splash continues with the level-based stage layout, removing
any semblance of a connected world, and after gathering a paint star it boots you out of
the area.
This wouldn't be bad if there was only one collectible to find, but several times I found
multiple stars that I wanted to grab but nope instead you have to go back into the level
and traverse the annoying hallways of enemies again until you find the next start that's
just sitting there ready to be taken.
There's these bonus temples where you play rock paper scissors in a tournament bracket.
You know, like the fastest game in existence?
Nah, here you have to place your cards and watch it play out in slow motion apparently.
And since it's mostly random, I guess you'd better get used to playing it over and over
again if you want to conquer them.
On their own, some of these decisions are excusable, but they combine together to make
a story that drags way longer than it needs to.
There's all these roadblocks that make even getting the first major paint star a pain
to reach.
Unlike previous games where you can find the first main collectible in an hour or two,
this game goes out of its way to extend your playtime to agonizingly boring lengths.
Forget minibosses or unique locations, it'll take hours to go through bland fields and
the same waves of enemies before you have to then find the special key toads to unlock
this gate, and then get stomped by the first major boss because you didn't have the one
particular item required to beat him so you have to go through the entire castle again
after getting the right powerup.
And THEN you get the first star.
Whoo.
Maybe it's because I played all of these Paper Mario games back to back, but I could
not be bothered to keep playing, I'm sorry y'all but I just couldn't.
I would love to come up with some sort of way to rescue this game, cite my own version
that would have fixed it and made it a worthy successor, but it's too far gone; they would
have to scale back every single element except the core maneuver of painting the environment.
Start from there, keep the wacky arts and crafts spectacles, but change everything else.
There's a lot of speculation about why this happened - conversations behind closed doors
with Shigeru Miyamoto and the development team being forced to use more basic characters,
blah blah blah, but one thing is surely clear: this is not Paper Mario, at least not what
I've come to know the series to be.
This is a totally different game, and one that may have actually done okay if it didn't
have such a prestigious title attached to it.
It's funny, there's a lot of things I don't like about Super Paper Mario but its
strengths really become apparent when you see a version where they're all missing.
At least it was unique in story, locations, characters - they couldn't even be bothered
to come up with a new paint monster as the main villain, it's just back to basic Bowser.
Without a doubt, nostalgia is a powerful thing.
Even after hearing all the negativity concerning Color Splash, I still got excited when I ordered
a copy for this video, thinking there would still be some semblance of what I loved in
there somewhere.
The series means a lot to me, and I fear that it will only be in memory if the recent titles
are anything to go off of, but who knows.
We've seen some crazy spiritual successors fill a void that fans have been yearning for.
In fact, in the process of writing this script, an indie game called Underhero came onto my
radar which cited Paper Mario as one of its major inspirations.
It has a lot of cleverness and charm in its story since you play as a bad guy instead
of the typical hero, but the best part is its twist on battle mechanics - you dodge
and attack very similar to the action command system, but everything happens in real time.
You have a stamina meter that refills as you successfully avoid incoming damage, so while
you CAN just spam the attack button, you have to balance it with being winded and vulnerable.
It even deals a critical hit if you pull off a "groovy" shot, but since it's not
turn-based, this occurs when you swing to the beat of the background music.
You learn different enemy patterns as you progress, but you can also bribe them to avoid
battle altogether or talk to them before you duke it out to gain information.
And I don't know, there's just something super satisfying about seeing that beautiful
Level Up screen again.
While it's not exactly like Paper Mario's system, it IS similar to the series just in
how engaging and unique it is.
I highly recommend checking it out if you've been craving a fix like the classics.
Now certainly, there is a dedicated fanbase that swears by Super Paper Mario's quality,
and hey, maybe there was some stuff I didn't get to in Color Splash that picks up the pace.
I want to hear from you: what are some of your favorite things about either of these
games, what do they have that the other entries were lacking?
Or if you think they weren't as good, tell me your own versions of how you would improve
them.
Get creative with it, write 'em out in the comments below and let's talk about it.
Thanks for watching another episode of Bad Game Design, remember that the goal here is
not to bash a title that some people hold dear - it's to talk about how they could
be better so that hopefully we'll see even more innovation from games yet to come.
I'll see you guys next time.
Stay frosty my friends.
Wow, people have been asking for another Bad Game Design for a long time.
I'm glad the Donkey Kong 64 video had been so well received, but I always tell people
that I HAVE been making more of them, they just are under different names, so I made
a playlist of other "Bad Game Design" related videos that you can check out if your
hankering for more of my rare negative side on the endslate.
As always huge thanks to this month's patrons, your support means the world to me and helps
keep the show running.
Special shoutout to Indigo Fenix who I liked even better in the Vertigo Remix.
If you enjoy my channel, feel free to chip in a few bucks and get some frosty rewards
in the process at patreon.com/snomangaming.
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