Guess what
fellow gamers? That’s right; our favorite Italian plumber is here in this
review of Paper Mario 64. Princess Peach has been captured…again. This time
however King Bowser took Peach’s castle with him high into the sky. Not to
worry though, our favorite Italian plumber is here this time to rescue the
princess. Little does Mario know that Bowser has a secret weapon, the Star Rod.
This rod has the power to grant any persons wish and with the help of the Star
Rod Bowser trounces Mario and sends him flying out of the sky-fortress to his presumed
doom. You start the game after Mario wakes up from being asleep after the fall.
You are awoken by a magical being called a Star Spirit who pleads for you to
return the Star Rod back to Star Haven, its place of birth and protection. Unfortunately
Bowser has imprisoned the seven Star Spirits in different castles protected by
his highest officers. Your quest is to return the seven Star Spirits to Star
Haven and defeat Bowser, saving the princess.
We all know
this scenario, Princess Peach manages to get herself kidnapped and it’s up to Mario
to save her. Sounds like this is going to be just another typical Mario game? Wrong!!
This isn’t normal Mario! This is paper Mario. Our Italian protagonist takes a
new spin to his side-scrolling adventures. He tackles increasingly difficult
bosses and saves the princess all while being as thin as a piece of paper.
The Breakdown
Storyline
(out of 20):
As with all Mario games it
provided us with fairly dynamic gameplay, but unlike the other Mario games it
added some interesting features. As you travel along your journey to save the
princesses you realize you cannot succeed alone. Along the road you meet a
unique set of special characters. What makes these characters special is that
out of the plethora of characters in the game, these join you in your journey.
After you meet these characters they join your party and assist you on your
quest. They come with special abilities that range from carrying you in the air
for short distances, to making you transparent. The storyline itself is fairly
long, with about 20-30 hours worth of gameplay. Despite it linearity, the plot
is surprisingly entertaining and almost always keeps you interested and
wondering what strange land will this game take me to. For all these factors I give
Paper Mario 64 a solid 16 out of 20 for storyline.
Character
Evolution (out of 5):
Character evolution is how, and how much a character
changes over the course of the game. This ranges from gaining new abilities, a
new wardrobe, and even aging throughout the course of the game. Paper Mario
lacks serious character evolution offering only the prospect of new abilities
attained form freeing an imprisoned Star Spirit. Have no fear, Nintendo thought
of this! They added badges to the game. Badges are special items whose
abilities vary. They range from increasing your health to giving you new attacks.
These add an interesting twist to the development of Mario but the game still
lacks evolution, and for that I give Paper Mario 64 a 1 out of 5 in the
Character Evolution category.
Game
difficulty (out of 5):
Now game difficulty is a hard thing to assess.
Difficulty at a game depends on the person playing it, and because I cannot be
everybody in the world at the same time I can only offer my opinion. Now
because of its straightforward and linear storyline this game hardly has you
guessing which path to choose, and the difficulty of the bosses themselves
leaves you wondering whether or not they made a boss or a really big Goomba for
you to squash with your plumbing shoes. Don’t get me wrong the bosses and
enemies in general are creative in nature but they leave much to be desired on
the difficulty level. The one thing I do give the Mario game is its puzzles are
thought provoking. I mean Paper Mario 64 is no Ocarina of Time, but its puzzles
do leave you satisfied with figuring out what you are supposed to do. This alone
does not make the game hard but combined with the dynamic level layouts and the
cartoony, paper thin environments, makes these puzzles sometimes much more difficult
and for that Paper Mario 64 gets a 3 out of 5 for game difficulty.
Graphics (out
of 5):
This is a criterion I debated even including for my reviews. I feel that
analyzing a retro game for its graphical prowess seemed meaningless when gamers
have been exposed to games like Skyrim. I decided to make a compromise and base
the games graphics solely on the uniqueness and how they affect gameplay. In
Paper Mario your whole environment looks like something taken out of a middle
schooler’s doodle book. When you enter a house or a door the front of the house
literally folds over to reveal the inside, like you are opening a popup book. Not
only that, the cartoon-esque feel of the game allows your brain to take a
breather from seriousness in graphics and in some respects take a vacation and
relax. The graphics for Paper Mario are extremely unique and for that I give it
a perfect 5 out of 5 for Graphics.
The
Nostalgia Factor (out of 20):
Now this isn’t something you’ll see in a game
reviewing magazine. The Nostalgia Factor
is something of my own creation. It is a number that reflects how this game
makes me feel and if this game takes me back to the days when I would plug my
NES of N64 into my T.V. and marvel at the miracle that was videogames. This
number will not affect the games overall score but it is nice to see where all
the games stand on the nostalgia scale. Because Paper Mario 64 is for the
Nintendo 64 it cannot be graded on the same levels as that of Frogger or
Galaga. It must be graded among the ranks of Donkey Kong 64 and Mario Party. As
a child we all probably jumped between our games and never really took the time
to make a coherent opinion about what our favorite was, but there is always
that one game that you used to play that you just cannot forget. For me that
was Paper Mario 64. Now clearly I have a subjective opinion about this
particular game, but I will try to be objective. Because of the storyline and
Graphics I’m going to have to give Paper Mario 64 an 11 on the Nostalgia Scale,
sorry Mario but you are not anywhere close to being Pong.
Handling
(out of 10):
Handling is how well the game reacts to your commands and how the
developers laid out the controls for the game with respect to the controllers.
Anyone who has ever played a Nintendo 64 knows that those buttons will get
stuck down and that joystick corrodes very quickly which makes games like Star
Fox 64 and Wave Racer more difficult to play. Ignoring this factor Paper Mario
64’s in game controls and very intuitive and simple. The battle controls
however get more interesting. Different moves require different action
commands, and too many action commands can be strenuous on a gamer and on a
controller. This does not detract from the gameplay itself but I found myself
needing to take breaks while playing because my fingers hurt from having to
mash the A button just to do a single attack. For this I give Paper Mario 64 8
out of 10 for Handling.
Battle/
conflict sequences(out of 10):
Paper Mario set up a unique battle stlye. While
the normal roaming gameplay itself is unique the battles take that up a notch. Instead
of just being able to jump I the field and hurt enemies, when you engage in
battle you are taken to a stage that much resembles that of a theater stage for
plays. The backdrop of this stage is always changing to that of the environment
you are in and this definitely increases the excitement of the game. I give
Paper Mario an excellent 9 out of 10 for Battle sequences.
The Wow Factor:
By “The Wow Factor” I don’t mean how the game runs while you are playing it. I
mean certain things in the game that make it special and keep gamers interested
for every game it is different and it will not affect the games score it just
gives you a chance to see what the most interesting and special thing about a
game is. For Paper Mario 64 The Wow Factor is its paper thin Graphics and
dynamic free roaming world. Even as I play the game now I feel the Graphics are
some of the best I have seen, and unlike Mario games before it Paper Mario
offers free roaming abilities so you can go back to a previously visited area
and retrieve that item you missed. That is Paper Mario 64’s Wow Factor.
The Score:
Now it is
time to find out what Paper Mario 64’s rating on the Retrometer is.
16 20
1 5
3
5
5
5
8 10
9 10
42 55
______________________
42 out of 55
There you
have it, 42 out of 55, a very respectable score. My hats off to you Paper Mario
64 42 out of 55 is very respectable.
Final
Judgment: Paper Mario 64 will always be a game to be remembered in the Mario franchise
and will not soon be forgotten. Its dynamic maps, challenging puzzles and
interesting storyline will always leave us satisfied. If you have a Nintendo 64
I would recommend trying this game out.
