Paper Mario 64

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.