Super Paper Mario

Super Paper Mario (スーパーペーパーマリオ Sūpā Pēpā Mario?) is a platform/role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems, a division of Nintendo. Originally developed for the Nintendo GameCube, it was released for the Wii. The style of gameplay is a combination of the previous Paper Mario titles and Super Mario Bros. titles. Unlike the RPG-style gameplay of previous Paper Mario games, the game combines platforming gameplay, RPG, and puzzle elements. It is the third game in the Paper Mario series.

Super Paper Mario|スーパーペーパーマリオ|Sūpā Pēpā Mario}} is a platform/role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems, a division of Nintendo. Originally developed for the Nintendo GameCube, it was released for the Wii. The style of gameplay is a combination of the previous Paper Mario titles and Super Mario Bros. titles. Unlike the RPG-style gameplay of previous Paper Mario games, the game combines platforming gameplay, RPG, and puzzle elements. It is the third game in the Paper Mario series.

Gameplay
At the beginning of the game, the player controls Mario directly, and later obtains Princess Peach, Bowser, and Luigi as playable party members. The player controls the characters by holding the Wii Remote sideways like a NES controller. While the 2 button causes the character to jump, akin to the A button in Super Mario Bros. games for NES, the 1 button controls Pixls, kindred spirits that perform special actions. Mario and his party must use these new abilities, such as turning sideways to slip through cracks, hammering down large blocks, or planting bombs to defeat foes, to advance. One of these allows Mario to run, making the 1 button on the Wii Remote analogous to the B button on an NES controller, though Mario's other standard B-button abilities, such as grabbing, require different Pixls. With the Pixl Tippi or Tiptron, the player can also point to the screen with the Wii Remote to find out their next objective, identify features on the screen such as hidden objects and find out information about an enemy or character. Both the current character and Pixl can be switched out at any time during the game, though characters and Pixls are occasionally separated from the main party, rendering them unplayable for a time.

Super Paper Mario, like other Paper Mario games, borrows both RPG and platforming elements in its gameplay, with a noted shift towards platforming in this installment. A main hub city called "Flipside" provides a location for Mario and his party to talk to residents, shop, and rest, as well as to open doorways to other worlds. There also exists a mirror version of Flipside called "Flopside" that becomes available in the last half of the game with improved items and shops.After obtaining the fourth pure heart, Flopside must be discovered in order to find the fourth heart pillar.To do that, the player must first find the mirror hall. A mirror version of Merlon called " Nolrem " also lives there. As it turns out only Merlon and Nolrem knew about Flopside ( It was created by the ancients so only the heroes could find the last remaining heart pillars. )  Flopside also retains a darker color and atmosphere than in Flipside. Unlike previous Paper Mario games, there is no turn-based fighting (with the exception of one boss battle in the 7th level against the Underchomp); instead the player faces foes directly on screen as in a usual Mario platforming game, and through experience gains and special items, the amount of damage dealt per hit can be increased. The player also must watch the party's health taken as damage from foes, though this can be restored with special health items. The traditional scoring system used in most platforming games doubles as an experience point system. After jumping on an enemy, the player can shake the controller for extra points. The player can also collect Catch Cards for all the major characters and enemies; possessing an enemy card will double damage dealt for that enemy. The maximum Attack stat one can achieve is confirmed to be 99 for Mario, Peach, and Luigi, and 198 for Bowser, and the maximum HP stat one can achieve is confirmed to be 999. The only possible way to achieve either of these stats is by using many Attack Plus and/or HP Plus items, which are bought at the Flipside Arcade for 2,500 Flipside Tokens each. Using any more of these items after reaching the maximum in the respective stat will result in a +0 bonus in the respective stat.



Flipping and character-specific abilities
While the concept of a "paper" Mario (existing in only two dimensions) still continues through the game, a frequently used power obtained early in the game allows the player to "flip" Mario into the third dimension at nearly any point in the game. When this occurs, the current 2D level is rotated to become 3D in a third-person view; obstacles that may have blocked progress in 2D can simply be walked around in 3D, or hidden blocks or enemies may become visible. There are also numerous secrets to the 3D version of the level. The game takes account for players flipping into 3D in midair (where there was a solid platform for them to be on in 2D Mode) by allowing the player to make a single jump in an attempt to hit solid ground. In the game, this is represented by Mario flapping his arms about frantically and a speech balloon with the graphic for the "2" button presented above Mario's head. Generally, Mario can only spend a short amount of time in this 3D form before taking damage (normally 1 HP per time Mario exhausts his 3D mode gauge, the gauge refills instantly when exhausted or is hit by an enemy and gradually while he is in 2D mode), though completing a certain sidequest removes this penalty.

Only Mario has the power to flip into 3D; the other party members have other unique abilities.
 * Peach can float using her parasol to reach far-away ledges. Her parasol is also useful as a shield.
 * Bowser can breathe fire, and does double-damage with his attacks compared to the other characters.
 * Luigi can charge a super jump to reach high places and do damage to foes directly above him.

Layout
There are total of eight worlds in the game, all split into four chapters (with the exception of World 6), with both the second and final sections culminating in a boss fight. For all but the last chapter, the goal is to collect a "Pure Heart" which is then used somewhere in Flipside or Flopside to unlock the door to the next chapter. Save points are located strategically throughout Flipside and Flopside and through and between sections. A save point will refill all health and star points; if the character's health points drop to 0, the player must restart at the last save point, though the player can escape to Flipside at nearly any point in the game. Though this has the cost of having to restart the entire unfinished chapter upon return to it, Mario will retain any items obtained and some puzzles will remain in their previous state. The player can return to any section of a finished chapter.

Additional side quests also can be performed once the player can access these areas through the use of the Pixls and new characters. Two quests, the Pit of 100 Trials in both Flipside and Flopside, yield rewards that are very worthwhile: a secret Pixl companion and the ability to flip to 3D for an unlimited amount of time. Every level also contains hidden treasures which can only be located using treasure maps sold in Flopside and a special Pixl, which encourages revisiting previously completed levels.

Plot
In light of a recent kidnapping of Princess Peach, Mario and Luigi head to King Bowser's castle to retrieve her, only to find that Bowser wasn't responsible for it. It is then revealed that the true kidnapper is Count Bleck, a sorcerer who wields an ancient, prophetical tome called the Dark Prognosticus. In addition to Princess Peach, he kidnaps Luigi and Bowser, and brainwashes Bowser's Koopa army. The Count then employs the hypnotic powers of his right-hand woman, Nastasia, and forces the marriage of Princess Peach to Bowser in order to, as the Dark Prognosticus foretells, unleash a destructive power known as the Chaos Heart. Count Bleck uses the Chaos Heart to open an inter-dimensional rift known as "The Void", which will eventually grow large enough to engulf the entire universe.

Mario meets a butterfly-like Pixl named Tippi, and a wizard named Merlon, who have come in search of Mario. They inform him that he matches the description of the Hero, described in another prophetical tome called the Light Prognosticus, who is able to halt the impeding doom of The Void. In order to banish the Chaos Heart and reverse the destruction, the Hero requires the eight Pure Hearts, artifacts created from genuine love. Mario and Tippi set off to collect the Pure Hearts and stop Count Bleck's plan, eventually teaming up with Princess Peach, Bowser, and Luigi along the way.

At the end of each chapter, another story is told of a passionate relationship between two people, Lord Blumiere and Lady Timpani, that was ended by the hand of Blumiere's disdainful father, who banished Timpani and left her to die. The identity of these characters and their relationship to the story are initially unknown. Tippi is later revealed to be Timpani, and "Count Bleck" is the pseudonym of the inconsolable Blumiere, who, unknowing of Timpani's rescue by Merlon, wanted revenge for his love's disappearance and sought to bring existence to ruin.

Upon collecting all of the Pure Hearts, Mario, Timpani, and company confront Blumiere in his castle. They defeat Bleck but fail to halt The Void's destruction. The Chaos Heart falls from Blumiere's possession and into another minion of his, Dimentio, a psychotic jester. Dimentio continues to use the Chaos Heart to speed up the destruction, but is destroyed by Mario through use of the Pure Hearts.

Blumiere and Timpani then restore their true love for each other, which banishes the Chaos Heart, seals The Void, and returns the order of the universe back to normal, effectively nullifying the prediction in the Dark Prognosticus.

Development
Super Paper Mario was created out of a desire to combine the familiar look of the Paper Mario series with a new style of gameplay. Chief director Ryota Kawade was on a train thinking about ways to adapt a mini-game from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in which the player controls a large Bowser in a short side-scrolling stage; he noticed that the other end of the train looked like a stage in a Mario game and envisioned switching between two and three dimensions. When producer Kensuke Tanabe was told about the idea, he decided to make the sequel an action-adventure game, but retained some role-playing elements to establish the game in the Paper Mario franchise. Kawade and Tanabe also felt that these elements, as well as the ability to switch between two and three dimensions, would make the game more accessible to players unaccustomed to action games. The team played side-scrolling Mario titles for inspiration, envisioning how the levels would look in 3D.

Super Paper Mario was announced by Nintendo on May 11 2006 at E3 for the Nintendo GameCube. On May 30 2006, Nintendo set a release date of October 9 2006. That summer, the game was "quietly moved" to the Wii.

PAL copies of the game contain a glitch if the language is set to UK English, German, or Spanish. In Chapter 2-2, after Mario finds a key, the game will freeze if Mario speaks to the character Mimi without first picking up the key. Nintendo of Europe is replacing the game disc for no charge with a version that does not contain the glitch. Nintendo of Europe announced details of the replacement on their website in November 2007.

Reception
Reviews for Super Paper Mario were generally positive. As of December 31, 2007, the game has sold 2.16 million copies worldwide, with 500,000 of those copies being sold in Japan alone.