Paper Mario
- Japan August 11, 2000
- United States February 5, 2001
- Europe October 5, 2001
- Japan July 10, 2007
- Europe July 13, 2007
- United States July 16, 2007
Paper Mario (translated: Paper Mario ) is a video game for the Nintendo 64 game console, belonging to the genre of role playing and jump 'n ' runs. The game was developed by Intelligent Systems an internal first-party games developers at Nintendo.
The player assumes the character Mario and must rescue the princess Peach before the villain Bowser. Particularly in the game the graphics style is considered and the fact that the figures are made of paper in a three dimensional world. The paper topic plays an important role in the game and affected tasks as well as the game's plot.
In Japan, the game was released in 2000 under the name Mario Story (マリオ ストーリーJapanese, literally: Mario Story ), 2001 Finally in North America and Europe. Paper Mario is the first Mario role-playing game. Across Europe, and the second, which was released in Japan and North America With Paper Mario: The Legend of the Äonentor, Super Paper Mario and Paper Mario: Sticker Star three successors of the Paper Mario series have been published.
- 6.1 reviews
- 6.2 Ratings and Awards
Action
The plot revolves around Mario, who lives in the so-called Mushroom Kingdom.
Bowser, King of Koopas penetrates the star refuge high above the clouds floating home of the people of the stars, a. There he rips using Kammy Koopa, his assistant, the power of the star rod itself and thus banished the 7 major star in cards.
Mario and his brother Luigi received from Peach, the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, a letter that invites them to her party in her castle: At this point the real action begins. Once there, the princess is kidnapped by Bowser, together with the castle, which is torn out of the ground and transported by airship during the party. This Bowser Mario throws from the already flying castle out of the window. Mario sails then passed out on a small clearing in the middle of a forest. There he is found and transported to a village. Still unconscious, the oldest of the seven large stars Mario appears in a dream and asks him to come to the star snuffs Summit.
Am Stern snuffs summit arrived, appearing Mario the 7 stars for help begging and his task is assigned to rescue the big star because Bowser has usurped the power of the star rod and the stars holds in different areas of the Mushroom Kingdom. The stars tell Mario that he created a path to the floating castle using only the combined power of the stars and could win the battle against Bowser.
Mario then sets off and freed the big stars.
Once Mario has all 7 star free, the power of the stars is large enough to create a path to Bowser's floating castle. The castle comes to the final battle between Mario and Bowser, prompting Mario Bowser defeated and can liberate Princess Peach.
Game mechanics
The game is a turn-based role-playing game that combines two - and three-dimensional elements. The game world is three-dimensional, while the characters and objects are two-dimensional and made of paper. In the game, this is an important game element on which to build many puzzles and animations. The aim of the game is to free the areas from 7 different 7 large stars and defeat the final boss named Bowser. For this game, the player must explore areas, solve puzzles, make the character stronger and to fight against enemies.
Mario meets accompany him during the adventure eight different partners. These help Mario in solving puzzles and assist him in the fight. Each partner comes from another people in the game and each has its own abilities that is only capable of this.
After each chapter, the game is divided into eight plus prologue and epilogue, the player assumes the role of Princess Peach for a short time. This has no fighting skills and therefore can not directly fight with opponents, but must sneak past them. The missions for this game sections are designed for this reason mainly for creep deposits and are similar in some respects stealth computer games.
Game world
The game world is thematically from 7 different areas, such as a city, villages, mountains, desert, island, forest, and a world of toys in a box. These are all kept fictitious and very comically. The areas are clearly separated from each other and are connected to each other only by short distances. The game world outside of towns and villages populated by creatures that are hostile to Mario. The player usually receives only by the conclusion of a chapter or task access to other areas.
As soon as Mario in the field of view one opponent occurs, it attempts to attack Mario. Upon contact with the enemy, the action shifts into a kind of arena. There, Mario must compete in turn-based battles against the enemy. Outside of fighting is to see only one opponent of a group of enemies. Therefore, the player sees the actual number of enemies until the battle arena. Each character is in a predetermined order, depending on various factors, in turn. The player here has the control over the actions of Mario and his current partner. The player has when it is your turn, the choice between an attack with a hammer attack by jumping on the enemies, use items and escape from combat. Throughout the game, Mario will also receive the opportunity to one of the various skills of the already liberated from him big stars, use once a combat move. If the partner of Mario 's turn, the player also selects the desired attack. However, the nature of attacks depend upon the particular specific skills of the partner.
Timing is an important element in the fighting. By skillful timing when pressing certain keys, the damage caused by Mario or his partner at the opponents, be increased. In this way, also the damage caused by the enemies of Mario or his partner, be reduced.
RPG elements
The player receives after the fighting so-called star points, which vary in number depending on the strength of the enemy and Marios. These can be invested in reach of 100 star points in the upgrading of skills. These skills include the life points, flower points ( targets ) that are necessary to perform special attacks, and religious points. The latter are needed to create other orders can. Order Mario uses special features and abilities. Each medal requires a specific number of free religious points, limiting the number which can be applied Order is severely limited.
The nature of the hammer affects the strength in a hammer attack. During the game, various hammer can be found which are each increasingly stronger than its predecessor. Therefore, the new hammer is increasingly replacing the existing one. The shoes determine the attack power at a jumping attack. As with the hammer also be found in the course of the game more shoes that are stronger and replace the old ones.
The special abilities of each partner are also in the struggles to carry. The selection of the attacks, the attack power and hit points are determined by the level of the partner. Each partner can be aufgelevelt twice during the game. This is done using specific blocks, which are distributed and hidden in the game world. Each block allows only a Auflevelung a partner, which further blocks must be found to further level up.
Control
The player Mario can use the analog stick to the left, right, front and back. He can also jump with one button Mario. The camera follows Mario always parallel to him. Only at the edge of a section and in houses the camera remains fixed and are waiting to Mario the area has left again. In the fight two buttons and the analog stick make the selection of possible actions and the timing of fighting used.
Technology
The movements of the characters are represented by so-called sprites. The figures are only a flat object on which modify the texture. For each position of the figures there is therefore a single image. The background and objects in the game consist in contrast to the figures from three-dimensional polygons.
The game is on a 320 Mbits module. The game progress is saved on the game module on an EEPROM memory block. The game progress can be saved in one of the four available memory slots. The optional Rumble Pak is supported by the game and allows vibration feedback.
Sound
The songs were composed by Yuka Tsujiyoko. They also relied on music from older Mario games, which were composed by Koji Kondo. The sound effects were created by Taishi Senda. The game features no voice, the characters are highlighted in speaking only with sounds and interjections.
In 2000, the soundtrack was released for the game with 2 CDs with 78 tracks. This was produced by the company Enterbrain, and marketed by the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.
Development and sales
Paper Mario was developed by the game developer Intelligent Systems. As a senior directors Toshitaka Muramatsu, Takahiro Ohgi, and Hironobu Suzuki worked. The screenplay was written by Kumiko Takeda and Kaori Aoki. Responsible for the visual translation as an art director was Naohiko Aoyama. As a supervisor acted Takashi Tezuka, who works for the Nintendo developer Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development and is responsible among other things for the supervision and direction of Mario games.
Originally, the game Super Mario RPG should be called 2 - but this was not possible because the game developer Square of his 4 years earlier published unofficial predecessor, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars also had rights to the name.
Paper Mario managed to put in the first week after release in Japan at the top of the sales charts. More than 276,000 games were sold in this period in Japan. A total of 1.38 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, of which 180,000 sales in Europe to decline.
Reviews
Reviews
Critics see the game as a combination of classic RPG and the Mario game - usual Hüpfeinlagen.
Matt Casamassina the website IGN praised the game for its unique look and one of the best RPGs ever:
" Paper Mario is the best RPG for the Nintendo 64, and more over, a great entry into the genre versus any System. While the cute, simplified look of the game and its similarly colorful mascot characters june turn off Those looking for a Final Fantasy killer, it'd be a huge mistake to pass this title up for did reason alone. For underneath its 2D surface, Paper Mario is a fantastically deep, intuitively designed, and wonderfully rewarding experience complete with enhanced takes on old -school turn-based fighting mechanics and a statistic system did would satisfy any RPG fanatic.
A must buy for Mario fans and RPG lovers alike. And if you've never played before in RPG, this is the perfect one to start with. "
" Paper Mario is the best role-playing game for the Nintendo 64 and beyond a great introduction to the genre in comparison to other systems. While the sweet, simple look of the game and its colorful mascot -like characters, could deter those who are looking for a Final Fantasy killer, it would be a big mistake to miss this game just for this reason. Under his 2D surface Paper Mario is fantastic deep, intuitively designed and a wonderfully enriching experience, which, would satisfy together with an improved use of turn-based old-school combat mechanics and a skill system, each role-playing fanatics.
A must for any Mario fan and RPG lovers alike. And if you've never played an RPG before, then this is the perfect game to begin with. "
The game website Gamespot looks in a Paper Mario game that is geared to former role games when playing feel. The author Ben Stahl wrote, Paper Mario would give rise to nostalgia for fans of older role matches and show the game what Nintendo could do best, which is classic and good video games. The well-made paper - effects wore in to the nostalgia effect. The RPG elements are, however, greatly simplified, unlike other RPGs, because there are only 6 major developable skills.
Further, he also notes typical parallels in the story with other Mario game. He describes the course of action with the kidnapping of Princess Peach by Bowser, as a known value for Mario fans scenario. Nostalgia also come with fans on by the characters that were seen in other Mario games and behave just as you would expect it from you. Even Bowser is evil and cunning as ever, the hero Mario, his brother Luigi games as usually only a minor role and Bowser's minions are just twisted.
The dialogues of the characters would be among the best that has ever had in a Mario game to date given. The characters are witty and there were plenty of insider jokes that would create together brilliantly funny moments.
The game he describes as very similar to the unofficial predecessor, Super Mario RPG and draws parallels in the game mechanics. So was the separation of the 3D overworld, can move to the Mario and can interact with other people and objects, and been a stand-out feature of the battle arena in the predecessor.
Finally, he concludes that Paper Mario with the graphics, the superior sound and solid game mechanics is a high quality game on all fronts. The game is a must- have for any Mario fan and the easily accessible battle system makes it captivating for RPG fans and non-fans alike. Games of this caliber are unfortunately become increasingly rare and do it Paper Mario becoming one of the last great 2D Mario games.
Ratings and Awards
The ratings were consistently positive. The media database Metacritic calculated an average of the ratings of 93%. The media database GameRankings calculated an average of 89 % as a result of another calculation system.
The game was included in some leaderboards, such as, among others, in the American magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly among the top 100 games of all time. In the American magazine Nintendo Power managed to Paper Mario on the 13th of the top 64 Nintendo games and on the 63rd of the top 200 Nintendo games.