Gaming Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

[Charles]

Well, I'm excited--and that's an understatement. Not only has the direct sequel to one of the best RPG franchises in existence been announced for the GameCube--but with a plethora of accompanying media as well. Check out this link:

[url="http://game-science.com/news/000528.html"]http://game-science.com/news/000528.html[/url]

And, if that's not working:

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You'll find that these screens look absolutely stunning, despite being scans. We're talking screen-filling boss characters, dozens of high resolution characters on screen at once, and the evolution of an art direction I loved to begin with. As you'd expect, everything is just oozing with vibrant personality.

I can't get enough of the Mario RPG series and still consider the GBA iteration one of my favorite in the genre, so this just shot up to the top of my "most wanted" list. Thankfully, it seems to retain the core gameplay of the original Paper Mario, while expanding on the experience with new mini games and the ability to turn into a paper airplane.

[Semjaza]

It's strange that Nintendo doesn't have their teams make more RPGs. The few they do make are arguably some of the best there are. I loved the original Paper Mario and the somewhat related Mario & Luigi rocked too.

Some of these screens are really impressive. The characters look great and shots give the impression that there are dozens of enemies onscreen simultaneously sometimes.

I hope they keep that thing the first one did with the houses... were the front of the building folded down when you entered it.

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

Strangely, I didn't much enjoy Paper Mario. It was too simplistic for me, perhaps. I didn't like the battle setup. I loved Mario RPG, on the other hand. It's my favorite SNES game. It's too bad that they're not making a sequel to Mario RPG for the GCN (I think they're doing something for GBA).

[Shinmaru]

I enjoyed the humor of Super Mario RPG but, overall, I'd say Paper Mario's gameplay puts it above Super Mario RPG.

The graphics rock. That's all that needs to be said, really. Plus, if Nintendo can expand upon the gameplay of Paper Mario even more (screen-filling boss battles and fights with tons of enemies are sounding mighty good right now), then this game will definitely be a keeper.

I'm looking forward to it. Here's hoping my wallet holds up lol.

[OtakuSennen]

[color=navy]Heh, I was just replaying the original one last month.

Yes, Paper Mario was one of the Nintendo 64 games I have that I used to play nonstop. At the time, the visual innovation was really quite amazing, and I enjoyed the pleasant storyline.

I would gladly pay money to take a second trip around the Mushroom Kingdom (Or some other kingdom, if they're trying to add some new world) with everyone's favorite plumber in two dimensions. It is sort of a nostalgic feeling, seeing Mario in 2D again.

The graphics look just as I expected when I first saw this thread- More crisp characters, smoother textures in the background, and the same good old vibrant colors. The characters look nearly identical to their Nintendo 64 predecessors, shape-wise, but the quality is much better.

Now let's hope for a sequel to the original Super Mario RPG so we can talk how fat Mallow is and praise Geno's rather dark disposition (for a Mario game, at least).[/color]

[Charles]

[quote name='ScirosDarkblade']Strangely, I didn't much enjoy Paper Mario. It was too simplistic for me, perhaps. I didn't like the battle setup. I loved Mario RPG, on the other hand. It's my favorite SNES game. It's too bad that they're not making a sequel to Mario RPG for the GCN (I think they're doing something for GBA).[/quote]Yeah, I hope they allow more than two characters to partake in battles this time around. I wouldn't mind that change too much. On the other hand, it would be great if they took a cue from Superstar Saga, kept the two party system, and assigned each character to a button. For those of you who've not yet played the GBA game, it's extremely fun and intuitive. The battles never get old, require reflexes, and always keep you on your toes. You can't just get away with mashing buttons for the most part if you want to be successful.

Also, for those of you mentioning a direct sequel--although not developed by Square, wasn't the original Paper Mario considered the official evolution of the franchise? I've always thought it was one cohesive series. And anyway, the follow-ups to the original Super Mario RPG have more effectively retained the spirit and charm of the Mario franchise in comparison to the Square developed game. At least in my opinion, they have.

[Semjaza]

Paper Mario is basically the spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG. They obviously have their differences, so I wouldn't say it's a direct sequel... so I suppose a plain, old Super Mario RPG 2 could be made.

Personally, I wouldn't want one. I fall in the camp of people who, while liking Mario RPG, really didn't feel that it was all that special. I always felt that a good portion of the Mario charm was just not present in that game. You could tell it was mostly from Square and not Nintendo. That's my opinion anyway.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed Paper Mario. The characters were right on, even with the addition of weird paper-thin antics and such. So I'm really looking forward to this.

In terms of the battle system, I wouldn't mind more than two characters in a fight... but I really didn't mind the original's battle system to be honest. The pictures seem to only show one character with Mario at a time, so who knows. I'm hoping you can at least play with Luigi.

[James]

[color=#707875]This is really cool news. The screenshots are awesome, too.

I thought the original SNES game was [i]okay[/i]. It did feel a bit wooden, for lack of a better term.

Paper Mario really had a lot of Nintendo personality, which was great. Fantastic game. The battle system was good, but it certainly wasn't up there with the best I've used.

So, I'm looking forward to Paper Mario 2. The sprites look pretty sharp and even with these shots, it looks like it'll retain that fantastic feel and atmosphere. Good stuff.[/color]

[satan665]

I've never played paper mario, or mario RPG for that matter.

What was paper mario like? I really have no idea about the gameplay or anything, but the new one looks really cool.

Maybe if you don't feel like describing it you can link to a review or something?

[Desbreko]

[color=indigo]I rented the first Paper Mario on the N64 a little while after it was released, though I only got about a third of the way through the game before I had to return it. I thought it was a lot of fun, however, even though I haven't played Super Mario RPG, so I didn't have anything to really compare it to. And I still have yet to play Mario & Luigi on the GBA. . . . I feel deprived. I think I'm going to tell my friend he can only have a copy of the Zelda: The Wind Waker OST if he lets me borrow Mario & Luigi, heh.

Back to Paper Mario 2, though -- I'm glad they're making a sequel. Like I said, I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, so if the second one is as good as the first, I'll probably end up buying it if I have the money. Though I may just have to try and find a used copy of the first one so I can play through the entire thing before playing the sequel. If the stories are at all connected, I'd probably be a bit lost if I jumped straight into part two.

About the graphics, I liked the style in the first game, though I didn't think it was amazing. And judging from those screen shots of Paper Mario 2, I think my opinion is going to stay the same. It's an interesting and unique style, and it certainly looks better on the GCN...bet yeah, I'm not really overly excited about the graphics. They're interesting, but not the "whoa" kind of interesting like Zelda: The Wind Waker's graphics.

Seeing those hordes of enemies all on screen at once, however, and that huge boss -- those got my attention. One thing that I disliked about the first Paper Mario was that some of the battles could get pretty boring after you've fought the same type of enemy a lot. (Which seemed to be the result of having to backtrack to old areas, though that in itself wasn't really all that bad). The boss/mini-boss fights were fun, though; I just hope that they can make the normal enemies more fun to fight in the sequel.

Being able to use more than two characters at a time would also be nice. Though really, I didn't find the secondary characters in Paper Mario to be incredibly useful in battle, except for healing. Mario could always dish out a lot more damage than any of the secondary characters. I was pretty good at getting long strings of hits with that jump move where you keep bouncing if you can tap the button at the right time. Luigi being playable would be be awesome, though.[/color]

[Ninjaman]

I'm absolutely excited about this game. I nearly fell out of my chair when I found out about it yesterday.

Anyway, I feel like an outcast to say this, but, I found Super Mario RPG to be better than Paper Mario. But Mario & Luigi is my favorite of the series thus far. Mario & Luigi was just hilarious, had amazing gameplay, and quite a story. The game was very colorful and was a lot of fun. Super Mario RPG was better than Paper Mario in my opinion mainly because I found SMRPG to be longer and less simple. I loved the characters, with Geno being my favorite. Paper Mario was just too easy for my taste. I mean, a game that I can beat by only renting it once, isn't really something I want to spend money on. Don't get me wrong though, I'm talking about how it used to be $50. I'm interested in getting a copy of the game, that is if I can find one. Paper Mario was colorful and gameplay was better than SMRPG, but it was just too simple for me.

I'm curious to seeing as to how this game will turn out and so far, I'm excited just from the screenshots so far. ^_^

[Semjaza]

Hmm. I only rented Super Mario RPG and managed to blow through it in the rental period. It was a rather easy and short RPG, I thought. Paper Mario seemed to last a little longer. At the very least, I thought there was more quality there for my money.

Then again I got it on clearance at Target for $6.90 lol.

[Guest Heezay]

I'm excited about this game as well. I loved the original Paper Mario. I mean, the environments were great. Spectacular. I mean, look at the Ice Castle or the volcano. The music was great,as well. While you're fighting against the General Guy or the Ice King, listen to the music for them. It's cool.

Super Mario RPG was probably one of the best games on the SNES that I've played. It wasn't too short, but it was too bad that you couldn't get the characters above level 30.

[Charles]

Well, IGN has uploaded high resolution versions of the images I posted. I'll put them up here so everyone can enjoy just how impressive the game [i]really[/i] looks.



[img]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/papermario2_040204_007.jpg[/img]

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[Guest Heezay]

:eek:

[B]Whoa[/B], now [B]those[/B] are what I call graphics. I can't believe it! Man, if I had a GameCube, I'd buy this game without a second thought. Let's hope it's longer than the last one. It's probably the one problem with Mario RPGs: length.

[Shinmaru]

[QUOTE=Heezay]:eek:

[B]Whoa[/B], now [B]those[/B] are what I call graphics. I can't believe it! Man, if I had a GameCube, I'd buy this game without a second thought. Let's hope it's longer than the last one. It's probably the one problem with Mario RPGs: length.[/QUOTE]

Well, I thought that Super Mario RPG was pretty short, but Paper Mario was of decent length. Not every RPG has to be absolutely massive lol. Something about the same length, or perhaps a bit longer, than Paper Mario would be good, I think. Paper Mario was a lot more fun than [i]a lot[/i] of RPGs I've played that are 30-40 hours long.

As for those screenshots, they look spectacular. Can't wait to hear more about the game.

[OtakuSennen]

[color=navy]I don't really like how they're keeping a relatively low level of graphics in the 3D background stuff. I mean, look at the stove in Mario and Luigi's house. It looks as if it were really in the original Nintendo 64 Paper Mario. The pirate ship looks good, though. I only have a problem with the backgrounds in the pictures with Mario's house and the shot of the castle. The textures are simple, but I was certainly expecting that. It fits the feeling of the game, and I have no problem with this.

The shot with the large dragon is really interesting, as well. The big guy looks like a big cardboard model of a dragon, or maybe just someone out of a popup book, like in Yoshi's Story. He's somewhat cel-shaded as well, which stands out in a game with a visual theme like Paper Mario's.

But my favorite screenshot is the Bowser side-scrolling one. It's good to see that Paper Mario 2 is continuing the reminiscent humor that was a big part of what made Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga so great.

I can't help but wonder, though, does the map in Mario's house have a purpose? And maybe the Bowser (or Koopa) shot is hinting at perhaps controlling characters outside of Mario himself..[/color]

[Desbreko]

[color=indigo]I don't see why so many people complain about an RPG's length if it isn't 50+ hours long. I mean, take a look at Chrono Trigger; one of the most highly acclaimed RPGs ever, and it only took me 20 hours to beat it on my first time through. Certainly, more play time is usually good, but length isn't something I have a problem with as long as I can get at least about 15 hours out of an RPG.

Oh, and I agree with you on the backgrounds, Sennen; some of them do look rather primitive. I don't really have a problem with the flat edges, instead of things being round and smooth, but the pixelation in some of those shots is really bad. In that regard, I think they do need to smooth the backgrounds out. Unrounded edges are fine, but jaggies are bad.[/color]

[James]

[color=#707875]One thing about these backgrounds, though, is that they will all be animated to an extent. Bear that in mind. Animation changes [i]everything[/i].

It's like with The Wind Waker. Still shots don't do justice to it; you have to see how smoothly it moves and how everything interacts so beautifully. I think Paper Mario 2 is probably also an example of that.

The only thing that I dislike is the way that sprites are handled; the fact that they blur when they're zoomed in on, and the fact that their edges are still a bit jagged here and there. It's sort of annoying that Nintendo doesn't put more energy into sprite re-sampling, or that they don't create a system where we get some sharper anti-aliased edges (that sounds like a contradiction, but you'll know what I mean if you've seen various 2D fighters and stuff, with the very sharp sprites).[/color]

[Semjaza]

It looks like the sprites are at the highest resolution a normal TV can even display... 640x480. It'd be painfully obvious if they were any lower in quality. In that Dry Bones shot, for example, unless Intelligent Systems redrew those sprites at like twenty different sizes there would be issues with blurring and slight jaggedness. I can't see it being that much of an issue in person, because all of those turtles are most likely jumping around like crazy when Mario is in that room. You'd barely notice lol.

I have no problem with the backgrounds. The way they are gives me the impression that the simplicity is on purpose and I kind of like it.

[James]

[color=#707875]I understand the resolution issues. But I've definitely seen games with better edges on the sprites.

Regarding the blurring, I do think that it's a small issue. I certainly won't be too worried about it. But if I [i]were [/i]to complain at all about the visuals, I'd simply suggest that Intelligent Systems should provide better/higher redrawing when it comes to zooming and so on. So, I guess this once again indicates that my complaints with what I've seen so far are few and far between. ~_^[/color]

[Charles]

Well, here are some new Paper Mario screens. You'll notice a new party member here. I'm not sure I love the design for the new character, but she's somewhat unique-looking, I suppose. I also love the facial expressions of the enemies when sustaining damage during battles (and especially the panic stricken look of that yellow creature). g[/img]

[Guest Menzar]

Paper Mario 2 looks great! I never had a N64 but I have a Gamecube so I'll give it a go. Is Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga part of the Paper Mario series, I've got that, Its pretty good too.

[JuliasPeach]

:eek: I want this game :eek:

I loved the special plain comphorting graphics for Paper Mario and this just looks, Wow!
I mean any mario fan would love this crazy game!! it looks like there walking
around in an I Spy book!!! :D
And one thing i always look for in mario games is if you can be Peach!

This is definately on my "to buy as soon as comes out" list!!

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

There's only two things that will get me to purchase this game (besides watching my friends play it and liking it myself): being able to have Bowser as a full-time party member, or the game getting 9.5/10 or higher reviews from damn near every reviewer out there. I wasn't too thrilled with Paper Mario (character design and the ridiculously easy battle system had a lot to do with it), and I'm not sure how much of a deviation from that this game will turn out to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty huge Mario fan, but I care more about visual appeal than most other people, and this game doesn't do it for me.