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ewligon's Super Paper Mario (Wii)
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| [August 23, 2009 07:36:00 PM]
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Gameplay 2
I was looking forward to picking up the game again because I thought that I had gotten through much of the narrative part that I found tedious, and then I entered world 2-3. Basically this is the point of the game where I wanted to stop, put it away, and never look at it again. In other words, I was extremely frustrated.
In level 2-3, the player destroys a vase and must pay for it. The way to pay for it involves a tedious, grinding expenditure of time. There is a way for this to go faster, but you still spend too much time “generating energy.” I ended up putting a rubber band around my Wii-mote, left the room, cooked and ate dinner, and then came back to the game. I was able to proceed through the level at that point. I don’t think this should happen in a game.
Other than this, the narrative becomes redundant even if the levels do not. In the second chapter, you are navigating obstacles that one of the bosses puts in your way. Throughout, you see the same boss in a variety of places, each time with a whiney tone (and the player only reads the words, not hear them) and running through rooms with few adversaries. It becomes more like a maze or a puzzle.
The design of chapter two grew in complexity that, when you were able to get some movement, was very interesting. Another pixl allowed Mario to become 2-D, so the levels provided a more complex mixture of 2-D and 3-D, and finding the correct pixl and character, because Peach joins Mario in the chapter 2, makes the gameplay more challenging. I was disappointed that it was used so sparingly.
Design
The design of Super Paper Mario integrates new elements with old elements in its look and feel, but some of the new elements need a good editor. Building off Super Mario Brothers in terms of characters and gameplay, Super Paper Mario integrates another dimension, or two, to the worlds. The inter-dimensionality of the 2D and 3D offers players competing viewpoints and is used to make the puzzles more complex. The complex puzzles and changing viewpoints help keep the player interested even when the story may get in the way. This is the first game where I have had a choice between 2D and 3D, so I found this particular design element new and exciting.
The narrative, on the other hand, becomes tedious as the player must click through entire conversations, most of which say the same thing. After the reinforcement of the major elements of the game, the player may be told one new piece of information that guides them to the next puzzle. While the narrative is essential to the gameplay, the length could be much reduced. But, perhaps it is like a Henry James novel, you just can’t cut anything out without losing the storyline—each vignette is essential to the progression of the game.
Because I have not finished playing the game, I do not know how essential the narrative is. Perhaps certain game elements could be eliminated, such as returning to flip town to find the heart towers after each chapter, without causing irreparable harm to the complete story.
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ewligon's Super Paper Mario (Wii)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 23 August, 2009
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