Tuesday 15 January, 2008

Gameplay
The Paper Mario series continues the offbeat comedic approach that both the previous Paper Mario games used. This approaches keeps the rather cliche storyline elements to be overlooked. This is a perfect strategy because it has somehow allowed Nintendo to recycle Mario's themes once again, and still make it enjoyable. Although Mario himself still hasn't actually gone through visible character development, we still have his trusty helpers to tell us what he might say. Interactions with NPCs don't even seem like a chore because everyone has something interesting to say; this game could start the trend of making each NPC actually worth something. Because the remote has to be held sideways to control Mario, and there is only a four-direction thumb pad, much of your 3-D time is spent doing one simple miscalculation after another, and soon all your time is wasted. Also, the Wii sensor remote controls, at least early on, are extremely limited, which is odd when considering what a Wii is supposed to bring to the table. All in all though, the game handles very well and lends itself to both pick-up-and-go gamers and hardcore completionists.

You're talking about all the right things, but could use some reorganization. Please follow the template on the course website: the summary should be a description of what the game is about (what genre, main characters, who you play as). Gameplay should talk about game mechanics, and design should talk about design decisions. You have some of all of that in this gamelog. Please give some more details, and put your thoughts into the sections noted above.

-Gillian Smith (TA)