Having played back when I was a kid led me to have a soft spot for this game, even though I never got past Chapter 1 I had a lot of appreciation for it and when I finally had the chance to play it I realized how much I missed out on. The RPG gameplay may be gone but most of its mechanics are still here just mixed with a fusion of 2D and 3D platforming which are truly a genius marvel, having 4 different playable characters with different movesets as well as Pixls that help you do different actions make it very unique; the story, characters plus music are the best the franchise had seen up to that point and it had such a drastically different tone that even with some problems such as the maze-like level design that ends up being a drag to get through, it still is such a special little game that should be truly treasured…

Super Paper Mario is by no means the most technically impressive game out there, but it’s story is one of the most compelling tales ever told by a video game. I couldn’t stop playing despite the lack of fun at times. The fetch quests were stupid and the difficulty ranged from laughably easy to impossible to figure out without a guide (referring mainly to that one level where you have to type “please” to the caveman 3 times for him to tell you a 30 digit code you have to memorize to progress). If this were thinly written it would be unplayable. Luckily, the game hangs the threat of total universe annihilation over our heads, a threat of far greater magnitude than the bounds of a Mario game are capable of containing. See, this game kind of needed to be nerfed by its gameplay because it might have been the best game of all time if the mechanics were more novel and engaging. The soundtrack is phenomenal (going to DJ the whoa zone theme during my next set), the dialogue hilarious, the characters infinitely memorable, and the amount of fucked occurrences all make it a worthy play through. Did not cry at the end because I already knew how it ended unfortunately so I won’t say anything here👍

Highlights: Whoa Zone, Bleck’s final hallway mazes, Francis, Flipside, River Twygz Bed, the World 6 occurrence, Luigi and Bowser’s lines, Super Dimentio, Mimi, the ending, the Underwhere door quizzes, the Pixls (the one with the hovering is goated)

Lowlights: The first 3 levels of World 4, all of World 5, The first 2 levels of World 6, those singing enemies in the tree level, fetch quests

Best songs: Flipside theme, Mimi’s themes, Count Bleck’s cutscene theme, Whoa Zone, Mr. L, The Overthere, Soft Light, Memory, all of the ones that play at the end

I’m fanboying the hell out of this game in spite of only giving it an 8 because it left such an impression on me