slaanesh
Certified Guru
I've been wanting to play an Nintendo based RPG for a while - after looking at Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy's I decided on Paper Mario for the N64.
Wanting to do it "for real" I bought the cart on eBay and dug out my N64 from my games storage cupboard.
Lo-and-behold I pop Paper Mario into the N64 and start playing.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD***
Wow! It's so much fun! Yes it looks and feels a bit like a child's game but it's so well crafted. There are cool references to other games too - including the obvious ones to Mario's previous games like Super Mario Brothers to other pop culture icons like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (The Koopa Brothers!).
Fantastic stuff!
STORY:
Rescue Princess Peach from the clutches of Bowser. Do this by first rescuing the Seven Stars taken prisoner by Bowser. He's scattered them across the land and are being held prisoner in his evil henchmen's lairs.
Bowser has got his grubby turtle claws on the Star Rod - freshly stolen from the Seven Stars. With the power of the Rod, Bowser can make any wish come true!
To kick start the story, he uses the rod to capture Princess Peach's entire castle and launch it and the Princess high into space. Mario and Luigi happen to be in the Castle when this happen. After what turns out to be a short fight through cunning use of the Star Rod, Bowser kicks Mario's poor ass (literally) out of the castle where he lands back to earth. And so the adventure begins!
GRAPHICS:
Lovely colorful and vibrant graphics. All have the cartoon feel. All the characters are of course paper thin. When they turn around they flip around like a piece of paper. The world is drawn in full 3D and is interactive. Special effects galore as you explore around. Every loads instantly as it's of course all on cartridge! There's no loading between screens or anything. This is where having a cartridge system is a big advantage.
SOUND:
Moody tunes play in the background and there are ample of great effects. How is this all crammed in?
CONTROL:
Uses the analog control for movement only. No d-pad! This annoyed me at first but I found out that the analog controller is actually essential to controlling Mario. His movement is in relation to the stick, moving the stick a little bit means that Mario creeps along silently. The rest is simple and straight forward. New controls are introduced to you as you go.
TECHNICAL:
It's a whopping big 40MB cartridge. That's megabytes not megabits. WOW! That must have cost a bomb to manufacture back when it was released earlier this century in 2001! Whilst 40MB sounds like bugger all now days I'm sure it would have been amongst the largest cartridges produced back then.
Saving your game seems to be instantaneous too. This is also very nice. Some game systems like the Playstation take AGES to save (I'm thinking Diablo as an example which I recently played to completion).
RPG:
Yes it's an RPG alright. You gain stars every time you beat your opponent in combat. When you collect 100 stars you can increase your Hit Points (HP), Flower Points (FP) or Badge Points (BP).
HP should be obvious, the higher this is the more damage you can take. FP are the number of special attacks you can make. Each special attack costs a certain amount of FP to use.
BPs are used to wear Badges. Wearing a badge costs a certain amount of BPs to wear. Badges give Mario certain attributes or abilities.
You also get companions. The first of which is Goombario. He's really useful and can you his 'tattle' ability to help describe other characters you meet and your surroundings.
VIRTUAL CONSOLE:
Yes, I have a Wii. Why didn't I just buy it on Virtual Console? It was a lot more expensive buying it on eBay than buying it through Nintendo on the Wii. Call me old fashioned, I wanted the cartridge, manual and box. I have loads of other games so I wanted it just as much for the collection.
I intend to play it all the way through on the N64 using the good old N64 controller.
RATING:
I'm not going to rate it (yet). I'd like to finish the game first. I've only just started and want to complete it!
EDIT:
*** MORE SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Still playing the game. I've rescued two stars now. The first was from the Koopa Brothers - the TMNT Koopa guys using a big "dummy" Bowser.
The second star was in the dry, dry desert held by Tutankoopa the Wizard. Great fight! The chomps are deadly little buggers but my pal Bombette uses her ability to blow the away with easy! She's by far the most powerful companion in terms of general combat capability.
Wanting to do it "for real" I bought the cart on eBay and dug out my N64 from my games storage cupboard.
Lo-and-behold I pop Paper Mario into the N64 and start playing.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD***
Wow! It's so much fun! Yes it looks and feels a bit like a child's game but it's so well crafted. There are cool references to other games too - including the obvious ones to Mario's previous games like Super Mario Brothers to other pop culture icons like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (The Koopa Brothers!).
Fantastic stuff!
STORY:
Rescue Princess Peach from the clutches of Bowser. Do this by first rescuing the Seven Stars taken prisoner by Bowser. He's scattered them across the land and are being held prisoner in his evil henchmen's lairs.
Bowser has got his grubby turtle claws on the Star Rod - freshly stolen from the Seven Stars. With the power of the Rod, Bowser can make any wish come true!
To kick start the story, he uses the rod to capture Princess Peach's entire castle and launch it and the Princess high into space. Mario and Luigi happen to be in the Castle when this happen. After what turns out to be a short fight through cunning use of the Star Rod, Bowser kicks Mario's poor ass (literally) out of the castle where he lands back to earth. And so the adventure begins!
GRAPHICS:
Lovely colorful and vibrant graphics. All have the cartoon feel. All the characters are of course paper thin. When they turn around they flip around like a piece of paper. The world is drawn in full 3D and is interactive. Special effects galore as you explore around. Every loads instantly as it's of course all on cartridge! There's no loading between screens or anything. This is where having a cartridge system is a big advantage.
SOUND:
Moody tunes play in the background and there are ample of great effects. How is this all crammed in?
CONTROL:
Uses the analog control for movement only. No d-pad! This annoyed me at first but I found out that the analog controller is actually essential to controlling Mario. His movement is in relation to the stick, moving the stick a little bit means that Mario creeps along silently. The rest is simple and straight forward. New controls are introduced to you as you go.
TECHNICAL:
It's a whopping big 40MB cartridge. That's megabytes not megabits. WOW! That must have cost a bomb to manufacture back when it was released earlier this century in 2001! Whilst 40MB sounds like bugger all now days I'm sure it would have been amongst the largest cartridges produced back then.
Saving your game seems to be instantaneous too. This is also very nice. Some game systems like the Playstation take AGES to save (I'm thinking Diablo as an example which I recently played to completion).
RPG:
Yes it's an RPG alright. You gain stars every time you beat your opponent in combat. When you collect 100 stars you can increase your Hit Points (HP), Flower Points (FP) or Badge Points (BP).
HP should be obvious, the higher this is the more damage you can take. FP are the number of special attacks you can make. Each special attack costs a certain amount of FP to use.
BPs are used to wear Badges. Wearing a badge costs a certain amount of BPs to wear. Badges give Mario certain attributes or abilities.
You also get companions. The first of which is Goombario. He's really useful and can you his 'tattle' ability to help describe other characters you meet and your surroundings.
VIRTUAL CONSOLE:
Yes, I have a Wii. Why didn't I just buy it on Virtual Console? It was a lot more expensive buying it on eBay than buying it through Nintendo on the Wii. Call me old fashioned, I wanted the cartridge, manual and box. I have loads of other games so I wanted it just as much for the collection.
I intend to play it all the way through on the N64 using the good old N64 controller.
RATING:
I'm not going to rate it (yet). I'd like to finish the game first. I've only just started and want to complete it!
EDIT:
*** MORE SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Still playing the game. I've rescued two stars now. The first was from the Koopa Brothers - the TMNT Koopa guys using a big "dummy" Bowser.
The second star was in the dry, dry desert held by Tutankoopa the Wizard. Great fight! The chomps are deadly little buggers but my pal Bombette uses her ability to blow the away with easy! She's by far the most powerful companion in terms of general combat capability.
