This is one of a small handful of RPG’s available for the Nintendo Game Cube. It uses one optical disk and requires a memory card for saves. You play as Mario. Mario is on a quest to save Princess Peach and find stars to open the Thousand Year Door. Along the way Mario is paired with several different characters.

The main game
This is an RPG (role-playing game). For those of you that don’t know what an RPG is, it is where you (the user) play a role of a character. While you play, your characters gain experience and level up. So during the course of you adventure/story, your character gets stronger and/or gets new abilities.
In this game you play our hero Mario. Mario doesn’t play alone, he quickly gets characters to play with him. While you can only travel and fight with two heros, you have 6 characters with which you can play with you. These 6 characters are interchangeable with Mario but you can not switch out Mario, he is always the lead in your party.

The Story
The story is a little corny. You are playing Mario and you are a good chap. No being bad (truly bad) in this game because that wouldn’t be like Mario, now would it. You have to talk to people in various towns, do some side tasks, and eventually find a star during each chapter. You have to do this several times over.
In between each chapter there is some major story telling. You get to play as the princess and then as Bowser. There were times that I just wanted to skip this story telling because it was so boring. But there was no way out but to play along. What is funny is when you play Bowser you get to play a “super Mario” type level after you play the story part. Kind of stupid and fun all at the same time.
The levels really just compose of Mario going back and forth on a particular world while accomplishing simple tasks. During this time you will level up, make friends (and enemies), and eventually meet the boss of the world, killing boss, getting a star, and saving the town. Pretty basic and predictable.

The side quests
There is a series of side quests that are a series of problems from various town folk. You go to a shop in the main town and read about the problems and take one (you can only take one at a time.) You rewards can vary from getting items to money to having someone join your party. The side quests seem like an after though and not essential to the main story.

The combat system
If my memory serves me right, the combat system is similar to the original paper Mario.
Mario is limited to jump attack and hammer attacks. His friends have various attacks from jumping, sliding, slapping, absorption, stealing, blowing, etc.
You should choose your party carefully depending on the level you are in. For example, don’t pick a jumping character if most of your foes have spikes on their back because you will get hurt.
The one unique feature with paper Mario is you need to hit your buttons at just the right time to make multiple hits or stronger hits. Sometimes it is a timed event, other times it is button mashing.
You also don’t walk around and have random encounters with monsters. Rather you can jump on a monster (or they jump on you) to start a battle. And if you don’t want to battle then you can avoid them. Some enemies will be harder to avoid than others.

Replay value
I don’t think there is any real replay value. You might go back and check out a couple of the side quests but nothing really too exciting exists there. If you have an action replay then you have a few settings you can alter for fun.

Graphics and Sound
The graphic, while pretty, are not stunning. The animators tried to go for a hand drawn/comic look to the game. In that regards they did a wonderful job. But ground breaking graphics this ain’t. I was ultimately disappointed in this department.
Sound also was uninspiring. You had you typical Mario tunes and other pieces but it is very uninspiring.

Who is this for?
If you own a Gamecube and like RPG’s then I recommend picking this up. I wouldn’t spend more than $20 new or $10 used though. If you have never played an RPG before then this would be a great introduction. If you like RPG’s and only have a Game Cube then go ahead and pick this up, but in my opinion the other systems have much better RPG’s than this one.

Summary
This is one of the few RPG’s for the Nintendo Game Cube. It is a relatively good game and will provide plenty of hours (about 40) of fun. It is easy to pick up and play for all age groups. But if you are a die hard RPG fan with one of the other systems, then I would recommend you pass on this and pick a more in depth RPG.

Or you can check out....
Nintendo Wii Gaming Console

© Common Loon Productions


Recommended: Yes