The first game in the series was Super Mario RPG on the SNES and was followed by N64’s Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door on the Game cube. All these games were essentially RPG’s with all the usual endless talking, aimless wandering and levelling up to be done. Super Paper Mario differs from the previous games in that this is essentially a platform game with relatively minor RPG elements. Although there is still a fair amount of talking and wandering to be done, this has been toned down from previous games and it is platform action where the game’s heart truly lies.

The first thing of note with any Wii game is how well the Wiimote has been implemented into the control scheme. Like Twilight Princess, SPM started life as a GC game and its origins are fairly obvious as the remote’s interaction hardly taxes the imagination. The Wiimote is held horizontally, similar to the classic pad, with the D-pad used to control Mario’s actions and the 1 and 2 buttons used to jump and fire. You can point the Wiimote at the screen to get information on characters and objects and you also need to shake it to perform certain moves in the game, but otherwise the control scheme is nothing that couldn’t have been easily implemented on the GC.

The game begins with the usual hokey storyline, with the only change to proceedings being that Bowser is as much a victim as Mario to the new villain of the piece: the dastardly Count Bleck. He has kidnapped Peach, Bowser and Luigi and it’s Mario’s job to find them while simultaneously searching for the missing pieces of the Pure Heart. As with The Thousand year Door, there is a town you return to regularly, which serves as the game’s central hub. You can gain entrance to the various levels from here, as well as picking up useful bits of information and buying or selling various goodies.

The action begins with you controlling Mario in what appears to be a standard 2D realm, with all the usual platforming elements. However, hold down the A button and the camera switches to a behind Mario view with the ability to see what lies ahead off-screen. As well as being a useful guide for future dangers, this view has to be used at various points in the game in order to progress. Stuck behind a seemingly impenetrable piece of scenery? Flip the view to see a hidden path or a switch to hit that will open up the way ahead. However, the flip option is only available for 10 seconds at a time. Stay flipped any longer and you start to lose energy. Once back in the 2D realm, you must wait for the flip gauge to recharge before using it again.

The most welcome change to this new game is the lack of turn-based fights. Although these were occasionally intriguing affairs in previous games, especially the boss battles, constantly having to have elongated fights against lesser foes quickly grew tiresome for some. In SPM, all that has changed and fights are now old school head-stompathons instead. This means that progression through the game has sped-up, without losing any of the sense of adventure. There are those who will lament the loss of the turn-based battles but there are plenty of other proper RPG’s out there if that is your thing.

As the game progresses, there are small sojourns with the captured characters, similar to the Peach sections in The Thousand Year Door. Managing to escape from Bleck’s lair with any of these characters mean that they become available to use in the main part of the game. However, their use is only supplementary, since Mario is the only one who can flip and consequently, the rescued characters only get used when really necessary. For example, Peach can float across large gaps using her umbrella.

The other new addition to the series is the use of the spirits Mario discovers on his journey. In previous games, these spirits gave Mario the power to change shape to aid his progress. In SPM, they are on screen one at a time at all times and their powers are accessed by pressing the 1 button. They can be used to drop bombs, slim Mario to fit between gaps, give him extra stomp power etc. They are well integrated into the game and provide an additional way out of otherwise apparent dead-ends.

As with almost all Nintendo games, there are many things in SPM that will put a stupid grin on your face. The developer, Intelligent Systems, has always instilled a wry sense of humour into the series, which is again in evidence here. One level that particularly stands out is a pastiche of the original Super Mario Bros with a wonderfully irreverent boss and an amazing power-up that will live long in the memory.

The game is not without its faults: boss encounters are very easy and progression through the game is somewhat linear in comparison to previous outings. Also, the graphics are unexceptional and again could have easily been performed on the Game cube. However, the simplicity of the graphics complement the accessibility of the game in comparison to previous Paper Mario outings.

Paper Mario veterans will find much has changed since the last game but there is certainly plenty here for those not wedded to the idea of turn-based battles. Although the time necessary to complete the game has been drastically reduced, most of this has been the eradication of endless unnecessary text. If you have never tried a Paper Mario game then this is the most accessible game in the series to date and if you have tried one but did not find it to your taste then give this one a try. In short then: something for everyone who likes their fun with a capital F.