Challenge of the Warlords: Stay Awake

Monday, April 23, 2007

After spending a week with Super Paper Mario I'm going to grant it four stars. It is a very, very good game, but it feels torn between worlds (or rather, genres). It's a brilliantly realized next-generation platformer and an RPG-lite. The weird thing is that it doesn't go very far in either direction.

For instance, the platforming is not challenging. It feels like Super Princess Peach, and not just when you're playing as Peach herself. Getting hit by enemies isn't instant death (or maybe 1/3 instant death), you just lose a health point or two. Given that you'll have 20 HP very quickly, dying is reserved for only the terminally unhip. Or me, when I'm not paying attention. The platforms are always very big, there hasn't been any time limits, and the only spiky floors I've seen came after I got a helper (Pixl) that lets me fly over them. Your death will come rarely.

And as an RPG it's also just so-so. There's only one town (Flipside), no new sets of weapons or armor, and a very limited item selection. Now, the characters you'll meet and the conversations you'll have are wild and easily worth the price of admission, but something is missing.

... Maybe for other people, that is. I've found the lack of a strong RPG component is wonderful. That was my biggest beef with the older Mario RPGs: they feel terrible. I want gradually new weapons and armor, but I want them to be cool. Getting new overalls is not cool. Upgraded mallets are not cool. Increasing your "mustache" statistic is not cool. The only way they could make RPGing in Mario land less appealing would be to have you collect Pokemon as well.

Therefore I'm happy with what they've given me: half a platformer and all the RPG I can tolerate, which equals 3½ stars, which rounds up to four stars.

Puzzle Quest is still a chore. I would like to find the person who, after owning this game for a week, plays through it in marathon stretches. Oh, and actually reads the text on the screen. This game is an assault on the brain like nothing else. I cannot stand the character I play, nor the people I encounter, nor even the monsters I defeat. About the only thing Puzzle Quest has going for it at this point is a fairly standard weapon and armor upgrade sequence. I have a Greater Troll Ring and a, um, magical bow of some sort. Much like Diablo, they do a good job at keeping the things you want just out of reach. So I'm plodding forward in this sequence of letters and numbers they call a plot, encountering people who would look one dimensional in a first grader's short story.

Only a few titles to look forward to next month. Forza Motorsport 2 arrives on the 15th and Mario Party 8 on the 30th. Thank goodness I have enough Wiimotes, right?