Dear Reader:
Ask your Super Paper Mario questions
As we found out a week ago, Shane Bettenhausen has a final preview build of Super Paper Mario. Now that he has finished the game, he wants to answer our questions. If you have any questions about Super Paper Mario, he will do his best to answer them without breaking his NDA. Just head to his blog, and leave him a question in the comments section. You can see what has been answered so far. Answers are in bold.
noisynoisy asks, “How do the 2D/3D mechanics work? Can the player switch between the two at any time?�??
You actually control several different characters during the game, but only Mario can ‘flip’ the world between 2D and 3D. It’s easy–all you do is press the ‘A’ button to flip to 3D, but while in that view, a meter constantly counts down…if it runs out, you’ll begin to lose HP.
noisy goes on to ask, “Is the game more action or more RPG. Is it similar to the original Paper Mario on the N64?”
It has towns, shops, NPCs, and puzzles like the Paper Mario games you know and love, but nearly all of the levels unfold as a blend of traditional side-scrolling platforming and more RPG-like puzzle elements. All combat happens in real-time, though: You’re hopping and bopping, not picking commands from a menu.
and for good measure, noisy also asks, “Does the game support progressive scan with 16.9 ratio?”
Yep. That’s how I played it. Looks crisp!
Pipking asks, “How does the gameplay handle with the remote - creative or tacked on?”
That’s veering into reviewy territory, but I’ll say that although it was clearly not a from-the-ground-up Wii project, much of the Wii-mote implementation feels intuitive and clever. You’re probably only using true Wii-mote functionality less than 20% of the time you’re playing, though.
Pipking also aks, “Is it a long game?”
I beat it in about 27 hours, though I definitely missed a lot of optional stuff. Gotta go back and get it all…
Braidedsamurai87 asks, “Will there be a Gamecube release eventually?”
Sadly, nope. Nintendo really should have though…look at how well Twilight Princess has sold on the Cube. Missed opportunity, guys….