Well to be honest, Mario always has been a somewhat "2D" character.

BTW many people may have missed this but Super Paper Mario has many references to the book "Flatland".

Yeah SPM has TONS of story to it. Most people feel too much story..and I am one of them. I think that if they are going to do that kind of in depth story its time for Nintendo to hire some voice actors.

But I agree it was an awesome story and great game.

For the most part Mario is a series with little to no story. There are of course a handful of exceptions but typically they simply repeat the same story over and over ad nauseam. Nintendo is not, of course, the first developer you think of when you think of fine storytelling. Not that there is anything wrong with that :)

I may get flamed for this, but I am really disappointed with SPM.

Currently at world 8-1, and been playing it regularly for a few weeks now (about 25 hrs in).

The strong points: the gfx, the writing, some of the stories.

The bad points: the game design, the level design, inconsistent levels (and inconsistent gameplay)

...

I was going to write a  deep analysis/review of the game - but maybe later.

It started as a 8.0/10, moved up to a 8.5/10 - but then gradually fell until around a score of 7.5/10.

Its probably the weakest Intelligent Systems game I have *ever* played, and does not live up to the "Paper Mario" name.

In some ways it reminds me of Sunshine (although not as brilliant or fun) - as if they ran out of resources and ideas part way through the game. It lacks balance and consistency.

A couple of the levels are brilliant - but too many are mediocre. The entire "combat" system is poorly designed, the platformy elements not well thought out, no real balance for most of the non-Mario characters, the Pixl system not well enough used, etc.

Has anyone else experienced a less than "as expected" experience with SPM? Its quite possible that my expectations were unreasonably high - as Thousand Year Door was my fav game from last generation, and Intelligent Systems my favourite developer.

SPM was lame and the story wasn't that good. The game started out great and went way downhill after chapter 3. Paper Mario 2 had a better story with a lot more humor and better gameplay.

Uhm, okay, what 'bible prophesies'/'evils in extra dimensions'? Just wondering, because I didn't notice any of that.

Anyway, SPM does have a good enough story. It's the first Paper Mario to take it beyond 'crazy shit happening.' Although there is a lot of text, most of it is fluff. I'm not complaining, but it doesn't really add much to the story so much as it makes for great laughs. SPM was much funnier than the flawed humor in PM2.

Shams: Yes, I agree. I did however like SPM for introducing a level up system where your attack power increases as you gain experience as well as its improved graphical presentation compared to the PM2, which was really simple. I wish the designers would find their way back to the great illustrations/style of the original Paper Mario, but I don’t think that’s likely...

yeah I'm rather disappointed with SPM myself. Intelligent Systems has always been one of my favourite of Nintendo's development houses and this one just doesn't do them justice.

Although IS have an issue with doing the same thing over and over again... it's good to see them trying something new =)

SMRPG >>>>>> PM >>> SPM >>> TTYD