General Mario Thread

@ Elbruno: For what it's worth, the gameplay in Color Splash is leagues better than in Super Paper Mario.

As for Luigi (in addition to the spoileriffic thing Grounder said), he's hiding in several hard-to-reach places throughout the game, and if you find him, he gives you a ton of coins and some disposable tips about the game (such as telling you to listen to the enemies' chatter to suss out their weaknesses).

For all the shit I give to Super Paper Mario, I can't say it's a bad game. At the very least, it has the typical Mario RPG humor I love. And the gameplay itself is fine.

Too bad I can't say the same for Sticker Star, though, because there's nothing I like about it aside from the music.

I'll say this for Super Paper Mario: if it had a less fugly art style, I'd like it a lot more.

It wasn't that bad, just bare crude...

Simple and easy and clean...

Though, the lines could've been just for one chapter and not the whole game. Characters need legs n' arms.

Exactly. If only one dimension had been "the cubist dimension," that would've been tolerable. Then they could have been other art styles like the 8-bit dimension, the non-paper dimension, and so forth. But no, the whole game is nothing but geometric scribbles.

Man, I always feel weird that I actually really like Super Paper Mario. Like, I actually really like the art direction it has, and I never felt any problems with the gameplay that people talk about.

To be honest, it's my second favorite of the series behind Color Splash.

You're the first person I've met who likes Color Splash more than Thousand-Year Door, and frankly, it does not compute. (I respect your opinion, though.)

I, however, do not. Burn the heathen.

Thousand-Year Door definitely has the best combat of any Mario RPG, though, right? I mean, I love that throughout the entire game, there's basically a crowd going "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" every time you get into a battle, and if you fight "stylishly," they cheer for you and their support gives you strength. That is one inspired mechanic.

I'd say it has a solid skeleton but what's done with it doesn't encourage much besides throwing out Fire Drives for most of the game.

I'll give you that earning power for super moves through audience cheering is nice.

I just really, really do not like a lot of TTYD's combat system. The near-uselessness of the guard, the unreasonably tight window of the superguard, the fact that offensive power barely has any natural progression over the course of the game, the fact that defense doesn't grow naturally at all, the random hazards that the theater setting brings...

edited 11th Dec '16 7:47:07 PM by CapedLuigisYoshi

The combat system is one of the big reasons I'm not fond of the first two Paper Mario games. Defending sucks, the action commands often feel too tight, and the sense of powering up you're supposed to get from an RPG feels neutered. Granted I was spoiled by the Mario & Luigi battle system first, but that's not going to change what I experienced.

Super has its flaws, but it forms its own identity much better than its predecessors and successors, and it's a huge waste that IS chose that one to skip on improving with a sequel. The action platforming may have been stiff, but I still enjoyed its gameplay more than the first two games.

See, that's pretty much how I feel about it. Right down to the fact that I got used to the M&L series beforehand.

What's funny is that I played Paper Mario first. I only tried Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the first time about a year ago and I cannot for the life of me get into it.

I actually prefer the first game's combat to the second one's.

Don't get me wrong, I love the concept of the audience and Stylish moves, but I don't care much for Superguarding, the roulette thing, the fog, or the random explosions which once killed me when I was one turn away from defeating Bonetail.

The first game's combat is simple but effective and clean. And the fact that you can't just Superguard every attack thrown at you means that taking damage is an actual thing that happens in battle, instead of being reserved for bosses with tricky attack timings.

edited 11th Dec '16 8:33:26 PM by Anomalocaris20

All of the games' battle systems are fine in their own special way...

Not too complicated.

I do understand that TTYD's random obstacles and gimmicks can get in the way, but they didn't do so too much in my experience. I did play Super Paper Mario first, and I enjoyed it, so I'm sure if Color Splash is on par with it gameplay wise, I'll probably get it.

Sticker Star, on the other hand, just keeps getting worse and worse the more I find out about it.

The major problem in the original Paper Mario, for me at least, is the lack of action commands at the beginning of the game.

SMRPG allows you to use them in the opening section without teaching you in Bowser's Castle, but it is not needed for those battles, and the game gives you the option to learn how to do them right afterwards.

TTYD and the entirety of the M&L games give you tutorial fights to explain how they work.

The original game forces you to slog through the opening fight with Bowser and the Prologue before you can get them.

edited 12th Dec '16 10:17:46 AM by tclittle

That does turn Goombas into an unnecessarily time-consuming obstacle. On the other hand, the lack of action commands didn't feel like a problem to me until you brought it up, so I can't say it bothers me too much.

Here's something embarrassing I'm willing to share:

I didn't know there were action commands for the basic jump in Superstar Saga; this turned those bean koopas into Demonic Spiders, since I could only deal half damage to them with a jump, not knowing I was doing it improperly.

I want to get a game for Christmas, but I can't think of any.

Is Color Splash worthwhile? I find Sticker Star to be an abomination, but from what I can tell Color Splash is at least enough of an improvement to not be a total waste of time and money?

I still hear questionable stuff about the gameplay, but the writing and characters (despite lack of variety) seem to be decent.

I've never played Sticker Star and I think Color Splash is pretty good. The combat is a little cumbersome, but everything else is so good that I certainly don't regret buying it.

Honestly, I actually enjoyed fighting randos a lot in Color Splash- The nature of the card system encourages trying new stuff, especially since the game spews coins and cards at you.

Bosses and certain fixed encounters- Lookin' at you, Coal Guys- Are a bit less great thanks to specific cards being called for, but they're not as terrible about it as Sticker Star was and since there's not sticker size nonsense going on making space in your deck for one extra required card isn't the nightmare it could have been.

Also, there's an incredibly memorable mini-boss fight that Chie Satonaka would appreciate. Combat mechanics are turned on their head to make you do something totally unexpected, and it made me laugh out loud. It's one of the highlights of the game for me. Possibly of the entire Paper Mario series.