Retro Review: Paper Mario (N64) (English).

[Fuente | Source]

The sunset came to the Nintendo 64 in mid 2002, although he showed us that it would not be a problem to continue generating and providing quality titles. For the year 2001, Paper Mario comes out, another game of the Italo-American plumber quite different for what we have seen for so long (the most similar to Paper Mario until that date would be Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for Super Nintendo) although with the aim of always: to save princess Peach from the clutches of the terrible Bowser.

Paper Mario leaves the platform paradigm to immerse itself in a genre different from what has been shown for so many years (formula that in my opinion has worked with its platform / adventure genre) and becomes a great success. It manages to adapt the RPG genre (role-playing game) perfectly, creating a quite cool and fun game, presented in a rather peculiar way. We will be playing around in a 3D mode but with paper characters. Allies goomba, koopa, paratroopa (among others) will be our traveling companions along our way.

The story begins when Princess Peach sends an invitation to Mario and Luigi, as she has organized a party for all citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. They use a pipeline to reach the Toad City and later to the castle. Luigi stays with the rest of the guests while Mario decides to go up to where the princess is, so that later, we see Peach Castle rise thanks to the Castle of Bowser who helped with a rocket koopa rise to the sky. After taking control of Peach Castle, Bowser, along with his new koopa partner Kammy Koopa make an appearance before Mario and the Princess. The mustachioed man confronts Bowser and the first battle of the game takes place.

King Koopa during the battle, will make use of the Star Wand (which he stole from the Star Refuge) to gain more strength and be able to defeat his opponent easily. Once Bowser defeats Mario, he removes him through a castle window, falling into a forest near the Goomba Village.

Mario will have a kind of vision or call of the seven Star Spirits who take care of the Starry Refuge, they tell him that Bowser and Kammy Koopa locked them in letters. The stars will ask Mario to find these cards, since the power of the stars cancels the effect of the wand that makes Bowser.

[Fuente | Source]

Accepting the challenge, Mario starts looking for these letters through the eight chapters of the game where the cards are.

Each level is presented in a colorful and fun way, which causes a lot of empathy with the players. Their tones and amplitude are to mention, they do an excellent job at the time of showing us known worlds (some) but from a different angle. We can interact with the level (trees, bushes) and find items or coins, giving a high level of exploration.

We can modify the characteristics of Mario with some medals that give us among other things: protect, jump many times, etc. Also like any good RPG, after each battle we win, Mario will get a few points of stars. When you collect 100, you will increase your level, increasing your life, flower points or medal points (at the player's choice).

We will be adding co-protagonists as we continue the story. They will have different skills, but very important ones. They will help us from activating buttons at distances, opening walls or making Mario invisible.

Each of them have defined personalities and characteristics that differentiate them from others. Enjoying them will be easy but forgetting them difficult. Like all RPG, in our way we can alternate depending on the demands of the moment. In total there are eight friends that we will be integrating during the game.

[Fuente | Source]

Mario with his companions will fight against all the enemies that cross his path, to be able to face the final boss. Each chapter has a different final boss and our mission will be to defeat them in order to obtain the star card that they own.

Using our strategy and support partners, we will make the best plan to overcome them. Like any RPG game, we will have to think carefully if our best option is attack or defense. We can use a variety of items during the fight, giving us great advantage.

[Fuente | Source]

Its musical section is quite simple, it reminds me of those who showed us in Super Marios Bros 3, although a little more with cartoon essence. It will let you know that you are playing a Mario game, which is characteristic of each of them.