First, a word on the GameInformer review. They gave it a 6.75. They then explain they gave the game a 6.75 because it's a very good game, but not the type of game most people like to play. It's not mainstream, in other words.
Okay.
To put it another way- GameInformer doesn't review games based on whether they are good or bad... they said that Paper Mario 2 is very good, and they gave it a score that's typically seen on games handed out in McDonald's Happy Meals. So the review doesn't say anything about quality. Rather, the review... follow me here... is the what the author thinks the typical gamer thinks about the game.
Do I consider myself to be the typical gamer? No. I play adventure games, and the typical gamer (apparently, based on sales numbers) hates adventure games. I play old 2-D scrollers, and the typical gamer thinks that anything with less then 4 million colors and a gazillion polygons sucks. The typical gamer only owns a PS2, and plays mostly sports games on it. I rarely touch my PS2, and I hate sports games as a general rule.
I could care less what the "typical gamer" likes, because I'm not the typical gamer. This game review is like a film review by Leonard Maltin. Don't tell me what you think the average idiot wants to hear. Mr. Reviewer, tell me what YOU think, with a straight face.
OK... about the game. I'm a couple hours into it, and I can tell you it's inherited everything that's great about the Mario RPG series. The combat system keeps you engaged, the surreal environment is both familiar and foreign to Mario fans, the NPCs, enemies, and locations are colorful (literally and figuratively), the production values are astronomical. Please note: production value isn't the same thing as graphics whiz-bang. While the game is exercising some serious graphics muscle, the intended effect is low-tech. Like Viewtiful Joe or Zelda Wind Waker, the game has a whimsical style that's much harder to accomplish than it looks. When I say the game has high production value, I mean it looks very very polished. You can imagine a dozen well paid middle-aged men toiling for weeks over the design of a single room.
Boomstick- Yes, it's like SuperStar Saga in several ways. For one thing the combat system is pretty similar- each move has special timed button presses or other tricks you can use to make the move more effective. You can block every attack in the game, but you have to have great timing. You can see enemies on the world map before they attack, so you can avoid combat if you wish. But the best part is the dialogue- the wacky humor from SuperStar Saga is intact, and may even be sharper than before. Someone at Nintendo USA did wonders with this localization.
Finally, the best part of the game.. the BABES. Check this out:
Now that's what I call a
HOTT piece of mushroom ass!
