The game sucked compared to the other PMs, and most other Mario games.
The story wasn't too strong from the start, and was once again some kind of "Collect 7 ___ to save the world". And, I agree with IGN on this one, the game has too much dialogue. Half of the game I didn't even read, just sped on through everything. Also, events in the game were poorly laid out, like that random dialouge that would appear after beating a world. I hadn't a clue what was going on, though, I finally realized what is was after the first few times it occured.
Dear Goddness, the graphics in this game are trash. Mario looks out of place, as the rest of the cast is simply squares. The visual of being made out of paper is gone, and weird 3D views plague the game. The new 3D flip mode thing was neat from the start, but became a hassle to use over and over when you're stuck, and such. Also, the 2D view looks much more vibrant in color, while the 3D mode just looks ugly. The square theme graphic style of the game was cool when I first started playing, but then it became overused and rushed in most areas of the game. Yes, I complained about graphics, leave me alone. PM2 had excellent visuals and the made-of-paper technique was spot on with the game style. This square idea, was not.
The battle system was severly poor, compared to the other two Paper Marios. Sure, yes, it goes back to a Mario game and not a RPG. But, the boss battles and others last a matter of seconds. The final boss took me less time to beat than one of those giant Pig things that cause 8 damage. The boss battles in the other two games required some skill of action, while this one, one only has to jump a few times to win.
The badge system was a great option in the PM titles, but this thrown out the window; for instead a card system of just gaining more power against one enemy. Also, these cards only appear once in a blue moon on the map (I've only found a few) and the "card capture" item thingier never has really worked for me at all (Though, I only tried it once). Another grip I have with the removal of some featured is the star points system. Sure, the score tells you when, but you never know WHEN you're going to level up just from looking at it. These were just some downright horrible things to do with the game...
My last compliant is the longeitivy of the game. It took me merely 10 hours to beat it, while PM2 and PM took me about 20, give or take. The game's difficulty is none, due to the horrid battle system setup. The boss battles, as I said before, suffered greatly from this and only take a few seconds to beat. This really only because the boss don't have as much health as they used to, and their attack patterns are simply to figure out.
I wasn't too happy with this game. It was a huge change from the original Paper Mario games. I hope Intelligent Systems, when they make PM3 (or 4, which ever ), they go back to the roots of Paper Mario.
