I put this on at work and found myself tapping along to the music and not even paying attention to the review. 😆 I almost stopped and just put on the soundtrack. What an amazing OST.
As a veteran player who left the fanbase due to how awful, generalizing and toxic its become its nice to see something positive come out of it lately. (I don't mean I've stopped playing the games or discussing it casually with friends, I mean I stopped being apart of the fandom that actively has discussions about the games because ever since TOK there's so much 180 shifting and hate in the fanbase, even when disliking a game's flaws people are so much more violent and hostile with their opinions over what a game does right and wrong. Even the Sonic fanbase is more clam than them at this point) I'm also glad someone can note this game's best and worst since people treat this game like its perfect with no flaws (or don't see its flaws as no big deal simply out of emotion. I agree its the least flawed, but not perfect) as for me I LOVE this game. To this day it still is (and always) will be my favorite N64 game. Alongside its sequel TTYD they are probably my most replayed games of all time, and don't really have a favorite. As a side note Lady Bow is easily my favorite partner in the series, admittedly its due to bias, but I love her. You could consider me a Bow fanboy of sorts. lol When it comes to Bow's name it's actually B-Uh-O (as in the red Bow ribbons she wears on her head, not as in bowing down to something) Bow is also the best partner combat wise due to how partners work in this game compared to its sequel. When it comes to the partners I find them to be poorly balanced and their movesets aren't well designed. They are either just clones of another partner's moveset or have move redundancy. Making a lot of their actions repetitious. (Which is more notable when they are basically just extra moves in battle) I also think64 has very subpar side content. With the only good one being the mail sidequest. The Koopa Koot one is very bad and the playroom isn't really engaging, just an excuse to grind coins (which is completely undoable playing it on N64 due to the RNG) and The Oink farm is also RNG. I also wouldn't call Chapter 2 dragging persay (I do like how 64 has multiple areas on overworld design) because I don't think a level needs to just be point A to point B progression (otherwise its just fairly standard with not a lot interesting, you'd just be following a path the game gives you with any connectivity being based on just finding it along the way, which is how certain chapters play out I feel. Especially Chapter's 1, the Gusty Gulch part of 3, Chapter 5 and Chapter 7. Regardless I do love a lot of the chapters in this game. I just don't think the desert is well designed outside of the outlet of "its based off Zelda and captures the desert feel" because in its design it wants to be open, but ends up being multiple of the same screen with only scarce goodies laying about. Chapter 5 executes this much better with the jungle. With Chapter 4, not only do I dislike the entering and existing the toy box, but I don't think its great from a writing or progression standpoint either. There's barely any dialogue (which can make it seem like you're just wandering around nice looking rooms with puzzles, making it sorta feel empty) and the only dialogue is from 3 bosses and Watt, which aren't terribly interesting. Anti Guy and General Guy though are easily the highlights of this chapter and do make for entertaining fights. I also find just beelining to Watt right after puzzle solving makes the chapter way too short in progression. To be honest I don't think progression or exploration was really a strongsuit of any of the original 3 Paper Mario games, something the newer games do better are pacing and lack of just taking a straight line. (Except Sticker Star which is filled with padding in its design) I also think saying TTYD is "the best" at this point is very much wrong, as from what I've seen almost everyone seems to have did a complete 180 on this game and seem to despise it now. Its a flawed game (or rather its design has some flawed aspects), but not one I would consider bad. Its basically like Sonic where no game is "best or worst" (though most people would say 64 is the best)
This game was amazing. 2 is my fave though. When this came to Wii Virtual Console, I bought it on day 1
Ahhh the music ❤😍
I put this on at work and found myself tapping along to the music and not even paying attention to the review. 😆 I almost stopped and just put on the soundtrack. What an amazing OST.
Really regret never playing this on my n64
Not to be that guy, but it’s Tubba blubba not tubba lubba
It's also Lady Bow, not Lady Bow. 😜
As a veteran player who left the fanbase due to how awful, generalizing and toxic its become its nice to see something positive come out of it lately. (I don't mean I've stopped playing the games or discussing it casually with friends, I mean I stopped being apart of the fandom that actively has discussions about the games because ever since TOK there's so much 180 shifting and hate in the fanbase, even when disliking a game's flaws people are so much more violent and hostile with their opinions over what a game does right and wrong. Even the Sonic fanbase is more clam than them at this point)
I'm also glad someone can note this game's best and worst since people treat this game like its perfect with no flaws (or don't see its flaws as no big deal simply out of emotion. I agree its the least flawed, but not perfect) as for me I LOVE this game. To this day it still is (and always) will be my favorite N64 game. Alongside its sequel TTYD they are probably my most replayed games of all time, and don't really have a favorite. As a side note Lady Bow is easily my favorite partner in the series, admittedly its due to bias, but I love her. You could consider me a Bow fanboy of sorts. lol When it comes to Bow's name it's actually B-Uh-O (as in the red Bow ribbons she wears on her head, not as in bowing down to something) Bow is also the best partner combat wise due to how partners work in this game compared to its sequel.
When it comes to the partners I find them to be poorly balanced and their movesets aren't well designed. They are either just clones of another partner's moveset or have move redundancy. Making a lot of their actions repetitious. (Which is more notable when they are basically just extra moves in battle) I also think64 has very subpar side content. With the only good one being the mail sidequest. The Koopa Koot one is very bad and the playroom isn't really engaging, just an excuse to grind coins (which is completely undoable playing it on N64 due to the RNG) and The Oink farm is also RNG.
I also wouldn't call Chapter 2 dragging persay (I do like how 64 has multiple areas on overworld design) because I don't think a level needs to just be point A to point B progression (otherwise its just fairly standard with not a lot interesting, you'd just be following a path the game gives you with any connectivity being based on just finding it along the way, which is how certain chapters play out I feel. Especially Chapter's 1, the Gusty Gulch part of 3, Chapter 5 and Chapter 7. Regardless I do love a lot of the chapters in this game. I just don't think the desert is well designed outside of the outlet of "its based off Zelda and captures the desert feel" because in its design it wants to be open, but ends up being multiple of the same screen with only scarce goodies laying about. Chapter 5 executes this much better with the jungle.
With Chapter 4, not only do I dislike the entering and existing the toy box, but I don't think its great from a writing or progression standpoint either. There's barely any dialogue (which can make it seem like you're just wandering around nice looking rooms with puzzles, making it sorta feel empty) and the only dialogue is from 3 bosses and Watt, which aren't terribly interesting. Anti Guy and General Guy though are easily the highlights of this chapter and do make for entertaining fights. I also find just beelining to Watt right after puzzle solving makes the chapter way too short in progression.
To be honest I don't think progression or exploration was really a strongsuit of any of the original 3 Paper Mario games, something the newer games do better are pacing and lack of just taking a straight line. (Except Sticker Star which is filled with padding in its design) I also think saying TTYD is "the best" at this point is very much wrong, as from what I've seen almost everyone seems to have did a complete 180 on this game and seem to despise it now. Its a flawed game (or rather its design has some flawed aspects), but not one I would consider bad. Its basically like Sonic where no game is "best or worst" (though most people would say 64 is the best)