ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ก.ค. 2024
- I feel like Super Paper Mario is underappreciated, even with the recent shift of popular online opinion leading to it being seen in in a more favorable light. This video essay focuses on the art direction, style, and themes of the game, which I think are often overlooked, even by the game's appreciators.
If you'd like to hear more from me about Super Paper Mario, I have a (much less cohesive) written review for it on my Backloggd that focuses more on the gameplay: www.backloggd.com/u/Kirbyster...
Footage used:
SPM: • Super Paper Mario for ...
PM64: • Paper Mario - Episode ...
TTYD: • Paper Mario The Thousa...
My socials:
Twitch: / kirbysterthesupremememe
Discord: / discord
Backloggd: www.backloggd.com/u/Kirbyster/
TH-cam: / @kirbyster
Twitter: / krbyster
#superpapermario #papermario #spm - เกม
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 70 | คู่เอก "โฟกัส vs สเตฟาน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_fVieQ89DRQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Super Paper Mario uses digital art instead of a book. I'm glad someone finally understood that
I'm surprised it took a video explaining it, thought it was obvious to everyone.
ok
@@Cliffordlongheadnot you
I've never thought of Super being inside a computer before, but it makes total sense. I think one of the more underrated aspects of the older Paper Mario games is the ways in which the games seem to respond to the growing technologies of the 21st century, and in particular, how audiences interface with media differently as a result. Going back to TTYD through the remake, it's amusing how novel the game finds it that people can now send... electronic mail(!!!!) to other people.
In TTYD, Mario becomes a celebrity (through various heroic deeds or WWE tournaments), one that fans and haters alike send Mario private DMs to praise or antagonize. Doopliss represents a sort of anxiety over identity theft, the ease with which someone online can take another's name and impersonate them. Meanwhile, Peach deals with a sentient computer who wants to feel love. In Super, ancient guardian dragons like Fracktail are reimagined as anti-malware systems; the game is fascinated by the rise of online messages boards and fandom culture with Francis; the Cragnons are seen enjoying cave-painting TV, while Flint Cragley goes into dangerous caves to get totally EPIC and NOT CLICKBAIT footage for his reports. Both games recognize how the new technology of the day seems to alter the dynamic between developer and player -- it's become more obvious now than ever that people, a lot of people, are watching... and responding.
In contrast, modern Paper Mario seems to turn its focus backwards. Color Splash returns to simple postage mail for messages, while Origami King has you sent around in fax machines. Instead of wrestling pastiches, crowds seem to gather around in gladiatorial arenas, while other people excavate ancient fossils in dig sites. In the Green Energy Plant, a Toad looks wistfully at images of Mario 3, noting that "these ancient images" seem to "make a lot of people happy." To at least be fair to Color Splash and Origami King, it could be argued that this more retro-focused aesthetic is definitely engaging with the tastes of the times, and I think Color Splash in particular is a game that is very engaged with mid-2010s meme culture. But it's definitely a different feeling than the 2000's Paper Marios.
It makes me think that the Ancients literally CREATED these worlds, instead of just exploring and propogating themselves throughout them
I really wish that SPM contextualized different ways that people interface with technology as things in its world, as they did with Francis and Fracktail, more frequently because that would have made the theme of exploring a cyberspace much stronger! SPM can also get surprisingly critical of new technology, with Francis becoming out of touch from overindulging in technology, and the creators of the Pixls (the Ancients) becoming enslaved by their technology after becoming over reliant on it. I would be so interested in hearing more of what these devs thought about new technology and the internet in the 2000s, as they clearly were passionate about the subject and were likely well informed from working in the industry.
I can't speak on anything in the new games , I haven't played any of them after Sticker Star. But I am very interested in playing them all sooner or later.
this is a really interesting comment thank you for the analysis
All gangsta till the nerd goomba leaks your ip, address, name, HP, attack and defense
@@Girbekafeconher name is goombella smh
I was actually shocked more people didn't realize it was a computer world. It always felt to me that the game was a computer based world, especially with how everything played out in game.
Yeah- the pixelation effect when you go into pipes and the mouse cursor when flipping really gave it away to me…
Also those flippy transporter things in the desert level are literally just the squash and stretch tool from every photo editor ever lol
idk why no one ever noticed lmao
The selection box is everywhere in Super paper Mario. It appears when you flip, when enemies flip, it's how Dimentio, Bleck and Mimi get around, it appears when you use an item like Fire Burst, it appears when you fall down a pit. It's also iconography that's exclusive to Super Paper Mario.
It also appears when you switch between party members (Mario, Peach, Bowser and Luigi)
Holy shit I just realized that. You’re so right about the teleporting aesthetic being like a selection screen
FINALLY I HAVE FOUND THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND. SOMEONE WHO IS DEFENDING SUPER PAPER MARIO.
he's not the first.
Is there any reason to defend it? From what I know, most people liked Super Paper Mario outside of bias.
@@concerningindividual629A LOT of people compared it to TTYD and realized that it wasn’t the same amazing (and I mean amazing…like cmon TTYD is top tier) format and story structure that TTYD was. The fact that the first two games were similar and Super wasn’t caught a lot of people off guard- I really do think, if they gave Super a chance, people would have much less of a hatred for it! Super was a big game in terms of defining my childhood and what I would eventually grow up to love so much.
Also thinking about it now, that game was released 17 years ago…the whole technological implications thing discussed in the video was way more relevant than I initially thought. It’s amazing that the devs for Super were able to tie in this new age theme of technology with the story of Love and Chaos.
I always felt like Super Paper Mario was strongly inspired by digital art, specifically vectors, with its unique world and character design. It's got my favorite art direction in maybe any mario game. I can only dream of getting another game with a similar style.
This game was pure genius. There will never be another game like it ever again. That makes me a little sad, but I also realise that nothing else could come close to the emotional weight this game holds.
That club Nintendo survey where “less than one percent of surveyed players reported finding SPM’s story interesting” is so heartbreaking 💔. It’s sad to think that the reason we don’t get more games with such a strong story is because players don’t appreciate them.
@@KirbysterActually, I'm pretty sure the results of that survey were rigged/unreliable from the get-go. It's likely that the vast majority of participants speedran the survey just to get their gold points reward, and Kensuke Tanabe used that as a justification to ruin the series going forward. Whenever people bring up Super Paper Mario nowadays, they almost always talk about how good the story is, since it's easily the best part of the game and the main reason why it's so fondly remembered.
@@PSIkid I agree and also probably just kids or players that didn't get the point of the game and just wanted a quick fun regular Mario game considering the Wii was very popular among casual players and this game being the first Mario game on it.
@@PSIkid "Used that as an excuse to ruin the series going forward" is overly-cynical and uneccessarily antagonistic towards the new direction of Paper Mario
@@LackofGimmicksThat's exactly what happened though. The newer games were purposefully made worse in almost every department and entirely missed the point of the earlier games in the series. Why shouldn't I be cynical when Nintendo and Intelligent Systems actively refused to listen to fans for an entire decade and released essentially the same (bad) game three times in a row?
Besides, Origami King was uneccessarily antagonistic towards fans, with King Olly literally being a stand-in far the unhappy fanbase. That game was made entirely out of spite for older fans, and after seeing how the TTYD remake turned out, I no longer care what happens to Paper Mario going forward. This series can rot for all I care.
"The main antagonist's motivation is the loss he experienced from being Romeo and Juliet'ed."
Bruh 🤣
Something about that comment you highlighted in the beginning raised me an eyebrow. Specifically this part: "And the worst part is that I know [the geometric artstyle] wasn't an intentional stylistic choice, it was because *they were shackled from using original character designs by arbitrary shifts of corporate policies".*
I find it very interesting that the commenter believed this prohibition of using original character designs was why Super Paper Mario has this geometric artstyle... because this mandate was actually introduced _during the development of _*_Sticker Star_*_ (somewhere inbetween 2010 and 2012), NOT Super Paper Mario (which released in 2007)._ It's this prohibition of original character designs why Sticker Star onwards only has the same basic five Toad colors from the main games as its only NPC designs. If this same mandate was introduced in Super Paper Mario, _the game would've looked completely different, because _*_it's FULL of original character designs!_* The geometric shapes aren't the result of the mandate in question being in effect at all, in fact, they probably ARE the kind of original character designs being prohibited in the first place. The commenter is GROSSLY misinformed, and/or probably thinks that Super Paper Mario is part of the same era as Sticker Star, Color Splash and Origami King JUST because the gameplay isn't the same as in 64 or Thousand Year Door and therefor MUST be bad (for the record, I don't think all that is true at all and that Super Paper Mario is of the same era as the first two games, and that regarding it as the same era as Sticker Star is a massive disrespect to Super).
Yes exactly! It completely misunderstands what was bad about Sticker Star’s world by attributing SPM character design to a lack of creativity, rather than an abundance of it. Seeing that misunderstanding is what made me want to make this video.
In another world, this game is called “Paper Mario: Between the Vector Planes”
"Paper Mario: Into the Flipside"
I like the fact that they look like this, the fact that the geometric shape look is so different makes it hit even more that you're in another dimension, a world where life itself is very different, so naturally things wouldn't look like they did in Mario's dimension.
I'm so happy more people are recognizing SPM's digital themes!! There's other stuff too, notably in the levels' backgrounds. Lineland has math equations, Outer Space looks like it was drawn with copy+pasted stars or just a star brush tool, and the Underwhere has some kind of coding trees (there's probably a proper name that I'm forgetting)
I never really thought about how the original three games were all themed around different mediums of storytelling though. Really further cements it as the "Mario Story" trilogy of Paper Mario
I can't believe someone would call this game's art direction bland and uninspired. If anything this game went so far out there that it is the reason those mandates were put in place.
That's exactly how I understood it, too. _Because_ Super "flew too close to the sun", Sticker had those restrictions put on it, Color started to "find their groove" to work _within_ the restrictions, and by Origami, they figured out how to make a good story that still complied with the Rules-As-Written of the character design mandates.
@@WackoMcGoose i wouldnt exactly call it good, just ok
@@WackoMcGooseReminds me of the sega mandates😂
This was an awesome video. As a mathematician, I have to love the game's design. There are even 256 cards to collect and this is the equivalent of 256 bits (2⁹).
Moreover, can we say that
Super Paper Mario - Book
Paper Mario TTYD - Stage
Super Paper Mario - Computer
Paper Mario SS - Stickers
Paper Mario Color Splash - Painting
Paper Mario Origami King - Origami
? This would be awesome. Good analysis.
Colour splash (and by extension sticker star) look more like some papercraft art installation, kinda like yoshi's crafted world, with poles holding up clouds and whatnot
Origami king is just full on paper world though
Wouldn’t it be awesome if the next Paper Mario game was themed around *Movies?* They could do SO MUCH with a film production theme!
you mean 8 bits :P
@@quotetry8998More than half of the world would look like the battle stage in TTYD.
@@quotetry8998Reminds me of Paper Mario 64’s battle UI, with what I think is supposed to be a movie projector shining a light on the currently selected action. (Unless it’s something else and I’m just missing the reference.) In any case, it would be neat to see more elaboration on that theme in a future game.
I grew up playing super paper Mario and not the other three and never understood why so many people hated it cause to me it was something me and my mom, dad, and brother would play on our Wii
On it's own, no one would have had any problem with the game. It's the 'Paper Mario' pedigree and the expectations that came along with it that colored peoples opinions. But you, a child with no knowledge of the Paper Mario series and no pre-existing expectations or opinions, are/were able to enjoy it on it's own merits or simply as a symbol of those old family game sessions.
@@OriginalUnjustifier It was just not fair. I do like TTYD and PM64, Mario RPG. but 2D/3D system was so creative and fun. It made me so excited. now a lot of people on internet like reddit admit that SPM got unnecessary hate. It doesn't matter it's RPG or not. SPM is in my hall of fame along with SM RPG, PM64, TTYD OG & remake.
@@quas3728 Personally I was in the same boat as the people decrying the fact that is wasn't PMTTYD2 Electric Boogaloo, back when I first played.
That lasted until...around the third world, at which point the new mechanics and game style had won me over. Nowadays I consider them both fine games, just with a differing focus and genre.
I remember playing TTYD first but never beat it, eventually I got around to this one and I'm like, wtf is this. Turns out it would be the first paper mario game I actually beat 😂
Same but I thought it was the only paper Mario game
Cool, I've been talking about just this with buddies.
To me, the first hint was teleportation using a cpu arrow to create a box.
Aswell as how worlds were drawn in like something out of mspaint or old jp computer visual novels where everything had to be drawn in line by line.
Also the fact that all the characters are more in line with flash animation rather than popup book figures.
Very nice video.
Glad somebody commented on the *artstyle*, it was really one of the sticking points for me.
I loved the angular designs, as opposed to 64/TTYD’s rounder, organic shapes.
It feels… mechanically printed, and cut with lasers. Even the filigree and ornamentation found in Flipside is geometric.
To add some examples of computer references in this game, which I'll expand as I think of them, there's also:
. Fracktail and Wracktail are drawn in with a cursor
. Other flipping outlines also sometimes use a cursor
. Megabite/Gigabite (Not named that in Japanese, though, so not original intent)
. 256x power in Dimension D
. In a similar vein, 256 Catch Cards, some were even cut to fit the number
. Pit of 100 Trials computer chip floors
. Prominent themes of binaries and dualities
Both the Flipside and Flopside Pit of 100 Trials are designed to look like the screen of a Game & Watch.
@@ThePengumCrew True, though in 3D the floor patterns also strongly resemble computer chips.
Fracktail and Wracktail (and maybe Shadoo?) are computers as well. There's also the cooking interfaces (and the cartridges used to expand them) and training device used in one of the side quests that look like the DS and its components, but referencing other consoles in Paper Mario is not new to this game. You also can't forget about the Interned and Interchet.
What really needs more recognition isn't just the digital aesthetic, but the absolute LACK of the old paper aesthetic. We may have flat, 2D characters, but there's no flipping pages, no blowing panels, no origami or paper airplanes. This demonstrates how very deliberate they were with the aesthetic choices.
@@Fungo4 Not true. It still shows up from time to time, but is far less prominent than the newer games and TTYD:
- Pipe screen transition is the same as TTYD.
- A page is peeled off the screen to reveal a secret or treasure
- Spiny Tromps have thickness to them as if they are made of cardboard
- Brobot ripping through the screen + the transition to the Brobot fight in the Whoa Zone
Chapter 2 shows love in how dedicated Merlee and her ancestors are to protecting the pure heart. In Chapter 5, love is shown in how the Cragnons and Floro Sapiens have united after being isolated from each other since the Floro sapiens kingdom was established. And chapter 6 love can be shown in the Sammer Kingdom’s dedicated duty to protect the pure heart from any non hero’s… which sadly is what lead to their down fall. I also want to make a mention of Francis representing the wrong way to love something or someone from his actions
Alright so WHAT THE HECK THAT'S SO COOOL- How did I never pick up on the computer aesthetics???? That's actually so awesome like genuinely- I've always loved this game for what it does do right but this is something in particular I had just never noticed about the game- I'm overjoyed this popped up in my recommended. Wonderful video!
Super Paper Mario definitely has the best story of the Paper Mario games that I've seen. This game doesn't get the recognition and love it deserves, though for me Paper Mario TTYD is the best of the ones I've played, but I am glad to see you giving this game get the love it deserves.
The selection box is one of the most subtle parts about this game, and I can't imagine this game without it
Funny how TTYD kinda teased SPM's story in the shape of TEC
And unlike later paper marios the gameplay of SPM is demanding. It's cohesive and makes you want to engage with them and not actively avoid them, they provide you with what an RPG makes and RPG
plus it just a few stumps away from beating it so it doesnt take time either, its what sticker star tried to do
@@user-bb2op9he1x Yea sticker star tried to capture what SPM did right and failed spectacularly, even the sacrifice at the end was meaningless, nobody liked the character lol.
In sticker star you rather avoid the battles cause they gain you nothing in SPM you got EXP and cash and items
@@ashleyblack7419 Thinking about Kersti and people who compare her to Tippi in terms of the whole sacrifice motif just makes me thing; can you imagine if we had to lug Luvbi around from the beginning of SPM all the way until the end of Chapter 7? And not only that but she always had to complain about something.
@@devonm042690 well, Luvbi at first been a really hateable character but she redeemed at some point, I feel like they'd have found a balance if her stay was longer, cause by default her behavior was a lot like Kersti's.
If you tried to somehow spice a boss up, yea how dare you try to have fun in this game, kersti would scold you for taking so long.
"ms paint artstyle" seems like a pretty big misnomer, if anything it looks more like vector art to me with its frequent use of gradients (which you can't do in paint!) in the character designs
Interesting, I don’t have any experience with vector art programs but that could be the source of inspiration! The heavy use of the rectangle tool and the 3D bar are what gave me the biggest MS Paint vibes, I’m not sure how represented those are in vector art.
@@Kirbyster i think adobe animate and illustrator are 2 popular ones
I really hope Nintendo not only sticks to but also emphasises the early digital aesthetic if they ever remake the game.
The switch successor is said to have raytracing which would lead to some really interesting visuals contrasting the paper (assuming they’re out of paper) Mario characters in a digital pixelated world.
I hope they don’t remake it, leave it as a one off since it’ll just make the turn based fanboys more pissed off. A sequel would be nice though
@@Blastoisebo122 I think a remake with turn based combat would be really nice though. I say this as someone whose favorite PM game is Super.
ESPECIALLY if the remake's combat system derives off of computers rather than a stage play. It would be so cool.
@@PhantomOfficial07 I agree with that, that would definitely make the game better. Add badges and all paper Mario fans would be happy
It's really interesting to me how each entry in the Paper Mario series (before the dark times) liked to build off one another. The first game built off of Yoshi's Island. The second game built off the paper idea of the first game and turned it into a play. The third game took some digital references (such as the more digital sounds of that game) and the 2D Bowser sections introduced in TTYD and made that the main theme.
sup nick, i feel like i know you somewhere, anyways sup nick
I agree, if you noticed in Super almost every scene or moment are based off form TTYD for example the time where you have to go through a wave of Dimentios and have to use a hammer to get through, in TTYD is in Chapter 1 where a wave of Dry Bones come at you, or when Beldam is watching through Rogueport same as when Dimentio spanws at you on Flipside on CH6 and many more
This video Is Factual. The Most Realistic And The Most Making Sense Video Ive ever seen.Thank You for making this
Your first mistake was searching for logic in a paper Mario head space.
@@alexanderthegreat-mx5zu wat
Fantastic analysis! Yeah the amount of unfun side content is baffling, especially having to get 96 recipes, which is nearly double the amount from TTYD, and made even worse when several items needed are only available via random enemy drops, making it the most frustrating aspect of the game. This analysis def makes me wanna replay the game tho!!
The worst part for me was probably just all the walking you need to do, even when all the items you need are already in the hub. Walking to the Itty Bits for ingredients -> the normal shop to take things from storage -> the Flipside cooking house -> the Flopside cooking house, all just to make one dish. They made so many recipes and for what? 😭 they take so much time to make but they’re almost all worse than just a super shroom shake
When I hear "side content" I immediately think about the 100 trial pit. There are basicly 4 in this game. The flip-side pit, the flop-side pit (that you need to do twice so that's why I count it as 2 pits ), and the samouraï stuff (you can cheat in this one because we automatically save every star block ). It can be fun, but it's very long and useless. Who cares about the running pixl, or about infinite 3D and double damage, or about the cards for old partners ?
@@SamSupercreationdoing it post game is not worth the time… that being said. Doing the pit early and having Dashell before chapter 5 definitely is fun and having unlimited 3D time before chapter 8 actively helps so I go for both pits before end game
@@Magenta_Nimbat just like me for real
@@SamSupercreation dont do it then lmao
oh wtf this is a total banger analysis dude
Specifically, I believe the art style is less an allusion to MS paint, but the Python extention "Turtle" where you would write a program to draw not only simple shapes, but also fractal imagery. It also renders in exactly the same way super paper Mario does.
Do you know a place I can see some examples of art made with Turtle? I’d love to see more sources of inspiration for this game.
youre right!!!
@@Kirbyster bro just google it lol
@@Kirbyster sure thing! Here's one video I found: th-cam.com/video/G37YAx6IqAc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=UU6hD8um02dnkwhL
I think trees are one of the better examples of how turtle inspired SPM because it shows off how similar the rendering is, but also if you change the angles of the branch patterns, it's possible to make trees that look exactly like they do in SPM. (Note, turtle's alignment arrow is usually hidden)
Here's another example of fractal imagery in turtle, specifically the fractal patterns often found floating in the skies of the background: th-cam.com/users/shorts7-akTJpbSbs?si=Cr_-pQgklMY_dBIZ
It's so relieving to know that I'm not the only person who noticed the evolution in the art direction between the games!! They all follow a different form of storytelling. 64 is a classic pop-up story book, TTYD is part stageplay, but I noticed the comic book-like influences like using dot gradients for shading. As for Super, I thought of it as a web comic. It's nice to listen to your observation!!
The analogy of the developers being the Overseers of the afterlife caring and nurturing a pure heart until it became its own loved being (Paper mario can not be called a copy or mario rpg or mario & luigi), but when nintendo/Mario came to collect what they knew was due, it pained them to say farewell. Damn good catch on that one.
That's something I love about classic PM, and something modern PM should take from, all three entries vary in their artstyle and motif:
The first game is very pop-out book in look with toys around that give the game a feel of child-like wonder, which is pretty cute
TTYD goes more for paper puppet shows, everyone is rigged in layers, even the bigger characters like Hooktail and Cortez, and the battle system is all about putting a show for the audience, and the remake added even more to it with stuff like very polished material for the floor and adding more thickness to the characters so much you can see a rim light on them as if they're really made of cardboard parts
And Super is all about computer generation and the internet, the hud amd effects are as if the game takes place in a digital drawing program, up to even having new locations drawing themselves at the beginning, selection boxes, and scrolling windows, all that's missing there is a Dora the Explorer arrow to make it all the more blatant xd, and the whole theme of going between dimensions is very much a huge allusion to how the internet let's you meet millions of different communities all across the world
While modern PM has very much just followed and kept refining Sticker Star's more arts n crafts approach with even very notably and very detailed real life stuff thrown in there, which while its neat how they manage to make the world look very "papery", you can feel the effort, and its a bit reminiscent to PM64's to some extend, with TOK also having very pretty locations overall, it ultimately makes their artstyle not stand out nearly as much as classic PM did, and makes it very predictable and hardly anything special beyond just looking more like realistic paper, and that also influenced these games' story directly, which only makes people wonder if these games even take place in the real mushroom kingdom like the classic ones did, or are just confined in printed books like Paper Jam suggests, they're long overdue to take on a new medium for Paper Mario tbh, and there's plenty to choose from, Color Splash was a bit disappointed how it had paint, yet it only used it for the ink color of the crafty paper world we already saw in Sticker Star, not actual worlds made out of paint or something like that level in NSMBU or the entirety of Okami, or even a coloring book as the devs probably intended, something a game called Chikori succeeds at, just more of the same, with TOK feeling like the peak to this particular crafty style, though I really hope the next one doesn't just try to make the paper all the more convincing looking, it's starting to feel like New Soup
been waiting for someone to make this video. for the people who grew up in the era of ms paint and early digital art, it really strikes a chord
I've had an idea for a potential Paper Mario game's concept. As we see in the Paper Mario games, they're set in a book's universe. As we know from Mario & Luigi : Paper Jam, it's a book on a bookshelf. That means there's other books too. I saw a game whose premise is that the heroes of the book got kicked out of their story by the villain of their story, which made me wonder, "What if (Paper) Mario left his own book to go to other books in order to solve whatever problem is the one of the game ?" And your video right now made me realize it would be the ideal concept for another Super Paper Mario game.
for the longest time i didnt really like the artstyle of this game but this video made me remember that like when i was younger i thought the way everything was like squares looked cool as hell, you really gave me an appreciation for this game...... thank you isaac moriah
honestly super paper mario is my favorite game of all time; the art, the story, and just when i played it in my life.. its very special to me. im very excited to see the general attitude towards the game shifting, and i hope that maybe in a few years we might get a port or remaster so that more people can see this game for the very first time!!!
How did I not get that
I've always known that Super Paper Mario was inside a computer. It's literally one of my top favorite video games from the Wii. I was about 5-6 years old when I was introduced to it, and I've loved it ever since. Also, since we always had a smaller TV than we do now, I saw the characters from the game as different than what they're supposed to be. For example, I actually saw Count Bleck as a big clown instead of a mysterious cloaked figure, lol. Why? It's because of that huge red pin he has.
I really appreciate this type of short form content. In a age of documentaries and hour long tangents you managed to carve out a fantastic video with a distinct and clear cut point and narrative. Good job, Good video. I don't usually comment but I really do appreciate this shape you've made.
Super Paper Mario always had this digital feel to it. With lots of it’s music using 8 bit samples and some of the chapters using lots of geometric shapes and lines. Since this was the first Paper Mario game I played as a kid, I never understood why it was called Super *Paper* Mario since nothing looked paper-like in this game, yet more digital. But I think that charming aspect was what made it stand out for me as my favorite Paper Mario game.
Something funny I once heard about this game is:"The original charecters in this game were probably made like this,Someone got their kid to draw something,and then they made that drawing into a charecter"
Of course that's not true (I think),but it made me laugh
That painting of the first world you made on paint was beautiful! I'll always remember when I first started playing SPM , such great designs!
Awww thank you so much for using my SPM gameplay man!
..and sorry for the bad video quality, I recorded it natively on my Wii U via vWii, we clearly NEED a Switch (2) Version SOON! 😼😼😼👍
It was incredibly obvious to me when the game came out, but I imagine that for someone who played it after its release, when computers and its art weren't treated as "new" it to give it context, I guess its not that obvious.
The way the worlds are drawed "in realtime" whenever you enter a new world would have given it away for most people who was born in the 90s.
In hindsight it's insanely obvious but I somehow never put it together as a kid despite using MS Paint and other computer stuff constantly. I think it wasn't that I wasn't cognizant of computer imagery, but I was like 7 and took the "Paper" on the title at face value LOL, I just thought it was weird paper
That's actually such an interesting analysis, I never realized. But either way, Super Paper Mario will always be my favorite Paper Mario game regardless of its gameplay, because I play games for the story, and Super Paper Mario's story not only puts TTYD's story to shame in terms of depth, it's also the best, deepest story ever written for a Mario game. Nintendo should do this more often if they weren't so scared of experimenting with Mario.
Also, Count Bleck is my second favorite character ever. I relate a lot to him and what he went through. I even used to think the same, that this world is awful and that it might be better if it just disappeared. But I learned a lot since then and managed to escape the awful life that led me to think like that. Mentally abusive parents, which Count Bleck seemingly also had from what we know of his father. It's crazy how realistic he is.
Super Paper Mario is genuinely one of the best stories in any medium of storytelling
Also there was this weird dragon at the end of the first chapter, it talked like the automatic diagnostic program of Windows Vista. I think this character enforces the "inside a computer theory".
Thank you for adding another well produced video essay to this games very limited catalog! SPM will always be my secret favorite child
Honestly, the two big details that kept SPM from being a win in my book were: the removal of the turn-based combat and the lack of classic Mario enemies turned into sidekicks.
I could’ve looked past one of those things, but both being present in the same game really bummed me out as someone who loved the first two Paper Mario games and bought SPM on release day.
Now that time has passed I can look back and say that SPM was a lot better than I gave it credit for, especially compared to the Paper games that have come after it. It did a lot of things right, I just wanted more turn-based combat with action commands. The Mario & Luigi RPG games just don’t scratch the same itch.
I absolutely love Super Paper Mario. Even now after playing Thousand Year Door after all the years of hearing the hype, SPM is still my #1 paper mario game. I loved everything about the game and i was in the best place I've ever been in my life back in 2010/2011 when i played it.
I'm happy to see a 2024 video about my NO. 1 GAME ALL-TIME
This is one of my favorite games of all time. I played it when I was very VERY young (like, my MOM had to READ IT TO ME) and I absolutely loved it. I've replayed it like, at least 5 or 6 times. Seeing people say it's the weakest of the 3 original paper mario games makes me so damn upset, I'm glad that not everyone takes that stance
Your mom reading the game to you is so cute 😭 ❤️
@@Kirbyster she had to read the original paper mario to me as well, lol
I have been waiting literally forever for someone else to realize this game takes place in a computer omg thank you
Great video btw keep it up!!
I never noticed that aspect of the Computers themes, makes more sense how the later entries really don't feel like the good trilogy, and if Intelligent System will actually go back to what made the trilogy good, I wonder in what way they're gonna represent storytelling.
Wonderful video, always happy to see people appreciate this game's themes, thank you
Also... I do recommend doing the Pit of 100 Trials, if you're going to do it at all, very early on-- that's what I did, and I actually got to USE the reward through the whole game (it's open by Chapter 2/3). I did the same with the other, and got to use the second reward for a pretty decent amount of the game too-- though mostly through the final chapter. Still really nice to have; people always do these things AFTER doing everything else, so the rewards are useless by then.
FINALLY! Finally someone talks about this. I have always loved the computer-like artstyle of this game, it is extremely creative and I always feel inspired by it.
This was the first and only Paper Mario game I ever played and the only one I ever want to. It might be my favorite video game of all time, but if not that then it's a least in the top three. The gameplay is extremely fun and innovative, but more importantly it has one of the most beautiful stories to ever be in a video game, to the point that it left a permanent impression on my childhood, and I still feel a sense of fond sadness when I think about it. It makes me feel kind of angry that this game didn't get the recognition it deserved, but I can be consoled knowing that people are now looking back and realizing what a masterpiece this game truly was.
Super Paper Mario is TEC’s fever dream as he gets shut down.
Great video! I need to replay SPM again. I remember also seeing the idea that the visuals could have some influence from flash games at the time, which just ties into your point about vector style graphics.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who appreciates the Super Paper Mario art style, I wish more media experimented with this weird geometric and abstract vibe. I think the closest I can think of in recent memory is, appropriately... The Amazing Digital Circus
I just came from your Zelda / Ghibli video! I really like your chill style and I hope you become more popular!
I was unable to keep track of those motifs, probably because the gameplay and story couldn't keep my attention. But now that you mention it, it is well written. Intelligent Systems really know how to write a game.
As a kid, TTYD was my favorite game (and still is). I remember being really excited to try out SPM expecting it to be like TTYD, which it wasn’t. The things I loved about TTYD was how vast, mysterious, and explorable the world was, the battling, and the diversity of characters. The jump to 2d for me made the world and characters feel uninspired, less mysterious, and less “lived in” in comparison. It felt like a major step back. I’d be interested in giving the game another shot now that I don’t have the expectation of it being the same, since the story does seem really good though.
believe me in terms of everything except the battle system this pretty much a sequel to ttyd, it even reuses the same engine lol
@@user-bb2op9he1x I feel like the only thing that gets carried forward is the good story. The gameplay, world exploration, and diversity of races of characters, are missing from ttyd
@@joshg3832 bro have you played the same spm as i did? literally every world atleast has a new race, sometimes even multiple, the world exploration is also here, a lot of chapters involve you exploring a a big area
What I like too about this overarching theme is that while it is definitely clear throughout the entire game, it's not treated so blatantly in the narrative (i.e. at no point does the game say that it takes place in a computer), which imo leaves it up for a more surreal, dreamlike interpretation because it's not entirely grounded/explained. It's an overarching stylistic motif that gives the overall narrative a unique flavor.
Great job!
Part of the nostalgia that I have is tied intimately with the style of the 2000s.
This is easy to lose if you didn't grow up with these things.
but i love him, mother... *[holds up copy of sup pap mar]*
You took the words right out of my mouth! Super Paper Mario is the best video game ever made in eyes, and I’m so happy to see how someone understands how I feel and what I love about the game!
TTYD didn’t deserve catching a stray like that
Thank you for making this video. I love this game, but I don't know why it never clicked that it was inside a computer! It makes me appreciate it even more. I hope others do too
super paper mario is my favorite mario game, i know thats pretty rare. i dont care that the gameplay is bad or whatever. i love games with a deep story and a lot of text where u are not sure what to do next. that is the reason hollow knight is my favorite game ever. super paper mario is amazing and its my childhood game which ill forever adore no matter if its considered the worst paper mario game. i. love. it.
cool analysis too
THANK YOU oh my gosh almost nobody has talked about this when it’s so visually distinct!! I learnt so much here too with Tippi’s inspiration and the Ms paint bar oh my goodness
I just completed Super Paper Mario about three weeks ago. I loved it! Personally, I'm not a big RPG guy so I didn't miss the turn based combat (although I do want to play the original Paper Mario). Super Paper Mario is so expressive and (to me) felt very loved and very expressive. If my friends had played it I'd probably make references to it during casual conversation.
I haven't played this in forever so this was a good reminder of what the game was about
Super Paper Mario takes place in a computer world. For this reason, it is known as a "video game"
For a long time I knew about the games computer aesthetic and I've been confused why no one ever talks about it, because it's really freakin cool. I would more quickly compare the graphics to a vector program like Adobe Illustrator than MS Paint. Vectors would better represent all the lines being drawn and the geometric shape aesthetic since a lot of basic tools in vector programs really boil down to shapes, lines, and gradients
I love this video so much, amazing job! SPM is so special to me 😭
Freshest take I've heard on this game in years. I never realized it was all in a computer but it makes so much sense now.
Haven't played any of the other paper Mario's, but super paper mario is my favorite mario game ever
I noticed all the computer elements, but never realized it was _supposed_ to be a computer.
I mean, come on! The first boss is Fracktail!
Phenomenal video. I've always loved SPM, not just despite its differences from TTYD but also because of them.
FINALLY! I have been saying this for YEARS! Now I can show people this instead of going on a crazy tin-foil-hat-rant for 2 hours whenever someone talks to me about this game.
SPM's story is the best, but the gameplay is fairly painful at times. The main trouble is you have to use the sideways Wii controller that didn't have enough buttons. I recall how tiring it got to switch partners and pixls. I also remember Mario's 3D energy bar was always too short and I'd have to stand around a lot and wait for it to recharge.
@@lkjkhfggd pressing 1 and 2 at the same time actually opens the partner menu immediately, which the game unfortunately never explains.
I do hate having to use the D-pad though for all the movement. I really wish a nunchuck were compatible with the game.
Super Paper Mario is my personal favorite of the Paper Mario series. Although the art style can come off as ‘bland’, I definitely agree with how the game is in a computer, which makes the art style make complete sense. I personally think that for RPG games, the story is the most important, and after replaying TTYD remake, I still believe SPM has a stronger and better story. Great video!!
Considering the more meta take on Mario’s world this game presents (Things like the Underwhere and general acknowledgement at the video game nature by characters) it actually makes a lot of sense they’d go with this aesthetic come to think of it
This is a fantastic analysis of the game’s art style! I recognized a lot of inspiration from flash games in this game during a playthrough a few years ago. It’s great to hear your thoughts on it! 😊
exactly, I had he same idea of the game being made in MS Paint but I thought about that not in a very so good way, but you've explained i perfectly. Thanls for this video, and I hope more people change their mind about this amazing game :)
FINALLY a video I can link to when people are tearing down SPM's art style! Although I will also say that while those themes are definitely there in terms of the visual styles of these games, they aren't canonical traits of those stories, by that I mean this Mario isn't a separate one from the Mario in the rest of the franchise. That only started when the series was rebooted from a series of Mario Stories with thematically strong art styles, to crafts-themed Mario games where the entire world screams at you that it's made of paper and the stories are ones that cannot work without that property. IMO the plots of the first three games are organic in nature and the only time the art style affects the gameplay is when Mario is cursed to use a magical transformation (the 3D flip is also something he has to be magically granted in SPM, and I interpret it as Mario transcending his normal dimension, which is 2D for gameplay purposes in SPM but canonically 3D)
Wait, how was the series rebooted? It changed direction, but doesn't each game still directly reference the ones before it in some way, meaning they still happened? Nintendo recognizes both sort of "halves" of the series as having happened, even through things like WarioWare which references TOK. If you think of the latter three as tellings of a story that happened in the "real" world more or less in a similar way, but are tinged by them being told from in the paper version and so differ slightly on the details, it solves a lot of those issues.
Super paper mario is proof that even the greatest story doesn’t matter if the gameplay is hot shit
This was awesome
The art style is one of the most creative and unique vudeo game art styles of the time! How could someone say it's uninspired and only done because of the mandate?
It's pretty ironic and sad how a game that represents the heart of the developers was followed by something that got screwed over thanks to management to the point where It was creatively bankrupt for 3 games afterwards
Thought it was obvious to everyone considering, the shapes, the sky, the math equations in the sky, the mouse cursor, the layering
I would say that it’s not just MS Paint, but also Adobe software like Illustrator!
And that I would have used the old Finder icon, which matches better with the character that is designed after it! It would make sense as it was the one used when the game released!!
Ngl the themes of different forms of art and entertainment throughout the paper mario games makes me hope that at some point, if we ever get a new game utilizing the engine and some assets from the TTYD remake, that it takes a Multimedia approach, imagine how cool it would be to see a brand new, grandiose paper mario with a level of visual and thematic variety and multimedia usage akin to something like Crashbox or Spider-Verse
i was actually recently thinking of the paper mario games being based around books, starting with this one being an ebook, and then the following games each being arts and crafts; a sticker book, a coloring book, and a book on origami. i haven't played the first two so i don't really have much to go off of for them, but i figured they'd just be a story book and a pop-up book, respectively, from what little i do know.
6:37 Someone forgot that Paint has layers now
Holding out for a remake on this one as well 🙏
You know what the paper mario series needs?
a game styled after COMIC BOOKS
in line with the original trilogy, of course
Super Paper Mario was my first Paper Mario, and I loved it. Hope it gets a rerelease!