Super Paper Mario breaks 3rd dimension, fourth wall

by Christopher Grant on Apr 17th 2007 1:54PM

MTV News sat back down with Nate Bihldorff, writer for Nintendo of America's Treehouse localization team, to talk about some of the more off-beat inclusions in Intelligent Systems' latest, Super Paper Mario, which he cowrote with Erik Peterson. The game not only breaks down the barrier between the second and third dimensions (that's kind of its whole shtick, really) but it playfully breaks down the fourth wall as well, self-referentially addressing its own video game-iness with in-jokes about games and game culture (see above).

One joke that didn't come across so well was the DS Lite-shaped oven which appeared to promise DS connectivity. Bihldorff was contrite: "We were actually bummed out when we saw that reaction online ... We should have rewritten that line." With lines like "The mustard of your doom!" under his belt, we imagine there's plenty of redeeming lines in Super Paper Mario to make up for it.

Super Paper Mario

Source

Tags: GameCube, MTVNews, SuperPaperMario, Treehouse, Wii

Reader Comments (53)

TRUE!

I love the comments about A or 1 buttons.

"You don't know what a A button is? Don't worry, if there are beings watching you, they will understand."

That's golden.

Can we please make a Paper Sonic.

I read similar comments here... http://www.novusliterae.com/reviews/videogames/superpapermario.html

I think the localization ppls do a great job at Nintendo, they probably work that hard because they had such embarrassing issues in the past.

If you have no appreciation for Treehouse come back after you've finished EarthBound!

:P

I saw the above pic when I was playing Super Paper Mario, and immediately thought of Jack.

I'm not even picking this game up or even going to bother trying it. Ugh, what is it like Mario 500 or something. That writing is so kiddy and corny. There is no way this can be fun for anyone that isn't over the age of 12 or mentally handicapped.

blah blah blah-grunting sounds followed by random loud noises-blah blah.

@Ken:

I swear that I tought in Jack too... I even make comments (deleted) about Jack and sheppy looks like Francis.

jaja

I love the writing in this game. The boss of the first world ( insert name here ) made me laugh out loud a few times. Great writing, good game play, it's a must buy for the Wii. :)

Jake, I hope you grasp the extreme irony of your post complaining about the writing in a game you've never played.

@Jake

You must be the jerk at Best Buy who sold me my copy of the game. His comments as I was paying for it: "Super Mario Wii, huh? Looks like Mario 3 to me. I can't believe they're still making money off of Mario."

Jake

You beat me to it. I liked the sentance with the "blah blah blah" sounds just like me.

Also Ken,

Thanks

Jake of No Trades:

Do you think Looney Toons are only for kids aged 12 and under also? Go back and watch again, because you clearly don't get "it".

@Jake (not Jack)

What a fucking Irony... you never played the game and you are complaining... so noob

I think some people missed the sarcasm in Jake's post

Jake was joking and be a smart ass to me lol calm down guys.

Wait till you get Mario bashing from good source (Me) before you attack for massive damage. lol

Seriously, people. Jake was a sarcastic post....

...morons.

And how far in is this Francis character? I've only gotten the second pure heart last night. I want to know who I'm being compared to.

@ crono
very true
i went back and watched the old WWII propaganda looney toon cartoons and they are some of the funniest thing's i've seen to date

Francis is like the fourth heart. I watched as someone play it an EB against Fracktail. His eye turned into the Wii loading circle. Hilarious. Paper Sonic would absolutely reinvent him.

No really that Lord Francis scene really hit too close to home >_

You wait and see sheppy... you are so like Francis... is the boss in the pixelated world

I won't be playing this game either, it looks retarded. Unless Galaxies is ground breaking, the Mario franchise will continue to circle the drain. Sunshine was simply horrible, and the incessant milking of the franchise (every sports game imaginable, every party game, etc etc etc) has gotten me to the point where I'm not even looking forward to Galaxies anymore. I was looking forward to Sunshine, and look where that got me. And instead of making a successor to Mario 64 (Game set in the mushroom kingdom) Nintendo is making yet another game with a lame setting where noone even wants to play

Sheppy... Francis is behind the door in the pic...

YouTube Link for Lord Francis Boss Fight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a75AIe5JwIw

Ignoring Anonymous' lame comment..

I think this game is a blast. In fact, last night a friend called me and wanted to know if he should get this or Gears of War. He wanted a game that will last him a while.

He picked this game up today. And I'm sure he called off work to play it.

I've had a blast playing this game. I am trying to take it in strides, because I don't want to finish the game yet. I'm on World 5 of 8 :(.

jaja sheppy is so Hi-technicalllllll

Thanks for the spoilers guys? Seriously :/

Oh and Jack, I'm just giving you a hard time. :)

Crono, Looney Toons were great. That was back when smoking, drinking, chewing snuff, and shooting guns were staples of our cartoons. It is awesome to go back and watch some of that stuff.

And seriously, to anyone who could not sense the sarcasm in my #7 post, give me a break. I know sarcasm is hard to sense on the internets, but I couldn't have laid it on any thicker with a shovel. It was a comment playing along with the picture and meaning of this article and thread. Oh well, I guess you have to state before the comment that it is entirely satirical. I love the Jake of No Trades comment, though.

For the record, I own and really enjoy Paper Mario. My only serious knock on the game is that it is too easy, even for a Nintendo game. I mean, I'm sure it is hard to do all the secrets and side quests, but I'd rather the whole game was really challenging.

It is fun easy, but would own my soul if it was really challenging as well. My gf really, really likes this game, though. WiiSports and Guitar hero laid the ground work, and I believe Paper Mario may be the next step towards converting her to gamer. Hopefully some day we will pwn n00bs together split screen at Gears with sic head-shotz.

@Jake

I know what you mean. I need to work on getting my girlfriend further into "gamer" mode. I bought her a DS and Mario Kart. We play that every night online.

Then she picked up Brain Age, and enjoyed the hell outta that. Also liked Hotel Dusk Room 215.

On the Wii I got her really big into Elebits. You should give that a shot Jake... That'll introduce her to the FPS genre. Then she'll be pwning some little creatures in no time.

Its so cute to watch my girl when she gets into a game. The cute noises she makes when she comes to a jumping turtle in Super Mario and the near misses in Motorstorm. Its hard not to smile. I wouldn't trade her for anything.

I do hope that a year from now a new Super Mario World comes out. A sequel to SMW64 would be great in the Mushroom Kingdom.

that entire level was painful. the story is alright but the dialog is all awful

Normally I don't agree with Jack, but... Paper Sonic? Going back to the 2D roots, stylized art direction, a decent sense of humor? Good writing for once? I'd be all for it.

@31

Jack, your posts have become increasingly pleasant, almost barfingly cute.

You been poppin Nintendo pills?

@ Jake

yeah, its hard to write an internet comment that is sarcastic but in a way that people know it is without losing its comedic value

Its tough

But yes, the writing on this game is fuckin' hilarious. And from what i saw, the people loved Super Mario Sunshine, (I know i did, but i also loved Sonic Adventure 2, so apparently i have no taste) it got critical reviews on par with those of Halo 2...

The only reason the game is retroactively viewed as "bad" is because people were expecting a transition similar to the Super Mario World-Super Mario 64 transition, instead they got one similar to the transition from Super Mario Bros 3 to World

Now Galaxy, that's going to be a great leap forward

This is every xbox,playstation and pc user down to a fucking T!

wait in the car

No I ran out of the Nintendo pills so I picked up the Famicom pills. The generic brand.

Each pill contains:

1000mg of Mario
500mg of Luigi
2000mg of Zelda
50mg of Caffine
0mg of Halo*

*not a significant source of Halo.

Dr. Mario prescribed a strict diet of 1up Shrooms for me.

Highly recommended.

They're groooovy.

Sorry man, I thought you were sarcastic, but then Jack of No Trades post confused me, so I went with the unsafe side and assumed you were in league with him.

My B.

Not willing to follow youtube link since I have some freetime nowadays it's probably a matter of waiting until either thursday or the weekend before I get to the character myself.

However, given some of the comments, I can't help but think I'm being flamed....

Some people have complained that there are no voice-overs in the game. Lets be honest, it would be a lot harder to pull off some of the writing if they had included it

So when is Paper Zelda coming out?

Adding voices to video game characters who have been silent for decades sounds like a terrible idea. I'm sure the vast majority of people would feel disappointed with the results.

I think Mario's voice works cuz it's limited to grunts and brief one-liners.

In this sequence is another comment about "RPGs should be over 180 hours long not including sidequests."

I hate people who think that long game = good game. SPM is sooo slow and it takes hours to do simple tasks. Going from place to place in town is a chore thanks to little animations that are shown just to slow the player down. I blame people who think that the above statement is true.

I enjoy a lot of this game as well as the previous Paper Mario games but I would rather have a quick fun game than a slow boring one.

"So when is Paper Zelda coming out?"

I believe it already came out back in 2003...

Seriously, though...I'm enjoy Paper Mario, but I'm a bit let down. It's WAY too easy to the point where I'm almost feel bored with it at times, to be honest. I still am really liking it, but I don't know if it was worth $50 bucks.
Maybe $40.

Nintendo rox!

You all say that Mario doesn't have a voice.

...WRONG!!

When I visited New York with my mom and sister last year, we passed by the Nintendo store, and decided to go in. There they had Mario on a flat screen TV, and he was talking. We figured that he was just talking about products and things like that, but then he started saying specific things to people, including us (things like, "Hey you, in the [article of clothing], how are you?"). We actually conversed with him, and later asked one of the store clerks how it was done, because we thought that there was somebody in the building talking to us. Turns out, it was the guy who actually voiced Mario (you know, from games like Mario Party, where he says "I'm the wiener!" [winner?]) who was talking to us, from his home in California.

Damned coolest experience of my life.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE ADD OR OTHERWISE, HERE IS A SHORTENED VERSION OF MY POST:

Mario actually does have a person who does his voice.

I'm enjoying this game immensely. Probably one of the most unique and refreshing gaming experiences I've had in awhile. This coming from someone who's never playing a previous Paper Mario game though, not sure if it would make a difference.

I think that the comedy is really felt throughout the whole adventure. I've known Nate Bihldorff for about 6 years and so I had no doubt that this game would be well written and of course, funny [him and Rich Amtower (another text localizer for NOA that I've know for 6 years), have added their skill and humor to many Nintendo games over the years].

I actually made a little clip of me voice acting as Francis the nerd. If you're interested in seeing it, here are two different links. (The Gamevideos.com one is more properly synched, but the youtube one offers a section to leave comments).

I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nrTDSimrNM

and

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/10749

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Super Paper Mario breaks 3rd dimension, fourth wall

Super Paper Mario

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