I just finished playing through the first chapter of Super Paper Mario, small bits of which I sampled at GDC this year. I'm not at all surprised that I'm thoroughly enjoying the game, I expected that. What does surprise me though is how effortlessly (at least it feels that way) Nintendo manages to continue to make such a dated franchise feel fresh.

You'd think with this many Super Marios under its belt it would be hard for Nintendo to turn what is essentially a side-scrolling platformer into something so fun and unique every time.

I think that's the key to the franchise's success. Each one manages to mix the familiar and the unique in a way that doesn't feel forced.

It feels like sitting down to a good book. I know that I am going to thoroughly enjoy this game and I plan on relishing every little bit of it.

This time around the game leans heavily on the Wii's many innovative control types from pointing to shaking the controls to the built-in speaker, but it doesn't feel gimmicky at all.

The storyline has even fallen by the wayside. I know I'm going to catch shit for saying that, but while the game has a unique and developed plot so much of it is rote for the typical Nintendo gamer that even the characters in the game seem to be phoning it in, from making fun of Mario's get-up to talking about the people on the other side of the television.

I won't, I can't give you any final judgment on the game, I just received it a half-day ago, but I can tell you that it certainly lives up to the franchise's name and on first blush I'd say it's probably the best game to hit the platform to date, or will be when it ships next week.

I did find the first chapter a tad easy, even the boss battles were very easy, but I suspect, I hope that's because they're trying to give gamers a bit of an adjustment period to the extensive new controls. And it doesn't feel so easy as to be off-putting, it's just this side of challenging so far.

One last word before I return to the game. The graphics really sparkle on my big screen. The colors are vibrant the design unique, the aesthetic pleasing. The sound too has a nice new feel to it, I noticed several occasions where the sound of wind or an approaching something bad seemed to flow past me from one overhead surround speaker to the next.

Nice job Nintendo. Brian Crecente

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