Super Paper Mario
Due for Release: Sometime in 2007
Super Paper Mario will be the second Paper Mario game to feature side-scrolling platforming gameplay ( Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door featured three platforming levels for Bowser during its story); Mario , Peach , and Bowser will each be available as playable characters, and the player may be able to swap between characters at any time during a level.
Characters and Abilities
Mario's special power allows levels to be turned and played in 3D, giving access to places otherwise unavailable in 2D
The E3 trailer showcased several new abilities and power-ups, one of which is a space helmet: Mario is seen floating in mid-air while shooting enemies with a ray gun, and also running sideways down a wall.
Each playable character will have different character traits, as well as a special character-related move. For example:
- Mario - Mario's special move turns the world 90° for a limited time, allowing the player to play in a 3-dimensional environment. This reveals hidden objects invisible in 2-dimensional mode.
- Princess Peach - Being the lightest, Peach can jump the highest, and similar to her move in Super Princess Peach , can use a parasol to glide large distances while floating slowly towards the ground. It is unknown if she also uses it to attack enemies like in the aforementioned game.
- Bowser - The largest, heaviest, and slowest-moving character out of the three. Bowser retains his ability to breathe fire, which does more damage than a normal attack.
- Other Characters - two other characters seem to follow the player-a square/triangle/circle surrounded by dots or with wings, and a colorful butterfly. Their purposes are unknown.
Power ups
Super Paper Mario alludes to both New Super Mario Bros. by giving each character a giant form, and to Super Mario Bros. by using its 8-bit sprites when in giant form. This screenshot was taken during a development stage before this sprite reverted back to its original colors
- Mushrooms : In the Mario RPGs, Mushrooms increase the player's health (as opposed to traditional side-scrolling Mario games, where the Mushroom increased the character's size).
- Starmen : Starmen make the character grow to immense size (similar to the Mega Mushroom in New Super Mario Bros. ), allowing him or her to crash through the level, effectively invincible. The characters turn into NES-style sprites when this happens.
- Red Flowers: Deviating from their traditional role of allowing Mario to throw fireballs, these make him move faster.
- Blue Flowers: The opposite of a Red Flower; these make the player move more slowly.
The trailer has shown that staple Mario enemies, such as Goombas , Koopa Troopas , Hammer Bros. and so on, will make a return appearance in the game, although two new enemies, a purple square with a beak, and a blue version of said enemy, have appeared so far.
Also, there appears to be a boss character based on a chinese dragon , There also seems to be some sort of mummy boss, a big-headed chomping boss and a giant Blooper boss, as seen in these screenshots, respectively.
