Blog Assignment #2:Critical Reading of Space in "Super Paper Mario"

I spent some time this summer trying my hand at the newest Mario game in the Nintendo franchise, “Super Paper Mario” for the Nintendo Wii. It was an incredibly interesting and addicting game, one which I unfortunately got only halfway through due to more pressing concerns like school and life. “Super Paper Mario” contains elements of several genres – it is an adventure game, with Mario and his friends on a quest to rescue Princess Peach from the evil Count Bleck and to collect the eight Pure Hearts in order to destroy Bleck’s hold on the malignant Chaos Heart. However, the main levels of the game play somewhat like a typical platform game, with Mario moving past different obstacles to collect objects and defeat enemies.

One of the most interesting elements of “Super Paper Mario” is the way it uses space. The game’s design challenges commonly held views of space in video games, and space plays an incredibly important role in the game – it impacts how characters move through the game, how they confront obstacles, and even which character should be used at different points in the game.

The hallmark of “Super Paper Mario” – the ability of players to “flip” between 2-D and 3-D views – is in itself a major challenge to the conventional uses of space in video games. While the game takes place mainly in 2-D, Mario is able to flip into 3-D play, allowing players to discover hidden objects, such as power-ups or hidden tools. Additionally it allows players to maneuver around obstacles more easily. For example, Mario’s path might be blocked by a large boulder or by an enemy, but after flipping to 3-D, the obstacle becomes flat and Mario can simply walk behind it. Finally, flipping to 3-D may allow players to find a hidden path, such as a ladder or tunnel, which leads to a different part of the level. There are some constraints on Mario’s ability to navigate in 3-D space, however. There is a timer which only allows gameplay in 3-D for a few seconds at a time. Additionally, players can generally only travel through a small portion of the level at a time while in 3-D before being blocked by a wall, ledge, or other obstacle that must be crossed in 2-D.

Another way conventions of space are challenged in “Super Paper Mario” is the setup of the levels. Mario does not simply move directly from level to level as he did in the original “Super Mario Bros.” Instead, there is a central location, a town known as Flipside, where Mario returns between levels. Mario can enter the different buildings within Flipside in order to rest, buy supplies, or talk to characters that might have important information about his quest. He can travel between levels of the town using elevators, and when flipping into 3-D, he can travel outside the gates of the town and visit “Flipside Outskirts,” where players must find the correct Heart Pillar and install the newly collected Pure Heart at the end of each level. Further complicating things, in order find one of the Heart Pillars, players must visit the town of “Flopside,” which is a mirror image of Flipside. Once Mario has installed a Pure Heart, a new door appears at the top of Flipside Tower, allowing him to travel into a new dimension and move on to the next level.

In order to successfully navigate through “Super Paper Mario,” players must also understand how they can use characters and tools to manipulate and conquer space. Players have a choice of playing as Mario, Peach, Browser, or Luigi, and each has a particular strength to navigate through space. As previously mentioned, Mario is able to flip between 2-D and 3-D views of space. Peach is able to float, allowing her to cross canyons or easily move from one platform to the next. Luigi is able to jump very high, and Bowser is taller than the other characters, which sometimes enables him to reach things others can’t. Additionally, throughout the game, players collect Pixls, which are small, fairy-like creatures with special abilities which again can help players move through space more easily. For example, the Pixl Slim allows the character to turn sideways and become very thin, and therefore able to squeeze into narrow spaces. Likewise, the Pixl Dottie shrinks the character so that they can fit into very tiny holes. The Pixl Boomer turns into a bomb and can be used to blow away obstacles to reveal secret doors or pathways. The use of Pixls allows players to move through spaces that seem inaccessible at first, and figuring out how to enter these areas is a crucial part of the adventure-style gameplay.

“Super Paper Mario” challenges conventional notions of space like those put forth by Mark J.P. Wolf in Chapter 5 of his book, The Medium of the Video Game. The game does not neatly conform to any of Wolf’s categories of spatial structures in video games. It contains both 2-D and 3-D views at the same time, a concept that was unheard of in the late 1990s when Wolf was writing his book. Wolf also does not mention the ability to switch between characters or the ability to use tools to manipulate space. Additionally, the idea of moving between a central town and levels in other dimensions with the ability to revisit previously played levels does not seem to fit with Wolf’s ideas either. Nor does the idea of being able to move through the level freely, going back to the beginning or revisiting any location at any point. “Super Paper Mario” seems to conform best to Wolf’s idea of “Adjacent spaces displayed one at a time,” but even this does not accurately describe the game’s setting. As video games continue to advance, it seems likely that new structures and uses of space which eclipse Wolf’s ideas will continue to provide new and exciting gameplay experiences for years to come.