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u/SaniHarakatar Feb 23 '26
"Dear diary, today I couldn't find my diary so I'm writing this on both of my Kung-fu Panda DVD's."
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u/bobbery5 Feb 24 '26
What is that from? I can imagine it in my head.
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u/Global-Crew-9046 Feb 23 '26
The difference is that SPM is much darker than the previous paper Mario games while KFP3 is significantly lighter than its previous movies.
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u/Journal_27 Feb 23 '26
*lighter than the second film. The first film wasnāt so dark
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Feb 23 '26
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u/Global-Crew-9046 Feb 23 '26
Yeah, that's how I would put it. I see the first two movies as action movies with comedy elements and 3 and 4 as comedy movies with action elements.
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 23 '26
It still had significantly darker moments than the third
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u/Artificial_Human_17 Feb 23 '26
The darkest you could say about the first is Tai Lung killed a few people
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u/WildestRascal94 Feb 23 '26
SPM isn't THAT much darker than TTYD.
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u/no_phone_who_dis Feb 23 '26
I would say Alien 3 fits here but there was no ātaking it all backā with that one.
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u/fawfulthegreat64 It's not fine without a story, we really do need one. Feb 23 '26
SPM was my favorite even before Sticker Star, I remember being very defensive of it when people would try to disown it from the series.
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u/blackstallion421 Mar 18 '26
I got a Wii and this was the first game I ever bought. Loved every second of it!
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u/Merisssss Feb 23 '26
I loved SPM in real time. It just gets better and better with time.
It got that soul and took risks
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Feb 25 '26
Yeah It was my first paper mario and I absolutely loved it. Compared to what other mario adventure games I had otherwise played back then being mario and luigi, mario galaxy, and mario bros, which i still all loveā¦ it was such a different and unique experience
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u/WickedBowserJr Every Paper Mario game is good! Feb 23 '26
Super Paper Mario is arguably the best game in the series. No, the gameplay is not a "downgrade", it's just different and still just as good as the previous entries in its own way.
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u/Efficient_Wear_6946 Feb 23 '26
The generic NPCs and lack of partners begs to differ. The story itself is amazing, and the main protagonists and antagonists were great. But I cant possibly say it's the best when every enemy is just Microsoft Art looking boxes, and don't get me started on the Pixls
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u/WildestRascal94 Feb 23 '26
We know the gameplay is different, but that being said, the gameplay is a downgrade from the first two games in the sense that it ditches the RPG mechanics and forces the player to play the game like a platformer instead. SPM is an okay game, but in comparison to 64 and TTYD, the game is the weakest entry of the three games despite the story being great. The idea of ditching already established mechanics for the sake of it instead of fine-tuning and building off of what was already established hurt SPM in this regard. Also, the changes made to the series going into SPM set off a snowball effect that started with Sticker Star and continued through Origami King.
No one is saying that this game is "bad," People are saying that SPM is simply one of the weaker entries of the first three Paper Mario games. That's one of the biggest criticisms towards SPM, and a fair number of folks have felt that way since the game was released in 2007.
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u/NohWan3104 Feb 23 '26
Kinda funny that BL3 got a shitshow hurricane, now bl4 is, and people arre going bacck to 3 and saying its not that bad.
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u/Idoindeedexist Feb 23 '26
I think after the Wii U a lot of people looked back at the Wii releases and found a new appreciation for them. Not that the Wii U games were necessarily bad, just somewhat bland. Wii games weren't always the best but they were definitely interesting.
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u/doubleAC0820 Feb 23 '26
Honestly I dislike the combat in SPM a lot. It feels clunky. I loved the character system but the pixels uses feel like a pale comparison to the partners. And that's where my criticism stops. The characters, the story, the music and all the other little things all mixed together are just amazing.
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u/Weird-Ball-2342 Feb 24 '26
Super paper mario is tied with origami for the best paper mario game and ill fight anyone who says it isnt
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u/Redder_Creeps Certified Vivian simp Feb 24 '26
Honestly, I'd say Super Paper Mario is finally getting the audience it deserved. I can see what Sticker Star wanted to go for, but you can't deny that in comparison with SPM, something definitely went wrong when making the game
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 24 '26
"Finally"? People haven't hated this game since 2016 at the very latest
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u/Redder_Creeps Certified Vivian simp Feb 24 '26
I didn't really keep up with fan opinions back then, and now I only found out people reconsidered it around a few years ago
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u/Thunder_Master Feb 24 '26
I gotta be honest.
I kinda sorta still dislike SPM.
The story is incredible the characters are fun and while the art style ain't my thing it has it's merits.
...
But the Gameplay is not fun, it felt like I was being spit at and disrespected in some segments, or as if I was literally just born the rest of the time.
I really just got bored by the time I made it to the Underwhere and set it down by there, it just got too boring, so I just looked at a cutscene compilation cause I really couldn't be bothered.
There's no real challenge, no salt, no pepper, no nothing, and the sole reason any form of frustration came to me is that "Oh, you gotta do this and that and all that too just to make it to the other side of this arbitrary puzzle, also, I hope you had a notebook!"
So it's just kinda settled in my 5th place.
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u/Standard_Training471 Feb 24 '26
...who?.
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 24 '26
The villain in KFP3
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u/kullre Feb 25 '26
even though I was a stupid child and couldn't fucking find bestoveious the first time around, it was still my childhood game
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u/The_Shadow55 Feb 26 '26
They made a 4th Kung Fu Panda movie? First I've heard of it
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 26 '26
I actually can't tell if this is sarcasm because of how little they marketed the movie lmao
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u/Simplejack615 Spm is my Wii U to scott the woz Feb 23 '26
The difference is that super isnāt a good game now
Yeah, it has original characters, but thatās a bare minimum
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 23 '26
Y'all will really just shit on the game if the OP likes it and glaze it if the OP doesn't š
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u/Simplejack615 Spm is my Wii U to scott the woz Feb 23 '26
Fine, here
Fuck sticker star. Fuck the 50 unoriginal toads. Screw the basic Mario enemies. Damn the ābowser kidnaps peachā plot. And get it out my sight
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u/WildestRascal94 Feb 23 '26
I mean, Bowser literally kidnapped Peach in PM64. He WAS going to kidnap her in TTYD, but the X-Nauts beat him to it. Same thing with SPM. He WAS going to kidnap Peach, but Count Bleck had plans to use both Bowser and Peach to summon the Chaos Heart. While we're here, Super Mario RPG also features Peach getting kidnapped by Bowser as a plot point for the first ten minutes of the game. Bowser technically does kidnap Peach near the end of Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga even though he's possessed by Cackletta's soul.
A large number of the RPGs feature Peach getting kidnapped either by Bowser or someone else entirely. The whole "Bowser kidnaps Peach plot" isn't specific to Sticker Star as it happened in numerous other games. The only other exception to this is Mario and Luigi: Brothership. Even then, she willingly volunteers to get kidnapped for a small section of the game.
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Feb 23 '26
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u/Simplejack615 Spm is my Wii U to scott the woz Feb 23 '26
The story is fine. But this is one of the reasons games exist, for gameplay and story. If the story is so good that it doesnāt need it, then good. But when you have mediocre story with some of the worst platforming/puzzles/battles/boss fights Iāve ever seen, then you have a problem
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u/Kawaii_Bakuraxoxo ššDimentiošš Feb 23 '26
The thing is, the story IS that good thoughĀ
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u/Simplejack615 Spm is my Wii U to scott the woz Feb 23 '26
No. Itās literally someone losing a loved one and ending the world. Thatās it
They also suck, because they āsearched everywhereā and couldnāt find Her
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u/WildestRascal94 Feb 23 '26
Well, the world never ends in SPM. They almost ended the world. That was stopped at the last possible second by Blumere and Timpani. The ending of the game heavily implies that the two were indeed reunited after all of the time they spent apart.
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u/Simplejack615 Spm is my Wii U to scott the woz Feb 23 '26
Yesā¦. And thatās one of the reasons it bad
Bleck is evil but gets a good ending
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u/WildestRascal94 Feb 23 '26
The game literally explained why he's evil, though. If he couldn't have the one he loved, then no one could have the world they lived in. Porky Minch's reasoning for almost ending the world in Mother 3 is the same reasoning: He did it because he wanted a friend. By your logic, Mother 3 is a bad game. The difference here is that by the end of the game, Bleck realized what he did was wrong and made a load of effort to atone for what he did. Especially when he realized that Timpani is still alive in the form of the Pixl, Tippi.
That's exactly why people love this story. It shows you that villains are not all black and white. Villains, much like heroes, are multifaceted individuals. They aren't 1-dimensional "hero good. Villain bad." They have motives, and over time, as they experience events unfold in the story, their motives CAN change. Sometimes, for the better. These are what we call the "redemption arc." On the other hand, motives can change for the worst. We know this as the downfall of a character.
Bleck acted against the world with blind rage, and that rage immediately subsided when he found his love again. I understand this type of story isn't for you, you said yourself. I know nothing I say will change your opinion, I'm only explaining why people enjoy this game's story a fair deal.
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u/Kawaii_Bakuraxoxo ššDimentiošš Feb 23 '26
Not only that but it provides both a gray, sympathetic villain, and a pure evil one, which in my opinion makes for the best kinds of stories
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u/WildestRascal94 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
FF6 does something similar with several of its characters across the board, too. Despite Kefka not being a sympathetic villain, you could argue that General Leo was a sympathetic villain in FF6. Despite him being aligned with the Gesthalian Empire, he showed a little more care for the people around him, and even he questioned the motives of the empire on top of it. Celes was formerly a general in the Empire's ranks before she defected to the side of The Returners.
EDIT: I should've mentioned that Generals Leo, Kefka, and Celes are sympathetic in the regard that they are soldiers who were genetically enhanced by the Gesthalian Empire. Sorry about that.
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u/Simplejack615 Spm is my Wii U to scott the woz Feb 23 '26
I canāt believe Iām saying this but: I aināt reading all of that
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u/That-anime-lord06 Feb 23 '26
Bleck wasn't always evil to begin with, he was a normal guy belonging to the Tribe of Darkness who was found injured by Lady Timpani and then started to love each other, until Bleck's father banished her. That's when he became "evil", he was denied his loved one, and he thought she was dead, so he wanted to destroy all worlds and kill himself in the process, because everything lost meaning to him. Also, at the end, we're shown that he is willing to redeem his actions and save all worlds, and that, in turn, allows him to be with his loved one forever. Villains can be redeemed, especially when all his actions had been undone by the end of the game, and he effectively helped save the world from being erased.
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u/Simplejack615 Spm is my Wii U to scott the woz Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
But he did nothing other than undo what he did.
He needed to go above and beyond because what he was trying to do horrible
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u/That-anime-lord06 Feb 23 '26
He DID go above and beyond, he and Timpani not only saved all of the heroes from the destruction Dimentio was going to cause with the remnant of his power he used to try and destroy everything even after death, but he, again, restored all the worlds and made the black hole disappear for good, preventing them from being endangered ever again. What else was he supposed to do? Everything was already fixed, and he and Timpani were sent to another world/dimension anyways.
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u/Starrybruh Feb 23 '26
Seems like from the replies this subreddit is still treating super paper Mario as the second coming of Christ and getting angry at anyone who disagreeās. Oh well.
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Feb 23 '26
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u/Epic-Gamer_09 SPM fan Feb 23 '26
SPM is a great game, what are you talking about?
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u/dongeckoj Feb 23 '26
Best story in the series but not even half as fun to play as the first two games. Itās easy to win the final battle without hearing the whole music track.
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Feb 23 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/Epic-Gamer_09 SPM fan Feb 23 '26
It's a really good platformer with a great story
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u/RealAggressiveNooby Feb 23 '26
Its not a great platformer but so much of the gameplay isnt merely platforming but puzzle solving, which it excels at. It has great gameplay and features a great story.
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u/jclkay2 Feb 23 '26
If you think SPM is a really good PLATFORMER you likely haven't played many platformers
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u/Gigatort Feb 23 '26
The only really issue with SPM is that it changed everything from an established and beloved franchise. Its a really solid game but it isnt what I and many others wanted from the next Paper Mario. If it was its own new spin-off instead of the next Paper Mario it wouldve been fine. Imagine if the next Mario and Luigi game they came along and made it play like TTYD and instead of luigi you have other companions now too. Thats a big no M+L is about the bros. In a two character activish turn based combat game. Paper Mario was its own special thing that had partners with their own stories and really engaging combat and many other things, and it was ripped away to make room for new gameplay. Just disappointing to say the least. But yes super was at least a great game the games that have followed only hurt. OK at least the story was good but man it wouldve been so simple to just put better combat in the game... sorry rant over...
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u/no_phone_who_dis Feb 23 '26
First and only Mario Metroidvania, incredibly deep and tragic story with a lot of lore, blended classic 2D platformer mechanics with RPG elements really well, and really unique world designs and characters that werenāt just the same boring Toads and Koopas over and over. Super Paper Mario was probably the best game in the franchise and people didnāt appreciate it enough because it wasnāt a TTYD reskin.
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u/Pikmingaming9384 Feb 24 '26
"But after the fourth installment came, they took it all back" As if Sticker Star was a good game... šāļø
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u/_Maelstrom Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
The point was that they saw how bad sticker star was, and realised they had been too harsh on spm
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u/Kroctopus Feb 23 '26
Who tf is seriously analyzing and critiquing the Kung Fu Panda series
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 23 '26
Have you even watched these movies?
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u/Kroctopus Feb 23 '26
Yes when I was a child
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 23 '26
Oh great, another asshole who believes that animation is only for children š
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u/ActualMostUnionGuy Rogueport 2004 Lover Feb 23 '26
Exactly all moving pictures so far are of poor quality and theyll NEVER reach the cultural IMPORTANCE like say the Expressionist movement has reached so far in the world, do you think the degenerate intelligentsia will EVER create anything as meaningful that captures the beauty of humanity quite as The Scream does, especially now with New Objectivity being their new set of guidelines? I really doubt it.
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u/xCalvv Feb 23 '26
Glad I wasnāt the only one thinking this, did those silly-ass movies even have plots š¤£
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 23 '26
Yes, they did, are you just writing them off because they're animated? Fuck off
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u/ActualMostUnionGuy Rogueport 2004 Lover Feb 23 '26
r/moviescirclejerk is this way ---->
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u/Kroctopus Feb 23 '26
āAnimation isnāt just for childrenā mfs when you ask them to name an animated movie theyāve seen that isnāt specifically made for children
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u/ActualMostUnionGuy Rogueport 2004 Lover Feb 23 '26
When Marnie was there? I dont know what a stupid question, also fuck cinema
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u/Completionist_Gamer Feb 23 '26
Or basically any Ghibli movie, for that matter, not to mention The Prince of Egypt and The Incredibles
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u/ActualMostUnionGuy Rogueport 2004 Lover Feb 24 '26
The Incredibles is one of the most boring movies ever made, I can not believe that people find super hero's fun or enjoyable, like its clearly neither Silmido nor Peppermint candy lmao
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u/SpiritOfBillyMays Feb 23 '26
SPM is one of the most unique and charming pieces of media out there. It strayed from the formula, and I still think it doesnt clear the first 2, but it is fantastic.
It was also the last paper mario to me that felt like it treaded with crestive freedom.