Super Paper Mario was quietly unveiled for GameCube last year during E3, but soon underwent a near-total media blackout. Many assumed the game had been cancelled or moved off of Nintendo's waning system to the new Wii, and last month the company confirmed the latter speculation. Super Paper Mario makes some use of Wii motion functionality, and it is certainly a relief to see the game gain a widescreen presentation option, but for the most part its GameCube design roots show through: the game is controlled by holding the Wii remote sideways like an NES controller, with the d-pad and face buttons handling most of the player input. This, of course, is entirely appropriate, as the original Super Mario Bros. on NES largely set the stage for platformers to come.

Paper Mario's odd aesthetic hook as a franchise has always been that Mario and the rest of the games' characters are rendered two-dimensionally in a three-dimensional world, which leads to gameplay ramifications dealing with Mario's paper-thin existence. Rather than presenting a stylized 2D or 3D interpretation of a world physically if not visually similar to our own--the approach taken by most games with a beginning and end, including Mario's non-Paper platformers--the Paper Mario games have humorously explored the implications of a real-time 3D environment projected onto a 2D display. Super Paper Mario lives up to its name and pushes this concept much further. Rather than one 2D/3D hybrid world, Super Paper Mario consists of separate simultaneous 2D and 3D perspectives on the same world. When playing as Mario--Peach, Bowser, and another unrevealed character (Luigi, perhaps?) are also playable--you can, with the press of a button, instantly switch between the 2D and 3D perspectives of your environment.

The bulk of the game is presented as a 2D platformer, but flipping into 3D rotates the camera 90 degrees along the horizontal axis to reveal the dimension of depth. This perspective switching is a main mechanic in Super Paper Mario, not a special occurrence like some of the paper-related tricks in the prior games. It is necessary to pass many of the game's obstacles. Shigeru Miyamoto has frequently commented that one of his goals in creating Mario's world of the Mushroom Kingdom was to create in the player feelings of discovery and wonder. Decades later, of course, Mario's green pipes, floating platforms, and yellow question boxes are among the most iconic and well known props in all of gaming, so it is a credit to Intelligent Systems that the studio's designers have made these familiar elements incredibly fresh once again. Now, what appears to be a simple wall of floating bricks can be revealed as an intricate three dimension pattern once the perspective has been shifted; an apparently impenetrable screen-tall barrier becomes nothing more than an easily passable paper-thin image. There are even more unexpected revelations; switching the perspective upon encountering a particular pit far too long to jump reveals that the franchise's trademark domed hills that appear to be far in the distance are actually right up close with the other landscape elements and can be used as a bridge.

This literal new angle on the Mario universe really does make the game constantly surprising. It requires the well-trained gamer's mind to unlearn many of its platforming lessons. There is nearly always more than meets the eye in a given part of a level. Like the original Super Mario platformers, levels are fairly linear, though the dual world aspect of the level design allows for more opportunities to find hidden areas and doorways. There are even instances of secret rooms found by jumping down pits, behavior that is discouraged by most 2D platformers. Part of the RPG influence in Super Paper Mario comes in the form of hit points for your character, and falling through a pit consumes only one. Standard mushrooms restore these hit points.

One of the most insane moments the game, already revealed in trailers and screenshots, comes after acquiring finding a Mega Star in a question block. Like the Mega Mushroom in New Super Mario Bros. (NDS), the Mega Mushroom turns your current character into a massive invincible colossus able to destroy enemies and landscape with equal ease. In an inspired twist, however, the enormous character is not an enlarged version of the standard smoothly drawn 2D sprite, but rather a coarsely blown up version of the respective character's sprite from the original Super Mario Bros. Other items include flowers that speed up or slow down time, and a pill that spawns half a dozen small NES Mario sprites that serve as a personal entourage.

Along with the hit point system come tweaks to the standard Mario jump-based combat. The concept of stylish moves is brought over from Paper Mario; having the controller tilted at various angles and giving the controller a quick shake in time with your character's jumps will confer extra experience points and cause paper cutout audience members--also cribbed from past Paper Marios--to appear along the edges of the screen. Gaining enough experience levels up your characters, boosting various stats and refilling hit points.

Once acquiring additional characters such as Peach and Bowser, switching between them can be done at any time. Only Mario can exist in the third dimension, but Peach has the ability to float using her parasol and the juggernaut-like Bowser breathes fire on enemies. Like past Paper Mario games, Super Paper Mario is packed with tongue-in-cheek dialogue poking fun at the whole Mario franchise. "That's like the hundredth time you've shown up at my castle and ruined everything!" fumes Bowser after encountering the plumber from Brooklyn. "But now you're going to enter a fortress of pain, Mario!"

These characters are accompanied by small floating companies called Pixls, each of which has a unique ability. The butterfly-like Tippy allows the Wii remote to be pointed at the screen like a flashlight, granting knowledge about enemies, items, and hidden locations. Thoreau lets the player grab and throw enemies and items. Slim has the character--but not the world--rotate 90 degrees to become paper thin, useful for solving various puzzles involving very tight areas. Boomer turns into a destructive bomb that explodes with a gorgeous effect blending smooth gradients with rough pixelation. Peterson promised that there is a whole slew of other Pixls that have not yet been revealed.

Like other 2D Mario platformers, Super Paper Mario consists of numerous themed worlds; here they are split into "chapters" rather than levels. Peterson strongly implied that the number of worlds is in line with past Super Mario games, meaning it likely has seven or eight. Though the play order of worlds is linear, they are all linked by a hub, allowing players to go back and explore further after having progressed in the game. This is entirely optional, but is sure to rewards completionists looking to uncover previously undiscovered secrets with newly gained abilities. I was only able to play chapters from a few worlds, most of which have already been depicted in screenshots, but the game seems to have a good amount of variety. Some of the visual styles play heavily on classic gaming, with the environments of World 3 constructed entirely of large pixel-like blocks juxtaposed against the smooth rounded character sprites.

After what has seemed like years of stagnation, the 2D platforming genre has recently seen something of a surge of creativity, largely due to the rise in relevance of handhelds. Games such as HAL Laboratories' Kirby Canvas Curse (NDS), SCEI's LocoRoco (PSP), and Game Freak's Drill Dozer (GBA) have given platforming a much needed shot in the arm, and now Intelligent Systems seems poised to give the genre--and the Wii's current lineup--a big refreshing punch in the face. While Super Paper Mario may not cause a widespread return of platforming to the home console segment where it was born, the game is sure to be an irresistably inventive and undeniably unique take on the genre, and is not to be missed.

Intelligent Systems' Super Paper Mario is set to release in North America on April 9, 2007.