MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Paper Bowser World: Operation G.R.O.M., by toodles_team
Review Author	Pucifur
Created	Feb 2 2008, 12:48 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview

Play as Bowser in one of the finest fan games around. Scorch, stomp, and pummel your enemies into the ground as you march through the several unique worlds during the game. Is this new Paper Bowser World good enough to live up to its predecessor's fame?

Pros	+ Play as someone other than Mario + Completely cutsom graphics + Solid gameplay + Humerous, well-planned cutscenes + The balls to have a no-hint dessert maze
Cons	- Tedious puzzels - Small variety of challenges - Somewhat clashing sprites at times

Impressions

Gameplay 8 / 10	The gameplay is that of your standard platformer's: you can walk, jump, and attack. The main twist of this category is that you play as Bowser, so your attacks aren't the stale jump-fire-hammer Mario moves we've all grown weary of. As Bowser you can shrink, grow, and breathe fire, which all add to GROM's emmersive gameplay. You feel drawn into the game as the story and cutscenes unfold. However, even three levels into the game the puzzles start to get bland. All future puzzles are simply the same few you witnessed in the first world, rearranged slightly to avoid tedious repetition. Unfortunately, GROM doesn't quite make that mark, and the numerous switch puzzels and the all too similar boss battles will have you closing the game window earlier than need be. The other things that bothered me were the times that Bowser took damage from an enemy. He'd be sent flying backwards, usually to only recover without time to dodge the same enemy that hurt him before. This would cause massive damage to the player; it's the only time I ever died in the game.
Graphics 8 / 10	The graphics are a breath of fresh air. Everything is traced or drawn by hand, so it's a gaming experience exclusive to this game and the official Paper Mario games. I took pleasure in watching the backgrounds scroll along and enjoyed the forground decorations adding color to the levels. After a while though, you start seeing some sprite clashes. Bowser has a jagged outline, but later into the game you see some high-res blocks that you need to jump on. The most disappointing point of the game was when Toodle's turned to gradients to shade Creepy Creepy Wood's trees. For having such great tree graphics in the Green Green and Dry Dry regions, this clash was quite surprising and a letdown, to say the least. (And I'd like to nitpick: the greena nd red switches still have their darkest shade as blue, which is a result of their colorization. It bothered me the entire time. :P)
Sound 6 / 10	The sounds in this game come primarily from the Paper Mario games, with perhaps a few different tracks mixed in. The music isn't anything spectaular. Sound effects are plentiful and many are unique to this game (how many other MFGG games let you play as Bowser?). After a bit Bowser's footsteps wear down your ears and the constant bloops in the water levels can try your nerves. Just try to stick through these distractions; the end is worth it.
Replay 3 / 10	What you see is what you get. There's really nothing to come back to. The game loses its charm a few levels in, so revisiting this game would only result in frustration.

Final Words

G.R.O.M. will charm you with its beauty and then give you an ice bath. Fun may turn into frustration as the gameplay becomes tiresome and the graphics get progressivly lazier. Play PBW once through and try to enjoy it for all it's worth.

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Comments

	toodles_team Feb 7 2008, 9:59 PM
As I've pointed out, I wasn't specifically trying to make puzzles with switch blocks. I tried to make a couple clever puzzles early on, but they were bad. Really bad. If you don't like what's in the game now, you would have really hated those. So rather, I tried to just use the switch blocks to make the levels more interesting. It was part of my attempt to keep the levels from being the exact same thing as all the previous ones, like the first game. EDIT: Also, I've submitted a new version where Bowser doesn't bounce all around when he gets hurt.


	Pucifur Feb 8 2008, 2:35 AM
Quote (toodles_team on Feb 7 2008, 3:59 PM) (paragraph) Yes, and those are all perfectly valid points. However, even if you met your goal of different levels, that doesn't particularly change the fact that they get boring after a while. To me the game got tiresom after a bit. Again, even though you achieved what you wanted to, that doesn't mean that a player's wishes are met as well. I was just trying to provide some constructive crits in this review. It was a good game, no doubt, and it certainly had its moments. However, I took it in the context of the other games here at MFGG, and it just didn't compare to some.


	toodles_team Feb 9 2008, 2:46 AM
Quote (pucifur27 on Feb 8 2008, 2:35 AM) Yes, and those are all perfectly valid points. However, even if you met your goal of different levels, that doesn't particularly change the fact that they get boring after a while. To me the game got tiresom after a bit. Again, even though you achieved what you wanted to, that doesn't mean that a player's wishes are met as well. I was just trying to provide some constructive crits in this review. It was a good game, no doubt, and it certainly had its moments. However, I took it in the context of the other games here at MFGG, and it just didn't compare to some. I appriciate that. Too many review simply say, "This was bad" but they don't point out why, or how it could be improved. Anyhow, by no means is a 7 out of 10 a bad score, so it's no big deal. Now a 5 out of 10 on the other hand.... ...nah, I'm just kidding.

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