One look at Super Paper Mario and it's hard not to fall in love. It looks great, it plays well and it comes with a unique twist, the ability to switch between 2-D and 3-D views with the press of a button. Unfortunately, it's boring.

Much like any Mario story, Super Paper Mario starts off with Bowser kidnapping the fair Princess Peach. Mario and Luigi leap in to save her yet again when (gasp!) Count Bleck steps in and does that finger-wagging thing, like "nuh-uh, i don't think so," and kidnaps pretty much everyone, including Bowser, Luigi and Peach. Mario must save his friends, as well as beat up the iniquitous Bleck.

Understanding the story is easy but for whatever reason, Nintendo elected to pump tons of uninteresting dialogue into the game. Understandably, Paper Mario has roots in the RPG genre, yet the story drags down the light-hearted platform action, especially since most of it sounds moronic. "Count Bleck is bad?" "Why yes Count Bleck is bad." "He has minions who are bad?" "Yes he has minions who are bad"... and so the plodding story goes.

At least Super Paper Mario looks amazing. Nintendo lovingly crafted Mario, Peach and Luigi in a paper-thin 2-D style against a 3-D environment that explodes with color. The punchy visual style harkens back to older Nintendo games with pixilated models that tug on nostalgia, but with modern feel that utilizes the Wii's power to showcase the game's world in 3-D.

The game's best feature involves hitting the A button to transform these 2-D wonderlands into 3-D, offering a unique perspective. This feature adds depth to an otherwise boring game. While adventuring, Mario will invariably come to a dead end in which changing the world into a 3-D realm more than likely solves his problem. For example, if there's a jump that's too long for him to make, switch into the extra dimension and Mario now sees a slight path he can take along the background. Switch back and he's on the other side.

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