The truth about Paper Mario
Friday / 07.22.05 / 04:22AM / Joe
Since video games are now expected to be judged based on ancillary content that was developed but never included in the game as sold, I feel it is my duty to point out some distressing similarities between the All Ages Nintendo GameCube game Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and the Mature rated Nintendo GameCube game Resident Evil 4. I offer no judgements, explanations or apologies for the screens below, I just present the data. Is it a coincidence that Nintendo's family-friendly Mario brand should dovetail with the bloody action and adult themes of the latest entry in the core Resident Evil series (or, "Resident of Evil Creek" if you work in politics)? Or is it part of Nintendo's new secret strategy to court older, more mature gamers with Xbox Live accounts who hang out at the mall on Friday nights until Mom swings by the food court entrance to pick them up?
After all, until a few short days ago, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was just a harmless adventure game where kids could drive cars and shoot hookers, and now it has been found to contain Hidden Consensual Sex! Could Mario be the next video game character to resort to sex and violence to harm our children?
Example 1: On the left we see Mario and his female sidekick in front of the Thousand Year Door. On the right is Leon and his female sidekick in front of one of many similar doors inside the Castle portion of RE4.
Example 2: When Mario enters the Shadow World level, he travels through a massive castle with indoor water features and high ceilings. When Leon enters the Castle section, he travels through a massive castle with indoor water features and high ceilings. In all fairness, the main difference is that while Leon is constantly picking up boxes of shotgun ammo in his Castle, Mario usually only finds Shine Sprites and Star Pieces.
Example 3: Still, the visual similarities are too close to ignore. If you removed the lead character graphics, you might even think you're looking at the same castle!
Example 4: Both games use a Game Boy Advance SP as a communications device for the characters. Leon's foldout SP is only a little less obvious than Mario's blatant GBA SP. Not only are the games merging, but they also contain hidden commercials for another Nintendo product!
I would also like to say that Paper Mario's "Pit of 100 Trials" sub-game is a complete nasty bitch and that I got all the way to level 92 before I died and since you can't save as you go I lost about four hours of work drilling down through all those battles. | 
