Time is precious. Wouldn’t you agree? I think that’s why I generally choose videogames that don’t require a lot of invested time, like WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Wii Play. I’m a big fan of the 10-15 minutes of action I can squeeze in while supper’s cooking. The rest of my night is generally consumed by a lot of the same stuff as everyone else out there: television, going out for errands/meals/the gym, cleaning, enjoying the outdoors, etc.

So why on earth would I buy a mega time-sucking game like Super Paper Mario? In a nutshell: my cable got cut! (Yes, I pay my bills.) When I moved a few months back I decided to try life without cable, but magically, it was there when I moved in. What’s better than life without cable? Free cable. Anyway, the cable company got wise to my free TV and cut it off a few weeks ago. So I’m left with a couple of options: suck it up and pay for cable, or do something else with my time. For now, I’m opting to do something else.

My 10-15 minutes of gaming action is no longer sufficient in my new cable-free universe, so I headed off to my favourite game retailer and opted for the new Paper Mario game: Super Paper Mario. Last year, I did have a minor love on for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, but turn-based battles are not my thing, and I never got through the whole game.

What’s cool about Super Paper Mario is it’s exactly what it sounds like Super Mario + Paper Mario. It’s got elements of an RPG game (the long, boring story) and lots of side-scrolling, platformer wickedness.

What I love about Super Paper Mario:

• Reminiscent of classic Super Mario Bros.
• You can switch from 2D to 3D mode – lots of layers in this game
• You can play as Bowser
• Pixls! Cool little floating guys that have unique abilities like blowing things up
• Uses the Wii remote in classic mode, but also uses its full functionality (you can use it to get more details on items by pointing it at the screen and you can shake it when battling enemies to get style points)

What I didn’t really like:

• Too much text – I’m not really a fan of the storylines; I just want to get into the levels and play
• 3D mode isn’t as awesome looking as 2D
• I need to consult walk-thrus occasionally because I’m not that smart

Hopefully this game will sufficiently fill the void previously used up by my TV viewing. I’m only about a third of the way through the game and so far it’s good.

Anyone got any other game suggestions that will fill my time before I crack and get cable again?