super8

Super Talent 8GB Pico Mini-A USB Flash Drive (Blue)
$36.99
I use this in my car to hold all my music and play through the USB port on my deck (Sony MEX-5700U). It's a heck of a lot of smaller that our iPod. We actually have three, one for me, one for my wife, and one for our little 1. I can keep all three in the ashtray of our car which is never used, so they are out of sight. We ditched all our CDS, so much less clutter around the rig.

Pureology Serious Colour Care Super Straight Conditioner, 8.5-Ounce Bottle
$25.00
I have curly hair, that's been extremely dry, and the color looks almost brassy. Touching it felt like straw. My stylist recommended Pureology, so I wanted to try it out. Very skeptical of high end brands for hair care - usually I don't see them doing anything different from the lower price brands. Anyway, after one use with Pureology Straigh shampoo and this conditioner, my hair was soft, shiny and healthy looking - it was a miracle! I've never seen such a drastic change from a product line before Its quite expensive but worth the $. Interestingly, I asked mom to try it -she has beautiful, shiny and straight hair. She liked it but unlike me, she did not see any dramatic differences. So i think for gals like me, who have "problem hair" of some sort with dryness / damage/ bad color/ friiziness, this product is like miracle in a bottle - I wont use anything else. But for someone whose hair looks great as it is, not sure its worth spending the $ for every day use.

Universal Apple iPod USB Charger Kit - USB Retractable Hotsync Cable - USB Home Travel Charger - USB 12V Cigarette Lighter Charger
$19.99
I received this kit 4 or 5 days after ordering it. It works GREAT. I had another lighter adapter (from my previous iPod) which seemed more solid but would not work with my new 5th generation iPod. This one worked perfectly with my very first use of it. The retractable cable is especially convenient and compact. If you have a 5th generation iPod, I highly recommend that you get this accessory to go along with it.

Super Paper Mario
$49.99
I am a HUGE fan of the Paper Mario series. The first PM title for the N64 is one of the best Nintendo games, RPG or otherwise, I have ever played, and the sequel PM the Thousand Year Door was an equally fun and engaging entry in the series and definitely worthy of the PAPER MARIO title. However the third entry in the series, Super Paper Mario, disappointingly does not live up to it's predecessors and the Paper Mario name.

When I, like a lot of you PM fans out there, heard of a new installment in the series, I jumped for joy (right onto a goomba!) The first two Paper Mario games are RPGs laced with Mario themes, great music, and lots of nostalgia. I am not the biggest RPG tycoon out there (I have dabbled in Final Fantasy and yes, POKEMON) but I do love Nintendo and Mario, and Paper Mario was a proud achievement for both. I also love all the Super Mario Bros./World/ and even Land titles. Seemingly, a combination of old school side scrolling Mario mixed with the great RPG elements of Paper Mario seems promising. Sadly this titles mix of genres is a let down and seems to be a dark spot for both Nintendo and the Mario franchise.

**For a quicker review feel free to scroll to the bottom. I will admit this is my first review so I'll probably be a little rusty and rant a lot but I'll try my best.**

Starting out with the story... well, it's not that great. Peach being captured is somewhat cliche I know but at least previous story lines offered enough to make it acceptable. This time though it's a little goofy. Instead of the antagonist being someone memorable like Bowser, Wario, or even WART! (btw why are Wario and Wart ignored as potential antagonists anyway?) Instead we have Count Bleck... who is pretty lame. His motives are to steal some book that tells the future and take over the world... Actually maybe he has the book already but he needs to make Bowser and Peach marry each other to... make a magic... black heart...You know what? Forget the storyline it sucks and no one cares I'm sure.

In terms of game play gone are the familiar turn based battles from the previous PM entries, no more goomba, koopa, or other fun Mario enemies-turned sidekicks to help you out in your quest, no Flower Points for special moves, no Badge Points for...BADGES! no more great music that you can't get out of your head minutes after putting down the controller, no more... ok I'm rambling. the point is this title sucked out what made Paper Mario games great. What you're left with is an odd mix of side scrolling Mario with a hint of RPG elements. Granted there are some Paper Mario elements but not enough to slap on the name PAPER by any means.

The battle/upgrading system is rather clunky. Super PM changes the system that made previous PM installments fun for the worse. When moving through the levels you jump on enemies to defeat them like a Super Mario Bros./World/Land title, however since some enemies are stronger than others they take more jumps to defeat. So you just jump around till they're gone and then what happens is your score goes up, then when you get a certain amount of these generic points you level up and your HP goes up or your attack power... this is good and all but it doesn't really make a difference. You're still going to jump on enemies to defeat them, it doesn't really matter if you can make one less jump because your power was upgraded by a point. HP is also pointless because like other Super Mario titles you find mushrooms once in a while to bring your health back up. This defeats another RPG trait, Items! You can probably go through half the game without using ANY, that's right, ANY items. Health items are pointless because as I said, mushrooms appear once in a while and goombas and koopas don't really damage you at all anyway and since this doesn't incorporate turn based battles you can simply skip defeating an enemy all together. Also special items to attack enemies are pointless because it is much easier and less time consuming to just JUMP! I say time consuming because when you use an item you have to go through some gimmicky Wii mote shake fest. Then of course there's the side quest fun items that always gave PM some replay value. Star Pieces and Badges are gone though, instead we have Catch Cards... what these do is...well pretty much nothing. When you get an enemies catch card you do more damage or something, but this doesn't really inspire you to catch em' all. There's about 250 or so of them which is absurd for something that doesn't do something great like a badge. Oh, and as usual there are recipes you can make but by the third PM title, does anyone really care about making food? As you can see, there really isn't that much RPG or "Paper" about this PM tittle, and while we're on Paper, it doesn't even appear in the literal sense. Some people complained that the original PM title lacked a lot of paper elements to justify the name, PM the thousand year door fixed that with the ability to shape shift origami style into paper boats and planes. This title however should be called PIXEL Mario, because all the animations, backgrounds, etc. are pixel based. There is literally nothing paper about this title, and if they couldn't make this even more obvious that the P stands for pixel... your unmemorable not interesting side kick thingys are called, you guessed it, PIXELS! I honestly think the only reason they didn't change the name of this title is because people like PAPER Mario and they like SUPER Mario..however this uninspired mash up of the two series isn't as creative as it appears.

You may notice I haven't touched on the big 3D flipping ability which is supposed to make this title stand out as "innovative"... well that's because it's a waste of words. It offers nothing but cheap problem solving. If there's something you can't get around, flip on over to the barren 3D landscape to simply walk around it. Oh, and here's the kicker, you are for some reason TIMED in 3D mode. If you stay for more than 15 seconds you lose health, why? I haven't the slightest clue. Probably because after 15 seconds you realize how much flipping to 3D sucks...

**Simply put this game doesn't live up to the Mario name, it doesn't live up to the Paper name, it doesn't even live up to Super. Fans of Paper Mario should stay away or at least be a little reluctant, and I know some of you out there are just like me, a completest. You find every star piece, badge, etc. and also you have every game. However I can't help but feel ripped off with this title, and sadly I even bought the unnecessarily large guide book (like I said, completest, I like to thoroughly conquer certain games and Paper Mario is one of them) So die hard PM fans that are also completests, go for a rent to make sure, who knows you might actually dig this title (doubt it though). As for fans of non RPG Super Mario games, stay away as well. I've read reviews from gamers like you and I assure you this will be a let down. It's not fast pased with fun level designs and coins, fire flowers, and all that great stuff so stick with New Super Mario Bros. Wii for your side scrolling fix. The bottom line is this title had a lot going for it, hell you got to admit flipping between 2D and 3D SEEMS innovative and creative... but, it doesn't work that well. I also can't help but bring this game down for fooling unsuspecting gamers with use of the words Super and Paper. And I know I put this game down a lot but it does offer some fun once in a while but only for it's side scrolling (Super) side, but there's too much that slows it down and when comparing it to any other Super/Paper Mario title this game is just a let down. With a different name would it be a better title? Eh... at least you would know what to expect that way. This titles odd mix of two great Mario series comes together in an average package that you probably will put down and forget about after chapter 3.
A 3 out of 5.