A two dimensional Mario? In this day of wonderful graphics, lush backgrounds and sweeping musical scores? Surely you jest!

Paper Mario is a relatively new franchise in the world of Nintendo, being as it has only three home-console iterations to its name. And though the concept of Mario in an RPG is not a new one, it seems one of the least likely forms that a Mario game would take, being as the main protagonist never utters a visible word and the audio is typically "wahoos" and "okey-dokies". Yet despite these obvious shortcomings, the first two Paper Mario games have been real winners, and this one is no exception.

The storyline in this iteration is the usual hogwash – the princess has been kidnapped by the Evil Count Bleck (a surprisingly two dimensional villain). The added twist is that both Bowser and Luigi have also been abducted to become complicit in the nefarious schemes of the inter-dimensional fiend. What a cad! Also of note is that eventually you can play as all four characters (Mario, Luigi, Bowser and the irritatingly useful Peach) through a character swapping system.

In the Paper Mario universe, players take control of the titular hero in a world that is almost totally played in the second dimension. This game adds a unique twist by allowing Mario to enter the third dimension to solve puzzles, find hitherto hidden pathways and secret passages. Amusingly, baddies can be easily avoided in this plane as they are mostly two dimensional themselves. Some exist in this dimension as well as the 2D so care has to be taken when "flipping" between the two. Also of note is that Mario can only spend a limited time in this pseudo third dimension before his health starts to decline, making every exploratory journey a calculated risk for the player.

Helping you through your journey are the imaginatively titled "Pixls" who bestow a variety of skills on Mario useful for achieving your goal. The strategic part of this is that only one Pixl can be equipped at any one time, so judicious use of your brain and the advice of "Tippi" - Super Paper Mario's answer to Navi, will see you succeed in short order. Bombs, sideways flips in the third dimension and the ability to pick up and throw enemies are useful additions to your repertoire, and the restriction of the number of available Pixls forces you to think about every puzzle.

Gone are the (avoidable) turn-based battles of the previous games, to be replaced with a levelling system that dictates how much damage you do in real time based on accumulated experience points. The standard attack for Mario is still the jump, which works well against most enemies. But some will only fall if their weakness is exposed (usually by flipping to the third dimension). Luckily, Tippi is always on hand to give you advice on defeating most bad guys: by simply turning the Wiimote towards the screen and clicking on an object or enemy some useful information is displayed. While this will not win most innovative use for the Wiimote hardware, it is a clever addition that is surprisingly useful in tight situations.

Controlling the game is also an unusual affair which requires you to turn the Wiimote on its side and use it like an old-fashioned NES controller. This takes a little getting used to at first, and I certainly pushed the wrong button more than once before I finally got to grips with it. When you eventually come to terms with the unfamiliar method of play, it becomes exceedingly natural and surprisingly comfortable.

Unusually, for a Paper Mario game, the presentation is somewhat bland: the inhabitants of Flatland are entertaining enough, but none of them seem to have much personality in conversation, nor are they that visually memorable. In fact, the biggest gripe I have with the game is that it seems rather rushed: humour has always been one of the hallmarks of the Paper Mario series, but here it is severely lacking. It took quite a long time before even the slightest chuckle was raised from my critical lips, and even then it was more of a groan at a lousy joke than a genuine laugh. It is a small complaint for a fun game, but as a fan of the series it seemed surprising that this simply wasn't as funny as the other Mario RPGs that have preceded it.

The humour gets better as the game goes on, but the level design does not. In fact, at times the levels really feel like large expanses of uneventful nothing. The ability to "flip" adds an extra dimension - literally - to the proceedings, and there are some very clever moments that really surprise and raise an eyebrow. However, these moments are a little spoiled by repetition and an over-long space section that is ill-conceived and boring.

The enemies however, do show signs of intelligence in their creation, and while they do nothing more than move forward with the intention of hurting you, strategies to defeat them range from the overt to the downright ingenious with a combination of dimensional flipping and the right Pixl or character to deal the coup de grace.

All criticism aside, the game is an awful lot of fun, and though you may miss the turn-based battles and the different skills, the ability to level-up in real time coupled with the often very clever puzzles mean that you will constantly keep coming back to this title, although there will be moments when you put down the controller out of sheer disinterest and really wish that you were playing one of the previous games. There is very little replay value, as with most linear RPGs, that's not to say that you won't enjoy it while it lasts, but it just really could be much better.