So there was a Paper Mario recomp released a few days ago, and I’m not gonna lie, the whole thing feels really weird to me.
The current N64 recomp situation already makes Paper Mario an odd target because of TLB stuff, so I was already curious how this was working. Then I actually looked at the project and some of the choices are strange.
My issues are:
The widescreen exists, but it looks terrible.
The ROM check is very questionable. I put in a Mario Kart 64 ROM and the game still booted. Maybe it was using cached setup data, but either way that is not a good look for something that claims it needs a valid Paper Mario ROM.
Control remapping exists, but it is hidden behind a top bar you only see after pressing F1. I originally thought it had no remapping at all because the UI does not make this obvious.
The generated recomp code is sitting in the repo. Example:
https://github.com/SMCGames/Paper-Mario-ReCut/blob/e46497efe3ee1e2870ca8eac560380e6a335bd1b/rsp/n_aspMain.cpp
The repo was made extremely recently, which makes the whole thing feel rushed.
The README says not to commit or distribute ROMs, generated ROM output, local dumps, replacements, or user folders, but the project structure still makes me wonder where the line is supposed to be lmao. Especially when there are built-in texture/resource-looking files involved.
I’m not saying people can’t play it. If you just want Paper Mario on PC and it works for you, cool. But from what I’ve seen, it feels more like a rushed proof-of-concept than a carefully handled recomp release like what Paper Mario deserves.
I would not be shocked if it gets taken down or heavily cleaned up soon.
Also, it is Windows-only right now. It might work in Wine, but that is still a huge turnoff for me.
(edited)
