Paper Mario
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 Behold, the Paper Mario franchise that still lives up to its legacy today!
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Paper Mario, also known as Mario Story in Japan (originally known as Super Mario RPG 2), is a role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 in August of 2000 in Japan and 2001 everywhere else. It was later released for the Wii's Virtual Console in 2007 and the Wii U's Virtual Console in 2015.
Plot
Paper Mario is set in the Mushroom Kingdom as the protagonist Mario tries to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, who has imprisoned the seven "Star Spirits" after stealing the Star Rod from Star Haven and making himself invulnerable to any attacks. To save Mushroom Kingdom, rescue Peach, get the castle back, and defeat Bowser, Mario must locate the Star Spirits, who can negate the effects of the stolen Star Rod.
Why It's Not Paper Thin
- Even though the plot on a surface level may seem like another bare-bones Bowser kidnaps the Princess plot, the plot is made interesting and unique due to the various lines of dialog, the partners that Mario obtains, as well the several vignettes in the overall plot line.
- One of, if not the best Bowser appearance in a Mario game. He has several plans and backup plans, is legitimately a threat all throughout the game, and for the first time ever, beats Mario in terms of the story at least once. Even when his back is at the wall, he still is able to find a way out almost every single time. To top it off, one of his most challenging and satisfying final boss fights in the series.
- Mario meets several NPCs that join his quest through the game as partners. Each partner is a character that would typically be an enemy (Goombas, Koopas, Boos, etc.) given a personality and unique traits making them interesting.
- Speaking of the partners, they're all likable with their own personalities such as the intelligent Goombario, the brave and adventurous Kooper, the headstrong yet stubborn Bombette, the friendly yet klutzy Parakarry, the snooty Lady Bow, the cute Watt, the motherly Sushie and the tough guy Lakilester.
- Great graphics.
- Good soundtrack. In addition, some bosses have their own boss music themes.
- Solid gameplay, with good platforming sections and puzzles with interesting and unique turn-based combat mechanics.
- Goombario has the ability to "Tattle" areas and enemies, which allows you to obtain information about the current area and each enemy.
- Numbers used in the battles such as HP and Attack only reach double digits, and attack damage calculations are very simple, allowing for deeper strategies as you'll usually know exactly how much damage each attack does.
- Most attacks and moves have an action command which, if done correctly, makes the attack stronger or the move last longer. You can also guard against attacks to reduce the damage you take.
- Well thought out humor.
- Badges can used to improve your combat abilities and develop different strategies. Badges may add new attacking moves for Mario, abilities such as charging attacks or partner focusing, boost his defense or attack power slightly, or even make attacks sound different. Badges cost Badge Points (BP) so you can't just equip all of them.
- Many of the game's puzzles and boundaries are based upon the abilities of Mario's partners, who each have a specialized skill required for progression in the game.
- Mario and his partners have a finite capacity to perform special moves, with each of these consuming a particular number of flower points (FP) when performed. Each partner has a different collection of moves and Mario's hammer and jump moves are different as well.
- Great boss fights. The final boss fight is simply epic and amazing.
- Princess Peach is playable at particular points in the game as a recurring side-quest.
Bad Qualities
- You only have a maximum of 30 Badge Points, which can be considered too little.
- At a certain part of the game there will be this level called Flower Fields and needs to be unlocked by finding four plants guys with seeds, this can catch players off guard as they will have to do some back tracking.
- No post-campaign content. After you defeat Bowser a "The End" screen plays endlessly until you turn off the Nintendo 64, Wii, or Wii U.
- Despite being a great game in general, it came out at the end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan which led it to not gaining huge recognition at the time.
- The game can crash or softlock at times, sometimes from doing simple things. Some ways this can happen include:
- Falling into lava, which leads to Mario respawning in a invalid location which causes the game to freeze. Fortunately, this does not occur on the Virtual Console.
- Using an egg bomb on Lava Piranha.
- Playing as Princess Peach can cause a variety of problems..
- Transforming Herringway into a generic bumpty will eventually trigger an invalid animation, crashing the game. This glitch is fixed on the Virtual Console.
- Hitting a switch 121 times.
- If you have Watt as your active partner and lose any battle, the game will crash. This only happens if you play the game on Nintendo Switch Online.
Tips
- For those who don't want to waste a turn using Tattle to reveal an enemy's HP, then purchase the Peekaboo badge from Merlow for ten Star Pieces. One drawback to this however, is that the badge requires 3 BP to use.
- During the optional mini-boss fight against Kent-C-Koopa, after flipping him over, target his tail rather than his body, as the tail has 0 defense while his body has 3.
- If you are about to use Bow's Outta Sight ability, be sure you use it on Turn One, as if you use it as Bow on the second turn, it will count on both turns, which could potentially give Enemies and/or Bosses a free turn.
- During third fight The Master, be sure you have the Zap-tap Badge equipped, as it will prevent The Master from doing his three-hit combo.
- When you obtain a new partner, use them for the rest of the chapter where you unlock them as they usually have the best moves to use against the enemies and bosses of that chapter.
- For enemies/bosses that have high defenses, use Watt, as her electro dash ignores defenses of the enemies and bosses.
Reception
The game received a positive reaction from the media, attaining an aggregate score of 88% from Game Rankings and 93% from Metacritic. It was rated the 63rd best game made on a Nintendo system in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Games" list in 2006.
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