Paper Mario was the second RPG starring Mario (the first being Super Mario RPG). Paper Mario was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2001 and featured a fairly unique graphics style. The characters were flat 2D objects (like paper) while the backgrounds were rendered in 3D. Mario isn’t exactly my favorite subject for an RPG but there is no denying that Nintendo did an excellent job with this one.
Unsurprisingly, the game is set in the Mushroom Kingdom and the plot revolves around rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser. So far, it’s like every other Super Mario game. The difference of course is that this is not an arcade style game. Instead, you control Mario (and others) to solve puzzles and battle enemies in a turn-based manner.
Paper Mario generally received very good reviews and spawned multiple sequels. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on the GameCube was the first sequel, followed by Super Paper Mario for the Wii, Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS and Paper Mario: Color Splash for the Wii U. If you want to play the original Paper Mario the you don’t have to track down an original cartridge (though that would be my preferred way). It was also released on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007 and the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015.
The above images were taken from a commercial for Paper Mario and were found on Tumblr.
