Background
As a child, I loved video games. As someone who grew up when gaming was already very prominent, I think it was a given that I’d be interested in some. While others flocked to Xbox or PlayStation, I was a Nintendo kid growing up, and mainly what caught my eye was the character of Mario. I played several Mario games growing up, usually playing the main series’ games. However, there was one sub-series of Mario games that intrigued me more than any other, that being the spin-off series known as Paper Mario.
What is Paper Mario?
Paper Mario is a spin-off sub-series in the main Super Mario franchise that started its run with the release of Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 on August 11th, 2000 in Japan. It was later released world-wide a year later on February 5th, 2001. From that point forward it would receive several other installments which are listed below:
- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (2004)
- Super Paper Mario (2007)
- Paper Mario: Sticker Star (2012)
- Paper Mario: Color Splash (2016)
- Paper Mario: The Origami King (2020)
- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Nintendo Switch Remake) (2024)
Whilst most mainline Mario games consisted of platforming in 2D or 3D spaces, Paper Mario took a different direction. Paper Mario used a combination of role-playing and action adventure styles of games to create a unique style of game like no other. Instead of going for the usual style of mainline Mario games, Paper Mario opted for a pop-up story book style of graphics, to simulate and convey the idea that you’re witnessing a story unfold. To go along with this, Paper Mario games also included more complex stories that were a lot more riskier and darker themed than the usual light-hearted simple stories of the mainline games. They also included a lot more varied character designs and unique side characters as opposed to the standard generic characters used in the main games.

The Controversy Surrounding the Series
The original Paper Mario (Often referred to as Paper Mario 64), as well as Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (TTYD), both followed the RPG structure that I explained previously. However a lot of controversy arose during the release of Super Paper Mario in 2007. Super Paper Mario (SPM) changed the entire gameplay style to a strange combination between platformer and RPG, but mainly focusing on the platforming style. This was mainly due to the fact that Nintendo planned to release it on their console, the GameCube, which would’ve already had a traditional Paper Mario game on it (Paper Mario TTYD). However due to development issues, it was moved to their new console at the time, the Wii, thus explaining its change in style. This however would blow over easily though because SPM kept the unique character designs and the deeper story that Paper Mario games were known for and is often times referred to as having the deepest and saddest story in any Mario game to date.

Things would change however when Paper Mario: Sticker Star (SS) released in 2012. This game stripped Paper Mario of all of its unique story and characters and most of its RPG elements and converted it into this generic and simple Mario game that was more reminiscent of their mainline games. This would continue with the release of Paper Mario: Color Splash (CS) in 2016, where once again all the original and unique ideas were taken out to be replaced by generic stories and characters. With the release of these 2 games, the series’ community would divide into 2 groups, both arguing which style of gameplay was better for the series. Things wouldn’t get any better with the release of Paper Mario: The Origami King (TOK) in 2020, where although the game was a little more risky with its plot and characters, still played it very safe with the same generic style.

Final Thoughts
The story of the Paper Mario series is definitely a strange one, and with 3 games being RPG-styled and 3 games being more styled after the mainline games, for a while it seemed impossible to judge where it would go going forward. Recently, Nintendo released a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004) for the Nintendo Switch, just in time for its 20 year anniversary. The analytics for it haven’t been published yet but if it sells well, it’s very likely we’ll see a new Paper Mario game release with its original RPG-style returning in full swing. Overall, this is one of my favorite spin-off series to the main Mario series, and I highly encourage anyone who is a fan of video games to check them out for themselves.
Links
If you wish to check out the new remake, I’ve left a link here: