Paper Mario (Series)

The Paper Mario series is a role-playing and action-adventure spinoff of the Super Mario franchise, developed for Nintendo by its affiliate Intelligent Systems?. ¹ It takes its name from its distinctive visual style, in which 2D paper cutout characters move through 3D papercraft environments. ¹ The series is a spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the first role-playing game in the Super Mario franchise, and follows many conventions established there. ¹ Since its 2000 debut it has grown to six main installments and one remake, all developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. ¹⁹

The lineage runs through the collapse of Nintendo’s relationship with Squaresoft. During the fifth console generation, Sony’s PlayStation overtook Nintendo’s long dominance and relegated the Nintendo 64 to a distant second place; contributing factors included launching the console in North America a year behind the PlayStation, continuing to store games on expensive cartridges rather than CD-ROM, and imposing high fees and strict policies on third-party developers. ¹ Squaresoft, creators of the Final Fantasy series and developers of Super Mario RPG for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, moved to develop exclusively for Sony’s console, and Nintendo turned to Intelligent Systems to make Mario’s next role-playing game. ¹

Intelligent Systems, founded in the 1980s by Toru Narihiro, began by providing auxiliary programming for games on the Nintendo Entertainment System and its Famicom Disk System add-on, and went on to develop the Wars turn-based strategy series and the Fire Emblem tactical role-playing series. ¹ The successes of those series’ debut installments led the studio to expand beyond programming and engineering into game design, script writing, art, and music, though both franchises were still Japan-only when Mario’s new RPG was to be made. ¹

Shortly after the Nintendo 64’s release in Japan, Shigeru Miyamoto began work on Mario’s next RPG; it was initially conceived as a direct sequel to Super Mario RPG, using a similar graphics style, and was to be released for the 64DD disk-drive add-on. ¹ Miyamoto stated it was developed with amateur gamers in mind. ¹ The game carried over mechanics from Super Mario RPG, such as timed button presses to deal more damage in combat, implemented to ease fans into finding interest in the role-playing genre. ¹ Art director Naohiko Aoyama devised the paper-like character style, believing players might be tiring of computer-generated 3D graphics and that polygonal models struggled to convey the “cuteness” of his designs; the title Paper Mario was chosen to emphasize that style. ¹ The name has been used for every release except the original Japanese one. ¹

Games and evolution

The first installment, Paper Mario, was released on Nintendo 64 in Japan on August 11, 2000, and in North America on February 5, 2001, with a European and Australian release on October 5, 2001. ²⁷ In Japan the game was titled Mario Story, and it had carried the working titles Paper Mario Story and Super Mario RPG 2. ⁷ A Chinese release on the iQue Player followed on June 8, 2004, and the game has since been reissued through the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console services and, in December 2021, through Nintendo 64 – Nintendo Classics. ² Six further entries have followed — five for home consoles and one handheld — along with one remake. ¹ In release order the games are Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Super Paper Mario, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Paper Mario: Color Splash, and Paper Mario: The Origami King. ⁶ Every game up until Sticker Star was directed by Ryota Kawade. ⁹ The series has also crossed over with the fellow Super Mario RPG series Mario & Luigi in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. ¹

In its gameplay, Mario overcomes obstacles in the overworld by jumping and using his hammer, and the graphics mix flat 2D characters with 3D scenery. ⁴ The original sends Mario across the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue the seven Star Spirits and Princess Peach from Bowser, who has stolen the all-powerful Star Rod; it sold over one million units despite arriving near the end of the Nintendo 64’s lifespan. ³

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2004, deepened the turn-based system by integrating partner characters into battle and adding a unique audience mechanic, and set its story in the gritty port town of Rogueport; its narrative interweaves the separate perspectives of Mario, Peach, and Bowser. ³ The game sold almost two million units, a solid figure for a console that underperformed. ³ Because it saw no re-release of any kind for many years, secondhand copies on eBay reached over $100, and until the announcement of the Switch remake the GameCube version was the only way to play it. ³

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – Overview Trailer – Nintendo SwitchNintendo of America

Super Paper Mario, released on the Wii in 2007, shifted the series toward a 2D action platformer with light role-playing elements, allowing the player to swap between Mario, Peach, and Bowser while reducing combat largely to jumping on enemies; companion characters were reduced to gameplay gimmicks and Mario’s signature hammer was partially removed. ³ Its story, with original and quirky characters and a twist ending, is regarded as one of the strongest in the series, and the game sold more than four million copies — the best in the series to that point — aided by the Wii’s launch-window audience. ³

Paper Mario: Sticker Star, released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2012, moved away from role-playing conventions, introducing single-use stickers and real-world “Thing Stickers” required to defeat certain bosses; a boss such as the Giant Pokey demands a specific Thing Sticker, without which the fight becomes one-sided, and ordinary battles offer no meaningful progression. ³ According to Kensuke Tanabe, since Sticker Star it has no longer been possible to modify Mario characters or create original characters within the Mario universe, so new bosses must be designed as original characters unconnected to it, such as Olly and the stationery bosses. ³ Paper Mario: Color Splash, released on the Wii U, continued using Toads for nearly all characters and cast Bowser as the antagonist; it sold fewer than 200,000 copies and was one of the few Wii U titles not given a deluxe edition on the Switch. ³

Paper Mario: The Origami King - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo SwitchNintendo of America

Paper Mario: The Origami King was described as a return toward what fans wanted, bringing back companion characters, minor role-playing elements, and a more cohesive narrative. ³ The most recent release is a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo Switch, released in 2024, which made the long-inaccessible GameCube game available to a wider audience. ¹³⁸