Paper Mario is a weird series. Honestly, if you look at the trajectory of these games from the Nintendo 64 era to the modern day Switch releases, it’s like watching a band that refuses to play their greatest hits. Fans keep asking for the old stuff. Nintendo keeps giving them something else entirely. It’s a constant tug-of-war between nostalgia for turn-based combat and a corporate desire to "innovate" every single time a new entry drops.
Most people think Paper Mario video games are just RPGs with a paper aesthetic. That's actually not true anymore.
For the first decade, sure, it was the spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG. Then everything broke. If you’ve played Sticker Star or The Origami King, you know that the "RPG" label is hanging on by a very thin, very perforated thread. Understanding this series requires looking at the actual design philosophy of Intelligent Systems—the developers—and why they’ve spent twenty years trying to distance themselves from what made the series famous in the first place.
The Identity Crisis of the 2000s
The original Paper Mario on N64 was essentially a "flat" version of the traditional Mario world. It worked because it was simple. It had "Badge" systems and "Star Spirits." Then came The Thousand-Year Door (TTYD) on the GameCube. This is widely considered the peak. Why? Because it didn’t just iterate; it got weird. It had a professional wrestling chapter. It had a detective mystery on a train. It had a cursed chest that "cursed" you with the ability to turn into a paper plane, which was really just a helpful upgrade framed as a sinister hex.
But then, Super Paper Mario happened on the Wii.
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This was the first major pivot. Gone was the turn-based combat. In its place was a 2D-to-3D flipping mechanic. It was brilliant, but it signaled the end of the traditional RPG era for the franchise. Kensuke Tanabe, a long-time producer at Nintendo, has mentioned in various interviews (notably with Iwata Asks and later Eurogamer) that the philosophy shifted toward "doing something new" rather than refining the old. This is a point of massive contention in the gaming community.
Some fans argue that the departure from XP (experience points) and traditional leveling ruined the incentive to fight enemies. They have a point. If fighting a Goomba doesn't make you stronger, and instead just uses up a limited resource—like a sticker or a card—why even bother?
Why the Combat Changed (and Why It Matters)
If you pick up Paper Mario: Sticker Star or Color Splash, you’ll notice something immediately. The combat is based on "consumables." You aren't choosing "Attack" from a menu; you're choosing a sticker you found behind a bush.
This change wasn't accidental.
There is a long-standing rumor—and some evidence from interviews—that Nintendo’s internal teams felt that having two Mario RPG series (Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi) was redundant. To differentiate them, Paper Mario had to become an "action-adventure" series with light RPG elements. This led to the "Sticker" era, which many hardcore fans loathe. It felt like the soul was being stripped out for the sake of experimental gimmicks.
However, The Origami King on the Switch tried to find a middle ground. It introduced a ring-based puzzle system. It was polarizing. Some loved the mental gymnastics of lining up enemies; others missed the simplicity of a well-timed hammer strike. The nuance here is that Intelligent Systems is clearly more interested in the "paper" part of the name than the "Mario" part. They want to play with the medium. They want to fold, crumple, and color the world, even if it means the combat feels like a secondary concern.
The Character Problem
One of the biggest complaints about modern Paper Mario video games involves the NPCs. Look back at The Thousand-Year Door. You had:
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- Vivian (a shadow siren with a complex backstory)
- Admiral Bobbery (a grizzled Bob-omb sailor)
- Ms. Mowz (a badge-hunting mouse thief)
In the newer games, you mostly get Toads. Red Toads. Blue Toads. Toads with different hats.
Shigeru Miyamoto famously suggested that the developers should try to use only characters from the existing Mario universe as much as possible. This "restriction" is why the world-building shifted from unique species and original designs to creative ways of using generic characters. It’s a limitation that forces creativity in some areas but stifles the "epic" feeling that the early games had. When every town is populated by the same mushroom people, the sense of discovery takes a hit.
The Technical Art of Paper
Despite the mechanical divisiveness, nobody can deny the visuals. The jump from Color Splash to The Origami King showed a mastery of "material" rendering. We aren't just looking at cartoons. We are looking at corrugated cardboard, construction paper, and high-gloss stickers. The way light reflects off a "shiny" sticker in the newer games is technically impressive.
It’s tactile. You can almost feel the texture of the world through the screen.
This focus on the "craft" aesthetic is what keeps the series alive. It's not about being a 3D powerhouse like Mario Odyssey. It's about the charm of a diorama. This is where the series actually succeeds the most lately. The writing remains sharp, often breaking the fourth wall and poking fun at the absurdity of the Mario universe itself.
What to Play First
If you’re new to this, don’t just grab the newest one. Start with the The Thousand-Year Door remake on the Switch. It’s the best way to see what the fuss is about. It has the soul, the combat, and the characters that define the "golden era."
After that, try The Origami King. It’s flawed, but it’s beautiful and genuinely funny. It represents the "modern" era far better than the Wii U or 3DS entries.
The reality of Paper Mario video games is that they are no longer a cohesive series. They are a collection of experiments using the same art style. You have to approach each one as a standalone project rather than a sequel. If you go in expecting Final Fantasy with Mario, you’ll be disappointed by the newer titles. If you go in expecting a weird, funny, experimental adventure, you’ll have a much better time.
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How to Get the Most Out of the Franchise
To truly appreciate where these games are going, you need to stop playing them like traditional RPGs. Here is the move:
- Skip the unnecessary fights in the modern entries. Since there’s no XP, you don't need to grind. Save your resources for the bosses.
- Talk to everyone. The dialogue is where the heart is now. The "Toad" problem is real, but the writers give those Toads some of the funniest lines in Nintendo history.
- Pay attention to the environment. The secrets are usually hidden in the "paper" physics—loose corners of the world you can peel back or areas that look like they've been taped over.
- Invest in the music. The soundtracks, especially from Color Splash and The Origami King, are some of the best jazz-fusion and live-recorded orchestral tracks in gaming.
Stop waiting for a "true" RPG return and enjoy the paper-craft chaos for what it is. The series isn't going back to its roots anytime soon, so you might as well enjoy the folding.