Paper Mario is a video game series and part of the Mario franchise. It was created by Intelligent Systems and released by Nintendo. The games mix parts of role-playing games, action-adventure games, and puzzle games. Players control a paper cutout version of Mario, often with other characters, as they work to defeat the main villain. The series includes six main games and one spin-off. The first game, Paper Mario (2000), was released for the Nintendo 64. The most recent game is a 2024 remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004), which was made for the Nintendo Switch.
The original Paper Mario was planned as a follow-up to Super Mario RPG (1996), a game developed by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Changes during development caused the game to become a separate title called Mario Story in Japan. Early games in the series were well-received, but Kensuke Tanabe wanted each game to have different styles and gameplay features. This led the series to shift from role-playing to action-adventure over time, though some role-playing elements remained in later games.
The first two games, Paper Mario and The Thousand-Year Door, were highly praised for their stories, characters, and gameplay. When Paper Mario: Sticker Star was released in 2012, some players criticized changes in the game’s style, the removal of unique characters, and less creative designs. However, the game still received praise for its writing, characters, music, and paper-themed visuals. Super Paper Mario is the best-selling game in the series, with 4.3 million copies sold by 2019. All games in the series have sold a total of 12.54 million copies.
Several Paper Mario games were nominated for awards. The Thousand-Year Door won "Role Playing Game of the Year" at the 2005 Interactive Achievement Awards. Super Paper Mario won "Outstanding Role Playing Game" at the 2007 Satellite Awards. Sticker Star won "Handheld Game of the Year" at the 2012 D.I.C.E. Awards. The Origami King was nominated for three awards, the most for any Paper Mario game. The first two games inspired other indie games, such as Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling. Many Paper Mario features have also appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Gameplay
In the series, Mario is given a mission to explore the Mushroom Kingdom or a similar world. Each game splits the world into different areas that players can explore. These areas include puzzles and things Mario can interact with, like obstacles he must hit with his hammer to move forward. The locations look like they are made of paper and have coins and other items to collect, such as hidden trophies. There are also non-player characters (NPCs) that Mario can speak to. All games except Super Paper Mario use a turn-based combat system, where Mario and opponents take turns attacking each other.
The first two games, Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, include features common in role-playing video games (RPGs). Mario meets allies who join him on his journey. These allies help complete tasks and fight enemies, similar to how RPGs work. Players can choose to perform a regular attack by pressing a button at the right time or use a stronger special attack that costs flower points (FP), an in-game resource. When enemies are defeated, experience points (called Star Points or SP in the game) are earned, making Mario and his allies stronger. Upgrades for special attacks can be found in the game’s main areas.
Super Paper Mario, the third game, is different from the first two. It plays more like a platform game instead of an RPG. Unlike the earlier games, Mario does not enter a separate combat phase. Instead, he fights enemies in real-time while moving through the world. Experience points are still earned by defeating enemies. Although Mario does not fight with unique partners, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Bowser can be played as part of Mario’s group. Allies called Pixls, which give abilities for fighting and moving through levels, can also be used.
Since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, the games have focused more on the action-adventure genre. Features like experience points, allies, complex stories, and many types of fictional characters have been reduced. Instead, the games emphasize solving puzzles, a new experience point system, and combat that involves more strategy and puzzle-like challenges.
Games
Paper Mario is a role-playing video game (RPG) released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64 in Japan and 2001 worldwide. It was later released again on the iQue Player in 2004, the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015, and Nintendo Classics in 2021. In the game, Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach and takes the seven Star Spirits and the Star Rod to become invincible. Mario must rescue the Star Spirits, defeat Bowser, and save the Mushroom Kingdom.
Players help Mario and his allies solve puzzles, with challenges often based on characters’ special abilities. Mario meets new partners as the game progresses. In battles, Mario and his allies use abilities that require FP. Other abilities can be found in the overworld and used in combat.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is an RPG released for the GameCube in 2004. A remake of this game was announced for the Nintendo Switch in September 2023 and released on May 23, 2024.
The game takes place mainly in Rogueport, a town where Mario and Peach find a locked portal believed to lead to a lost kingdom’s treasure. Soon after, Peach is kidnapped by the X-Nauts, who want to open the portal. Peach sends Mario a message about her kidnapping and tells him to find seven Crystal Stars to locate the treasure. During this quest, Mario becomes cursed and gains special moves, such as folding into a paper airplane or boat. Battles happen on a stage in front of an audience. If Mario performs well, the audience throws helpful items or harms enemies. If he performs poorly, the audience leaves or harms Mario.
Super Paper Mario is an action RPG released for the Wii in 2007. A new villain, Count Bleck, uses the Chaos Heart to destroy and remake the universe. Mario teams up with Peach, Luigi, Bowser, and a new ally named Tippi to collect eight Pure Hearts and stop Count Bleck.
Unlike earlier games, Super Paper Mario focuses more on platforming than role-playing. Mario can switch between 2D and 3D views, which changes the game’s perspective. Hidden elements appear when Mario switches dimensions. Mario is helped by allies called Pixls, who have unique abilities. For example, the Pixl Thoreau lets Mario pick up and throw objects. Battles happen in real-time instead of turn-based, and Mario earns experience points after winning.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a cross-genre game released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. The Mushroom Kingdom celebrates Sticker Fest, an event where residents make wishes on the Sticker Comet. The Royal Stickers inside the comet grant wishes. However, Bowser destroys the comet, scattering six Royal Stickers across the kingdom. Mario, with help from a sticker named Kersti, searches for the lost stickers to fix the comet.
Sticker Star uses stickers as a key part of gameplay. Stickers can be found in the overworld, bought with coins, or received from NPCs. In battles, Mario’s abilities depend on stickers. For example, a Jump Sticker lets Mario jump on enemies. Other stickers, called Thing Stickers, look like real-world objects and can be used for attacks or puzzles. Mario can also “Paperize” the environment to flatten it and reveal stickers or secrets.
Paper Mario: Color Splash is a cross-genre game released for the Wii U in 2016. Mario and Peach find a colorless Toad, leading them to Prism Island. They discover the island is also colorless and speak to Huey, the guardian of the island’s fountain. Huey explains that six Big Paint Stars, which give the island color, have been scattered by Bowser.
Color Splash includes elements from Sticker Star. Mario uses a paint hammer with red, yellow, and blue paint. When he hits objects, they become colored and reward items like coins. The Wii U GamePad lets players trace holes in the paper environment to reveal secrets, called the “Cutout” ability. Like Sticker Star, players choose actions in battles using cards. Cards can be found in the overworld or bought in shops. Thing Cards function like Thing Stickers in Sticker Star.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is a cross-genre game released for the Nintendo Switch in 2020. Mario and Luigi find Toad Town in the Mushroom Kingdom abandoned. At Peach’s Castle, they discover Peach folded into origami by King Olly. Many other residents, including Bowser, have also been folded. King Olly covers the castle with five streamers, and Mario, with help from Olivia, Olly’s sister, works to destroy the streamers and defeat Olly.
Unlike Sticker Star and Color Splash, The Origami King brings back RPG elements. Mario has allies, though their roles are simpler than in earlier games. Mario’s 1000-Fold Arms let him tear parts of the environment to find secrets. He also uses a bag of confetti to fill empty holes in the overworld. Battles take place on a circular field divided into rings. Players rotate the rings to line up enemies and deal more damage.
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, called Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. in Europe and Australia, is an RPG released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2015. It combines the Paper Mario series with the Mario & Luigi series. In Paper Jam, Luigi accidentally knocks over a book that merges the Paper Mario universe with the Mushroom Kingdom. Two Bowsers from both universes team up to kidnap both Peaches. The game focuses on characters from mainline Mario games rather than series-specific ones. This is the only Mario & Luigi game to do so, with Starlow being the only character from either series who appears.
Although Paper Jam is a crossover, its gameplay is more similar to Mario & Luigi than Paper Mario. Players control Mario and Luigi, who use their usual abilities, and Paper Mario, who uses paper-inspired moves like folding into a shuriken or stacking multiple copies of himself for attacks.
Development and history
Intelligent Systems was created after Tohru Narihiro joined Nintendo as an employee in the 1980s. His job was to convert games from the Famicom Disk System into cartridges. Later, Narihiro developed successful games in the Wars and Fire Emblem series. This success allowed him to grow his company by hiring more artists and developers.
Super Mario RPG was the first Mario role-playing game. It was released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and developed by Square. Square used new gameplay ideas, such as pressing buttons quickly to deal more damage in battles, to help fans enjoy the role-playing genre. Although Nintendo wanted Square to make another RPG, Square later signed a deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment to create Final Fantasy VII for the original PlayStation. Instead, Nintendo hired Intelligent Systems to make an RPG for their new console, the Nintendo 64. Development began shortly after the console was released in Japan in 1996. The game, led by Shigeru Miyamoto and a team of about 20 people, was originally planned as a sequel to Super Mario RPG, called Super Mario RPG 2. It used similar graphics to its predecessor and was meant to be released on the 64DD, a disk drive add-on for the Nintendo 64. Naohiko Aoyama, the game's art designer, changed the graphics to a paper-like style because he believed players might prefer "cute" 2D designs instead of low-polygon 3D graphics. The game took four years to develop and was released in August 2000, near the end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan as the GameCube was being announced. The game was titled Mario Story in Japan and Paper Mario in North America.
At the 2003 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo announced a direct sequel to Paper Mario, called The Thousand-Year Door. A playable demo was shown at E3 2004, and the game was released worldwide that year as The Thousand-Year Door internationally and Paper Mario RPG in Japan. Around the same time, another Mario RPG series, Mario & Luigi, was created for Nintendo's handheld consoles. The first game in the series, Superstar Saga, was developed by AlphaDream and released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. Kensuke Tanabe, the supervisor of The Thousand-Year Door, and assistant producer Risa Tabata were inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto to introduce new gameplay ideas to make the series more fun. In a 2020 interview, Tanabe said it was difficult to keep players interested when each game in the series felt the same, so they tried to make bigger changes in each game's design and gameplay.
The series changed over time to reach new audiences. For Super Paper Mario, game director Ryota Kawade wanted to surprise fans with new ideas not seen in previous games. When the idea of switching between 2D and 3D gameplay was proposed, Tanabe approved and agreed it would work better as an action-adventure game than an RPG. Real-time combat was added to fit this idea. Despite these changes, Tanabe asked the writers to keep the story similar to a role-playing game. Super Paper Mario was announced for the GameCube at E3 2006 but was later moved to the Wii and released in April 2007. The game was designed for a GameCube controller, so it did not fully use the Wii's motion controls.
Trailers for Sticker Star were shown at E3 2010, E3 2011, and Nintendo World 2011, but the game's title was not announced until E3 2012. It was released later that year. Since Shigeru Miyamoto was no longer the series producer, he asked developers to use existing Mario characters instead of creating new ones. Nintendo's intellectual property team made this rule part of future games. Miyamoto also wanted to change the combat system from The Thousand-Year Door and remove most story elements based on early fan feedback.
Paper Jam was inspired by Sticker Star. AlphaDream wanted to add a third button to control a third character in their new game and felt Paper Mario would be a good fit. Every game in the series from Color Splash onward includes a white paper outline around Mario. The developers of Paper Jam needed to make the characters look different from those in other series.
With the Wii U's stronger graphics and controls, development for Color Splash focused on the console's features. Artists made the graphics look like paper and craft materials, and the Wii U GamePad influenced combat because the motion controls were fun to use. Producer Kensuke Tanabe limited character design variety and avoided original characters out of respect for Shigeru Miyamoto. The game was announced in a Nintendo Direct presentation in early 2016. It received negative reviews because fans were upset the series shifted to an action-adventure format like Sticker Star. Tanabe said Mario & Luigi would replace Paper Mario as the RPG series, and Tabata noted that Paper Mario would focus more on puzzle-solving and humor to differentiate the two. The game was released in early October 2016 and became the lowest-selling game in the series, possibly due to the Wii U's low sales and the Nintendo Switch's announcement before its release. Paper Jam was the last game in the Mario & Luigi series made by AlphaDream before the company filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
This game is an action-adventure. Nintendo also has another series called Mario & Luigi RPG. To keep these two series different, Paper Mario games focus more on non-RPG elements like puzzles and humor.
Paper Mario: The
Reception and legacy
Paper Mario received praise from critics when it was released. It was well-received for combining role-playing, platforming, and elements from the Mario franchise. The game’s writing and characters were also praised. Publications like Nintendo Power and GameSpot listed it among the best games for the Nintendo 64. It was ranked as the 63rd best game on a Nintendo console in Nintendo Power’s "Top 200 Games" in 2006.
The Thousand-Year Door is often considered one of the best games in the series. Reviewers praised its story, characters, and new gameplay features. Eurogamer described the story as whimsical. The game won "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year" at the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.
Super Paper Mario generally received positive reviews, even though it changed the traditional RPG style. The idea of switching between dimensions was praised, but some critics said the gameplay was not fully developed. Some reviewers thought the story was too complicated, but most praised the writing and humor. The game was often listed as one of the best games on the Wii.
Sticker Star received mixed reviews. Critics liked the graphics, world size, and characters, but disliked the lack of variety in character designs and the gameplay mechanics involving stickers. Some reviewers found the stickers engaging, but others criticized them for being repetitive and requiring players to revisit earlier parts of the game. Fans were unhappy about the removal of a strategic combat system.
Color Splash faced criticism when it was announced, and a petition was created to cancel the game. However, after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Critics praised the improved graphics and soundtrack, but some said the combat was too simple and not essential to the game. A reviewer noted that the coin system for buying cards was pointless. Character designs, such as the many Toads, were also criticized for lacking originality.
The Origami King is the latest game in the series and has addressed some issues from previous entries. It added back RPG elements and removed unwanted features, but still used the action-adventure format. Reviewers praised the interactive elements, writing, characters, and worldbuilding. Hidden Toads were called fun and enjoyable for their humor and hiding spots. The combat system had mixed reviews, with some liking its strategy and others finding it difficult and unrewarding. Some critics said the character designs were less charming than in earlier games.
Games released after Sticker Star were criticized for removing features that made the series RPGs, such as the XP system, original characters, and other unique elements.
The Paper Mario series has inspired several indie games. Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, created by Jose Fernando Gracia, was influenced by the first two Paper Mario games. He said the combat system was easy to copy, but keeping the humor was more challenging. Nicolas Lamarche, who is developing Born of Bread, said he aimed to keep the core RPG elements that made the series special. Other games inspired by Paper Mario include Scrap Story, Seahorse Saga, and Tinykin.
Paper Mario was the best-selling game in its first week in Japan and other regions, selling 1.3 million copies and becoming one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo 64. The Thousand-Year Door was the top-selling game in Japan during its first week and sold over 1.3 million copies by 2007. It is the 13th best-selling game on the GameCube. Super Paper Mario was the top-selling game in Japan during its first week and ranked third on the Wii in April 2007. By 2008, it had sold over 2 million copies worldwide. As of 2019, it had sold about 4.3 million copies and is the best-selling Paper Mario game. Sticker Star sold around 400,000 copies in Japan by 2012 and nearly 2 million worldwide by 2013. As of 2020, it had sold 2.5 million copies and is one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo 3DS. Color Splash sold over 60,000 copies in Japan and nearly 1.2 million worldwide by 2020, making it one of the best-selling Wii U games. The Origami King had the best launch in the series, selling twice as much as Super Paper Mario in the U.S. By December 2020, it had sold 3.05 million copies and is the second-best-selling game in the series. By December 2022, it had sold 3.47 million copies. The remake of The Thousand-Year Door sold 1.74 million copies in its first month of release in June 2024. As of December 2024, it had sold 2.06 million copies.
Various Paper Mario elements have appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series. The most notable is the "Paper Mario" stage, which includes areas inspired by games like Sticker Star and The Thousand-Year Door. This stage first appeared in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in 2014 and later in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2018. Ultimate also includes "spirits," which are collectibles representing characters from the series. Three characters from The Origami King—King Olly, Olivia, and Princess Peach—were added in August 2020 after being folded into origami.