Paper Mario is one of my personal favorite Nintendo franchises. It has one of the most unique looks out there, is often very fun to play, and when done right, is full of innovation and life that we sometimes don’t see from the main Mario franchise. It also has one of my personal favorite video games of all time in its lineup: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. A game that I often replay if I find myself wanting to play something for enjoyment.
However, in recent memory, Paper Mario has been the franchise I know and love. In fact it’s become something rad bad, it’s becoming a gimmick franchise. Allow me to explain.
From Humble Origins
The original Paper Mario on the N64 was the spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. It took much of what it did, refined it, and then made the game. To add to its uniqueness though, it made the whole world one of paper and its properties. While this was certain an odd choice at times, Nintendo made it work to their advantage in the best way possible.
Another difference was a bigger focus on story, and the individual lands and characters you visited along the way. This game threw out the “stereotypical” roles of many classic Mario characters and gave them new life and meaning. Goombas and Koopas could be your allies, Princess Peach had sidequests she could do to help save the day, and so on and so forth. Yes, the plot was Bowser trying to take over the world, but hey, why ruin a classic story on the first outing?
The RPG gameplay was very fun, and in my opinion, much more refined that Super Mario RPG’s was. Now, you could swap partners on the fly to help give you an advantage depending on what was needed at the time.
It was simple, it worked, and it sold. So…
The Legendary Sequel
…Nintendo made another one! Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door opened up an entirely new realm for fans to explore. One that was very different from the Mushroom Kingdom, and one that happened to have its own unique bad guys to capture Princess Peach. But with a reason this time!
Thousand Year Door upper the visual and gameplay aspects into even more incredible experiences. Now, the world could be added or subtracted upon depending on a switch, and it would fold, or unfold, like a story book. Or, if a ship was facing one way, it would “pop off the page” and flip to face the other direction that you needed to go. The RPG style battles were refined even more, and gave new tricks and tips for players to use to their advantage. Including the crowd, which could help restore life and Star Power, or take it away if you weren’t paying attention.
Everything was bigger and better with this sequel, earning it numerous awards, and forever being a favorite amongst Nintendo faithful. For many, myself included, this was the highpoint.
A Change Of Pace
For Super Paper Mario on the Wii, the team behind the game decided to change things up a bit. It was still a paper motif, but now, battles were more free. It didn’t have the RPG aspect. Instead, it played to the origins of the original Mario franchise, a 2D platformer. But with the twist that you could make it a 3D world when you needed to to avoid obstacles or find hidden objects.
While many consider it not “true” Paper Mario, it really as a fun game. The story behind it was very original, and actually very dark, and the gamplay did work well with the Wii Motion controller. Furthermore, the ability to pick and choose which character to play as through levels (Mario, Luigi, Bowser, or Peach) was very fun, as each had their own abilities and skills to lend to the levels.
It was a worthy sequel, and it did well, unfortunately, this can also be seen as the time when the franchise took a darker turn.
The Sticker Of Truth
Arguably the lowest point of the franchise came when Sticker Star came out for the 3DS. On the surface, this wasn’t a bad idea, bringing Paper Mario to the handhelds for the first time. However, with the gimmick of using stickers in battle instead of the tried and true RPG gameplay, the game became something gamers didn’t want. Now, instead of naturally going from battle to battle knowing exactly what they had, gamers would have to search the world for stickers just so they could use certain abilities. And withe each use of sticker, it would disappear.
The constant going back and forth to find stickers of both importance and non-importance was very frustrating. Leaving some to not even be able to finish the game out of confusion or rage quit. What frustrated fans more was the reveal that the game was originally going to be an RPG like the first two Paper Mario games, but then Nintendo interjected because they felt the game would be “too much like” the originals. So thus they wanted “something new”. It didn’t work, and Sticker Star suffered.
A Bad Fusion
Adding to the frustration was that Nintendo really liked their other Mario RPG series, Mario & Luigi, a great series in its own right. So they decided after a while to merge the two RPG series into one game, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. The result may not have been as bad as Sticker Star, but it was still pretty bad.
The fusion felt forced, and the gameplay made that even more clear. Fans hated that Paper Mario himself felt like a side-note, and the fact that the Paper Mario franchise was the gimmick in this title didn’t help. Add that to a card battling system that again left gamers frustrated, and you got a recipe for disaster.
It was after this game that the truth about Paper Mario came out. Nintendo thinks it’s “too confusing” for two separate Mario RPG’s to inhabit the same space gameplay wise, thus, Paper Mario keeps getting gameplay gimmicks while Mario & Luigi basically remains the same more or less. Fans are not happy about this, because to many, including myself, these franchises are incredibly different, and deserve to be what they are in full without major gimmicks. If anything, keep Mario & Luigi on the handhelds, while we get Paper Mario on the consoles. Problem solved.
Who Benefits From This?
When you think of a video game franchise, it’s important to not stay the same, however, you also need to keep to your roots. Paper Mario is and RPG franchise, born and bred. To keep diverting away from that, or worse, to try and “gimmick it up” with new gameplay concepts to “keep it fresh” is killing what is a fan-beloved franchise.
Paper Mario is about RPG gameplay with unique visuals. Nintendo needs to go back to that. Because the upcoming game Color Splash looks to be more gimmicks and less Paper Mario. If that one fails, what will they do next? I fear for what comes if it doesn’t sell well.
BUT, IF they go back to its roots, go back to what made the original and Thousand Year Door so awesome, it could be a new wave of great games for fans. That’s what I want. I want my Paper Mario back.