Game of the Month #120 - Paper Mario

Paper Mario

Mario pals around in an all-new action adventure! Mario's back in his first adventure since Super Mario 64, and this time, Bowser's bent on preventing a storybook ending. When Princess Peach is kidnapped, Mario plots to rescue the seven Star Spirits and rid the Mushroom Kingdom of Koopa's cruel cohorts. As he travels from the tropical jungles of Lavalava Island to the frosty heights of Shiver Mountain, he'll meet up with seven all-new companions... and he'll need help from each one or there'll be no happily ever after.
How long is Paper Mario?
When focusing on the main objectives, Paper Mario is about 23 Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 33½ Hours to obtain 100% completion.

First time submitting something for this, it winning was a nice surprise. Had not touched any Mario RPGs before 2024 and thought that Paper Mario as a series could potentially interest me more than Mario & Luigi which caused me to try out the original Paper Mario, which I'm so glad that I did. This game just oozes with charm all around, both in terms of the scenarios you get into as a part of the main story to just randomly talking to NPCs, there is something new and lovely around the corner. Battle system is very satisfying too, leveling obviously plays a part but equipping the correct badges and mastering and executing the Action Commands makes every individual battle interesting. You also have a wide range of partners to make use of, both for the overworld and the battles. Definitely some I gravitated more towards than others, but they all have their use even aside from the mandatory usage in the overworld. Loved the structure too, dividing it into clearly distinct chapters allows for a variety of unique settings and experiences to be present in each one which ensures things get mixed up constantly. The short Peach section between each chapter are also really great, but in the way that they additionally explore Peach and the antagonists but also because it gives a short break after you have finished off a difficult fight before you have to head off into the next chapter.

I have somewhat gotten the impression that this game is somewhat overlooked compared to the Thousand Year Door, which I feel is more discussed even besides the recent remake, and that mostly makes me just even more excited to play it and see if it really is much better consider how incredible the first game really is. Also very much looking forward to giving the other games a shot, particularly Super Paper Mario, and also the other RPGs Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi. Paper Mario though is definitely worth playing, even if you have experience with other Mario RPGs I'm sure you will also get a ton out of this game.

Played this back in the day when it was first released and it holds a special place in the nostalgic section of my heart. One of the few titles I've ever given a 10/10 to and it deserves every bit of it.

TTYD is fantastic as well. Never did give any of the other games in the series a shot as the last mainline Nintendo console I owned was the Gamecube.

I've got an original copy of Paper Mario laying around somewhere that hopefully I can dig up in the next day or so.

A Nintendo Online membership was one of my Christmas gifts to the kids, and this was a game I had my eye on from the moment I saw it on the list and even played the beginning of it just to dip my toe in. I basically missed all Mario games from 64 until Odyssey, and the Paper Marios are the ones I've been most interested in catching up on. This winning the gotm now was great timing for me. This will be my pallet cleanse between RPGs.

I don't care about online gaming anymore, but bought a membership a few months ago to try out a few specific games. But I ended up forgetting about it/starting other games. Paper Mario was one of those games. When I saw the nomination I thought "now is the time to finally use the membership" :)

I think you are right that this Paper Mario is overlooked. I didn't know about it until 2024 either.

I suspect I'll start it halfway through this month

I am completely new to Nintento and will defo be playing this. Can I ask people's opinions on how best to play it without a console, emulation or online service if anyone has any advice that would be great.

I wouldn't have bet on that one but that's definitely a good game to start a new year.
Not sure I'll find the time to replay it, as far as I remember that's a fairly long game and I have a tough month coming at work, but I'll try.
Have fun everyone, and happy new year :)

I am completely new to Nintento and will defo be playing this. Can I ask people's opinions on how best to play it without a console, emulation or online service if anyone has any advice that would be great.

That's only my opinion but I've never found N64 emulation to be really convincing, due to the N64 joypad being very specific. That being said, I don't think it's as important with Paper Mario as, for example, with Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64.

I finished this game a couple years ago and found it to be a decent but simple and mediocre experience. The writing was a high point - light hearted and humorous.

7/10

I played a bit of it this weekend, couple of hours or so. It's not the 10/10 that some nostalgic folks make it out to be, but it's a great chill game. There's enough strategy to make me think a bit on what to do on the battles, but not too much, exactly as I wanted it.

For some reason I was expecting a paper themed story, like mushroom kingdom is turned into paper or something.

Unfortunately I won't be able to take part in the GOTM but will look forward to next months vote. I will be limited to just PC games when they are selected.

A couple thoughts I posted on my weekly HLTB blog update that I'll dump here as well:

I really liked the art style - it's downright gorgeous for an N64 title - and it's got a solid foundation of good RPG mechanics with it's combat, items, dungeons, etc. All that having been said, I retired it after completing the second chapter. It seemed pretty clear to me that there wasn't going to be much more story or character development, and I just completely lost interest. I'm not sure what I was expecting from a Mario game, silly me. It's a delightful enough game filled with quaint, child-like humor and moderately challenging but engaging combat and puzzles, but I just can't bring myself to spend any of my limited Vidya time on games without a great story or crazy good gameplay to compensate for the lack of a story

This game is really nice. At first the graphics could be a bit disappointing (from my POV, the N64 graphics and I do not get on well xD), but the gameplay is great.

I is a very accessible and enjoyable RPG.

Regards

Not many responses in this topic.
I haven't had time to finish it yet. But I will definitely do that in February.
Just like hpuente85, I am not a fan of the N64 graphics, but I think it works out well for this game. Maybe this is also because I played Pokemon Violet before which is a blurry mess.

Anyway, my girlfriend asked me if it was a recent game when she saw me playing it. She thought the graphics were good for an old game.Maybe also because she saw me play violet first :p