Platform: Nintendo 64

Developer: Intelligent Systems

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: February 5th, 2001

Genre: Role-Playing

Nerd Rating: 10 out of 10!

Imagine that one day you were suddenly turned into a piece of paper and you had to go on a quest to save your kidnapped girlfriend. Does that sound interesting to you? If your answer was no, then I agree with you, yet somehow Intelligent Systems made it interesting with their release of Paper Mario.

Paper Mario is a turn-based role-playing game that takes place in the Mario universe, yet for some reason, Mario (along with all other characters) is literally a piece of paper. In the usual Mario format, Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach once again and Mario must go on a long and difficult quest to save her. Oddly enough, aware that his plans usually fail, Bowser went a step further and actually kidnaps Princess Peach’s entire castle, along with all the guests attending the party she was currently throwing.

The Paper Mario story is really engaging for a Mario game, using elements like an extremely interesting cast to engage you. Nearly every NPC you come across has something unique to say, which made it enjoyable and worthwhile to talk to everyone (I mean, who doesn’t talk to every single person in RPGs? I know I do!) Your companions have their own unique personalities as well, and some even have sidequests. I ended up caring about the companions more than I cared about Mario in my playthrough (but it’s hard to care about Mario when you know he’s secretly a psychopath, eh, Game Theory?)

The gameplay of Paper Mario is extremely difficult at times, especially due to the lack of save boxes inside enemy areas. However, with the right tactics and items, you will be fine. Even though Paper Mario is a role-playing game first and foremost, it does have a few platforming and puzzle elements thrown in. The platforming is minimal, but the puzzles are actually quite difficult. Generally, you will be doing a puzzle without even officially knowing it, as the puzzles tend to involve talking to certain NPCs and doing things in the correct order. I advise talking to everyone and reading every sign, and if you want to be a completionist, shake every bush and hit every tree.

The soundtrack of Paper Mario is truly wonderful. There is around two and half hours of music in this game, and there are no tracks that I don’t like. Paper Mario is also wonderful graphically. Overall, Paper Mario aged pretty well, and it would pass off as an amazing indie game by today’s standards. The 2D characters with the 3D background (buildings, etc) even has a nice little charm to it, and it makes it feel like it is graphically inferior (today) purposely. Though, at its time, Paper Mario was pretty superior in its graphics.

Mario’s character progression/level-up system is pretty good in Paper Mario, allowing you to choose between three stats to level up each level. You are also able to level up companions by finding super blocks hidden in the world. However, you are not able to get companions new gear, which you can for Mario. You also aren’t able to equip badges on them, and the lack of this feature is pretty much the biggest downfall of the game. However, for this to be the “biggest” downfall says a lot, since it is quite a minimal downfall in itself. I wouldn’t take away any points for this tiny flaw.Paper Mario is hands-down one of my all-time favorite Mario games, as well as my favorite Nintendo 64 game. I highly recommend this to all Mario fans, unless you hate RPGs with a passion. The gameplay, story, visuals, and audio of this game truly go hand-in-hand together to make the perfect game. Sadly, the franchise has gone downhill since the release of this title, and I probably wouldn’t recommend the later games with the exception of the direct sequel, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. However, I will go into specifics about the other games in their own separate reviews. Ultimately, this game is perfect, and I highly recommend picking it up, even if you have to use virtual console or an emulator.