Nintendo has a fine tuned process when it comes to developing their pre-existing franchises. Watching a Nintendo franchise through the years is like watching a child star grow up. You don’t have any control over the situation, yet you find yourself hoping they don’t destroy themselves. New Super Mario Bros grew up to be a wildly popular and entertaining performer that I’m slightly tired of seeing so often, while Metroid was a beloved entertainer until he mysteriously went missing four years ago. Bear with me with this analogy here, but the Mario and Luigi, and the Paper Mario Series are like two fraternal twins who try a little too hard to be different by developing unnecessary traits in an attempt to distinguish oneself. Over the past decade, the Mario and Luigi series appears that it has found it’s niche in the market, while Paper Mario’s recent added features such as stickers detract from what originally made the series great.
This article talks about the de-evolution of paper...
VGChartz's Mark Nielsen: "Welcome to A Late Look, a series of article where I take a belated look at games from yesteryear that I missed out on the first time around. Not quite review and not quite rant, it’s more a casual assessment of what I – the gamer of the future – consider to be each game’s strengths and weaknesses in retrospect.
Just last month Nintendo released a remake of the cult-classic Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, so what better time could there possibly be to take a look not at that game, and not at its original, but at the Nintendo 64 game from 2000? None is what I say! This very first release in the Paper Mario series will also be my first entry point. So, let’s get to it."
“While everyone is currently playing the new The Thousand-Year Door remake on Switch, I went back to play its Nintendo 64 predecessor thanks to Nintendo Switch Online. So, how well does the start of the Paper Mario franchise hold up?” - Martijn van Gent from Video Chums.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Switch sets a benchmark for how to make a very faithful remake while playing up the game’s strengths
I wonder if we will ever see a game as good as Thousand Year Door :/
The Thousand Year Door is a masterpiece and for me the most solid game that the GameCube has to offer. Not many games in the console had that charming storyline, memorable characters, amazing gameplay and even very good visuals. And if you played it as a kid, it's a huge plus. The most enjoyable RPG I have ever played on a Nintendo console. Such a shame not many people often take it seriously because it features elements of the Mario franchise.
A few years later Super Paper Mario came out, but its focus on platforming really underwhelmed me. It's not that I disliked it, it's very good, but you know, I prefer the RPG essence.
And then Sticker Star came out... I don't really like this game at all. It's the same argument of Super Mario games but just with stickers. Come on. For that I have the real Mario games. The combat is bad and the puzzles feel uninspired.
I hope Intelligent Systems takes back the real feeling of Paper Mario for Wii U, if they ever make a game for it.
Paper Mario for the N64 is my favorite I liked everything about it I can't express how badly I would like to play it again or a newer sequel. ;)
Thousand year door is my favorite MArio and Gamecube game. Really hope we see a return to that style.