Paper Mario (series)

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Template:Series-infobox The Paper Mario series is a Mario sub-series that has spanned over Nintendo's latest three consoles. It began in 2001, and has continued up to the present.

Paper Mario

Template:Infobox The series began with the aptly-named Paper Mario, a Role Playing Game for the Nintendo 64. It is named Paper Mario because of the characters' two-dimensional appearance.

The story of the game was that Bowser had kidnapped Princess Peach by lifting her castle into the sky (specifically, his castle was buried underneath the Princess's and flew into the air to lift it up). Mario could not defeat him, because the evil king used a weapon known as the Star Rod to become invincible. However, with the power of Princess Peach's wishes and great Star beings known as the Star Spirits, Mario was able to make the Star Rod ineffective, and promptly defeated Bowser.

While Mario progressed through the quest, short missions featuring Princess Peach were featured at the end of each chapter. In these missions, she is helped by a Star Kid named Twink to sneak around her castle in any way possible and find information that could help Mario. Twink would then fly down to Mario and inform him of the news.

The game also introduces partners, eight of which are available in this game. Each partner has four attacks, and they have all of the same tactics as Mario except for running away and using Items. The partners (in order) are Goombario, Kooper, Bombette, Parakarry, Bow, Watt, Sushie, and Lakilester.

Super Mario RPG 2

Paper Mario was originally intended to be a sequel to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, aptly titled Super Mario RPG 2. However, Square Enix split from Nintendo while the game was being produced, and the project was cancelled.

Despite this, several elements from SMRPG were still used. For example, the characters Merlon, Merlee, etc. appear to be modeled after the Shaman enemies of Super Mario RPG. Also like the original Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario featured a parade of several characters while the credits rolled - in fact, in both games, the parade is led by Luigi.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

In 2004, Paper Mario was followed by a sequel for the Nintendo GameCube, entitled Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It's the second installment in the Paper Mario Series. The protagonist in this game is Mario, the protagonist being Grodus and the X-Nauts. The object of this game is to collect all of the Crystal Stars and save Princess Peach.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a console-style RPG, but during Bowser's intermission, it turns into a side-scroller. Also, Mario now gets Paper abilities, which gets him to more places in the game. Mario's partners also have many different abilities that also get Mario farther. Not only that, but Mario also has to depend on his jump and hammer to get to different places.

The battle system depends a lot on timed button hits. The player mustselect what attack he uses via a console, then hit the button commands. When it's the enemies turn to attack, Mario can guard or superguard via a button command.

Super Paper Mario

The third, and most recent installment of the Paper Mario series is Super Paper Mario. This installment, unlike it's predecessors, is an Action/Adventure genre, similar to Super Mario Bros.

The story begins with a peaceful day in the Mushroom Kingdom. Just to get out of the rut, Mario and Luigi decide to pay a visit to Princess Peach. However, a Toad comes by and tells you that Princess Peach has been kidnapped.

Assuming it is Bowser who was the kidnapper, the Mario Bros. head to his castle. However, Bowser was about to kidnap her, but did not actually do so yet. The real kidnapper appears, Count Bleck. He attacks Mario, which leaves him unconscious, and takes everyone else.

Mario is woken by a Pixl, a digital-like creature, named Tippi. Tippi will explain that she is an ally and transports Mario to Flipside, the city between dimensions. Mario is met by Merlon who explains that Count Bleck has created the Void, and Mario is the hero of the prophecy, the only one that can stop Bleck.

Mario then embark on his greatest adventure yet. To stop Count Bleck and save the world, Mario travels to different dimensions, collecting Pure Hearts, the entitys of love and purity, and the only thing to counteract the Chaos Heart. He meets many different characters and fights many different fights.

Mario teams up with Peach, Bowser and Luigi. Peach finds herself in the middle a giant castle. Some of Bowsers minions try to help her but end up getting brainwashed by Bleck's minion Natassia. Before she gets brainwashed herself, she gets mysteriously transported away. When she appears in Flipside, she is unconscious. When she is awoken, she offers to help Mario. Bowser joins the group when Mario beats him at the end of Chapter 3-1. They convince him to join, since there won't be any world to rule.

Luigi becomes playable before Chapter 7. In an intermission, Luigi try to find a way out of Castle Bleck. He guides two Goombas, unfortunately, in to a dead end. Natassia finds them and brainwashes Luigi. Luigi then takes on the the alter ego Mr. L(aka the "Green Thunder") He appears as the Chapter 4 and 6 boss. He battles in his giant robot Brobot and Brobot L-Type. At the end of chapter 6, Dimento give him a "Game Over" and sent him to the Underwere. Mario, when he is sent to the Underwere as well, finds Luigi, not brainwashed, and joined Mario.

Trivia

• In all the Paper Mario games, Mario can transform into an 8-Bit version of himself, along with some type of Super Mario Bros. music accompanied with it.
• In every Chapter 2 in the Paper Mario series the chapter boss is a minion of the main antagonist; in Paper Mario, all the chapter bosses are minions of Bowser, in PM:TTYD it's Lord Crump, and in Super Paper Mario it's Mimi.
• The final boss for each game starts out invincible, but after a specific scene or battle, their invincibility is destroyed. For Bowser, Twink defeats Kammy Koopa and powers up the Star Beam; for Shadow Queen, the power of the Crystal Stars and the voices of everyone across the world destroys her immortality; and for Super Dimentio, Tippi, Count Bleck, O'Chunks, and Mimi are able to destroy his invincibility with the Pure Hearts.
• The role of Luigi is more significant in each game; in the first Paper Mario, he is simply there; in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, he is off on his own adventures; and in Super Paper Mario, he finally becomes a playable character and is possessed by a final boss.
• The storyline seems to get significantly darker within every Paper Mario series installment. The storyline of the first game involved wishes no longer being granted, while The Thousand-Year Door was about an ancient demon (which Peach ended up getting possessed by) who once sank an entire town underground from all the destruction that she caused, and Super Paper Mario's plot involved a void that was created to wipe everything from existence entirely.
• There is one more playable character in each game. In Paper Mario, there is Mario and Princess Peach, in The Thousand-Year Door there is Mario, Peach, and Bowser, and in Super Paper Mario, there is Mario, Peach, Bowser, and Luigi.