Every Paper Mario Game Ranked

It is honestly no surprise that “Sticker Star” is regarded as the worst in the franchise. Keep in mind that it isn’t an awful game in the vein of most notorious games. It features some interesting ideas in its heavy focus on using items. There is a lot to consider in which items can take down enemies quicker and which should be saved for the boss fights. However, as an RPG and as a “Paper Mario” game, it fails in just about every other aspect. For starters, the lack of party members allowed the combat to grow stale quickly. We’re not opposed to playing as Mario primarily, but the stickers only did so much to change strategies and did nothing to raise the difficulty. Then, there was the backtracking - oh, the ABYSMAL backtracking! If you ever hit a roadblock in one area, it meant you had to go back to some other area, sometimes with no clue as to where you should be going next. Really, “Sticker Star” just did not respect the player’s time and failed to follow up on what used to be an acclaimed series. At least the music was solid.

At first, this seemed like a neat way to mesh the “Paper Mario” and “Mario & Luigi” fan bases together to maybe introduce one side’s peanut butter to the other side’s chocolate. That is the goal of crossovers in the first place, right? Well, it succeeded in some ways. You have the creative paper concepts of “Paper Mario” blending with the multi-character abilities Mario, Luigi, and Paper Mario can access. Problem is that apart from visuals, the “Paper Mario” half gets shoved aside more often than it probably should have. Much of the gameplay plays like any other “Mario & Luigi” game just with a third character at play. Decent game, but it really should have been way better than it ended up becoming.

“Color Splash” already had a lot riding against it, especially after the lackluster state “Sticker Star” arrived in. Alas, what we got was just mediocre. To its credit, “Color Splash” was an improvement in writing and humor, making the story enjoyable enough for some players to want to progress. Gameplay, on the other hand, was debatable. Sure, there were some neat ideas in using a hammer to restore color to the world, and some of Mario’s new transformations were creative. However, the tedium can set in rather quickly. How often can recoloring flowers be satisfying? After about five minutes, not very. If you wound up just booking it for the finish line, we can’t blame you.

At first, “Origami King” seemed like a step back in the right direction for the franchise. Once again, we were given a wonderful story with an imaginative concept and cast to adore. Plus, the dark tones were playfully horrifying in the best ways while the overworld’s puzzles made you stop and try to figure things out on your own. And we’d be lying if we said we didn’t get a kick out of tossing colored paper in the air and watching it stick to open spots! But then, you get into combat. Look, the whole “rotate the circles to maximize your damage output” is cute and all, but some of the fights can be a bit much when you start throwing in arrows that affect Mario’s movement and limited number of times to shift positions. It’s a good game overall, but it’s hard to recommend to anyone who doesn’t have a great desire for puzzle-based mechanics.

From an outsider’s perspective, you would think “Super Paper Mario” would be widely despised on account that this was the first major stray away from the traditional turn-based combat with timed inputs. Besides, how in the world do you make an RPG platformer? Well, you make combat real-time as you would with action RPGs. But what really carries “Super Paper Mario” are the unique Pixl powers that change the way you explore every level. Acquiring a new one would encourage you to revisit levels to uncover any secrets you might have missed before, and each Pixl brought something new to the table from granting new attacks to changing perspectives and more. On top of that, Count Bleck and his cronies were some of the most memorable villains we had encountered in the series. Truly deserving of the love they get from “Paper Mario” fans!

Much of our love for the first “Paper Mario” stems from it being the first in the series. The traditional RPG formula wasn’t anything new for Mario and friends (“Super Mario RPG” already showed his potential in the genre). Regardless, this was a new avenue for the plumber in aesthetics, combat, and cast. The paper visuals brought a ton of charm to the visuals while wrangling in new mechanics with partner abilities in the overworld. As for the combat, it brought the right amount of difficulty in the perfect areas where things weren’t too easy but also weren’t difficult enough to frustrate younger players. In other words, it was an RPG almost anyone could enjoy regardless of age or skill.

It’s impossible to really be surprised that our number one pick is “The Thousand-Year Door”, honestly. So many of us swear by this game as the de facto “Paper Mario” game that everyone should play. There are just so many brilliantly written tales that you wouldn’t expect from a game like this. From Vivian’s struggles to Peach talking to an artificial intelligence program suffering from an existential crisis, “The Thousand-Year Door” was a wonderfully wild ride that expanded upon the first game’s ideas without getting too crazy with it (which is something the series would struggle in balancing after this point). And then, you have the various settings like the mysterious Rogueport, the beautiful Petal Meadows, and the intimidating Glitz Pit arena that really burst with creativity in their lore and characters. Really, if you never got the chance to play the original, you absolutely need to pick up the remake on Switch!

Which “Paper Mario” game is your favorite? We might have an idea what you all may say, but let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!