STACK #235 May 2024

GAMING FEATURE

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PAPER VIEW! In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, all the world’s a stage – at least for Mario. If he pleases the watching audience of friends and enemies in battle, they’ll throw him helpful items. But if he bombs then they’ll leave – or cause him damage. Whoa, tough crowd!

kidnapped by the creepy Count Bleck and forced to marry Bowser. Ugh! In 2012, it was time for our flattened friend to go portable, in the super-enjoyable return to more turn-based action that was Paper Mario: Sticker Star for Nintendo’s 3DS. Steering the series’ look towards even more of a distinct papercraft aesthetic, as the title suggests the big new introduction was those things that every kid can’t get enough of – stickers! More than ornamental, these gifted Mario with various powerup abilities in his quest to, yep, save Peach from Bowser. Nintendo’s Wii U console

Mario is one versatile tradie. Through the years, Nintendo’s moustachioed mascot has saved princesses, freed kingdoms, and overcome the most despotic enemies, usually with an arcade-styled run and jump, and a peppy “Let’s-a-go!”. But the Paper Mario series has always had more of a strategic bent. With the Switch remake of Paper Mario:TheThousand-Year Door unfolding this month, we take a quick look back at the series. Words Amy Flower T he story of Paper Mario began with plans for RPG specialists Intelligent Systems to create a sequel to Super Mario RPG . Shadow Queen, but naturally Mario was having none of that!

introduced some unique hardware elements, in particular the touchscreen controller. 2016’s Paper Mario: Color Splash utilised this with painting elements brought into play – along with that other thing that kids really love, trading cards. Mario was both tasked with

It soon evolved into a new franchise, with the unique flat look of characters – hence the “paper” – all a part of a book-styled aesthetic. Despite being a turn-based role-playing puzzle game, rather than another pure action hit, the aim in Paper Mario was to keep things simple and appealing enough for those new to the genre. After all, the basic quest was familiar – Mario must save Princess Peach from Bowser. Paper Mario released for the Nintendo 64 console in 2000 in Japan, and soon made its way west the following year – to critical acclaim.

The title may suggest a dolled-up version of the original, but 2007’s Super Paper Mario for the Wii was a whole new experience, that

a quest by a sentient paint can and, of course, had to rescue Peach from Bowser. Tradition! It was Nintendo Switch time in 2020, with Paper Mario:The Origami King . The established formula wasn’t messed with much, although it saw Mario entering into 360°, more timing-dependent ring-based battles, alongside classic platforming, and puzzle-solving action. Plus, as the title suggests, there was a whole lot of folding going on. Mario also had an origami companion named Olivia, and the assistance of a cool new powerup, the “1,000 Fold Arms”, which allowed him to manipulate the papery landscape. This time it was all in the name of defeating Olivia’s brother King Olly, who brainwashed Bowser’s army and unleashed a plot to fold the Mushroom Kingdom – but kidnapping Peach for good measure.

still kept an eye on what made the franchise so popular. While maintaining RPG elements, it was a little more platformer skewed, introducing an interesting 2D/3D dimension flipping mechanism that revealed otherwise hidden treasures. Mario once again set out to save Peach, who this time was

The success of Paper Mario ensured that a sequel would eventually appear, and it happened in 2004 in the form of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door , for the GameCube. Keeping many of the elements that made the original so popular, in particular the look, this time Mario’s quest was to save Peach from new characters, the usually moon-dwelling X-Nauts. Their intent was to use Peach’s body as a vessel to resurrect the

• Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is out on May 23

38 MAY 2024

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