Retro Corner: Paper Mario 64

Like pretty much any other Mario game, the story of Paper Mario begins with Princess Peach being kidnapped by Bowser, King of the Koopas. It is up to Mario to save the Mushroom Kingdom… again. To do this he must gather the seven Star Spirits, scattered throughout the regions, so he can gain the power to overcome Bowser’s new weapon, the mysterious Star Rod. Originally known as Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario is exactly that: a charming RPG with 2D ‘paper’ characters in a 3D world.

The world of Paper Mario is fairly large, with several different areas to explore and eight different allies for Mario to befriend along the way. Throughout the game the player also gets to control Princess Peach, undergoing stealth-based missions within Bowser’s castle to gather information, which is then sent to Mario by a young star named Twink. With each level gained, the player can choose to increase Mario’s Health Points (HP), Flower Points (FP) – used for special moves – or Badge Points (BP). Badges can be equipped in order to gain the special effects they have, at the cost of BP. Another mechanic used in battles is Star Energy. Star Energy allows the player to borrow the power of any Star Spirits Mario has saved.

The battle system itself is slightly flawed, as although Mario fights with allies alongside him it is not possible for the player to switch which character is in front. Character zoom-ins result in ugly splashes of pixelated  colour, and some critics argue that there is not enough in the game to carry the ‘paper theme’. Despite these criticisms, on Nintendo Power’s ‘Best of the Best’ list, Paper Mario scored as the 13^th best game for Nintendo 64 of all time, and in 2007, Paper Mario was released for Virtual Console on Wii, where it was second most downloaded game in Japan and most downloaded in the US.

The soundtrack is upbeat and annoyingly catchy, the storyline is brilliant, and the dialogue is often witty. It’s definitely worth playing, and, like all N64 games on Virtual Console, is 1000 points.