Paper Mario (game)

Paper Mario is a role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. The game came as a spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, as Paper Mario reuses several mechanics found in the game. Paper Mario spawned a sequel, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which was released for the Nintendo GameCube a few years later.

Paper Mario was re-released on both the Wii and Wii U's Virtual Console (in July 2007 and April 2015, respectively) and was most recently added to the Nintendo 64 Expansion pack on the Nintendo Switch in December of 2021.

Plot
In the sky above the Mushroom Kingdom rests a place called Star Haven, where the lands of the kingdom are watched over by seven Star Spirits. The Star Spirits, with the use of the Star Rod, hears the pleas of the denizens and grant their wishes. One day, Bowser enters Star Haven and steals the Star Rod for himself. Using the Star Rod, Bowser drains the power from the Star Spirits, and becomes increasingly powerful. He crashes a party held at Princess Peach's castle. Mario, who was attending the party as a guest, attempts to stop him, only to get beaten by a now invincible Bowser and is promptly knocked out the castle. As Princess Peach watches in horror, Bowser uses the power of the Star Rod to hoist Princess Peach's castle up off the ground, placing it directly on top of his own and bringing it far into the sky. Mario, still unconscious from Bowser's attack, falls through the sky and lands in the forest near Goomba Village. He is found unconscious by a family of local goombas who bring him to a nearby toad house to rest. As Mario lies unconscious on the bed, he is visited by Eldstar, one of the Star Spirits. Although he has very little life force left, Eldstar uses some of his remaining power to heal Mario and delivers a message that he needs to head towards Shooting Star Summit to meet with the council of Star Spirits. Meanwhile, Princess Peach is being held captive in her private chambers by Bowser and his assisstant, Kammy Koopa. After pleaing to the stars, she meets and befriends a newborn Star Kid named Twink. He recently rose to the sky a few days prior. Despite his willingness to help, the only support he can offer is acting as a courier from Peach to Mario - providing him information she discovers about the Star Spirits and Bowser's plans and bringing him a beneficial necklace. When Mario arrives at Shooting Star Summit, projections of the Star Spirits, who are captured by Bowser's henchmen, ask him to rescue them from their respective prisons using the last remaining bit of their power.

After rescuing all the Star Spirits, Mario is able to ride up to Sky Haven and approaches Bowser's castle. After making it through Bowser's castle, he reaches the entrance of Peach's castle. On one of the upper floors of the castle, Bowser surprise attacks him but he ends up retreating after taken a beating. On the very top of the castle, Mario confronts an ultra-powerful Bowser, who uses the Star Rod to make himself invincible - even the power of the Star Spirits cannot deter his strength. As the battle rages on between the two, Peach and Twink fight Kammy Koopa, and end up beating her. As she lies unconscious on the ground, Twink encourages Peach to make a wish that the Star Spirits had more strength to aid Mario. With the help of Twink, Mario is now able to remove Bowser's invincibility and match his power with renewed vigor. After a long battle, Bowser is defeated, and Mario recovers the Star Rod. The immense power radiating off the battle arena causes it to explode blowing Bowser and Kammy Koopa into space, while the Star Spirits are able to protect Mario, Peach, and the castle. When everything starts to return to normal, Mario, all his partners, Luigi, and many of the other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom are invited to a special gathering at Peach's castle. After the party ends, a celebratory parade begins, led by Luigi. A majority of characters met on Mario's journey appear, often with some comedic situations and special performances. As the parade dies down, Mario and Peach share a special moment, watching the fireworks over the Mushroom Kingdom.

Gameplay
Players take control of Mario and his partners in an open-world environment that takes him to various locations around the Mushroom Kingdom including towns, villages, fortresses, and mountains. Mario can interact with various characters, purchase items at the shop, equip and unequip badges, and explore many different areas by solving puzzles, using his partner's special abilities to traverse dangerous landscapes, or by defeating enemies and bosses. Throughout the game, the player collects star pieces, which can be traded for rare badges. As the player releases more Star Spirits from their captors, they grant the player with additional star power used for special spirit abilities. At the end of each chapter, the player controls Princess Peach as she navigates her heavily patrolled castle where she attempts to find out more about Bowser's plans and the captive star spirits. With the help of a star kid named Twink, Peach is able to communicate indirectly to Mario by providing him beneficial information.

Combat follows the turn-by-turn system employed in Super Mario RPG. After progressing to a certain part of the game, Mario gains the ability to use action commands which increase Mario's damage output depending on how well the player times the attacks. In order to start combat, the player must walk into an enemy in the field (both the player and enemies can start battle with an advantage by attacking in the field first). Up to four enemies (save for a few exceptions) can be on screen at any given time, and the player controls both Mario and a partner. The player can swap out partners at any time, although this counts as a turn. In addition to basic attacks, there are several status effects that can be applied to both Mario and enemies, such as being frozen solid, or being electrified. When the player is victorious in combat, they receive Star Points for each enemy defeated. Collecting 100 Star Points allow the player to "level up" Mario and increase his either his health points, flower points, or badge points. The player receives a game over if Mario's health points drop to zero and must resume from their last save.

There are several optional side tasks the player can do, such as running favors for Koopa Koot, or delivering mail to characters across the Mushroom Kingdom.