The Beauty of Simplicity | Paper Mario Retrospective

In 2001, Nintendo released a new Mario role-playing game to North America: Paper Mario. Despite its simplicity, the beauty of Paper Mario lied in its unique art style and its fun, silly charm. It spawned a number of sequels that both refined the formula of the original and went in many different directions as the series went on. While the state of the series is a source of frustration to fans, in celebration of the first game's 20th anniversary, we'll be taking a look back in the franchise and examine all six games. We begin our journey with the one that started it all: Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. #PaperMario #Nintendo64 #SuperMarioBros
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TIMECODES

00:00 — INTRO
03:05 — DEVELOPMENT
05:26 — GAMEPLAY
08:59 — COMBAT
13:29 — PARTNERS AND LEVELING UP
20:27 — AESTHETICS
23:39 — STORY AND CHAPTERS
29:48 — SIDE QUESTS
32:34 — PEACH SEGMENTS AND FINAL CHAPTER
36:15 — CONCLUSION
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SOURCES / RECOMMENDED READING:

[Hawlo]

Quick Change shouldn't be that difficult to get. It starts after Chapter 3 where you see Merlon outside of his house with a troubled expression iirc, which should immediately make you want to talk to him to see what's wrong. After that, it's just doing what the NPCs tell you to do and you'll get the badge.

[josho.]

Paper Mario on 64 is my childhood man, I love that game

[MrGojira]

21:23 - 21:29 Great!! Now I can’t unsee Peach’s eyes being lifeless. 🤣

[uncy]

Imagine if it cost money to keep playing after you died.
It'd be, Pay Per Mario

[antenna_prolly]

_"Okay, Star Rod, make me a sandwich!"_

[PsychicWars]

Goombario is actually one of the best party members in the game because of how his damage scales with rank-ups. Even without Charging up, 6 damage for no FP cost is higher than any other party member can deal except for Bow, and WITH charging it's just flat-out game-breaking. By the time the endgame rolled around I was never switching him out except when I needed Watt to deal with high-defense enemies and Parakarry for screen clears.

[Sjono]

31:49 Paper Luigi is always a treat to see.”

Wish we could’ve seen Paper Luigi in the crossover title Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. Would’ve been awesome to see how Paper Luigi who actually talks interact with Luigi

[DieAntDie]

After your DK64 retrospective was recommended to me and I enjoyed it quite a bit, I checked to see your most recent uploads and I was delighted to find this one. You're really great at making videos and I sincerely hope to watch your channel grow even further.

[mushman]

This retrospective is great! It deserves more views tbh

[SuperRADLemon]

Bud your narration, voice and quality is *chefs kiss*. Can't believe I found you before you blew up. Lets go, and good luck moving forward

[DaNintendude]

I love retrospectives and it was neat to see a Paper Mario one in my recommended. I enjoyed the video and I definitely am looking forward to seeing your future retrospectives on the rest of the games in the series!

[Wolfkaosaun]

Paper Mario is a franchise that's always intrigued me but I never got around to it. With that said, I absolutely want to play this game first and foremost

[Underestimated]

I actually did a double take when I realised how new and small your channel is! You present like a pro and the video quality is top notch, and you’re not willing to shy away from the controversial! You’re doing amazing and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

[fernando]

The truest definition of "Baby's First RPG" and I absolutely love the game because of it. And thanks to a fun world to explore and a rich battle system with Badges, it still holds up amazingly.

[theluigifan]

Good video but I have to say, the Goombario disrespect is real. I find him to be far more useful now than I ever did as a kid. Charge + Multibonk pretty much wastes every boss once he’s Ultra-ranked. Plus, he does have a personality if you use Tattle in literally every room/area you walk in. Trust me, the shit this kid says gets a good laugh out of me even now. Because he’s the only party member you get to talk to at will during your adventure, I find him to have the most personality. That’s not to say the others are lacking in personality, I just love being able to talk to Goombario when I’m walking around and not going through any cutscenes or required story beats.

Goombario is underappreciated, almost to the same extent as Mario’s brother Luigi. Which is odd considering Goombario’s father Goompapa literally named him after Mario.

[MrPlayer]

Just found your channel through the Paper Mario subreddit, and it's at the perfect time. Origami King and some research into Mario in general has left me very interested in the Paper Mario series, and a retrospective like this is just what I'm looking for. Your review of 64 does confirm the general opinion of it, that it's a solid game held ultimately improved upon by its successor. All things considered, it's not as rough a start as something like Metroid or Legend of Zelda, so even with TTYD's success, I'm always curious about why this game is always overlooked since it's only one of the two pure RPG titles in the series. Going to subscribe for the rest of the series!

[SuperMuskett]

20:50 the game's visual style was made to emulate a sort of diorama of sorts so it would naturally look like that

[drak]

Loved this video and look forward to the rest of the franchise! I hope your videos blow up, they definitely deserve it for the effort you had to put in them!

[ToonNoah]

Only ever played this game on the Wii Virtual Console. But I feel as if I grew up with this game as so many other people did. Such a great video. Really enjoy hearing your thoughts on it!

[Jake-lsou]

I was just commenting on another vid but I'm really grateful I found your channel. You're realling singing my song and speaking my language. I adore these old games. Grew up on em. These retrospectives mean a lot to me. Thanks.