Paper Mario

Paper Mario[a] is a role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 home video game console. The first game in the Paper Mario series of Mario role-playing games, it was first released in Japan in 2000 and then internationally in 2001. Paper Mario was re-released for Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console in July 2007 as well as Wii U Virtual Console in 2015.

Paper Mario is set in the Mushroom Kingdom as the protagonist Mario tries to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, who has imprisoned the seven "Star Spirits", lifted her castle into the sky and has defeated Mario after stealing the Star Rod from Star Haven and making himself invincible. To save the Mushroom Kingdom, rescue Peach, get the castle back, and defeat Bowser, Mario must locate the Star Spirits, who can negate the effects of the stolen Star Rod, by defeating Bowser's minions guarding the star spirits. The player controls Mario and a number of partners to solve puzzles in the game's overworld and defeat enemies in a turn-based battle system. The battles are unique in that the player can influence the effectiveness of attacks by performing required controller inputs known as "action commands".

Paper Mario received acclaim and was rated the 63rd best game made on a Nintendo system in Nintendo Power 's "Top 200 Games" list in 2006.[1] It was followed by a series of sequels, starting with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the GameCube in 2004.

Plot
Set in the Mushroom Kingdom, the game begins when Mario and Luigi receive an invitation from Peach for a party at the castle. There, when Mario and Peach are alone, Bowser lifts her castle, overpowers Mario with his invincibilty that he gained by stealing the Star Rod and imprisoning the seven Star Spirits; Mario is thrown away from the castle in the sky and lands in Goomba Village, where he is aided by Goombario and his family. Mario and Goombario make their way to Shooting Star Summit, where the weakened seven Star Spirits' request Mario to find them in order to stop Bowser's invincibility. Mario and his friends go to the four Koopa Bros.' fortress where they save the first Star Spirit. and they find the second one in the Dry, Dry Desert inside a secret fortress ruled over by Tutankoopa. The third one is being kept by Tubba Bubba, a nemesis scaring the Boos and eating them when he is "invincible" (his heart is his true weak point). The fourth one is kept by the General Guy and his minions living in the Toy Box. Mario and his new friends travel to Lavalava Land, an island where its inhabitants are threatened by an upcoming volcanic eruption. After saving the fifth Spirit, they journey to Flower Fields retrieving the sixth one. Mario becomes a suspect of murder when he finds the Shiver City's mayor unconsious; after solving the mystery (which was a mayor's own accident), Mario got to the Crystal Palace where he saves the last Star Spirit from the Crystal King. As he saved every Star Spirit, Mario then departs to Peach's Castle.

Meanwhile, Peach tries in numerous attempts to escape the castle alongside Twink. The player controls Peach in a variety of minigames each time after Mario save a Star Spirit, such as baking a cake to a Shy Guy or even clone the appareance of Bowser's minions with a magic umbrella. Each gameplay segment with Peach, she overhears Bowser speaking about the bosses Mario beats before being discovered and being transported to her room again.

Mario enters the castle and confronts Bowser; with the power of the seven Star Sprites, Mario manage to beat Bowser by stopping his invicibilty while Peach and Twink battles Bowser's sidekick Kammy Koopa. Mario and Peach alongsides their friends eventually win over Bowser and Kammy. The Star Spirits restore the castle to its spot. On another day, Mario and Luigi receives a letter for another party, which lead to a parade as the game's credits rolls.

Story and characters
The game's story centers on Mario as he tries to reclaim the seven Star Spirits, who have been sealed in playing cards by Bowser and his assistant, Kammy Koopa.[5] Their combined power is required to negate the effects of the Star Rod, which makes Bowser invincible. Once Mario rescues all of them, he uses their assistance to defeat Bowser and rescue Peach. The story is presented in the context of a novel, with each adventure involving the rescue of a Star Spirit denoted as a single chapter. Peach is playable between chapters, where she allies with a star kid named Twink in the castle to relay vital information to Mario regarding his quest.[3]

Mario allies with eight partners in total, each of whom represents a different type of enemy from the Mario franchise. These allies are: After Peach's castle is sent back to the ground and Mario defeats Bowser, he recounts his tale to Luigi, who had remained at home while Mario went on the adventure. Peach throws a huge party to honor Mario and his allies for saving the entire kingdom, which is then followed by a parade during the credits.
 * Goombario, a Goomba who has the ability to tell the player about any character, environment, and enemy
 * Kooper, a Koopa Troopa with the ability to throw his shell at otherwise unreachable objects
 * Bombette, a Bob-omb with the ability to blow up weak parts of walls
 * Parakarry, a Paratroopa with the ability to help Mario cross gaps too large to jump across
 * Lady Bow, a Boo with the ability to make Mario become invisible and transparent
 * Watt, a Li'l Sparky with the ability to light up rooms and reveal hidden objects
 * Sushie, a Cheep-Cheep with the ability to allow Mario to swim
 * Lakilester, a Lakitu with the ability to allow Mario to traverse dangerous environments, such as spikes and lava.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The music is amazing, especially Shy Guy's Toybox and Star Summit
 * 2) The yellow buttons on the N64 controller are used to quickly access the partner and item menus, that way the player doesn't have to constantly open the pause menu in order to use an item or switch a partner around
 * 3) All the characters are likable with funny dialogue
 * 4) Each land has their own unique style, all of them visually appealing
 * 5) Although Mario is the main character, Peach has her own playable sections too as she sneaks around the castle to discover what Bowser will be planning next
 * 6) Goombario's tattles are often hilarious and include references to past Mario games
 * 7) If you ever get stuck at some point, Merlon's house in Toad Town can provide hints on what to do next
 * 8) Mario will always require 100 star points in order to level up, meaning the player won't need to constantly grind the low level enemies and can avoid them if need be
 * 9) Speaking of battles, the player can obtain badges that allow them to skip any battles with enemies that won't drop star points
 * 10) If the player ever wants to switch around their HP, FP and BP stats, there's a character in Toad Town who can increase or decrease any of those three you pick
 * 11) Later on in the game the player can unlock warp pipes that lead directly to the Goomba and Koopa villages, Bow's mansion and Fahr Outpost
 * 12) There's a huge amount of optional sidequests the player can do if they so choose
 * 13) * Returning items found throughout the level to their respective owners
 * 14) * Finding all of Parakarry's lost letters and delivering them to the correct people
 * 15) * Chuck Quizmo appears at random in several locations to give you 64 quizzes that award star pieces
 * 16) * Koopa Koot's favours which at first only reward the player with a single coin, but later on they get star pieces
 * 17) * The star pieces themselves can be found all over the overworld levels and can be used to purchase badges
 * 18) * The Toad Town Dojo later opens up in order to allow Mario to battle stronger bosses, although they don't award star points, he does gain a diploma for beating the Master
 * 19) * Tayce.T in Toad Town will cook any one or two items in Mario's inventory which can make them more useful
 * 20) The Toad Houses are found in every level, using them will allow Mario to fully regain FP and HP without costing a coin
 * 21) Item shops are found all over too, each gives a different price for different items to buy or sell
 * 22) After each level, Mario gains a new ability from the Star Spirits he saves. Each costing a bit of his star power
 * 23) * Eldstar can replenish five HP and FP for Mario
 * 24) * Mamar can put certain enemies to sleep
 * 25) * Skolar will attack all enemies, dealing seven damage each
 * 26) * Muskular can lower all enemies' attack power by three
 * 27) * Misstar can replenish 20 HP to Mario
 * 28) * Klevar immobilizes all enemies for a few turns
 * 29) * Kalmar can turn any enemy (excluding bosses) into stars, removing them from battleL
 * 30) Eventually after saving them all, Mario unlocks the Star Beam which removes status buffs from enemies and allows him to defeat Bowser
 * 31) * It's later upgraded to the Peach Beam when Bowser tries using the Power Platform to boost his strength
 * 32) The end credits is a parade of all the characters and bosses in the game, ending off with a fireworks show
 * 33) At the end of each chapter, Mario can read entries in Luigi's diary, references previous games and hinting at a new one to come

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The player's item storage can only carry a certain number at a time, so they may be forced to use or drop some items they may not want to
 * 2) The game doesn't save after the credits, nor is there any post game content like in later titles
 * 3) Tutankoopa can be an annoying boss with them damaging your partners
 * 4) The max BP Mario can have is only thirty, which isn't enough if one wants to use powerful badges