The localization team at Nintendo of America stayed winning with clever humor. Super Paper Mario went in a weird platformer direction that, while maybe ultimately a step down, was still really good. Likely because the GameCube was a lost cause in 2006 and the Wii was looking very promising, Nintendo pushed Super Paper Mario to the Wii, delaying the game until spring 2007. The third entry in the series was announced at E3 2006, aiming for an October release date that year. One of those GameCube games was almost going to be the next Paper Mario game - Super Paper Mario. Remember the GameCube, Nintendo? I know it wasn’t your best-selling system, but can we see some of those games again? My only complaint at this point is that it’s a late-gen GameCube game that’s somewhat harder to find, so it’d be cool if Nintendo re-released it somewhere. It built on the foundation of the N64 predecessor and added more wonder and peculiarities. It's a gorgeous game that won our Mario Spin-off Tournament for a reason. While I have some choice words to say about that frustrating final boss, I love Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Improved graphics, a new world, and more of a focus on the paper elements. When I caught wind of The Thousand-Year Door, I was stoked. Soon after Paper Mario hit Nintendo 64, news of a sequel started to surface. Sticker Star, aside from snazzy graphics and music, was devoid of joy. The loss of the unending creativity and wit that seemed to make the previous three Paper Marios a joy. It hit me with a wave that I think I hated this Paper Mario game. By this point, I played the game with a guide up because of the specificity of the thing stickers the plodding repetition if you didn't have the right one was maddening. It was in the back half of the adventure. It's been almost eight years, but I can still remember the moment when I threw down Paper Mario Sticker Star and stopped playing out of sheer frustration. It just so happened that the most contentious Paper Mario came out almost quite literally on Election Day in 2012. Paper Mario is like the American Presidential elections, and with where the series discourse has been lately, that comparison might be incredibly apt. Paper Mario hasn’t been Nintendo’s best-selling or most critically acclaimed games, but they’ve been consistent, as NWR’s Xander Morningstar pointed out earlier this year when he said Paper Mario games historically come out once every four years. The Paper Mario games, mostly thanks to the rumors throughout the early parts of 2020, have been a series on my mind. I actually started collecting these thoughts before Origami King was announced, as I’ve spent part of my COVID-19-related time noodling my way through some older games I wanted to replay or actually earnestly start. Paper Mario: The Origami King is on its way to Nintendo Switch soon, and with all the news swirling around about Mario and his pop-up adventures, I’ve reflected on my own experiences with the 20-year-old franchise.
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