Anniversaries are often the perfect time to try to examine the state of certain things and see what can happen in the future. In the case of gaming anniversaries, we see how far a franchise has progressed or the legacy that certain titles hold. For Paper Mario, this franchise has a unique history that has officially spanned 25 years, and many are hoping that it will come back…if done in a specific way. The series started out as the “spiritual successor” to the first Mario RPG, which was developed by Square on the SNES. The title was a radical departure from Mario’s platforming titles, and gamers wanted more of that.
So, Intelligent Systems was brought in to do just that, and the first Paper Mario game was born on the Nintendo 64. The paper aesthetic, unique companion characters, allowing Princess Peach to have a meaningful side story within the title, and the game’s turn-based combat mechanics made it a hit. So much so that on the GameCube, it got a sequel that is hailed to this day as one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
However, after that, the series went in directions that fans still debate to this day. First, it became a more straightforward platformer on the Wii, and when the DS entry had stickers as the focus of the title, fans were seriously annoyed. Things only got weirder and wilder from there, with some games doing so badly sales-wise that they didn’t even sell a million units and took forever to get even close to that number.
On the Nintendo Switch, a remaster of The Thousand-Year Door was done, and it’s sold over 2 million units, proving that fans still love this classic title and want a return to form. Will they get that, though?
Honestly, it’s hard to say. Fans have been begging for years for a new entry to return to its RPG roots, but Nintendo seems hesitant to do so, even stating at one point that having multiple Mario RPG titles would “confuse gamers,” even though gamers rebuked that with vigor.
We know that Intelligent Systems is working on something for the Nintendo Switch 2, and because of how powerful the Switch 2 system is, it can easily make a paper-themed world look more beautiful than ever before. This is absolutely a case where Nintendo needs to listen to its fans and deliver what they want. If they don’t, then the next big anniversary will be even more about memories than it is about games.
