Paper Mario (series)

The Paper Mario series is an RPG action-adventure series of the Mario franchise developed by Intelligent Systems. Four games have been released - three for home consoles, one for the Nintendo 3DS - and a fifth, for Wii U, is due to be released in late 2016. The series has gone through three iterations so far: Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are RPGs, Super Paper Mario is a RPG-platformer hybrid, and Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Color Splash are action-adventure games.

Exploration
Having its roots in the action-RPG genre that Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars followed, Mario is the primary character to be controlled in the Paper Mario series and finds himself in 3D settings in which items can be found, foes can be fought, and non-playable characters can be discussed with. However, unlike Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars's isometric view, areas in the Paper Mario series are reminiscent of levels in the main Mario series such as Super Mario World by generally being made of simple horizontal paths, with Mario having to go from the left to the right and finding enemies and secrets along the way, while going through platforming trials, collecting coins and striking Blocks. To discover secrets, Mario can use many abilities he gains over the course of the game, such as a Hammer to strike Blocks, a Koopa Troopa shell to reach distant objects or the ability to remove and replace elements of the environment. Traps can also be found in the field however, and will decrease Mario's HP if he gets harmed, although his HP cannot drop below 1, except in Super Paper Mario. Save Blocks and Heart Blocks can be found, saving the player's game and healing Mario's HP and FP respectively.

Towns can also be visited, and act as areas in which Mario can rest, craft new items, talk to residents and shop for items. Side quests can also be found in towns, generally consisting in helping out dwellers in exchange for rewards. Each game has a main town as well that acts as a bigger area where the player may need to return to frequently for purposes revolving around the story, such as unlocking the next area that needs to be visited. These towns gradually change as the story advances, and in the case of the first three games of the story, also possess underground areas and optional battles. These towns are Toad Town for Paper Mario, Rogueport for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Flipside for Super Paper Mario, Decalburg for Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Port Prisma for Paper Mario: Color Splash.

Certain side quests will lead to an optional partner being obtained. Hidden objects such as Badges, Star Pieces, Coins and Stickers can also be found. Such items can make Mario stronger, making the game easier to progress through. In Paper Mario: Sticker Star exclusively, HP-Up Hearts may also be found, giving Mario more HP and First Strike Attack Power.

Battling
Battles are an essential aspect of the Paper Mario series. While exploring, Mario will encounter enemies on the field, who will generally attempt to engage him into battle upon seeing him. Although battles are important, the way they work is regularly changed in the series, with the only consistent element being HP (Heart Points), which indicate Mario's health and decrease depending on how much damage he receives: if his HP reach zero, the player obtains a Game Over and must resume the game from their latest save point.

Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Several characteristics are found in battle and help Mario defeat his foes:


 * HP: Heart Points. They decrease when Mario gets hit by an enemy or gets poisoned, and increase when he uses a recovery item such as a Mushroom or recovers automatically with a Happy Heart badge. Enemies also share this characteristic, and their amount of HP can be seen if they are Tattled with Goombario in Paper Mario and Goombella in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door or with the Peekaboo badge. If Mario's HP hit zero, the player gets a Game Over, but if an enemy's HP hit zero, they are defeated. Mario begins at 10 HP and can reach up to 50 HP (200 HP in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door) without badges or Chet Rippo.
 * Attack Power: Mario shares this trait with partners and enemies. Attack Power determines how many HP are lost by the opponent upon being attacked after being subtracted by the opponent's Defense Power, however partners do not have HP and instead remain knocked out for as many turns as the Attack Power of the attack that hit them, subtracted by their Defense Power. Attack Power is leveled up for Mario when obtaining stronger versions of his Boots and Hammer, while it is leveled up for partners with Super Blocks (Shine Sprites brought to Merlon in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door). Without badges, Mario's Attack Power begins at 1, his Super Boots and Super Hammer Attack Power is 2, and his Ultra Boots and Ultra Hammer Attack Power is 3.
 * Defense Power: Mario shares this trait with partners and enemies. While Attack Power makes an attack stronger, Defense Power makes it weaker, as seen above. The actual strength of an attack follows this equation: Attack Power - Defense Power = actual strength of an attack. Mario and his partners' Defense Power remains at 0 without badges, or at 1 for Kooper, Parakarry and Koops. Watt and Ms. Mowz's attacks also ignore Defense Power.
 * FP: Flower Points. Different moves will require a different amount of Flower Points, and if Mario does not have enough, him and his partner will be unable to use attacks that need them. They increase when Mario uses a recovery item such as a Honey Syrup. Mario begins at 5 FP and can reach up to 50 FP (200 FP in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door) without badges or Chet Rippo.
 * BP: Badge Points. Although they do not directly appear in battle, they are necessary to equip Badges and as such use stronger attacks and strategies. They can be used on the pause screen outside of battle: equipping a Badge will reserve a certain amount of BP for that Badge, and unequipping it will restore the same amount of BP. Badges can give Mario new attacks such as Power Jump, allow new commands such as Group Focus, enhance his abilities in the field such as Speedy Spin, etc. Mario begins at 3 BP and can reach up to 30 BP (99 BP in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door) without Chet Rippo.
 * Star Power: Star Power is a gauge made up of seven units that is used for Special Moves. Mario will gain 1 Star Power unit with every Star Spirit he rescues. When the gauge depletes in Paper Mario, one fraction of a unit will be automatically filled up after each turn, although Mario can use Focus to manually fill up the gauge. When the gauge depletes in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the Audience will fill up Mario's Star Power gauge to a varying amount, depending on the amount of active people in the audience, on Action Commands being performed correctly, and on Stylish Moves being executed. The audience's maximum capacity is 50 wen Mario is level 1, and reaches up to 200 when Mario is level 30.
 * Partners: In battle, Mario is helped out by a partner character that was met in the story. Partners have their turn after Mario's and can use the Abilities and Strategy commands just like him, as well as the Items command in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. In Paper Mario, they do not have their own HP or FP: they will be knocked out of battle for the same amount of turns as the strength of the attack that hurt them, and their FP reserves are shared with Mario, however they have their own Attack Power and Defense Power, the former being upgraded with Super Blocks. They also cannot suffer Status effects. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, partners have their own HP and can suffer from Status effect, and cannot be used for the rest of the battle unless they are revived with a Life Shroom. Partners are acquired throughout the story, and Mario can choose from eight partners by the end of the game, with one partner being optional in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
 * Star Points: When enemies are defeated, they drop Star Points. Once Mario collects 100 Star Points, he levels up and resets to 0 Star Points. Mario cannot obtain more than 100 Star Points in a battle, and after leveling up enough, earlier enemies will stop giving out Star Points. When leveling up, the player can upgrade Mario's HP by 5, his FP by 5, or his BP by 3. Mario starts out at level 1 and can get up to level 27 (level 99 in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door).
 * Bingo!: This feature only exists in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Two symbols are on the screen: each is randomly chosen after a successful Action Command, and both are reset if they are both chosen but do not match. If they do match, the Bingo! game appears, and the player has to line up a symbol on a slot game to the two others, with different effects taking place if the game is won:
 * Mushroom: Mario and his partner's HP are fully restored.
 * Flower: Mario's FP are fully restored.
 * Star: Mario's Star Power is fully restored.
 * Shine Sprite: Mario and his partner's HP, FP and Star Power are fully restored.
 * Poison Mushroom: Mario and his partner's HP, FP and Star Power are cut in half.
 * If the Bingo! game is won in all cases but the Poison Mushroom, the audience is also filled up to its highest capacity. In the case of the Poison Mushroom, the audience becomes empty.

Super Paper Mario
Super Paper Mario replaces its predecessors' turn-based battle system for real-time battles instead.


 * HP: HP, Attack Power and Defense Power return and work the same way as they did in the previous titles, however it is impossible to tell how many HP enemies have left, although they can still be Tattled with Tippi. The party begins at 10 HP and can reach up to 999 HP. Mario, Luigi and Peach have the same Attack Power while Bowser has double their Attack Power, and all the characters have a Defense Power of 0 without Items. The party's Attack Power begins at 1 and can reach up to 99 (198 for Bowser).
 * Items: Special Moves do not appear but certain Items can be used for powerful attacks instead, and use Action Commands.
 * Pixls: As there is no separation between the action field and battles anymore, the player character can use the abilities of Pixls to attack as well as interact with the environment, but Pixls do not act like Partners and as such do not attack on their own.
 * Points: Points now replace Star Points, upgrading either the characters' HP or Attack Power upon leveling up. Points can be obtained by hitting enemies, defeating them or hitting several of them in a row, collecting Coins, and doing Stylish Moves. The party begins at level 1 and can reach up to level 99, with 99,999,999 Points.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Paper Mario: Sticker Star returns to turn-based battles, but uses a different battle system from the first and second installments.


 * HP: HP returns with the same function as in the previous titles, however it is now impossible to tell how many HP individual enemies have, as the Tattle ability is gone. Because leveling up is gone, Mario can only increase his HP by finding HP-Up Hearts in the field, and collecting one will permanently upgrade Mario's HP by 5. Mario begins at 20 HP and can reach up to 100 HP with all HP-UP Hearts collected.
 * Attack Power: Attack Power and Defense Power work similarly to how they did in previous titles. Because Mario does not level up, his strength remains the same for the course of the game but there exist six different degrees of Attack Power for attack-based Stickers: Attack Power of 3 for Worn-Out Stickers, 7 for regular Stickers, 13 for Shiny Stickers, 21 for Flashy Sticker, 28 for Big Shiny Stickers and 38 for Megaflash Stickers. It is also possible to upgrade Mario's First Strike Attack Power with HP-Up Hearts: two HP-Up Hearts will increase it by one point. Mario's First Strike Attack Power begins at 3 and can reach up to 11 with all HP-Up Hearts.
 * Defense Power: Unlike in previous installments, two types of Defense Power can be found: subtractive Defense Power and diviside Defense Power. Subtractive Defense Power works much like the way it did in previous titles: the actual strength of an attack is the result of the attacker's Attack Power subtracted by the opponent's Defense Power. Divise Defense Power works differently: the actual strength of an attack is the result of the attacker's Attack Power divided by the opponent's Defense Power.
 * Stickers: Stickers are the main mechanics used in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. In battle, Stickers are used as consumable moves that may be offensive (Jump, Hammer), healing (Mushroom) or defensive (Frog Suit). They vanish after a single use, but can be bought in shops and found in the field. Although they work as a counterpart to the battle mechanics of Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, they all use Action Commands and it is possible to run out of Stickers. Stickers may be randomly given to Mario if he starts to run out of resources, and it is possible to run away from most boss battles to restock oneself on Stickers.
 * Things: Things are 3D objects that Mario can find outside of battle. By using the Sling-a-Thing in Decalburg or the Outlook Point, Mario can turn Things into Stickers and use them in battle. Thing Stickers work as Special Moves, being particularly powerful attacks, and much like Special Moves in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Items in Super Paper Mario, Action Commands must be used to make the attacks more effective. In addition, most bosses are weak to certain Thing Stickers.
 * Album: The Album contains Mario's inventory. It contains a limited amount of pages, and Stickers will take a different amount of space on the Album's pages as well. Mario starts out with 2 Album pages which can contain up to 30 regular Stickers, and reaches up to 8 Album pages, which can contain up to 120 regular Stickers.
 * Battle Spinner: Kersti lets Mario use the Battle Spinner, which originally costs 3 Coins to use but increases in price if Mario keeps using it in battle. A slot game appears and the player must align the same symbol two or three times. If two same symbols are aligned, Mario can use two attacks for one turn. If three symbols are aligned, Mario can use three attacks for one turn and two attacks for the next turn, and one of the following effects happens depending on the aligned symbols:
 * Coin: Mario receives Coins.
 * Mushroom: Mario recovers 20 HP.
 * Fire Flower: Hurts all enemies for 3 damages, except for airborne or fire-resistant enemies.
 * POW Block: Hurts all enemies for 3 damages, except for airborne enemies. May give them the Crumpled status effect as well.
 * Thunder Bolt: Hurts all enemies for 3 damages. May cause them the Dizzy status effect as well.
 * Poison Mushroom: Gives Mario the Poison status effect for 9 turns. Enemies who touch Mario also get poisoned.

Similarities between the games

 * In all four console entries, the story opens up with a letter at Mario's House.
 * In all the games, Mario has to fight one or more of his allies at least once. In Paper Mario he fights Lakilester, in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door he fights Vivian along with her sisters and also fights the tricked Goombella, Koops, Flurrie and Yoshi with Doopliss, in Super Paper Mario he fights Bowser and Mr. L (Luigi) twice each, and in Paper Mario: Sticker Star, each Wiggler Segment is fought.
 * In all the console games, Mario is able to temporarily transform into an 8-bit version of himself: after falling into a vase in Boo's Mansion in the first game, after landing behind a curtain in X-Naut Fortress in the second game, and whenever he obtains a Mega Star in the third game.
 * Each console game has narration with Mario falling asleep. When he wakes up, the storyteller asks if he's been listening, followed by Mario lying by nodding. In Paper Mario, Madam Merlar tells the story. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Luigi and the shopkeeper in Twilight Town tell the stories. In Super Paper Mario, Merlumina tells the story.
 * All four games involve one or more giant Bloopers as a boss.
 * All four games involve a grassland setting followed by a fortress of some sorts during the first chapter or world in the game.
 * All four games involve a primitive setting in the fifth chapter or world: a distant island with a jungle in the first two games and in the fourth game, a prehistoric world in the third game.
 * All four games have at least one game show event. In Paper Mario there is the 64th Trivia Quiz-Off, in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door there are the two Super Fun Quirk Quizes, in Super Paper Mario there is "That's My Merlee!" Show, and in Paper Mario: Sticker Star, there is Snifit or Whiffit.
 * In all four games, the final boss is a powerful version of a member of the team of Super Paper Mario: in the first game it is an invincible Bowser using the Star Rod, in the second game it is Princess Peach possessed by the Shadow Queen, in the third game it is Super Dimentio who is a mixture of Dimentio, the Chaos Heart and Mr. L, and in the fourth game it is a giant Bowser turned insane by a Royal Sticker.
 * All four games had a remix of the Super Star theme play somewhere. In Paper Mario, when Mario runs around a certain Candy Cane in Pleasant Path, the theme will start playing. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, when playing the Bowser segments, if the player collects enough Meat in a level, Bowser grows huge and the theme plays. In Super Paper Mario, when the player obtains a Mega Star, the theme plays, and in Paper Mario: Sticker Star, the theme plays when the player grabs a Star.

Trivia

 * The Paper Mario title itself is mentioned in several games. In the party at the end of Paper Mario, a Bumpty mentions that Herringway is writing a novel called "Paper Mario". The same occurs in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door with the blue Toad living in a house in the Rogueport west side, who also writes a Paper Mario novel based off Mario's adventures, which gets adapted into a play.
 * The novel written by Herringway is titled "Mario Story" in Japanese. In Luigi's Mansion, Neville can be seen reading a book with the same title.