It is Aug. 11, 2025, marking 25 years since the original Paper Mario game was released on Nintendo 64, which would go on to become one of the biggest Nintendo spinoff IPs and some of the company’s most beloved titles.
It makes me feel really old, considering I remember playing this as a kid on my Nintendo 64 in my parents’ living room, trying to find all the stars and playing what would be one of my first ever RPG games. It left a lasting impact on me, and I’m sure I’m not alone there.
It was definitely a different Mario game than what we were used to, considering that up until this point most spinoff games were things like sports or Mario Kart, so to take Mario and expand upon the world and do what Square Enix had done with Super Mario RPG on the SNES, but create something more Nintendo—it really does speak to the company’s creativity when it comes to its iconic character.
It would also spawn a huge variety of other Paper Mario games 25 years later, and also lead to a lot of other Mario RPG-like games, such as the Mario and Luigi series. Some great, some… not so great (looking at you, Sticker Star), but it’s hard to hold a candle to the original.
Honestly, I could talk about this game and series for ages. Still, for now, I want to know what some of your fondest memories from the original Paper Mario 64 game are, or what your fondest memory from Paper Mario titles overall is. Even if you haven’t played the original (and if you haven’t, I implore you to play it on the Nintendo Switch expansion patch to see how far we have come), and only played maybe The Thousand-Year Door or one of the other entries, I want to know what your peak Paper Mario moment is.
Let me know in the comments below!
Published: Aug 11, 2025 07:19 am