One of the best RPG's ever turns out to be one of the most lighthearted games ever.
Five years later a game called Paper Mario was released originally on the Nintendo 64 and it followed Mario RPG's style of gameplay except this time Squaresoft was not involved so I'm sure some people were doubting how good this game would actually be. Despite the fact that Nintendo hadn't had too much experience in the world of RPGs, they managed to pull it off somehow and create a damn good game.
I don't think the storyline will really surprise anyone because it's just about that evil man Bowser stealing the Star Rod from the Star Spirits and using it to capture Princess Peach. While this story may not sound too strong at all for an RPG, let alone a video game in general, the sheer personality adds a lot to it. This game has some excellent dialogue and is easily my favorite Nintendo 64 game to read. It may sound pathetic, but a lot of the fun in this game is reading what everyone has to say. You will encounter some of the funniest and likable characters around so be ready to enjoy a good lighthearted laugh.
If you bought/downloaded Paper Mario expecting a traditional Mario game than your expectations will be shattered. Paper Mario borrows its unique battle system from it's spiritual predecessor and adds much to it. When you see an enemy either it will run into you or you into it, but either way that will commence battle mode and you will begin one of the fine turn based battles. For someone who isn't really into the turn based battles style, I was thoroughly impressed and I really do think the battles in this game top the battles in many of the more famous RPG's such as one specific series made by one big specific company that specializes in making those specific RPG's.
Mario can get a total of eight party members but during battle only one can be used at a time, granted you can always switch during battle if you need to. The cool thing about your party member is that they come in use outside of battle as well. Each partner has a specific ability they can use outside of a battle such as briefly flying, giving information about where you are, swimming, turning Mario invisible, etc. These party members don't have levels though so you'll have to upgrade them by hitting certain blocks hidden around the world.
The thing that impressed me most of Paper Mario was probably all of the different areas you can explore. I'm not going to give away anything, but expect some really neat and imaginative places to explore. There is also a ton of stuff hidden so you will definitely want to explore every nook and cranny and fight every optional boss. Paper Mario has some of the coolest areas around that are all yours to explore.
Mario can perform special attacks during battle using Flower Points he collects. You can learn a bunch of moves using Badges you find. As long as you have enough Badge Points available you can attach Badges to Mario that give him new moves and abilities. This is a really cool feature of Paper Mario and you can add and remove Badges whenever you want without worrying of deleting them permanently. You can also get Star Power moves whenever you free a Star Spirit. These allow you to do better moves but Star Power is hardest to get.
Overall Paper Mario ranks up there with the best RPG's and best Mario games ever. It's a really enjoyable game that has a creative battle system and some of the best dialogue in a game ever. I hate to say it, but you will want to read every word this game has. The graphics are very unique because of the "paper" look and the music is very nice. Paper Mario is one of the more fondly remembered games on the Nintendo 64 and I understand why. This is definitely one of THE must own Virtual Console games and one of the best deals on the console. The game takes around 20 hours to beat and there are still some sidequests to do. $10 for 30+ hours of gameplay sounds nice to me and if you track down the original cartridge it will cost way more than $10.