Paper Mario is one of the most outstanding RPG's Nintendo has ever created for the N64 Era!
Mario will be rescued by a family of Goombas and it is in Goomba Village where you will start your adventure, learning the basics of the game, and meeting up with the WORST boss in the game who will stalk you the entire game and eventually ruin a boss fight with the COOLEST boss in the game. After the tutorial you'll finally get your first partner, Goombario who is a clever young Goomba who admires Mario. Through the course of the game you'll gain more partners from the adventure loving Koopa, Kooper, the clumsy mail carrying Paratroopa from the beginning, Parakarry, and to the epic Boo princess Lady Bow. Each partner comes complete with their own set of moves and strengths that can help you out in the game.
To progress in the game you must travel across the mushroom kingdom rescuing the 7 star spirits in order to take on Bowser and rescue Peach. They have been entrusted in 7 hand picked subjects Bowser set up to guard the star spirits. You'll travle to places like the frozen village of Shiver City, the colorful toy chest known as Shy Guy's Toy Box, and the scenic Lava Lava Island. As you save the star spirits from bosses like the Boo gulping freak, Tubba Blubba, the militaristic Shy Guy, General Guy, and the ever so awesome Ninja Turtles parody: The Koopa Bros!! As you rescue these star spirits they'll award you with their powers that can help you through your adventure.
The gameplay in the fields consists of traveling through the world, solving various puzzles and solving mysteries. Some times you may need upgrades to get to certain parts and you may need your partners abilities to help, from shooting Kooper's shell at a switch, item, or enemy for a first strike, or hiding from enemies or passing through lava and walls using Lady Bow. You can do a variety of the things while you're in one of the local towns in the area, from resting up, to shopping for items, and more depending on the town you're in. Plus there are a variety of side quests in each town from finding star pieces you can trade in for badges, being quizzed by Chuck Quizmo, or helping Koopa Koot in Koopa Village.
The battles themselves aren't that hard, depending on the enemies you're up against. You can either jump on them, use your hammer, use items, or use Star Spirits powers. After you attack, you're partner will get a go at the enemy with their move set and as you continue to upgrade your partners they become stronger and gain more moves. Each move has it's own timed action command, do it correctly and it'll do more damage, and don't and it won't do so much damage. Plus to assist you, you can set up badges in the menu screen which can do a variety of things from reducing the damage you take, give you more attacks, or show enemy stats. But you will require more BP to use them which you can get from leveling up after you get 100 star points. You can either increase you HP, FP, or BP once you level up to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead of you.
To sum it up, Paper Mario is one incredible game for the N64 and I seriously reccomend buying it for Virtual Console on the Wii. Anyway think about it! This is TheYoshster, the voice, the voice of the people HAHAHAHAHA!!!! And TheYoshster is always happy to see you!