Paper Mario is a superb game with great control/gameplay, great story, and stunning backed by smooth animation. Classic!
Story: The usual: Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach again, but this is how he does it: He captures the seven Star Spirits from Star Haven, imprisons them with his minions (bosses), and steals the prized possession of Star Haven: the Star Rod, which makes him invincible. Then, Bowser, during a big party at Peach's Castle in which Mario is attending, raises the castle into the sky. Mario fights Bowser, but is thrown out of the castle, landing in Goomba village below. What you must do in this game is befriend the citizens of the entire Mushroom Kingdom, and use their abilities to fight foes and solve puzzles to rescue the seven Star Spirits. Together the Star Spirits can give you the power to defeat Bowser.
Controls: This game contains fun controls. In this RPG, you can use timed attacks, to defend or strengthen your attacks. You will also have to do stuff during the attacks, e.g.- pressing a button repeatedly or pulling the joystick back then letting go.
Graphics: I don't care too much about graphics. A great game can be covered by not the best graphics and vice-versa, but this game had great graphics. It had great artwork, backed by smooth animation. I was stunned. Probably the best graphics for a Nintendo 64 game.
Difficulty: This game was easy at moments, but there were more times when it was really hard. This games difficulty was just right.
Bad Aspects: This game didn't have many bad aspects at all. It was great. The only bad things I can think of at the moment were: Koopa Jr. an annoying koopa kid who is rather easy in the beginning, but gets really hard later. Plus he constantly appears. I am guessing he appears about 5 or more times in the game. He's like the "Navi" of Paper Mario, but just as Navi's annoying reputation didn't mar Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Times perfect score, neither does Koopa Jr. Some areas in the game were hard, but overall the difficulty was just right.
I really love this game! It has to be one my favorite games of all time. I really like RPG's such as Legend of Zelda, Mario, Final Fantasy, etc. but this one is just perfect, which is why I give this game a 10 out of 10. Buy this game! Get the original copy online or at a flea market or something or download off of the Virtual Console! This game is fantastical!