Sketching the Next Paper Mario

Nintendo rumors are like pimples. They tend to pop up all the time, but it’s rare that they become anything to worry about. Online Nintendo fanatics freak me out because they take each new leak as gospel, only to be shocked when they get a Byleth instead of a Dante. Unless concrete proof exists, I don’t trust anything that doesn’t come from official sources.

The latest gossip that came from… somewhere, I don’t really know, is that a new Paper Mario and sidescrolling Metroid will release in 2020. While I wouldn’t ordinarily put much thought into this rumor, it happened to coincide with my own playthrough of fan favorite Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. With whispers that this new game would finally be a true successor to the GameCube classic, was this fate?! No. But it is a good opportunity for me to dream up what I would want in a sequel.

What stands out to me about the first two Paper Marios are the partner and badge systems. Their absence in the recent, not-nearly-as-good entries is strongly felt. Partners are an interesting way to handle a traditional RPG party. Each character is designed for a particular situation and to complement Mario’s abilities. In the original Super Mario RPG, the party is a fairly standard approach, and the brothers in the Mario & Luigi series are more or less equals in battle.

In Paper Mario, though, you want to switch to your Koopa friend for enemies on the ground, a flying partner for enemies in the air, or the Bob-omb to deal with extra defense. These roles carry over to the field as well, where each partner has distinct uses for puzzle-solving. Along with their quality designs and writing, this is why every partner has adoring fans (except maybe Goombario). The void of personality could not be filled by the single Navi-esque tagalong in more recent Paper Marios.

The problem is that even in TTYD, the second game, nearly every partner is an analogue of one from the first. In gameplay, what’s the difference between Kooper and Koops? Bombette and Bobbery? Bow and Vivian? They’re wildly different – and fun - characters, but the developers seemed to have trouble imagining new roles for partners in the sequel. To truly excite people, I think the next game would have to branch out with all new species and expanded abilities in the overworld. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would offset constant comparisons to the previous cast.

While the partners are beloved, I find that the badge system doesn’t get enough praise. You essentially have a budget of points that you can allocate to a selection of many badges Mario finds. These badges can vary from passive abilities to new moves, meaning you can essentially build your own Mario however you like. But with all the badges out there, I don’t feel like the games encourage experimentation enough. Unless you pour all your levels into more badge points, the limit is pretty tight, and most players will just stick with what they have. I would like to see more freedom, perhaps by rewarding extra points on a more regular basis.

These little adjustments to playstyle are meaningful because the battle system is very basic. It’s rare for Mario to reach double digits of damage. Instead of scaling XP numbers, Mario consistently levels up at 100, with weaker enemies offering none. In general, all the numbers are extraordinarily low for an RPG. I’ve always loved this because it strips away the silly escalation where attacks do thousands of damage and presents a simpler, beginner-friendly experience. They should keep this as the core of the game. At the very least, they absolutely must get rid of those consumable attacks that no one likes.

Though Paper Mario: Color Splash showed a shocking lack of critical awareness, I do think it preserved the quality of writing Mario RPGs are famous for, and it looked really sharp. Knowing this, I’m sure that Intelligent Systems has the ability to return the series to form with expanded creativity. The best Mario RPGs put the character in totally new situations (a wrestling league? Bowser’s insides? Who thinks of this stuff?), and seeing recent entries drop him in the standard level themes with generic Toads was disappointing. They need to take what worked from later games and evolve the series from its roots. Hopefully, the next Paper Mario will once again be a story worth telling.

Oh, and for Metroid, just give Samus some new powers. I’m sick of getting the ice beam and super missiles all the time.