As I and my fellow Nintendo Entertainment Podcast hosts have noted over the years, while Nintendo is incredible in making its franchises fun and long-lasting, there are a few that they’ve seriously fumbled. One of the easiest ones to point out is the Paper Mario franchise. The first game on the Nintendo 64 was a fun yet surprisingly deep RPG. Then, there was The Thousand-Year Door, which is about to get the remaster remake treatment for the Switch. The game was so much fun that it’s hailed as one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
Yet, after that, starting with Sticker Star and ending with The Origami king, Nintendo has never gone back to its RPG roots with the series. Over the years, we learned why that was, as Shigeru Miyamoto and others within Nintendo felt that they needed to “keep changing things up” instead of being stagnant. That infuriated gamers, like myself, because we LOVED what Paper Mario, and even the Mario & Luigi franchises, did in the past, and didn’t need drastic changes like we got.
Thankfully, there is potential hope on the horizon. A survey was sent out to Nintendo of Europe fans, and they were asked to pick their “favorite features” from certain Mario RPG franchises, and the options are telling…
Nintendo sending a survey about Mario RPGs is more proof to me they are trying to get it right and change the fan sentiment that has accompanied many of the new games in recent years.
Remaking Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: TTYD are fantastic steps in the right direction. pic.twitter.com/4UihHVmUuK
— Stealth (@Stealth40k) April 3, 2024
If this goes the way we all hope it goes, we could be getting some true Paper-themed RPG enjoyment with Mario beyond his upcoming title. So if you’re able to be a part of this survey, please pick the best options to give us what we want!
