Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Paper Mario fans have been seriously divided for a long time now. While Super Paper Mario made waves by switching up the formula, Sticker Star marked a complete separation from the games that came before it as a new direction for the series, which now has a trilogy of its own with Color Splash & The Origami King.

Starting with Sticker Star, the more recent three focused far less on unique characters & battles in favor of paper-related gimmicks. Because of this, I suggest we unofficially split the fandom into two separate branches: the first set of games can be called the "Mario Storybook" trilogy, and the second set the "Mario Pop-Up Book" or the "Literal Paper Mario" trilogy.

This video remakes my original analogy explaining what it feels like to be a fan of Paper Mario today, and then elaborates on why Super Paper Mario has more in common with the first two games than the modern ones. This is all in the hope that we can all unite again through different communities.

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Music used (in order):

♫ Main Title - Paper Mario
♫ A Party at Peach's Castle
♫ March Ahead
♫ Story Music Box - Yoshi's Island
♫ Rawk Hawk Battle - The Thousand Year Door
♫ Hooktail Castle
♫ The Golden Coliseum - Color Splash
♫ Glitzville
♫ Today's Story - Super Paper Mario
♫ King of the Koopas - PM
♫ Battle Fanfare
♫ Mushroom Plains - New Super Mario Bros.
♫ Hello! Time Travelers - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
♫ Bobby's Memories - The Origami King
♫ Paper Mario Medley - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
♫ Don Pianta's Theme - TTYD
♫ Soul Rumblings - CS
♫ Cheer Up, Olivia! - TOK
♫ Pool Party (Jump in!)
♫ Shy Guys Finish Last
♫ Super Paper Mario
♫ Our Story Begins - TTYD
♫ Main Title - PM

Sources & further reading

Sprites:

⍟ Paper Mario items ripped by Dazz. Enemies & NPCs - Retriever II
spriters-resource.com/nintendo_64/pm
⍟ TTYD recipes - MartinMayonnaise. Characters - SuperTVGRFan18496, fawfulthegreat64, Stooben, Androu1
spriters-resource.com/gamecube/pmttyd
⍟ Super Paper Mario recipes - redblueyellow
spriters-resource.com/wii/superpapermario
⍟ SPM Pixls - Fiery Spyro
mariowiki.com/Gallery:Super_Paper_Mario
⍟ Sticker Star battle stickers - aldelaro5. Enemies by Ploaj
spriters-resource.com/3ds/papermariostickerstar
⍟ The Origami King item icons - fawfulthegreat64
spriters-resource.com/nintendo_switch/papermariotheorigamiking
⍟ Super Mario Bros. goomba - Superjustinbros
spriters-resource.com/nes/supermariobros
⍟ Yoshi's Island boo - Barack Obama, Murphmario
spriters-resource.com/snes/yoshiisland

Images:

⍟ Paper Mario official art - Mariomario64, Jorge, YoshiGo99, Gromp, SWFlash, and Shokora
mariowiki.com/Gallery:Paper_Mario
⍟ TTYD official art - Turboo, Mario, WarioLoaf, Shokora, SWFlash, Fawfulthegreat64, and Doomdorm64
mariowiki.com/Gallery:Paper_Mario:_The_Thousand-Year_Door
⍟ Super Paper Mario official art - Robotortoise, Fawfulthegreat64, RAP, Super Candy, Shokora, Bowser the Second
mariowiki.com/Gallery:Super_Paper_Mario
⍟ Sticker Star official art - Xavier, Shokora
mariowiki.com/Gallery:Paper_Mario:_Sticker_Star
⍟ Color Splash official art - Trig Jegman, Wildgoosespeeder, Blhte
mariowiki.com/Gallery:Paper_Mario:_Color_Splash
⍟ The Origami King official art - Raymondsze and Luigi1234
mariowiki.com/Gallery:Paper_Mario:_The_Origami_King
⍟ Spike (Super Mario Bros. 3) official art - Blhte
mariowiki.com/File:SMB3_F40A_Spike_Artwork.png
Super Mario 64 DS print ad - jirokissawa
reddit.com/r/NintendoDS/comments/17qrc9u/super_mario_64_ds_print_ad
⍟ Paper Mario restriction graphic
reddit.com/r/papermario/comments/12hprdt/i_figured_out_the_true_extent_of_the_paper_mario

Articles referenced:

⍟ Sticker Star Iwata Asks interview
iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/papermario
⍟ TOK interview
videogameschronicle.com/features/interviews/paper-mario-origami-king

Sound effects:

⍟ TTYD SFX - LeonidJeweller
sounds-resource.com/gamecube/papermariothethousandyeardoor/sound/3673
⍟ Paper rip 2 - zachfbstudios
⍟ Color Splash jingles - Gaming Musik
youtu.be/0ZJQ93LPRXs?si=y_21kfzeat7HuJ_3
⍟ Super Paper Mario SFX - fawfulthegreat64
sounds-resource.com/wii/superpapermario/sound/3233
⍟ Dedf1sh song - Squidtent
splatoonwiki.org/wiki/Category:Dedf1sh_songs
⍟ Super Mario 64 Chain Chomp
themushroomkingdom.net/media/sm64/wav

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► Instagram - instagram.com/thanegaming

0:00 - Introduction
0:28 - Broken family analogy
5:06 - Super Paper Mario belongs w/ the originals
13:32 - Future of the series
14:22 - Patrons
14:29 - End card

#papermario #ttyd #thethousandyeardoor