We are currently one week out from the release of the Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door Remake and my excitement for Mario RPGs in general is quite high. While I don’t get too excited for graphical remakes as much as others, the quick one two punch of Mario RPG Switch and TTYD back to back has been exciting and has kept me thinking about all of the games again for months now. I recently finally finished the last Mario RPG I hadn’t finished, Mario and Luigi Paper Jam, and had a great time with it which meant I could finally rank all of the main RPG series games for the first time in over a decade.
In this thread, let’s share our rankings of the games and discuss all of the awesome Mario RPGs out there. I’ll be sticking with just the main three JRPG series myself, the two versions of Mario RPG, the six Paper Mario games, and the five Mario and Luigi games, but you are welcome to include games like the Golf and Tennis RPGs and the Mario and Rabbids games if you’d like.
I want to hear your thoughts on the individual games specifically so please focus your posts there. Meta/fanbase/direction/etc. discussions are not allowed. Also, do not take shots at other posters over their video game preferences. You do not have to go in depth with your rankings as I will, nor do you have to rank and discuss every game out there, but please try to at least share a thing or two about your ranking so this isn’t just a list thread.
Ok then, let’s have fun! I’ll kick this off with my rankings:
13: Paper Mario Sticker Star – Sticker Star is unfortunately a completely uneven experience. By ditching regular attacks in favor of one use items, removing unique NPCs in favor of generic Toads, and removing XP and level ups, it creates a dreadful situation in the first half of the game where it is best to just run through every level as everything is a resource drain with no benefits. I had many playthroughs fizzle out in Wiggler’s woods (a horrible poisonous swamp), but on my successful run where I made it across the ocean for the first time, I discovered a much better back half where it becomes the game it wanted to be. Fun scenarios like a haunted house and a river raft ride provide a welcome feeling of proper adventure and the normal levels are markedly better than prior ones. With a greatly expanded inventory, more interesting stickers regularly at your disposal, and generous refunds at the end of levels, the back half is enjoyable to play as you efficiently aim to take out enemies.
12: Mario & Luigi Dream Team – On paper, Dream Team looks to be a fairly solid game and plays with ideas and mechanics that all could be interesting, but ultimately I found this game just a bit too dragged out across the board. Momentum through levels feels slow, the enemy variety feels too limited, and the Dream World sections regularly interrupt the pacing of the adventure. Can’t say I was too wild about this one sadly.
11: Mario & Luigi Partners In Time – It’s been nearly 20 years since I played this game so unfortunately I just don’t really remember it. If I remember right, the level design being more restricted compared to Superstar Saga was a bummer and I wasn’t terribly invested in either the babies or the Shroob aliens. I think I do remember liking the final boss fight. I’d be potentially interested in revisiting this one sometime, so I’ll give it the edge over Dream Team.
10: Mario & Luigi Paper Jam – I just played this one a few weeks ago and I largely enjoyed it! Paper Mario offers great shake ups to both traversal and combat, as the three characters demand more wider level design and as his clone copies let him dodge attacks and power up and shift the properties of his normal moves respectively. Paper Mario and the new combat cards refresh the combat so much it somehow manages to largely overcome the bizarre decision to limit enemy encounter formations to usually just a single type per screen. I also really dug how even though there are only a few worlds in the game to explore, they get refreshed over the adventure as paths close and open as cardboard boxes rain down from the sky. The big mark against this one is sadly the story is paper thin and there aren’t really any memorable characters outside of Toadette.
9: Super Mario RPG Switch – I grew up adoring Super Mario RPG and while I did enjoy checking out this remake and had a blast doing so, with distance I just don’t feel it was terribly essential by any means. It’s distinct enough as a remix to warrant ranking separately I feel, but I doubt I’ll ever reach for it as long as I have access to the original game. Elite enemies for example are an awesome addition that keep you on your toes throughout the adventure, but the new combo buffs and other new combat mechanics generally make a fairly breezy game too easy (bosses especially suffer here) as the game wasn’t rebalanced around them. The new mechanics do however shine brightly in the new post game super bosses that put your mastery of the combat system to the test and wonderfully explore new ideas as well. Even though there wasn’t a lot to it, getting a little bit more of one of my all time favorite games decades later still was very cool.
8: Paper Mario Color Splash – Color Splash is Sticker Star 2, but every weakness in that game is a now a huge a strength. One use items that are a pain to manage and battles that are resource drains? Now they are cards that you don’t have to micromanage as much and can easily replace / refill between levels since the game showers you with money and the game offers a form of XP again with hammers you collect so battles have a point again. Generic toads dragging you down? Here every single one is hilarious and are often just super out there which makes you want to find them. The world map and levels being generic half the time? Every level is now more of a distinct place and levels have themes and stories that you explore across multiple stages like a big train ride or a rad pirate adventure. Paper Mario Color Splash is a wonderful game that needs to come back.
7: Paper Mario The Origami King – The Origami King is a fun delightful adventure that offers an exciting world to explore and sort of brings back partners in excellent fashion with Bobby the bob-omb being the absolute stand out. I thoroughly enjoyed throwing confetti everywhere and whacking things with my hammer to progress through levels, find Toads, and solve the bigger puzzles. The ninja themed amusement park and the Wind Waker-like ocean were absolute highlights, but I enjoyed every stop along the way. Both puzzle-like battle systems remained interesting throughout and the music in the game was wonderfully notable even across all of the Mario RPGs which have been blessed with great music.
6: Mario & Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story – Like Partners In Time before it, I sadly don’t really remember Bowser’s Inside Story as I only played it once at launch 15 years ago. I remember really enjoying it though as Bowser is always amazing in the RPGs and I really loved how it brought back Fawful who is definitely my favorite original villain across the RPGs. I definitely have to replay this game at some point.
5: Super Paper Mario – I always loved this game and I was really happy to find when I replayed it two years ago it absolutely holds up. While the platforming and 2D to 3D perspective switching is pretty cool, what I always remember most from this game were the absolute wild story scenarios. There’s an amazing sequence where Mario survives the complete collapse of a world due to a black hole only to be sent to The Under Where (hell) shortly afterwards and another separate sequence where he must escape a prison after being wrongly forced to work off a debt by running on giant hamster wheels. Getting to team up with Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser and use their different abilities to navigate the levels and take on Count Bleck and his crew is great fun and there’s even some fun bonus content like the challenge dungeon.
4: Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga – This game is awesome! Right from the jump it feels so good to play and the mix of combat, open world exploration, and minigames is spot on and the length of the game is ultimately just right! Mario and Luigi’s moveset feels versatile and exciting (jumping, hammers, magic, and Bros attacks) and being able to regularly counter enemy attacks with the right timing feels satisfying to pull off. I also really like the adventure to the Beanbean Kingdom has a great mix of new and familiar features and introduces us to fun characters like Fawful and Prince Peasley.
3: Paper Mario – The story book presentation in this game is wondrous fun and like Super Mario RPG before it, does an excellent job of expanding Mario’s world in a way that platformers alone can’t. The layout of Toad Town in particular is ingrained within me and I love how the adventure expands in every direction around it from the spooky forest next door, to the complex sewer system below, and even inside a toy box in town. The partner and badge systems introduced here are awesome. I loved gathering a group of friends for Mario (Bombette is my favorite!) and watching my abilities expand over the course of the adventure. Badges are especially cool since you can really customize your abilities exactly as you want and shuffle them around as needed as your adventure unfolds and your badge collection grows.
2: Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door – This is a tremendous, substantial adventure that regularly takes Mario out of his element in awesome ways. Whether it’s navigating the crime ridden Rougeport and discovering its many tucked away secrets, aiming to become number one in the Glitz Pit wrestling-like battle arena, or saving the day in Twilight Town, the adventure is always great fun. I really adore the party Mario assembles here including Goombella, Yoshi, and my favorite character Vivian. I won’t spoil it here especially as the remake is so close, but Luigi’s role in the adventure is legendary and I love how it functions on so many levels. The new theater battle system is awesome as you have to pay attention not just to the enemies, but also the crowd and stage itself to reap benefits and dodge hazards. I also love how there are hidden prompts to add appeal and show off with your base moves which is a fairly unusual addition to JRPG combat.
1: Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars – The very first Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo remains my favorite Mario RPG of all time and one of my favorite games of all time. As a big Square fan, it’s perhaps obvious I’d gravitate toward the most classic of the RPGs, but it’s not just the RPG gameplay that cements it as my favorite. Super Mario RPG offers an excellent mix of RPG combat, unique isometric platforming (that I personally adore), and wild set piece moments, that are tied together to create tremendous pacing. My favorite stretch of the game for example from Moleville to Marrymore offers excellent dungeon, platforming, and puzzles between the Moleville Mines and the glorious Booster Tower, and tons of memorable moments and minigames between the exciting minecart ride, climbing Booster Hill, and crashing the wedding between Peach and Booster and battling the big wedding cake. There are tons of awesome secrets to discover as well for those who want to poke beyond the excellent main quest such as Yoshi’s Island, the Lazy Shell, and the awesome super bosses Jinx and Culex. It’s an awesome, refreshingly short, but dense adventure that holds up fantastically no matter how many times I replay it.
…
Alright Fami, I’ve shared mine, what is your ranking of the Mario RPGs?
In this thread, let’s share our rankings of the games and discuss all of the awesome Mario RPGs out there. I’ll be sticking with just the main three JRPG series myself, the two versions of Mario RPG, the six Paper Mario games, and the five Mario and Luigi games, but you are welcome to include games like the Golf and Tennis RPGs and the Mario and Rabbids games if you’d like.
I want to hear your thoughts on the individual games specifically so please focus your posts there. Meta/fanbase/direction/etc. discussions are not allowed. Also, do not take shots at other posters over their video game preferences. You do not have to go in depth with your rankings as I will, nor do you have to rank and discuss every game out there, but please try to at least share a thing or two about your ranking so this isn’t just a list thread.
Ok then, let’s have fun! I’ll kick this off with my rankings:
13: Paper Mario Sticker Star – Sticker Star is unfortunately a completely uneven experience. By ditching regular attacks in favor of one use items, removing unique NPCs in favor of generic Toads, and removing XP and level ups, it creates a dreadful situation in the first half of the game where it is best to just run through every level as everything is a resource drain with no benefits. I had many playthroughs fizzle out in Wiggler’s woods (a horrible poisonous swamp), but on my successful run where I made it across the ocean for the first time, I discovered a much better back half where it becomes the game it wanted to be. Fun scenarios like a haunted house and a river raft ride provide a welcome feeling of proper adventure and the normal levels are markedly better than prior ones. With a greatly expanded inventory, more interesting stickers regularly at your disposal, and generous refunds at the end of levels, the back half is enjoyable to play as you efficiently aim to take out enemies.
12: Mario & Luigi Dream Team – On paper, Dream Team looks to be a fairly solid game and plays with ideas and mechanics that all could be interesting, but ultimately I found this game just a bit too dragged out across the board. Momentum through levels feels slow, the enemy variety feels too limited, and the Dream World sections regularly interrupt the pacing of the adventure. Can’t say I was too wild about this one sadly.
11: Mario & Luigi Partners In Time – It’s been nearly 20 years since I played this game so unfortunately I just don’t really remember it. If I remember right, the level design being more restricted compared to Superstar Saga was a bummer and I wasn’t terribly invested in either the babies or the Shroob aliens. I think I do remember liking the final boss fight. I’d be potentially interested in revisiting this one sometime, so I’ll give it the edge over Dream Team.
10: Mario & Luigi Paper Jam – I just played this one a few weeks ago and I largely enjoyed it! Paper Mario offers great shake ups to both traversal and combat, as the three characters demand more wider level design and as his clone copies let him dodge attacks and power up and shift the properties of his normal moves respectively. Paper Mario and the new combat cards refresh the combat so much it somehow manages to largely overcome the bizarre decision to limit enemy encounter formations to usually just a single type per screen. I also really dug how even though there are only a few worlds in the game to explore, they get refreshed over the adventure as paths close and open as cardboard boxes rain down from the sky. The big mark against this one is sadly the story is paper thin and there aren’t really any memorable characters outside of Toadette.
9: Super Mario RPG Switch – I grew up adoring Super Mario RPG and while I did enjoy checking out this remake and had a blast doing so, with distance I just don’t feel it was terribly essential by any means. It’s distinct enough as a remix to warrant ranking separately I feel, but I doubt I’ll ever reach for it as long as I have access to the original game. Elite enemies for example are an awesome addition that keep you on your toes throughout the adventure, but the new combo buffs and other new combat mechanics generally make a fairly breezy game too easy (bosses especially suffer here) as the game wasn’t rebalanced around them. The new mechanics do however shine brightly in the new post game super bosses that put your mastery of the combat system to the test and wonderfully explore new ideas as well. Even though there wasn’t a lot to it, getting a little bit more of one of my all time favorite games decades later still was very cool.
8: Paper Mario Color Splash – Color Splash is Sticker Star 2, but every weakness in that game is a now a huge a strength. One use items that are a pain to manage and battles that are resource drains? Now they are cards that you don’t have to micromanage as much and can easily replace / refill between levels since the game showers you with money and the game offers a form of XP again with hammers you collect so battles have a point again. Generic toads dragging you down? Here every single one is hilarious and are often just super out there which makes you want to find them. The world map and levels being generic half the time? Every level is now more of a distinct place and levels have themes and stories that you explore across multiple stages like a big train ride or a rad pirate adventure. Paper Mario Color Splash is a wonderful game that needs to come back.
7: Paper Mario The Origami King – The Origami King is a fun delightful adventure that offers an exciting world to explore and sort of brings back partners in excellent fashion with Bobby the bob-omb being the absolute stand out. I thoroughly enjoyed throwing confetti everywhere and whacking things with my hammer to progress through levels, find Toads, and solve the bigger puzzles. The ninja themed amusement park and the Wind Waker-like ocean were absolute highlights, but I enjoyed every stop along the way. Both puzzle-like battle systems remained interesting throughout and the music in the game was wonderfully notable even across all of the Mario RPGs which have been blessed with great music.
6: Mario & Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story – Like Partners In Time before it, I sadly don’t really remember Bowser’s Inside Story as I only played it once at launch 15 years ago. I remember really enjoying it though as Bowser is always amazing in the RPGs and I really loved how it brought back Fawful who is definitely my favorite original villain across the RPGs. I definitely have to replay this game at some point.
5: Super Paper Mario – I always loved this game and I was really happy to find when I replayed it two years ago it absolutely holds up. While the platforming and 2D to 3D perspective switching is pretty cool, what I always remember most from this game were the absolute wild story scenarios. There’s an amazing sequence where Mario survives the complete collapse of a world due to a black hole only to be sent to The Under Where (hell) shortly afterwards and another separate sequence where he must escape a prison after being wrongly forced to work off a debt by running on giant hamster wheels. Getting to team up with Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser and use their different abilities to navigate the levels and take on Count Bleck and his crew is great fun and there’s even some fun bonus content like the challenge dungeon.
4: Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga – This game is awesome! Right from the jump it feels so good to play and the mix of combat, open world exploration, and minigames is spot on and the length of the game is ultimately just right! Mario and Luigi’s moveset feels versatile and exciting (jumping, hammers, magic, and Bros attacks) and being able to regularly counter enemy attacks with the right timing feels satisfying to pull off. I also really like the adventure to the Beanbean Kingdom has a great mix of new and familiar features and introduces us to fun characters like Fawful and Prince Peasley.
3: Paper Mario – The story book presentation in this game is wondrous fun and like Super Mario RPG before it, does an excellent job of expanding Mario’s world in a way that platformers alone can’t. The layout of Toad Town in particular is ingrained within me and I love how the adventure expands in every direction around it from the spooky forest next door, to the complex sewer system below, and even inside a toy box in town. The partner and badge systems introduced here are awesome. I loved gathering a group of friends for Mario (Bombette is my favorite!) and watching my abilities expand over the course of the adventure. Badges are especially cool since you can really customize your abilities exactly as you want and shuffle them around as needed as your adventure unfolds and your badge collection grows.
2: Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door – This is a tremendous, substantial adventure that regularly takes Mario out of his element in awesome ways. Whether it’s navigating the crime ridden Rougeport and discovering its many tucked away secrets, aiming to become number one in the Glitz Pit wrestling-like battle arena, or saving the day in Twilight Town, the adventure is always great fun. I really adore the party Mario assembles here including Goombella, Yoshi, and my favorite character Vivian. I won’t spoil it here especially as the remake is so close, but Luigi’s role in the adventure is legendary and I love how it functions on so many levels. The new theater battle system is awesome as you have to pay attention not just to the enemies, but also the crowd and stage itself to reap benefits and dodge hazards. I also love how there are hidden prompts to add appeal and show off with your base moves which is a fairly unusual addition to JRPG combat.
1: Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars – The very first Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo remains my favorite Mario RPG of all time and one of my favorite games of all time. As a big Square fan, it’s perhaps obvious I’d gravitate toward the most classic of the RPGs, but it’s not just the RPG gameplay that cements it as my favorite. Super Mario RPG offers an excellent mix of RPG combat, unique isometric platforming (that I personally adore), and wild set piece moments, that are tied together to create tremendous pacing. My favorite stretch of the game for example from Moleville to Marrymore offers excellent dungeon, platforming, and puzzles between the Moleville Mines and the glorious Booster Tower, and tons of memorable moments and minigames between the exciting minecart ride, climbing Booster Hill, and crashing the wedding between Peach and Booster and battling the big wedding cake. There are tons of awesome secrets to discover as well for those who want to poke beyond the excellent main quest such as Yoshi’s Island, the Lazy Shell, and the awesome super bosses Jinx and Culex. It’s an awesome, refreshingly short, but dense adventure that holds up fantastically no matter how many times I replay it.
…
Alright Fami, I’ve shared mine, what is your ranking of the Mario RPGs?
