Small numbers, active turns
A well-timed button press gives a simple attack something to do with the hands, while badges let the player change which abilities are available. Partners matter outside battle as well, lending their particular action to the route through a town or landscape. The paper characters suit a story willing to be playful without demanding a complicated vocabulary of statistics.
Practise the action timing and read badge costs before equipping several new abilities. Talk to characters between major objectives: small local exchanges give the journey much of its personality. The approachable numbers make it suitable for learning RPG decisions without treating every battle as a calculation exercise.
Mario Story in 2000
Nintendo’s Japanese site records Mario Story in August 2000 and credits Intelligent Systems. The English title Paper Mario belongs to its overseas release. Its flat characters within dimensional spaces are another reminder that the period’s visual choices were more varied than a single march towards realistic polygon models.
Why we chose it for Nintendo 64
Readable statistics, badges and timed actions offer a welcoming route into turn-based battles.
Explore this console’s game selection ↗Release record
Original worldwide release: 2000. Release records above identify the console editions covered by this collection.
Sources and further reading3 references
- NINTENDO64全発売ソフト一覧 ↗Nintendo · Accessed 2026-10-27
Japanese Majora’s Mask and Mario Story (Paper Mario), both 2000. Original Shift-JIS text checked directly.
- マリオストーリー ↗Nintendo / Intelligent Systems · Accessed 2026-10-27
Original site credits Intelligent Systems and dates Mario Story to August 2000. Battle and badge pages describe the action RPG systems.
- Nintendo 64 – Nintendo Classics ↗Nintendo UK · Accessed 2026-10-27
Live UK catalogue includes all ten selections. Paid Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack required. Selected games offer regional versions; no universal PAL/NTSC equivalence is implied.
