YMMV / Paper Mario 64

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • On top of the White Magikoopa wearing a white pointed hat and robe, it becomes even more touchy when Goombario describes it in his Tattle as, "one of the magicians in the Koopa clan."
  • Twink's name. While obviously derived from the word twinkle in context (he's a star), it has some hilarious connotations Nintendo probably didn't intend back in the early 2000s.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Despite being the true boss of Chapter 3, Tubba Blubba's Heart honestly isn't much harder than the intentionally easy fight against Tubba Blubba himself. Pretty much the only attack the heart will use during the fight is the heavily telegraphed charge-up move, where all you need to do to avoid it entirely is use Bow's Outta Sight each time. He does have one other attack, dealing a hefty 6 damage, but he'll likely only use it once. You're unlikely to get hit more than once in the entire fight unless your FP is in the toilet, in which case you'd probably be in trouble anyway! In fact, if you have more than 10 HP, just tank his charged attack and use the turns that Bow would use Outta Sight and then skip to slap him is probably a better idea.
  • Lava Piranha can do more damage per turn than Huff N. Puff because of its minions, but it has no defense and only 40 HP for each phase, and the game gives you multiple ways to reduce fire damage plus some water/ice attack options. The second phase is supposed to be harder, but any water/ice attack will stun Lava Piranha and the Lava Buds for a few turns, so Sushie's Tidal Wave can stunlock them for the rest of the battle (Snowman Dolls or Ice Power + Multibounce also work). Even if the buds do attack, they spit out Petit Piranhas that wait a turn before attacking, which is easier to deal with than their normal attacks in the first phase.
  • Invoked with Monstar, who is fought in Shiver Snowfield. It's a scary-looking creature with attack power that even Goombario can't list who wields an extremely flashy and powerful-looking magic spell...that does exactly one point of damage. And that's the only attack it has. Justified in that Monstar turns out to be a group of tiny Star Kids who are pretending to be a ghost to pull off a mild "Scooby-Doo" Hoax.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • Chapter 6 tends to be one of the less-liked parts of the game, primarily due to this. It's mostly composed of Fetch Quests to get items to and from the residents of Flower Fields, leading to a lot of backtracking through the central area's branching paths. On a first playthrough, it can take a while to figure out where to get everything, and some of it needs to be juggled around in your main inventory instead of being key items, which increases the amount of meandering. The lack of variance (Flower Fields is the only area in the chapter besides the very short Cloudy Climb, and the chapter's partner doesn't appear until near the end) adds to the tedium. All while a short, repetitive song^note "Clouds Over Flower Fields" lasts all of 50 seconds before looping drones over you until the skies are cleared up. Thankfully, the pace picks back up for the final two chapters.
  • Chapter 4 has more or less the same problem of backtracking Fetch Quests while a very annoying tune plays over the whole thing. While the layout not being as confusing and the chapter's overall shortness are saving graces, the level design can be boringly linear and a player may have issues remembering what each of the Toy Box's stations encompass in terms of points of interest.
• Awesome Bosses:
  • The Koopa Bros. battle is fun for its hilarious first phase, awesome theme song, and seeing the four Koopa Bros. team up against you. Once you knock their tower over, you have to rush to defeat them before they recover and stack up again.
  • Chapter 4's boss is General Guy. First, you have to go through increasingly more difficult waves of Shy Guys, until you can fight General Guy directly. His tank has a lightbulb on the back that you can choose to destroy, or just continue damaging him. This fight also lets you use Watt to her full potential, as she pierces the tank's defenses.
  • Despite his status as That One Boss, Huff N. Puff gets credit for having a good theme song for his battle, and for being a highlight of the rather forgettable Chapter 6.
  • The Crystal King is also agreed to be one of the most memorable bosses for the same reasons as Huff N. Puff; he's a fairly challenging boss that prioritizes strategizing and has a memorable battle theme that's a remix of the Crystal Palace's music.
  • Bowser. His fight in this game is widely seen as one of his best boss battles, being a challenging but not overly difficult boss with epic music, several tactics and attacks, and more. It's especially satisfying to beat him after he wiped the floor with you back in the game's opening act.
• Awesome Levels:
  • Chapter 3 — courtesy of all the Creepy Awesome goings-on in both Forever Forest and Gusty Gulch, as well as introducing one of the most-Ensemble Dark Horse Partners in the series — is this for the Nightmare Fetishists. It's also one of the most creative levels in the game, in terms of both story structure and gameplay, with its mid-point dungeon full of ghost puzzles, castle with an invincible Advancing Boss of Doom, and even a cute fake-out boss fight for the finale.
  • Chapter 4, with its very unique toybox aesthetic, the introduction of one of the most useful partners, and having one of the most fun boss fights in the game at the end.
  • Chapter 7 is also very memorable, thanks to its interesting locales and events, having some of the game's best tracks, the Crystal Palace dungeon, and of course, its boss fight at the end against the Crystal King.
• Base-Breaking Character: Jr. Troopa has just as many fans as he does detractors. Fans like him for his status as a Goldfish Poop Gang with increasingly creative boss fights and admire his Determinator personality, whereas detractors find him to be an obnoxious roadblock who contributes little to the story and robs the players of a rematch against the Koopa Bros. There's also a third camp that doesn't dislike him, but feels like he overstays his welcome.
• Catharsis Factor: Sometimes after defeating Jr. Troopa, you can kick him while he's down by jumping on him, hammering him, or blowing him up with Bombette.
• Character Perception Evolution: In the early days of the game, Goombario was generally viewed as a very situational and weak partner with an annoying personality. Once it was found out how surprisingly broken he is though, many fans now hold Goombario in much higher regard.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Even though you have eight party members, it is easy to just stick with Goombario most of the time, since he will tell you interesting info about every area and person, reveal the health of enemies, and his basic attack is one point stronger than everyone but Bow. If you equip Quick Change, it is even easier, since you can just retrieve a party member that can defeat an enemy that Goombario cannot, and switch him back afterward.
  • Watt's basic attack ignores enemies' defense, which is really useful against later bosses and enemies with shells. She can also attack flying enemies, but does not jump on them, avoiding damage from spiked enemies and providing a means to circumvent otherwise-tricky flying spiked enemies with shells. In the field, she also reveals hidden item blocks and locations, so you are likely to want her out all the time anyway.
  • Seasoned players tend to prioritize on maxing out Badge Points stat (BP) as quickly as possible before they start putting points into health and flower power (HP and FP respectively) to wear more badges early, and therefore open up powerful customization earlier. This is key to the success of the "Danger Mario" build. Even if you don't use Danger Mario, the existence of HP Plus and FP Plus badges, which raise the corresponding stat by one level's worth and cost one level's worth of BP to equip, essentially make it pointless to level up anything but BP prior to hitting the game's cap of 30 BP, since you can just use them to temporarily boost HP and FP to deal with certain bosses until you're forced to upgrade them directly, opening up the BP to other badges.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Clefts have 2 Defense and are spiked so that you can't jump on them. They're also frequently encountered throughout Mt. Rugged. Regular, free of charge attacks won't cut it here, with most of the moves that can pierce their defenses at that point in the game requiring FP to use. This means a player has a good chance of being worn down after fighting multiple of them, should they have no Honey Syrups to spare.
  • The Dark Koopas are very annoying to fight as well, since they have a move that can put Mario into Dizzy-state, making him completely useless for two turns. The problem here is that, more often than not, you fight against multiple Dark Koopas at the same time, and they all like to use that Dizzyfying move on Mario, giving him almost no chance of recovering from it; even if you have Goombario as your partner, he can only help so much if more than one of them decides to use the dizzy move. If you don't have the Feeling Fine badge equipped^note Wearing it prevents poisoning, sleepiness and dizziness. and you're out of FP when that happens, you might as well reload from your last saved point.
  • Hammer Bros. in Bowser's Castle. They have a whopping 12 HP, won't flip over like other shelled enemies, and their hammer throws have the possibility of making Mario shrink, cutting his attack power by half. It gets worse when their HP drops below four and they start throwing a flurry of hammers at him. Their annoyance is even Lampshaded by Goombario.
  • The Bzzap! (exclamation mark included) you can find in Forever Forest has terrifying attack power at that point of the game. They're Glass Cannons though, so it's all a matter of killing them before they kill you.
  • Halfway through Chapter 5, Magikoopas of various colors start showing up as enemies, and you have to make sure to beat them before anyone else. Their ability to electrify, make transparent, heal and buff themselves or their allies can easily change the tides of a battle and make it much longer than it should. The "standard" blue Magikoopas from Bowser's Castle have access to all support magic used by their subtypes and thus are among the most dangerous enemies in the game.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Lady Bow, despite being one of eight party members and not given any more story importance than the rest of the group, became the most popular for her fun personality, Creepy Awesome vibe, and useful abilities in gameplay. It is most likely because of this popularity that whenever future Paper Mario games have done a Call-Back to the first game, Bow is almost always the one representing the game. For example, she and Parakarry are the only party members from this game to get The Cameo in The Thousand-Year Door, and she is also the only party member to show up on merchandise in Francis's room and on other posters in Super Paper Mario. This is helped by her not really having an Expy in The Thousand-Year Door (for example, Goombella being very similar to Goombario, Koops to Kooper, etc). The closest she has is Vivian, who carries over her invisibility ability, but otherwise the characters have so little in common that most don't consider Vivian an actual replacement. If not for the series staying consistently focused on the Super Mario series staples rather than the new characters, she would probably be a Breakout Character by now.
  • Out of all the bosses who guard a Star Spirit, The Koopa Bros. and Tubba Blubba seem to be the most popular of the bunch, mainly due to being some of the only bosses who actually make a recurring presence before their actual fights. The Koopa Bros. are especially popular due to being a major Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shoutout, and the music associated with them and their boss fight, meanwhile Tubba Blubba gets points for being a sympathetic Anti-Villain.
  • The Crystal King is also popular for having the most unique design out of the chapter bosses as well as being a fulfilling boss to fight at the end of what is usually considered one of the game's best chapters.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Fans commonly call this game Paper Mario 64 in order to distinguish this game from the rest of the series.
  • Also, Solid Peach. The playable Peach sections themselves are sometimes referred to as "Peach Gear Solid".
• Fanon:
  • Because of their identical places in the lore, it is commonly assumed that Star Haven and Star Road are the same location. The name discrepancy is either attributed to it being renamed, or to Star Road being a division of Star Haven. On a similar vein, Geno is thought to be a grown up Star Kid, and the "higher authority" he serves are the Star Spirits. The fact that Paper Mario was originally conceived as Super Mario RPG 2 only lends credence to these theories.
  • It's believed by some fans that the Magikoopa who follows Twink and attacks Mario in the prologue is actually Kamek. The Magikoopa who attacks Mario with a trio of Koopatrols in Bowser's Castle is also sometimes thought to be Kamek.
  • Professor Kolorado's name in Japanese is simply just Charles, whereas Kolorado is a Dub Name Change. Some fans, however, like to believe that both of them are individual parts of his full name, creating Professor Charles Kolorado, akin to the merger of Dr. Eggman's English name of Ivo Robotnik and Japanese name of Eggman.
• First Installment Wins: A minor example. A small but pretty vocal portion of the fanbase finds this game to be the best game in the series, better than The Thousand-Year Door, which is believed to be an Even Better Sequel by other fans. On a larger scale, both games remain highly regarded to this day and are what most fans best remember the series for, with later games becoming heavily Contested Sequels due to them shaking up the formula in ways that haven't gone well with fans that gravitated to their unique RPG formula and removing almost any trace of creativity. Super Paper Mario gets this to a lesser extent as its story, characters and lore went on to become widely beloved by the fanbase. The game does, however, win in a very big way: it's the only game to be consistently re-released, having been ported to the Wii, WiiU and Nintendo Switch Online, while each of its successors bar Origami King and the remake of The Thousand Year Door have since fallen into Keep Circulating the Tapes.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • You might notice that this game has the exact same Excuse Plot that Sticker Star was criticized for having. The difference is that this game has better characterization and character variety to distract from that.
  • The first signs of Bowser's Villain Decay, which would persist until Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, were present here in his immature personality. That being said, this game also had Bowser defeat Mario for the first time ever, gave him a serious Leitmotif, and built him as such a serious threat with the Star Rod that it not only took the entire game to stop him, but he almost won again in the final battle. These elements made it unnoticeable without hindsight, when the seriousness was transferred to other villains.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • It's common knowledge that the Koopa Brothers dress up like Toads. But if you take the colors of their mushroom spots and apply them to the usual Theme Naming of Toads, you get Green T., Red T., Black T., and Yellow T.!
  • The Bandits in this game are pink, even though they're usually blue. This may seem like an odd choice, but in their only previous appearance, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the blue Bandits would steal Baby Mario, while there were rarer pink ones who stole coins. Now, what do Bandits in this game steal?
  • When first encountering Parakarry at the post office, Goombario will describe him as being notoriously slow at his job of delivering letters. Later, you meet him at Mt. Rugged and he's frantically searching for some letters he managed to lose. Throughout the game there's also an optional side quest for finding other lost letters scattered all over the Mushroom Kingdom that he's dropped. No wonder he's so slow at his job if he's frequently losing the mail he is supposed to deliver and having to spend time tracking it down.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Chet Rippo can be paid to relocate the extra 5 HP you start with (you start with 10) to BP so that Mario is permanently in the Danger state and can always reap the rewards of many badges that take effect in this state. These badges do things like increase Mario's attack (Power Rush and Mega Rush) and defense (Last Stand), and even make enemies miss sometimes (Close Call). This is known as the "Danger Mario" build, and while not as strong as the equivalent from Thousand-Year Door because it's impossible to stack copies of the same badge, it's still devastating with certain setups. It helps that Danger-based badges are much cheaper on BP compared to equivalents like Power/Defend Plus and Lucky Day, so it's easier to slot them with other badges.
  • The Mystery item is a minor one. In battle, it takes the effect of a random item, from a healing Mushroom, to a powerful Thunder Bolt, to a rock that damages Mario. Not so great unless you're in the Random Number God's good graces. Its real value, however, comes from Item Crafting. By giving them over to Tayce T. to cook, you can potentially obtain any craftable item in the game, including ones you're not supposed to get until much later. Most of the time, however, you'll get a Mistake (a Joke Item that only restores 1HP and 1FP apiece), but even that can be utilized by selling them at Boo's Manor for five coins. Conveniently, Boo's Manor sells Mysteries for only 1 coin, giving you a 4 coin profit even in the worst case scenario, with the only downside being the punishing amount of time it takes to grind this way.
  • Kooper's Dizzy Shell is probably the most powerful Party Attack in the game. For a mere 4 FP, you can effectively render all ground based enemies incapable of doing anything for a couple of turns. More than enough time to finish them off.
  • A powerful game breaker that carries over into the sequel is Power Bounce. Power Bounce allows Mario to attack an indefinite amount of times (though usually 6-9) using his jump, so long as the player is good at jumping timed hits. By itself the attack is merely useful, allowing you to easily do a good 10 damage in a single turn. The real strength of the badge comes through in combination with attack boosters and Jump Charge. Power Bounce's strength increases dramatically with each extra attack point Mario has. Getting all the possible attack boosting badges, Spike Shield, and making use of Jump Charge or Super Jump Charge can let you destroy every single enemy in the game including Bowser or The Master within a few turns. This is made more potent by the fact that it's possible to get Jump Charge by Chapter 2, and both Attack Plus badges during Chapter 4, with All Or Nothing not long afterwards.
  • Bow's Outta Sight becomes a game breaker for Power Rush/Mega Rush setups. Its normal function is to turn Mario invisible so that enemy attacks go through him for one turn. To prevent spamming it, Bow cannot do anything on the subsequent turn, but Mario can, meaning that he gets two turns to move before enemies attack. This isn't necessary in a normal playthrough, but exploiting it for a Danger Mario build gives Mario enough time to wipe out a field of enemies (using Quake Hammer/Power Bounce) or a boss (using Charge and Power Bounce) before being at risk of taking any damage, turning it into the best defensive move available.
  • The otherwise-underwhelming HP Drain badge combos nicely with Power Bounce. Under normal circumstances, it drops Mario's attack power by 1 in exchange for healing 1 HP every time you attack. With Power Bounce, however, each consecutive jump counts as an attack, letting Mario heal up to 5HP per turn, which is more than most non-boss enemies can take off in one turn if you're good at blocking and have some defensive badges.
  • Money can be easily acquired in absurd amounts early on with the combination of Pay-Off and Money Money. Payoff increases the amount of Money earned in proportion to how much damage you took, while Money Money doubles the amount of coins earned. Combining the two together lets you get hundreds of coins per chapter and potentially even buy out Rowf's badge shop after every chapter. Pay-Off is available almost immediately, and Money Money can be acquired by the start of Chapter 3 with vigorous Star Piece hunting. The only snag is balancing your health out, though even then, a skilled or well-prepared player can heal or conserve damage to counteract the risks.
  • While the cooking Item Crafting system of the game is generally overlooked, it can yield some surprisingly effective healing items for little to no cost. Dry Pasta from Dry Dry Outpost will give you Pasta if cooked by itself, which restores six HP and four FP. For only three coins, this a much more cost efficient healing item than Mushrooms at that point in the game, and really useful on a low HP run if you plan on abusing the aforementioned Danger Mario setup. Similarly, once you can combine two items together, you get access to one of the best healing items in the game: The Bland Meal. It heals ten HP and FP and its ingredients, the Goomnut and Koopa Leaf, can be gotten for no coins whatsoever and with little effort thanks to the warp pipes that take you to the areas where they're gotten from being close together once you unlock the sewer area. Also, unlike the Whacka's Bump, the ingredients for this item will never run out. Once you can make this thing, you'll almost never need to spend coins on healing items ever again.
  • The Stone Cap is another invincibility-giving Item, but without the Too Awesome to Use rarity of the Repel Gel. Feel like cheesing an otherwise-insane Superboss (e.g., The Master #3 or the Anti Guys Unit)? Just stock-up on as many Caps as possible, put one on when Mario can act (the Necessary Drawback makes Mario skip all his Turns until it wears off), and have your Partner handle all the offense while Mario himself sits back and relaxes in total safety.
  • Jump Charge, Hammer Charge, and their stronger equivalents can stack infinitely as long as you have enough FP to keep charging and enough HP to stay alive. When combined with Power Bounce it can shred even bosses like paper; the only boss it isn't useful against is Bowser himself, who has a move to debuff charges specifically to prevent this strategy.
  • Last Stand is a badge that is often overlooked, but in conjunction with certain badges and partner abilities, it allows Mario to become a Nigh-Invulnerable powerhouse. Last Stand halves the damage Mario takes when he's in Danger before defense buffs are calculated. This means that with debuffs like Chill Out, and defense buffs like Damage Dodge or Sushie's Water Block, most enemies in the game will be unable to even damage you. It's even possible to negate attacks from the Master if you equip this badge, use Chill Out and Water Block while in Danger status, and successfully block him.
  • Chill Out. For merely 2 SP, it reduces all enemies' attack power by 3 for 3 turns, without failing. It's a very valuable Star Power that can help a lot especially in late game boss battles where the bosses hit hard.
  • In the Nintendo Switch Online version (and the Wii U Virtual Console version when that was still up), once you get access to the Playroom, you won't need to worry about coins for the rest of the game. Just create a Suspend Point right after starting the 9-block jump game and reload it while figuring out the block placements and you can get the best result and the bonus every time. The end result is an easy 950 coins per visit. This also applies to classic emulation like Project64.
  • Skolar's Star Storm is the epitome of Boring, but Practical; it hits all enemies on the screen for 7 damage, ignores defense, and is risk-free since it has no Action Command. When you get it at the end of Chapter 3, it's basically a total screen clear, and even after that, the toughest regular enemies in the game only have HP up to about 12, meaning one of these can bring them down in range to be taken out with one more attack. The only drawback is it costs two bars of Star Power to use, meaning it can't exactly be spammed.
• Genius Bonus: Petunias represent anger. Needless to say, the Petunia that Mario meets in Flower Fields is a little cheesed off at the Monty Moles that are eating her roots.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Fuzzies, who absorb Mario's HP with every bite and, in the case of the jungle ones, have to be pulled off with quicktime events. Fortunately, the Zap Tap badge hard-counters them, ensuring that they can't even hurt Mario and take damage whenever they try.
  • Spy Guys can literally smash away Mario's moves, making them obnoxious to fight when they are paired with enemies that might require Jumps (Sky Guys and Medi Guys) or Hammers (Pyro Guys) to beat. Thankfully, you can at least manipulate them to never use their hammer attack.
  • Crazee Dayzees have a very difficult-to-guard lullaby attack that has a chance of putting Mario to sleep. While unlikely to get stuck in Cycle of Hurting because Mario's partner won't get put to sleep and they can fight back more easily due to the Dayzees have no defense, it's still annoying to have Mario put to sleep in the first place. The worst part about those enemies, however, is that they're really slooooooooow, taking forever to attack. Oh and the jerks can also run away from battle, denying you of their Exp. points. Their Amazy Dayzee variant, which is worth a lot of XP, has high defenses and tends to run away most of the time can hit ridiculously hard if they do stand and fight for a turn or two, but they spawn in a very specific location and is always alone unlike in the sequel, so you can at least go in with the "Peril Mario" and one-shot them with the right setup without having to worry about their attacks.
• Good Bad Bugs: The descriptions for the Kooky Cookie and Electro Pop both state they heal 15 FP (with the former also inflicting Mario with a random status effect, and the latter electrifying him). While this is correct when used outside of battle, in-battle the former heals 30 FP and the latter sets Mario's FP to his current HP plus 15, making them both more powerful than intended!
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • One of Luigi's diary entries has him saying he wants to be the star in an adventure someday, and he'd like his name to be in the title, but he knows that'll never happen. Luigi would eventually get his wish with Luigi's Mansion one year later.
  • In fact, the diary entry is a reference to the upcoming game. Better yet, Luigi's Mansion includes a stealthy reference to Paper Mario, so it's like it's returning the favor.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The game opens with Bowser taping a picture of Kammy Koopa into a story book, who then proceeds to wreck the plot. The plot of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam involves Luigi knocking over a story book, causing its contents to spill out and cause problems in the wider world.
  • Similarly to the above example, a French print ad for this game showed Mario and Bowser fighting using pairs of scissors. 20 years later, Mario would end up fighting a pair of scissors in-game... and this pair attacks both Mario and Bowser's army.
  • Chuck Quizmo's question of who Goombario's sister is has an option named "Goombette". More than a decade later, Super Mario Odyssey would introduce a female Goomba named Goombette (who, for added extra points, is similar to Goombaria in terms of appearance minus the head accesory).
  • When Bowser asks Peach what Mario dislikes the most, she can tell him he hates mushrooms. Come The Super Mario Bros. Movie, where it turns out he really doesn't like their taste.
• Jerkass Woobie: The Boos who terrorized Tubba Blubba before he gained his powers, being eaten by him is certainly harsh but it is still hard to say they didn’t deserve it to some degree. However, while Bow admits she's not sorry, she promises that they'll leave him alone after Mario defeats him.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Lakilester is probably the least useful partner in the game. He comes in during the climax of Chapter 6 so late in the game that practically any use he could have is already taken by Parakarry and Sushie, both which have superior screen clearing moves anyway. Spiny Surge hits all enemies, however it only does 4 damage at max which is outright weak for that point of the game, where partners and enemies do 5 and beyond. Spiny Flip is a mediocre attack that's outclassed by Watt's Electro Dash. Hurricane rewards no star points and once he can learn it, it's during the chapter you get "Up & Away" (unless you have saved a Super Block for him), plus you already have Bow's Spook attack, making it completely useless. Lakilester's only uses are that he can transport Mario faster on the overworld, his Spiny Flip isn't a direct attack, and Cloud Nine stacks with the other evasion boosts on a Danger Mario build, but overall he's much less reliable than the others.
  • Kalmar's Up & Away. By the time you obtain it, you have cleared most of the game. While it has a very high chance of working, enemies turned into stars will not give Star Points, and you're better off just finishing the enemies with a Star Storm (which costs the same as Up & Away) and maybe a few more attacks.
• Magnificent Bitch: Lady Bow is the aristocratic ruler of the Forever Forest who seeks to rescue her fellow Boos from their former bullying victim, the ghost-eating Tubba Blubba. To that end, she lures Mario to her mansion and tests his abilities with a variety of traps and puzzles. Upon his victory, Bow congratulates the plumber and reveals that she is holding a Star Spirit hostage, forcing Mario into an alliance to take down Tubba Blubba. Even after their success, Bow remains unapologetic for tormenting Tubba Blubba, yet promises to stop for the sake of her people, before releasing the Star Spirit and joining Mario's party to continue adventuring.
• Memetic Badass: Goompa is the best partner in the game, no doubt. The game itself implying that he trained the Master and was part of a group of intrepid explorers in his youth further fuels this.
• Memetic Mutation: Editing this page crashes Paper Mario.^ExplanationThis snowclone was the most prominent of several memes to emerge among the Paper Mario community thanks to Stryder7x, who makes videos documenting numerous glitches, programming oddities, and obtuse crashing methods in Paper Mario 64. Thanks in particular to this video, much of these jokes revolve around devising increasingly ridiculous ways to crash the game, sometimes crossing over with other Mario-related memes as well (e.g. "Beating Super Mario 64 in 0.5 A-Presses Crashes Paper Mario").
• Moral Event Horizon: Huff N. Puff — unlike the other, Punch-Clock Villain bosses — invokes It's All About Me to the point of willfully turning Flower Fields into a cloudy Mordor that's heavily implied to be hazardous to the health of its Plant People.
• Sacred Cow: Not to the same extent as its successor, but still counts since the game is still highly regarded like it was back when it was released, and is considered by most fans as the second-best (or at least arguably tied with the third game) in the series, if not the best. It helps that the game also uses the "Bowser kidnaps Peach" scenario like in Sticker Star, but unlike that one the game had excellent characterization and world-building to make up for it, something that the next two games would do even better.
• The Scrappy:
  • Koopa Koot in Koopa Village. He supplies a huge amount of fetch quests and is an annoying old curmudgeon who barely rewards you unless you do a lot of stuff. Not helping matters is the fact he is clearly trying to take advantage of you in his later missions.
  • Rosie in Flower Fields. Her It's All About Me attitude makes her willing to sacrifice Lily's health and hydration rather than give up her favorite MacGuffin — which, when Rosie begrudgingly relents, is easily replaced anyway. But does she at least become a Jerk with a Heart of Gold about Lily? Nope, Rosie's just glad there's not one less neighbor to show off in front of. Unsurprisingly, quite a few fans see her as the one resident actually deserving of Huff N. Puff's Mordor.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Despite being temporary, the fact that you can't use Action Commands to guard against damage or increase the damage (or even the attack speed) of your attacks before being taught the commands makes the early game needlessly frustrating and tedious.
  • Merluvlee's ability to find Super Blocks and Star Pieces are a massive help... but you might be disappointed in her ability to find badges. She will tell you the location of a badge you can find in the game... including the ones for sale at Rowf's shop and are traded for Star Pieces by her brother Merlow, who is in the same house as her. Obviously, these badges are ridiculously easy to find and if she chooses to tell you the location of them, you have wasted your money. Money that could have been used to buy a badge at Rowf's shop ironically.
  • The Boot upgrades change the timing of some of Mario's jump action commands like Power Bounce and Multi Bounce, which can cause the player to fall victim to Damn You, Muscle Memory! and mistime them out of habit. Thousand Year Door notably removes this, giving Mario special attacks based on the Boot upgrades, but otherwise having him jump normally for the entire game.
  • Since partners don't have HP, if they're hit, they'll be "injured" for a few turns. The thing is that, unlike Mario, there are no badges to prevent this, and Mario can't switch them out or use items to heal them back, which can be very annoying. This is another thing Thousand-Year Door notably removed, with the partners simply having HP instead.
• Self-Imposed Challenge:
  • "Peril Mario" is one that exploits the Critical Status Buff of some badges by combining as many of these badges as possible and keeping Mario at 1 HP for as long as possible.
  • The Guard Door will sic the Anti Guy Unit on Mario if you get three of his questions wrong. Of course, nothing's stopping you from deliberately answering the questions wrong so that you can try and take them on.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: It's very easy to get addicted to raising Lil Oinks, especially since they can give out the best healing items in the game. Ditto cooking and finding recipes, as the Game-Breaker section shows.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The game's prologue is notoriously slow thanks to an especially large amount of cutscenes and the lack of reaction commands making fights feel super bland. It isn't too bad if it is your first time playing, but on subsequent playthroughs the prologue can really feel like drudgery and there are even fan mods dedicated to shortening it.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • Monstar has a very impressive effect where the stars that make up its body seem to "fall into" the center of its sprite... on original Nintendo 64 hardware. Most emulators, including the Wii Virtual Console, wrongly show this as a cloud of stars surrounding Monstar's body.◊ You can see what it's supposed to look like in this video. The version on Nintendo Switch Online almost fixes this, but the stars incorrectly extend to the outline.
  • Similarly, the original N64 release and the Nintendo Switch Online version has a rainbow effect in Star Haven that changes depending on the distance you're at, which the Virtual Console version was also unable to replicate, as seen here.
• Spiritual Successor: That this game began life as Super Mario RPG 2 is very obvious from the basic plot of the game, which is largely identical in the Broad Strokes. Among the similarities: Mario and Bowser have an initial confrontation in (or atop) Bowser's castle, which then becomes inaccessible and can't be revisited until the endgame. Star Road/Haven is crashed (literally) by an enemy who renders it unable to grant wishes. Seven Star Pieces/Spirits, scattered around the world, must be retrieved in order to restore Star Road/Haven. An emissary is sent by Star Road/Haven to assist Mario and his friends in this goal. Several characters who first appeared in Super Mario RPG return in this game, such as the Chancellor/Minister (an embryonic version of the later Toadsworth character in the main series) and the Shaman enemies (repurposed into friendly characters as Merlon and his relatives). Many specific settings are common to both games: a network of sewers near the town; a spooky forest maze; a vast, trackless desert on the far side of a mountain; one or multiple "monster towns"; and a hill or summit where all the shooting stars land (and notably, while these use different names in English translations, they share the same name in Japanese). Both games end with a parade featuring all of the characters who appeared in the game, with Luigi serving as the Grand Marshal. Even the combat systems, with their timed hits and action commands, are broadly similar.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • In the Japanese version, the song that plays when meeting a new partner sounds very similar to "America" from West Side Story, which is probably why it was replaced in international versions.
  • The intro music is basically a remix of the song "Inchworm" from Hans Christian Andersen.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: The whole game qualifies, but Flower Fields takes the cake after the Puff Puff Machine is destroyed.
• That One Attack:
  • While the Final Boss (Bowser, obviously) isn't overwhelming, he will occasionally use the Star Rod to A) hit both you or your partner, KOing them for three turns if you don't block, and debuffing both or B) restore 30 HP. Also, he can occasionally C) strike you to disable your Jump, Hammer, or Item for several rounds if it isn't blocked.
  • Any move that can attack Mario's partners. Since, in this game, Mario's partners don't have their own HP, if they get hit by an enemy's move, then they're out for that many turns they are damaged for (such as an attack that deals 3 points of damage will result in them being out of the battle for 3 turns). This can be very problematic as Mario will have to go without his partner for that many turns and he is facing a horde of enemies or a boss. Thankfully, these attacks aren't that common in the game and only certain bosses such as Buzzar, Kent C. Koopa, and Bowser can use these moves.
• That One Boss:
  • In the Nintendo Switch Online rerelease, Lava Piranha becomes exponentially harder than on original hardware or Virtual Console, due to the fight containing copious amounts of lag. Because of the lag, inputs for Action Commands end up being a few frames earlier than normal and out of sync with the sound effects, requiring the player to rework their entire muscle memory to accommodate for it. And with Lava Piranha having incredibly strong attacks, the lag will most likely result in the player not being able to properly block its attacks, resulting in multiple Game Overs when prior versions of the game would allow for an easier fight.
  • Huff N. Puff is widely considered to be one of the hardest fights in the game due to inflicting a lot of damage and being an Asteroids Monster that can heal himself; the player has to kill the parts of him that break off to do any lasting damage. Though Lakilester, Parakarry, and Sushie can use area attacks to dispose of his minions, not every player will think of this, and even for those who do, such attacks still hit him and cause him to spawn more. Also, if you get him on his last legs (or clouds), he will most likely give you a nasty surprise: A quake attack that deals more damage the more Tuff Puffs there are. If you have just dished out a powerful attack and generated a circle of Tuff Puffs and didn't dispatch them, you are going to be hurt for real.
  • The Crystal King has 2 Defense and 70 HP, can heal for 20 HP up to 3 times, summons 3 mooks you have to get rid of until his HP falls below half or he'll spit them at you for 4 damage each (3 each if blocked), his basic attack has very tight timing, does 6 damage, and can freeze Mario for 2 turns if not blocked, and when his HP gets low he can clone himself, and if the real one isn't found before his next turn the clones can hit you with a blizzard or charged ice attack for 8-12 damage.
• That One Level:
  • The Crystal Palace. Loads of Demonic Spiders, including Swoopulas, White Clubbas, Duplighosts, and several different varieties of Magikoopas, as well as a rather confusing layout where certain rooms are "mirrored". Examples include breaking a Spin Jump panel or pushing a statue in one area and then having to backtrack to the other side of the mirror and go to the new path that the previous action unlocked, which the game doesn't really hint at all that much.
  • Flower Fields. While not overly hard, it's a level that tends to overstay its welcome for several reasons. Firstly, expect to do a lot of back and forth ping-ponging through its areas carrying items back and forth, and because of the "gating" system for areas, you'll have to sack a few healing items in your very limited inventory in order to get to these areas. Couple that with a difficult boss and gloomy atmosphere due to the clouds, and it becomes a pain to get through. It's also very long.
  • Navigating Dry Dry Desert to find Dry Dry Ruins can be a pain if you do not know where you are going. The only hint you have is the gem you are given by Moustafa which blinks faster as you get closer to where you have to go. Dry Dry Desert is a 7x7 grid full of annoying enemies. And this is before you consider the other things you can find there.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • While the game's Boss Battles are great on their own, the bosses themselves have little presence in their chapters (save for the Koopa Bros. and Tubba Blubba) and are only there to be fought off, so you never get to see them personally threatening Mario or other NPCs in ways that, for example, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door does. The worst offender is Crystal King, who has an even more unique design than rest of the bosses, only to be a Flat Character whose only lines are showing how loyal he is to Bowser, and his origin is not clear either.
  • The game's partners have unique designs and personalities, but most of them don't get much chance to show that off after their introductions, since there are only a handful of scenes giving dialogue to whichever partner you have out and maybe a couple of scripted encounters for a few of them otherwise.
  • The Koopa Bros' appearance in Chapter 8, complete with them boasting about how much stronger they've gotten since Mario defeated them all the way back in Chapter 1. It seems like a fun rematch against one of the coolest bosses in the game... until Jr. Troopa (whom you've already fought about five times already) suddenly runs in and completely wipes the floor with all of them, forcing you to fight him instead. Even after Jr. Troopa is defeated, the door that sicced the Koopa Bros on you just gets confused and lets you pass. Even worse, the Koopa Bros themselves send Mario a letter earlier in the game saying they will come back for revenge, but said fight just ends up being a surprise battle against Jr. Troopa instead. Needless to say, many fans weren't amused by the twist.
• Vindicated by History: Fans were initially cold to the game due to both its late release in the N64's life cycle and its major differences from the Tough Act to Follow Super Mario RPG (not helped by how it started out as Super Mario RPG 2). Critics were charmed by its unique gameplay and storybook aesthetic, but newer hardware and accompanying titles like Final Fantasy X overshadowed it. When Paper Mario received a best-selling sequel, however, many players revisited the original game and found it to be equally worthy of praise. Its resale prices stayed high up until its Virtual Console release, where it became one of the top sellers.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The paper diorama aesthetic, emotive sprite work and neat effects all come together to make a game that is not super amazing by the Nintendo 64's technical standards, but has lasted with players for quite a long time on sheer aesthetic alone. There's plenty of these details all throughout the game, right down to dramatic edge lighting on the characters in specific dark area cases. The Thousand Year Door would then take all of these and go even further.

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