Paper Mario, known in Japan as is a role-playing (RPG) video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was first released in Japan on August 11, 2000, in North America on February 5, 2001, and in Europe on October 5, 2000. Paper Mario was re-released for Nintendo's Virtual Console in 2007.

Paper Mario is set in the Mushroom Kingdom as the protagonist Mario tries to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. To do so, he must locate seven "Star Spirits" to negate the effects of the captured Star Rod, which grants invincibility to Bowser. The player controls Mario and a number of partners to solve puzzles in the game's overworld and defeat enemies in a turn-based battle system. The battles are unique in that the player can influence the effectiveness of attacks by performing required controller inputs known as action commands. Peach is also playable in particular parts of the game to complete stealth-based objectives.

Paper Mario is the first installment for the Paper Mario series and is the predecessor to the GameCube game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The game received a positive reaction from the media, attaining an aggregate score of 88% from Game Rankings and 93% from Metacritic. It was rated the 63rd best game made on a Nintendo system in Nintendo Power s "Top 200 Games" list in 2006.

Gameplay

image:Peach'sCastle.jpg Paper Mario combines traditional role-playing game (RPG) elements with concepts and features from the Mario series. The player controls Mario for the majority of the game, who can jump and use his hammer to overcome physical obstacles placed in the game's overworld. Many of the game's puzzles and boundaries are based upon the abilities of Mario's partners, who each have a specialised skill required for progression in the game. The player accumulates partners as they advance into different locations; only one partner can accompany Mario in the overworld, although the player can interchange between them at any time. These characters also assist Mario in the game's turn-based battles, where damage inflicted against them results in temporary paralysis as the characters do not have individual HP statistics. Attacks in the game are similar to those in traditional RPGs, although the player can influence the power of a move when attacking or defending by timing a button-press accurately or performing some other action command as required. Mario and his partners have a finite capacity to perform special moves, with each of these consuming a particular number of flower points (FP) when performed. Such statistics can be increased by earning experience points in combat to level up. There is also an on-screen gauge to display Star Energy, which is required to perform another type of move that accumulate in number as the player advances through the game. The player can locate hidden battle upgrades in the game's overworld, which promotes one partner character to a new rank at a time.