How Paper Mario Lost Its Way (Until Recently)

Paper Mario is a storied spinoff series with a...complicated reputation. While it began as a pair of RPGs with an alternate take on Mario's world, a desire to keep the games fresh, interesting, and not redundant led to constant change and experimentation...with very mixed results. While its earlier titles are highly regarded to this day, opinions about every game since have been split, with many considering Sticker Star onward to be a "dark age". One that Paper Mario has only started to climb out of, thanks to having a remake of one of said earlier titles on the way.

So...what went wrong?

Let's look at why Paper Mario went in the directions it did at the time, how Sticker Star became so widely seen as the series' low point, and why the games afterward have struggled so hard to recapture the interest their predecessors once had. The truth is more complicated than most knee-jerk reactions online would have you think.

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Graphic design by Voyager:   / fire_voyager  
Post-production assistance by Neoxon:   / neoxon619  

Additional Sources:
Article – Iwata Asks (Paper Mario: Sticker Star): https://web.archive.org/web/201905170...
Misc. – Metacritic Scores for “Modern” Paper Mario Games: https://www.metacritic.com/game/paper... https://www.metacritic.com/game/paper... https://www.metacritic.com/game/paper...
Misc. – Video Game Sales Wiki on Mario & Luigi Series: https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Mario...
Misc. – Video Game Sales Wiki on Paper Mario Series: https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Paper...

(For video sources, check the pinned comment! Wasn't enough room to put them all here.)