Paper Mario

Paper Mario, a turn-based JRPG entry in the Mario franchise with a paper-based aesthetic and platforming elements, sees the titular character working his way through the Mushroom Kingdom's diverse locales and…

90 11 August 2000

Adventure Role-playing (RPG) Action Comedy Fantasy

Paper Mario is an adventure developed by Intelligent Systems, released 11 August 2000 on Wii U, Wii and Nintendo 64. The main story takes about 28 hrs to finish.

Verified 14 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Paper Mario is

Paper Mario is an adventure game developed by Intelligent Systems and released in 2000. It was published by Gradiente. It is available on Wii U, Wii and Nintendo 64.

The premise, in the publisher's words

Paper Mario is a video game series and part of the Mario franchise, developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. It combines elements from the role-playing, action-adventure, and puzzle genres. Players control a paper cutout version of Mario, usually with allies, on a quest to defeat the antagonist. The series consists of six games and one spin-off; the first, Paper Mario (2000), was released for the Nintendo 64, and the most recent, a 2024 remake of 2004's Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, for the Nintendo Switch.

Description from Wikipedia · source

How it plays

It is played from a side view perspective. Its themes are action, comedy and fantasy. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

Where it sits in the Mario series

Paper Mario is the 219th of 668 entries we hold in the Mario series. The next entry was Mario Artist: Polygon Studio in 2000. Its critic score of 90 is 13 points above the series average of 77. The highest-rated entry is Super Mario World at 100.

See all 668 Mario games in release order →

How it was received

Paper Mario holds a critic score of 90 out of 100. That places it above 92% of the 7,525 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2000 averaged 72, so it scored 18 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 89, across 280 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 28 hrs.

What it launched against

Paper Mario launched on 11 August 2000, within three weeks of Grandia II, Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000, Ultimate Fighting Championship and The King of Fighters 2000. It reviewed better than 2 of the 4.

Released around the same time: Grandia II, Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000, Ultimate Fighting Championship, The King of Fighters 2000.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Paper Mario yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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