It would be great to see Nintendo remake another Paper Mario game, but perhaps not the one many people would immediately think of. The Paper Mario series could potentially be on the cusp of a revival after the release of the long-desired Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake. It wouldn't be unfair for fans to assume that another remake could be in the series' future. However, one game in the series could be a startlingly good candidate for such treatment. The surprising thing is, it might not be the first title that people would immediately expect to see.

There are many players who enjoy Paper Mario, and it's not hard to see why. The Paper Mario games are an RPG spin-off of the Super Mario series with a distinctive and charming paper-themed art style. In addition to solid gameplay, the games' writing and sense of humor are two strong points. The subseries manages to be even more tongue-in-cheek than the mainline games while also including some seriously threatening villains, such as the Shadow Queen from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. While reinventions of the series would be divisive, Paper Mario is still a beloved title, as the reception to TTYD's remake shows.

Related

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s Prince Mush Fight Was 20 Years in the Making

Prince Mush is one of Mario's toughest opponents in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and fans waited two decades for it to happen.

Super Paper Mario Would Be an Excellent Choice For a Remake

Paper Mario Was a Beloved Nintendo 64 Classic

At first glance, the remarkably creative Paper Mario for Nintendo 64 seems like a perfect candidate for a remake. After all, while it wasn't the first Mario RPG, it was the game that kicked off the Paper Mario spin-off series. Not to mention, it is often held up alongside The Thousand-Year Door as one of the best games in the franchise. The fact that both Paper Mario and its sequel share most of the same mechanics should be proof of that alone. However, for as excellent as the original Paper Mario is, it's not the game that could benefit the most from a remake.

Super Paper Mario Was a Solid Game With Unique Elements

Super Paper Mario is a fine example of a Nintendo game that deserves a Switch port. The game is admittedly somewhat controversial due to its major changes to the formula. Most notably, it's a platformer with RPG elements rather than a turn-based RPG, and the well-loved partners were replaced with less-characterized Pixls. Despite these issues, the game itself is legitimately good. The gameplay is fun, with the dimension-flipping gimmick providing plenty of creative opportunities, and the story is one of the series' most gripping tales. Super Paper Mario could benefit greatly from getting a remake that exposes it to more fans.

Paper Mario is Already Playable Via Nintendo Switch Online

There is another crucial difference between the two that gives Super Paper Mario an edge. Nintendo Switch Online's collection of Nintendo 64 games already includes Paper Mario, so it's already available to players with the expansion. Super Paper Mario, on the other hand, only saw a digital re-release for the Wii U that is no longer available, so players can only find it through the original Wii version. This makes the game far harder to find and play than Paper Mario at the moment. As a result, there is more reason for Nintendo to consider developing a Super Paper Mario remake first.

Super Paper Mario was the first major formula change for the series, but it's a game that deserves a second look. The success of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door's remake shows that the older games in the series still have plenty to offer. With both Paper Mario and TTYD available to Switch players, that leaves Super Paper Mario as the last remaining member of the original trio. Now that the initial surprise of the genre shift has passed, a remake of Super Paper Mario could see it finding a new audience.

Paper Mario

The Paper Mario series is a spin-off from the main platforming adventure that sees Mario engaging enemies in turn-based combat using an array of abilities and special attacks. There have been multiple Paper Mario releases with Paper Mario: The Origami King being the most recent.