On February 5, 2001, Nintendo released the first Mario-focused RPG on the Nintendo 64 in North America, Paper Mario. It still followed the standard formula for Mario games, as in saving Princess Peach from King Bowser, but this franchise took the blueprint and ran in a unique direction. What Intelligent Systems was able to develop turned into five more games following in its predecessor's footsteps up until 2020.
Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door debuted in 2004 on the GameCube. Super Paper Mario released three years after that on the Wii. Paper Mario: Sticker Star was the first-handheld Paper Mario experience on the Nintendo 3DS. Color Splash and The Origami King followed suit in 2016 and 2020 respectively. Each game didn't stray too far from the formula of the original title, but Nintendo's direction for The Origami King proved why changing systems, such as the battle mechanic, is necessary for every game.
After 20 years and six games, Nintendo has a successful series involving Mario and co. It doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon. In August of 2020, the Paper Mario: The Origami King game director and producer revealed Intelligent Systems has complete creative control over the series, following the release of Sticker Star. This should ease the minds of the community in terms of where the series takes off from this point in time.
A new title in the Paper Mario franchise is not expected for quite some time, unless Nintendo has something up its sleeve. The Origami King did quite well, scoring an 80 on Metacritic. As the series evolved over the past 20 years, one constant remained in the equation. Paper Mario cemented its place in Nintendo lore and gave way for Mario RPGs to flourish.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is available now on Nintendo Switch.
Source: Metacritic