Before college, my gaming sphere was rather small. I played farming sims and Pokémon. And, even then, I played very few indie farming sims — I played Harvest Moon games or something similar.
Later, I experimented. I started hanging with more gamers and they would give me suggestions (it was how I fell in love with the Horizon games), or I would see something that spoke to me and try it.
Because there haven’t been a lot of new and original Mario RPGS released since I got into gaming, I hadn’t touched one. Sure, I played Mario Party and Mario Kart as a kid. But I didn’t dig deeper into the franchise.
When Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door came out, I was intrigued. I saw my roommates playing and dove into the game.
The story is cute, the mechanics are different, and I love the style of graphics. The storybook feel adds to the charm of the game.
But can you start playing here? This is the second Paper Mario game. At a glance, it seems even more complicated than that. The first Paper Mario was originally envisioned as a sequel to the Super Nintendo’s Super Mario RPG.
In my opinion, yes, you can start playing here.
I started here and I have had a blast. There hasn’t been a point where I felt lost in the story. There are only nods to Paper Mario‘s first game. This is a welcoming starting point.
While I already wish there were more games in the franchise, this is a good starting place for those of us who didn’t experience the original game.
What do you think? Is this a good place to start? Was this your first Mario RPG? What would you recommend to fans who missed the earlier games (or for those in the younger generation)?
Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.
Pow Block Podcast – A Nintendo Podcast by Boss Rush
Pow Block Podcast is the Nintendo podcast for The Boss Rush Network and Boss Rush Media. Each week, Edward Varnell, Corey Dirrig, and their friends from around the internet discuss the week that was in the world of Nintendo, including news, rumors, new and upcoming games, NSO, answer listener questions, discuss their weekly snacks, and more. New episodes now release on Tuesdays for everyone.
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