There were quite a lot of Mario games released during the Game Boy Advance series like Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, but one series we never saw on Nintendo's 32-bit handheld hardware was Paper Mario.
If you've ever wondered what it might have looked like on this smaller screen, pixel artist and Twitter user @Niinjamal has decided to reimagine the series as a Game Boy Advance title. This artwork shows off mock-ups of a start menu, some battle sequences, and even a cutscene.
Niinjamal has also been doing some other fun mock-ups - recreating Sonic characters, Pokémon, and more Mario. And if you're wondering how this art was made, it was created in a program called Aseprite.
If you're in the mood for some Paper Mario, you can always play the original Nintendo 64 title via the Switch Online + Expansion Pack service, provided you've got a membership. This RPG classic from the year 2000 was added to the digital N64 library late last year.
What do you think of Paper Mario recreated as a Game Boy Advance title? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 31
Saw this a few days ago myself, looks absolutely lovely.
It's weird how we never got a handheld Paper Mario game though. I think there was one in development for the 3DS but I don't think that ever amounted to anything (it was apparently going to drastically change the combat/tone which sounded like a recipe for disaster). Glad that never materialised!
Hot Diggity Dog.
@Fizza That would have been preferable.
its so charming. still sad to think about how the first handheld entry was so close to a traditional PM game before the franchise did its massive shift
its a tired debate but i do miss the consistent quality. i find the new games fun but theres always one big thing that bogs them down for me
Paper Mario & TTYD are some of the biggest holes in my retro backlog (& Super Paper Mario too but I'm not as eager to play that one). I'm pretty lucky I haven't been spoiled on those games. I really don't see the value in buying NSO+ right now unless it expands to GB/GBA games. Then I can hit up most N64 titles I've missed out on.
On another note, I'm kinda surprised we haven't gotten Super Mario RPG on SNES online.
They’re not generic enemies and not everyone is a Toad…. I LOVE IT!!!
Knowing this website, I'm assuming the people who say that this is gonna be taken down by Nintendo even though it's a mockup are all probably asleep, and part of me hopes they never step foot into this article's comment section, because I'm really tired of them not even reading like half the title.
Thank you for reading this first world problem btw.
@Fizza we did get Sticker Star on the 3DS. And although not a proper PM game, he was a big part of the Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam crossover
@gaga64
@Fizza Maybe we'll luck out someday, and that lost title will be revised and make a comeback like Metroid Dread.
We can dream, anyway....
Wow, that looks beautiful and amazing. Very well drawn.
@Fizza lol yep, sorry
@Fizza the funny thing is over the course of reading your original comment I found I legitimately had totally mentally blocked out Sticker Star and I was going to mention “well he was in Paper Jam but admittedly that wasn’t a Paper Mario game as much as a crossover”
I guess even then Paper Jam is the most we’ll ever see Paper Mario on a portable though…
It looks nice, but it really doesn't have the look of a GBA game.
@Fizza Well, the original one is available for the Switch, so we do have a handheld one!
(Also The Origami King. And I liked that one as well. Sticker Star is not as bad as they say either in my opinion.)
@Krisi Sticker Star may be the lowest on the Paper Mario list but if I had dismissed it, I may have dismissed Color Splash and Origami King as well, that would've been a disservice for both games and their gold writing.
I'm currently playing Color Splash and it does feel like Sticker Star done right.
@HammerGalladeBro Well, not exactly done right - there still isn't much incentive for battling, and the paint mechanic makes the battles longer than they should be, but other than that, yeah, it's a much better version of Sticker Star.
I'd definitely would play a Paper Mario game on GB/GBA.
I'm honestly shock that we never got a Paper Mario game for handhelds until the 3DS.
Wow that is fantastic work 👏
@Aozz101x I don't think it's that shocking. The fact that the characters are paper is only really visible in an otherwise 3D game, where you can see how flat everything is compared to the backgrounds and structures, and that they are just flat sprites when they turn around. Sure, it could work some extent in 2D with some animation tricks, but the effect wouldn't be that pronounced. These fan-made screenshots are absolutely lovely, but it's not quite obvious that the characters are made out of paper to anyone not familiar with the original. I just don't think they would've done a Paper Mario game before the original DS.
hot take; don't you think the combat style of the original paper mario (and probably ttyd, but i haven't played it) is pretty much the same as the combat in the mario & luigi games. with all the timing turn based stuff. superstar saga feels like paper mario to me. it was the handheld version of paper mario. maybe i'm out to lunch
I just use photoshop and the gms2 sprite editor for my game. Aseprite is very capable though.
@Dr_Luigi
You can get a cream for that.
Even on the GBA, the fans understand Paper Mario better than Nintendo, themselves!
@Grim that's a legit factor on why PM changed actually, they found it redundant to have to 2 mario rpg spinoffs. But even M&L got sanded off and lost a lot of personality then the studio shut down, so everyone just lost lol
Oh that's so cool! Love that game.
@Fizza Sticker Star?
Looks to detailed. If it ever did happen, it probably would've look liked Mario & Luigi Super Star Saga.
@strollin_stu I think a demake would have been feasible. Not sure about Pikmin 4 however.
@strollin_stu As amusing as I'd find that to be, I'm fairly certain Pikmin 4 will be more like the first three main series titles. Hey! Pikmin was firmly a spinoff.
@strollin_stu Yep. I was just rolling with it.
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