Mario RPG games and Yoshi games -

[StraightShooter2]

So I was looking at some of the Mario RPG games released in the last decade or so - namely Mario and Luigi Dream Team for the 3DS, Paper Mario Color Splash for the WII U, and Paper Mario Oragami King for the Switch.

I was also looking at some of the Yoshi games, specifically Yoshi's Island DS, Yoshi's New Island, Yoshi's Wooly World and Yoshi's Crafted World.

Can anyone give me opinions on these games, such as which ones they consider the best in relation to others in their respective series? Thanks.

 

[0 1]

Super Mario RPG is one of if not the best Mario RPG, and one of the best RPGs in general.

Paper Mario 64 is way better than Thousand Year Door, in my opinion. Thousand Year Door has better writing, but the backtracking and shameless timewasting absolutely kills it whereas 64 is perfectly paced through the whole game. Color Splash isn't worth trying at all, it's just boring. Origami King is charming and fun, but it's not quite like the other games. Super Paper Mario, the Wii game, is okay but it's more of a platformer and puzzle game than anything.

Super Star Saga is the better of the handheld RPGs in my opinion. I never played the time travel one on the DS but I heard its good. Bowser's Inside Story is fine but it drags towards the end, and Dream Team is way, way too dull in my opinion.

I don't know anything about any of the Yoshi games past the DS game, but I know people claim they're very dull and unchallenging. Yoshi's Island on the SNES is regarded as a gem among SNES platformers, and Yoshi's Island DS is more of the same if you're into it. Both are infamously difficult, though.

If I could give my top 3 RPGs in the Mario series, it would Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario 64, and Super Star Saga.

 

[No Exit]

Yoshi's Island DS wasn't good, at least compared to the original. But SNES Yoshi's Island is one of the best platformers ever made, so it's tough to beat.
I've heard Paper Mario Origami is good but I haven't dared touch a PM game since I bought Sticker Star.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

So I was looking at some of the Mario RPG games released in the last decade or so - namely Mario and Luigi Dream Team for the 3DS, Paper Mario Color Splash for the WII U, and Paper Mario Oragami King for the Switch.

I was also looking at some of the Yoshi games, specifically Yoshi's Island DS, Yoshi's New Island, Yoshi's Wooly World and Yoshi's Crafted World.

Can anyone give me opinions on these games, such as which ones they consider the best in relation to others in their respective series? Thanks.

The Later Yoshi games are super easy to beat, but they are fun. I beat crafted world without ever feeling really "challenged" but I still enjoyed it because it was well made.

 

[Radical Cadre]

Alright nig, here's the lowdown.

You want to play Yoshi's Island on the SNES and/or Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars on the SNES. Both are top-tier. Both are good fun. Play one and then play the other. After that you want to play Paper Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 and then Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door on the GameCube. Now here's the trick. After you've played all of those, here's the real trick. You need to buy a Super Scope for about a hundred bucks (you're playing on a real SNES, right fag?) and a copy of Yoshi's Safari. It's a legitimately great game that nobody played. Go to Jew Land at the behest of Princess Peach, murder all the Jews with your pal Yoshi, and save the day.

And that's how you play Yoshi.

 

[Troonos]

None of them can compare to the original SMRPG. All of them just feel like children's games full of cutesy garbage and stupid gimmicks. SMRPG has withstood the test of time and has much wider appeal as far as style and personality.

 

[MooseGump]

None of them can compare to the original SMRPG. All of them just feel like children's games full of cutesy garbage and stupid gimmicks. SMRPG has withstood the test of time and has much wider appeal as far as style and personality.

It was the most non-mario mario game, I remember seeing the volcano boss in the intro and thought it was the coolest thing ever

 

[BlueSpark]

So I was looking at some of the Mario RPG games released in the last decade or so - namely Mario and Luigi Dream Team for the 3DS, Paper Mario Color Splash for the WII U, and Paper Mario Oragami King for the Switch.

I was also looking at some of the Yoshi games, specifically Yoshi's Island DS, Yoshi's New Island, Yoshi's Wooly World and Yoshi's Crafted World.

Can anyone give me opinions on these games, such as which ones they consider the best in relation to others in their respective series? Thanks.

In my opinion all of the Yoshi's Island sequels are awful and tedious, with the only good thing about some of them being the music.

I tried playing Dream Team, but there was a little Pacman-like character that would interupt the gameplay constantly to give unwanted and unnecessary tutorials. It was so bad that I just couldn't keep playing (and from what I've heard these intrusive tutorials continue throughout the entire game, so I'm glad I quit early). The DS Mario RPG games are good, though.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Man, i really miss Alphadream.

 

[Fatrick Hamlinson]

Yoshi's Story > Yoshi's Crafted World > Yoshi's Wooly World > Yoshi's New Island

Super Mario RPG > Paper Mario 64 > Mario and Luigi Games = Paper Mario and the Thousand-Year Door > Origami King > Dog Feces Loaded with Parvo > Sticker Crap = Color Splash

I was in love with the first Mario & Luigi game. It was wholly unlike any Mario game I had played before (hadn't played Super Mario RPG yet).

 

[Troonos]

In my opinion all of the Yoshi's Island sequels are awful and tedious, with the only good thing about some of them being the music.

I tried playing Dream Team, but there was a little Pacman-like character that would interupt the gameplay constantly to give unwanted and unnecessary tutorials. It was so bad that I just couldn't keep playing (and from what I've heard these intrusive tutorials continue throughout the entire game, so I'm glad I quit early). The DS Mario RPG games are good, though.

That's exactly the game that turned me off the post-SMRPG sequels. The stupid "dream Luigi" gimmicks and that cartoon character ruined it for me. I'll stick with SMRPG on my SNES Mini.

 

[Niggernerd]

Paper Mario is one of the best mario games

 

[Alkaline Cab]

Yoshi's Wooly/Crafted World are "cute" and probably decent if you can appreciate the artstyle and/or are playing with young kids, but aren't particularly challenging (iirc they are more collectithons, especially Crafted).
Origami King sucks unless you happen to really like the gameplay, which is not RPG to say the least. Color Splash and Sticker Star are shit. Anything else (in the Mario RPG line) is generally fine, if they've declined in quality over time.

 

[MysticMisty]

Paper Mario 64 is way better than Thousand Year Door, in my opinion. Thousand Year Door has better writing, but the backtracking and shameless timewasting absolutely kills it whereas 64 is perfectly paced through the whole game.

This, but also (my opinion) the music for Thousand Year Door is a bit lackluster compared to the first one. Pieces like Rogueport Underground and pretty much everything related to Glitzville are good, but others like Keelhaul Key and Pirate's Grotto fall pretty flat, especially when compared to their counterparts in the first game. I would still easily play Thousand Year Door again before Super Paper Mario though.

Yoshi's Story > Yoshi's Crafted World > Yoshi's Wooly World > Yoshi's New Island

This, Yoshi's Story is underrated as hell. There's bitching about the graphics, as though Yoshi's Island wasn't cute in the first place (same reason why I never understood the reasoning behind the sprite swap for Tetris Attack, but I digress). There's also bitching about the difficulty level, but that's because they're not doing it right. If you just eat every piece of fruit in sight and don't bother finding hearts or playing minigames and just use one of the starting six Yoshi, then yeah, it's super easy. But if you only eat melons and heart fruits, and find all three hearts while using either white or black Yoshi, then it's a whole different experience. Oh, and playing the level 4 courses only.

That's exactly the game that turned me off the post-SMRPG sequels. The stupid "dream Luigi" gimmicks and that cartoon character ruined it for me. I'll stick with SMRPG on my SNES Mini.

Superstar Saga is a far better game, there aren't any sidekicks that tag along, and the overworld techniques have real purpose and have battle counterparts. Also you can break the game with special items that got nerfed in the remake (don't play the remake).

 

[MooseGump]

Paper Mario 64 is way better than Thousand Year Door, in my opinion. Thousand Year Door has better writing, but the backtracking and shameless timewasting absolutely kills it whereas 64 is perfectly paced through the whole game.

This, but also (my opinion) the music for Thousand Year Door is a bit lackluster compared to the first one. Pieces like Rogueport Underground and pretty much everything related to Glitzville are good, but others like Keelhaul Key and Pirate's Grotto fall pretty flat, especially when compared to their counterparts in the first game. I would still easily play Thousand Year Door again before Super Paper Mario though.

It's telling that whenever you talk about PM64 and Thousand Year Door you have people reminiscing the entirety of PM64 versus people remembering moments in thousand year door that were really good but the player had to go through something annoying through backtracking or badly paced segments the first time they played

Twilight Town and the stupid General White globetrotting quest were so bad in backtracking and padding things out, but those two have some really cool moments like Doopliss switching bodies and using the cannon to reach the moon (and get to the moonbase to hear that amazing theme)

Paper Mario 64 you can just throw any chapter and people will be like "Aw yeah that chapter was fuckin great" except for MAYBE the Toybox/Flower Fields chapters but those had fetchquests that didn't really waste that much time and told you right away what to do and where to do it since the N64 was being pushed to its limits already

 

[0 1]

It's telling that whenever you talk about PM64 and Thousand Year Door you have people reminiscing the entirety of PM64 versus people remembering moments in thousand year door that were really good but the player had to go through something annoying through backtracking or badly paced segments the first time they played

Twilight Town and the stupid General White globetrotting quest were so bad in backtracking and padding things out, but those two have some really cool moments like Doopliss switching bodies and using the cannon to reach the moon (and get to the moonbase to hear that amazing theme)

Paper Mario 64 you can just throw any chapter and people will be like "Aw yeah that chapter was fuckin great" except for MAYBE the Toybox/Flower Fields chapters but those had fetchquests that didn't really waste that much time and told you right away what to do and where to do it since the N64 was being pushed to its limits already

I can relate to Flower Fields being boring. I never really thought about it, but upon replays, I lose a lot of motivation right at Flower Fields. The constant back-and-forth in that chapter grinds all momentum to a halt. But at least the character interactions are fun, and the boss makes up for it, too. I can see how people can say the same about the Toybox, but it's so undeniably charming that you tend to gloss over the minute backtracking that chapter has.

Thousand Year Door is almost insulting, like the pirate cove where people asking you to return to the same areas three times on a complete whim with no plot importance nor payoff before anything happens. At least in Flower Fields, you feel like you're accomplishing something by helping the denizens. The pirate cove intentionally wastes your time with fetch quests that amount to you effectively ending up back where you started in terms of plot progression.

The best comparison of the two is the sewers for both. Think about 64's fast travel system. From the town, you go through maybe two screens, enter the sewers, then head left for the starting areas and farther left for the late game areas, and I don't even think you encounter a single enemy on the way. In Thousand Year Door, which had the exact same fast travel system, you still need to navigate the entire level up to that point, solve the same puzzles you solved to even unlock the fast travel to begin with, stumble around a few times because it's nearly impossible to memorize what takes you where even on a return playthrough, and then navigate the whole area in reverse just to leave.

Don't get me wrong, Thousand Year Door's highs are greater than any moment in 64, but its lows are both greater and more plentiful than even the worst 64 suffers from. I genuinely would recommend anybody playing Thousand Year Door for the first time to just use emulator speed hacks or cheats to speed up traveling, because it actively detracts from the experience.

 

[MooseGump]

The best comparison of the two is the sewers for both. Think about 64's fast travel system. From the town, you go through maybe two screens, enter the sewers, then head left for the starting areas and farther left for the late game areas, and I don't even think you encounter a single enemy on the way. In Thousand Year Door, which had the exact same fast travel system, you still need to navigate the entire level up to that point, solve the same puzzles you solved to even unlock the fast travel to begin with, stumble around a few times because it's nearly impossible to memorize what takes you where even on a return playthrough, and then navigate the whole area in reverse just to leave.

Don't get me wrong, Thousand Year Door's highs are greater than any moment in 64, but its lows are both greater and more plentiful than even the worst 64 suffers from. I genuinely would recommend anybody playing Thousand Year Door for the first time to just use emulator speed hacks or cheats to speed up traveling, because it actively detracts from the experience.

I didn't even think of the sewers, I get they wanted to make the sewers a secondary hub leading to the door but fuck me thousand year door's sewer really doesn't like to let you get straight to the point other than that one room before the pipe to the tree chapter

I think it would have been better if you could just have pipes at the start leading straight to the door or the underground town and vice-versa as unlocks, but yes, 64 is like a nice wave while Thousand Year Door is full of mountains and valleys that leave you tired at the end but you liked how you grab the ghost's tit while she blew everyone away

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Would Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle count? I know it’s tactics, but since the Mario RPG pool is pretty small...

 

[Vault Boy]

I remember thinking that Mario & Luigi's apparent death would mean that Paper Mario could return to its old self.

Seeing Origami King be cut from the same cloth as SS & CS, and repeat their same mistakes for the third time in the row, killed any desire on my part to give it a chance. You might think that's unfair of me, but I'm not wasting $60 on a game that only does half-hearted "baby steps", especially when Nintendo/Intelligent Systems refuse to listen to fans.

On the subject of Mario & Luigi, I greatly enjoyed Bowser's Inside Story, thought Dream Team was decent but somewhat tedious in the final portions (especially when you're forced to use wonky gyro controls), and bailed on Paper Jam when I realized how much modern Paper Mario's influence dragged the game down.

 

[FriendlyPrimarina]

Mario RPG is alright, but the Woolseyisms get pretty blatant at times (localized by the man himself, I believe) which can be annoying. I find the Booster arc drags quite a bit.