Mario RPGs: Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi and Super Mario RPG

1996 · Super Mario RPGGenoThe celestial spirit lodged in a wooden toy

His real name is unpronounceable: it is written ♥♪!?. Sent to repair the Star Road, this celestial entity takes control of a wooden puppet belonging to a child named Gaz, and borrows the toy's name along the way. A warrior with the look of an armed marionette, he became instantly iconic — to the point of being demanded by players at every Nintendo announcement for thirty years. His rarity is not an editorial choice but a question of rights: created by Square, he cannot come back freely at Nintendo.

1996 · Super Mario RPGMallowThe cloud prince who thought he was a tadpole

One stormy night, the frog sage Frogfucius takes in a baby adrift near Tadpole Pond and raises him as his own. Mallow therefore grows up convinced he is a tadpole — he is in fact the lost prince of the kingdom of Nimbus, the city in the clouds. Emotional, weepy and loyal, he is the first companion Mario recruits, and the group's healer-mage: his spells are meteorological, lightning and regenerating rain, which makes up for a modest physical strength.

1996 · Super Mario RPGSmithyHe wants to replace wishes with weapons

Smithy in the original version; the French name fuses “forgeron” (blacksmith) and “roi” (king). An immense mechanical creature with a golden crown and a long white beard, he rules over a world of weapons where his factory mass-produces living swords, bows and spears. His plan resembles none of Bowser's: no castle, no princess, he wants a world in which wishes would be replaced by weapons. The final fight plays out in two stages, against five successive forms.

1996 · Super Mario RPGCulexFinal Fantasy behind a sealed door

In a corner of Monstro Town, a sealed door conceals the most openly acknowledged tribute in Mario's history: a 16-bit pixel-art sprite, elemental crystals and music borrowed from Final Fantasy IV. This “dark knight of Vanda” is more powerful than Smithy himself and rewards the victors with a crystal amulet. The 2023 remake gives him a 3D form, a rematch in the post-game — and an official French name he had never had: Cristax.

1996 · Super Mario RPGCrocoThe gentleman burglar in a top hat

Kuroko in Japan, Croco in French as in English: a small purple crocodile in a top hat, who crosses the adventure fleecing everything in his path — starting with Mallow, whose coin he steals right at the start. His two boss fights are cut for an evasive opponent, obsessed with treasure and incapable of standing still. He ends up joining the heroes' side in the way that makes most sense for him: by opening a shop and selling them his finds.

1996 · Super Mario RPGValentinaThe coup in the kingdom of the clouds

She takes advantage of the prince's absence to seize the throne of Nimbus Land, with the complicity of a bird named Dodo. Her bearing openly parodies the conventions of the grande dame: an iridescent cream gown, red heels, a parrot permanently perched on her head and a martini glass in hand during the fight. Beneath the staging, she has the biggest arsenal of spells in the game. Her romantic fate, meanwhile, turns into a gag: she ends up married to Booster.

1996 · Super Mario RPGBoosterThe big child who wants to marry Peach

Convinced he has found love, Booster decides to marry the princess — without ever asking her opinion. He rules from the top of a tower he has had converted into a giant playground, attractions and miniature train included, surrounded by three Snifits, those black-hooded creatures who explain the world to him and serve as his playmates. He collects dolls, replays his obsessions on a loop and grasps not one simple emotion. The wedding at Marrymore descends into complete chaos.

1996 · Super Mario RPGBoshiThe Yoshi who refuses to be nice

Since Super Mario World, the Yoshis have embodied unconditional loyalty: they carry, they swallow, they obey. Boshi overturns the model — blue skin instead of the canonical green, sunglasses, an arrogant posture — and imposes his law on his own kind through the sheer threat of speed. He is the first, and for a long time the only, of his species to behave like a petty tyrant. His trial is a race: one of the rare moments when this role-playing game leaves turn-based combat behind for a pure question of agility.

2000 · Paper MarioGoombarioThe Goomba whose power is to comment

Giving the opening companion role to a Goomba is a deliberately provocative gesture: since 1985, that is what you squash on the first level. His contribution is not offensive either. His ability has him examine what Mario has in front of him — on an enemy, it gives the hit points and the peculiarities, real tactical help; on a piece of scenery or a passer-by, it produces a comment, often funny, sometimes affectionate. The game thus acquires an inner voice without ever making Mario speak.

2000 · Paper MarioBombetteExplosion as a key, not as a weapon

Bombette in the original version: a pink Bob-omb, straightforward and determined, whose ability comes down to one word — exploding. The game draws from it a far more interesting function than mere area damage: she blows open the cracked walls scattered through the levels, and reveals secret rooms, shortcuts and treasure. That single verb changes the nature of exploration. The scenery stops being a fixed limit, the player starts reading walls and retracing their steps once the partner is recruited.

2000 · Paper MarioKooperThe shell turned into an instrument

Since Super Mario Bros., the Koopa shell has been what the player sends back to the sender. Kooper does something else with it: he withdraws into it and launches himself in a straight line, under the player's control, to reach a switch out of range or retrieve an item on the edge of a chasm. What defines him is not power but a vocation — this blue Koopa dreams of archaeological digs and joins Mario less out of duty than out of a chance for adventure.

2000 · Paper MarioSushieThe tyrannical nanny who makes the water passable

On the volcanic island of the fifth chapter lives a Cheep Cheep who is nothing like an obstacle fish: Sushie is the appointed babysitter of a band of particularly unruly young Yoshis. Bossy and talkative, she bursts into tears at the slightest romantic story. It is the disappearance of her charges that throws her into the adventure — and once in the team, she carries Mario over water and takes him diving. Since 1985, Cheep Cheeps had been obstacles to avoid: this one becomes a means of transport.

2000 · Paper MarioLakilesterThe leather jacket and the fake first name

The last partner recruited in the game, and the one who joins Mario out of pure admiration: defeated in Flower Fields where he served the forces smothering the region, this Lakitu changes sides because he finds the plumber classier than his employers. Leather jacket, rebellious quiff, swaggering tone — and a nickname, Spike, adopted because he considers his real name ridiculous. His girlfriend Lakilulu sees straight through the act. His cloud, meanwhile, flies over everything that burns and everything that stings.

2000 · Paper MarioGoombossThe very first boss in the series

He first appears under the name Goomba King, and it falls to him to be the first true boss of Paper Mario: a giant Goomba with a golden crown and a red cape, serving Bowser's plan to trap Mario. He commands a small troop, the Goomba Bros, and guards his own fortress — whose fall opens the bridge to the Toads' town. The name Goomboss would only come four years later, with Super Mario 64 DS.

2000 · Paper MarioKammy KoopaThe witch who whispers Bowser's ideas to him

Pointed purple hat, glasses, dark shell: Kammy Koopa is Bowser's magical adviser in the series, at once strategist, sorceress and prompter of bad ideas. She flies on a broom, like Kamek, and plays a key role from the kidnapping that opens the Nintendo 64 episode. What sets her apart from ordinary minions is the tone: the acidity of an old lady who fears nobody, including her own king. She returns in The Thousand-Year Door.

2000 · Paper MarioStar HavenThe suspended city of the seven Star Spirits

Star Haven in the original version: a luminous sanctuary perched at the very top of the firmament, far above the Mushroom Kingdom, out of reach of ordinary paths. That is where the seven Star Spiritsreside, guardians of the wishes of every inhabitant. To reach them, Mario climbs the Star Way from Shooting Star Summit, passes the last lock held by the Crystal King, and recovers the power capable of breaking the invincibility Bowser draws from the stolen Star Rod.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorGoombellaThe archaeologist who analyses better than a manual

Kurisuchīnu — “Christine” — in Japan: a pink Goomba with a blonde fringe, a third-year archaeology student at Goom University, with an encyclopaedic knowledge and a ready sarcasm. Mario runs into her in the prologue, in Rogueport, as she is being attacked by Lord Crump and the X-Nauts. Her Tattle technique gives the hit points and weaknesses of any opponent, and her offensive repertoire — Headbonk, Multibonk, Rally Wink — makes her useful well beyond intelligence gathering.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorKoopsThe coward who becomes brave

Koops in the English version, second partner, recruited in the village of Petalburg from chapter 1 onwards. When Mario meets him, he stammers, apologises and seems anything but cut out for adventure — the concept sketches show him hunched from the outset, his arc was written into his design. What sets him in motion is a missing father and the dragon who made him disappear. His shell, thrown at a distance, strikes and activates switches out of reach; his shyness, meanwhile, dissolves chapter after chapter.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorFlurrieThe theatre star turned wind spirit

Flurrie in English, Kurauda in Japan — the French name feminises “cumulus”, which she evokes as much by her silhouette as by the power of her breath. Before joining Mario, she was an adored actress, tired of the spotlight and retired to Boggly Woods among the Punies. It takes an affair of a necklace stolen by the Shadow Sirens to set her in motion again. Her Gale Force sweeps the field, reveals invisible passages and clears away whatever is lying around — the rest of her arsenal is that of an actress.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorYoshi KidThe partner the player names

He is not recruited: he is born. Mario picks up an egg during his stay in Glitzville, the floating city of wrestling matches; the egg stays in the inventory for a while, then hatches into a small, wide-awake Yoshi who settles into the team without asking anyone's opinion. His colour depends on how long you let pass before hatching, and his name is the one the player types. Born in the middle of a tournament, he keeps its character: he is the one who nicknames Mario “The Great Gonzales”.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorVivianEnemy in chapter 1, partner in chapter 2

A witch of shadow and fire, Vivian belongs at first to the Shadow Sirens, alongside her sisters Beldam and Marilyn, who mistreat her relentlessly. Moved by Mario's kindness, she turns her back on her own family to join the team, and offers him her power: hiding him in her shadow to make him invisible and slip beneath obstacles. The 2024 remake restored a facet of her identity — she is transgender — that the original Western localisation had erased.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorBobberyThe old sailor a letter brought back to life

Admiral Bobbery in English: the oldest partner in the game, a retired admiral with a gruff plain-spokenness, met in chapter 5 as Mario is looking for a captain to reach a lost island. He refuses. What sets him going again is a letter written before her death by Scarlette, the woman whose loss had left him beached. Once aboard, this Bob-omb becomes the team's offensive bulldozer — and, outside battle, what gets through cracked walls.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorCarminaShopkeeper by day, thief by night

Ms. Mowz in the English version: a small mouse who runs the Lovely Howz by day and scours the world by night. She is the only truly optional partner in the series — you can complete the entire adventure without ever adding her to the team, and many players have no idea they have just crossed paths with a playable companion. Her speciality is sniffing out badges and hidden items. A flirt and a tease, she makes eyes at Mario, which sets the rest of the troop's teeth on edge.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorRogueportThe town of scoundrels, gallows included

Rogueport in the original version, Gorotsuki Taun in Japan — literally “the town of thugs”. The French name plays on “la canaille”, and the atmosphere follows: a grey, menacing little town, dominated by a gallows planted in the middle of the square, cut into rival districts and riddled with shady NPCs. Beneath the cobblestones sleeps a city swallowed a thousand years earlier, and the Thousand-Year Door that gives the game its title. The hub serves as a base camp between chapters, services and underworld included.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorGrodusA robotic brain under a glass dome

Grodus in the English version, Batsugarufu in Japan. The game's big villain wears neither shell nor moustache: he is a mechanical head under a bell jar, at the head of the X-Nauts, an organisation of scientists operating from a base concealed beneath the surface of the Moon. His plan fits on one line: gather the seven Crystal Stars to wake the Shadow Queen and put her at his service. His pride is his undoing — he ends up reduced to a mere floating head, then to a peaceful retirement in Poshley Heights.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorLord CrumpFour duels, and not one victory

Lord Crump in the original version: Grodus's right hand, the number two of an organisation he does a disservice to at every appearance. Mario faces him four times, and Grodus ends up naming him his most incompetent underling. When anger takes him, he summons squads of X-Naut grunts to overwhelm the plumber. His comic peak remains his pirate disguise under the alias Four-Eyes — and his habit of addressing the player directly.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorMagnus von GrappleThe boss who comes back as a 2.0 model

Magnus von Grapple in the original version: the mechanical armed wing of the X-Nauts, a mass of metal topped with a spherical cockpit out of which its pilot sticks — invariably Lord Crump. The 1.0 model guards the Great Tree in chapter 2 with 30 hit points and detachable rocket fists. The 2.0, assembled and perfected in the lunar fortress, waits in chapter 7 with 70 hit points. It is the technological showcase of an organisation that prefers the machine to black magic.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorBeldamA thousand years, ice, and a bullied sister

Beldam in the English version: a ghostly witch over a thousand years old, eldest of the Shadow Sirens and holder of the strongest magical affinity of the three sisters, despite a slight silhouette among the colossi of the game. She never charges in: she designs the plans, hands out the roles and decides. The real reversal of the story lies there — she is the one manipulating Grodus and the X-Nauts, and not the other way round. Her cryokinesis and her Veil technique complete a portrait of the pure strategist.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorShadow QueenSealed for a thousand years, woken by mistake

Shadow Queen in the English version. A millennium before the adventure, this demon razed in a single night the prosperous city that stood where Rogueport now stretches, and swallowed it underground. Four ancient heroes eventually sealed her behind the Thousand-Year Door. The game's ending brings her back, and does so in the darkest way in the series: she takes possession of Peach's body. The final battle plays out in the Palace of Shadow, against the princess herself.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorDooplissHe doesn't steal your appearance: he steals your name

Doopliss in the original version. He belongs to the Duplighosts, those shroud-draped ghosts able to imitate the appearance and techniques of their opponents. Where an ordinary Duplighost copies a target for the length of a battle, he steals Mario's body, appearance and complete identity — to the point where his own companions no longer recognise him. Boss of chapter 4, he sets the most memorable riddle in the game: to beat him, you first have to find his secret name, a nod to Rumpelstiltskin.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorHooktailThe fire-breather who fears frogs

Hooktail in the English version: the game's first great enemy, a glowing red dragon, greedy and smooth-talking, who rules over a ruined castle at the end of a hostile road. She has swallowed the Diamond Star, the first of the seven Crystal Stars — impossible to move on without bringing her down. Her statistics are modest, 20 hit points and an attack of 5, but the essential is elsewhere: this creature capable of breathing fire starts trembling at the slightest croak. She belongs to a family of three dragons.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorGrubbaThe promoter who was siphoning off his wrestlers

Grubba in the English version: a former wrestler so dominant that some of his holds ended up banned from the ring, turned manager of the Glitzville Arena. Jovial smile, loud voice, and a secret machine wired to the Gold Star that drains the life force of the fighters he employs. He is the one who saddles Mario with the pseudonym The Great Gonzales. Unmasked, he morphs into Macho Grubba for the final confrontation — the real boss of a chapter that looked like a sporting tournament.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorGold HawkA belt set with a fake gem

Rawk Hawk in the original version: a golden bird of prey all in muscle, nicknamed “the nuclear warrior”, who sits at the top of the Glitzville Arena bill and parades with his belt. Two lies hold the character up. The title, first: he won it by forfeit, in the shadow of Dark Toadster. Then the gem set in the belt: it is a fake. Boss of chapter 3 with 40 hit points, he fights as an aerial wrestler, cheap shots included — and ends up granting his respect.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorCortezThe Pirate King, skeleton edition

Cortez in the original version: the ghost of a captain whose spirit refuses to leave this world, returned in the form of a spectral skeleton. Legend says he curses anyone who comes near his gold, which ended up driving almost every sailor away from the region. Mario meets him in chapter 5, on Keelhaul Key, where he guards the Sapphire Star at the bottom of the Pirate's Grotto. His battle plays out in three forms, sword, scimitar, rapier and hook to hand. Defeated, he becomes the team's ferryman.

2004 · The Thousand-Year DoorBonetail200 hit points — more than the final boss

Bonetail in the original version; the French name is a portmanteau of “occire” (to slay) and “croc” (fang). This undead dragon waits at the very bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials, the most demanding optional content in the game. He is the third and last of a family that also counts Hooktail and Gloomtail, and the difference leaps out: he no longer has scales, only tattered wings, a bleached carcass and an empty stare. He absorbs, he heals himself, he resists — and his reward is a badge you can buy in a shop.

2007 · Super Paper MarioTippiThe guide whose real name spells out the tragedy

She never strikes, unlocks no passage and wins no battle — and yet, without her, Super Paper Mario would tell nothing. This rainbow butterfly-shaped Pixl leads Mario to Flipside, the crossroads town of the game, to hear there the prophecy that launches the adventure. A direct heir of Goombario and Goombella in function, she differs in tone: reserved, hesitant, she ends almost every sentence with an ellipsis. Her real name is Lady Timpani — and it changes everything.

2007 · Super Paper MarioCount BleckDestroying all the worlds out of heartbreak

Black cape, monocle, chilling laugh: Count Bleck — Comte Niark in French — has the bearing of the classic villain and the least classic motive in the saga. Before taking that name, he was called Blumiere and belonged to the Tribe of Darkness, holder of the Dark Prognosticus, a book of prophecies announcing the end of all worlds. It is neither power nor a kingdom he is after: he wants to erase everything because he has lost the woman he loved. One of the most adult stories Nintendo has ever written in Mario.

2007 · Super Paper MarioNastasiaThe one minion you never fight

Blue skin, a strict magenta bun, a suit and horn-rimmed glasses that never leave her face: Nastasia is Count Bleck's secretary, in the literal sense — she keeps his diary, relays his orders and watches over the schedule of operations. Every other lieutenant ends up crossing swords with Mario; she never does. That is not a weakness but a position: where the others strike, she recruits, and most of the count's army has been through her hypnosis. Luigi included. Her feelings, for their part, will go unspoken.

2007 · Super Paper MarioMc AstagneThe colossus in a kilt, fought four times

O'Chunks in the original version: a bushy red beard, a kilt, a Highlands accent you could cut with a knife. He is one of Count Bleck's five minions, alongside Nastasia, the shape-shifter Mimic, Mr. L and Dimentio, and his mission fits on one line — crush anyone who stands against his master. He is the most frequently fought boss in the game: four duels. A fallen general recruited in disgrace, he talks loudly, hits harder still, and pushes his loyalty as far as sacrifice at Castle Bleck.

2007 · Super Paper MarioDimentioThe jester who manipulates both sides

Dimentio in the original version, a portmanteau of *demented* and *dimension* — the name announces the programme. This smiling jester, half magician, half puppeteer, is presented as a mere minion of Count Bleck; he is in fact pulling the strings of the whole plot from the wings, manipulating heroes and villains alike to reach his ends. His mastery of dimensions lets him lock anyone inside a pocket of reality. Players regularly cite him as the best villain in the saga; the final battle is fought against Super Dimentio.

2007 · Super Paper MarioMr. LLuigi turned against his own brother

Behind the black mask of this arrogant minion nicknamed “the Green Thunder” hides Luigi. Captured at Castle Bleck while trying to stop the count's plan, he is handed over to Nastasia, whose hypnosis erases his shyness and even the memory of his brother. The result is the exact opposite of the original character: self-assured, boastful, and gifted with a mechanical talent that has him build the Brobot. It is a unique case in the saga — a known hero turned villain without the slightest awareness of it.

2020 · The Origami KingKing OllyA paper tyrant born from a misunderstanding

King Olly in English: an origami figure endowed with consciousness, at the head of the army of Folded Soldiers, who presents himself as the legitimate king of the Mushroom Kingdom and forcibly folds every paper inhabitant he comes across, starting with the Toads. Behind the tyranny lies one of the most tragic stories in the series: Olly is a being convinced he was abandoned by the one who folded him, and his grudge comes from a simple misunderstanding. His plan of the thousand cranes, and his end, are of a piece with that wound.

2020 · The Origami KingOliviaBorn from the hand of the tyrant she overthrows

The deuteragonist of The Origami King, Olivia is a folded paper being — and the little sister of King Olly, shaped by him. Mario discovers her trapped in a wall, in the dungeons of Peach's castle; freed, she becomes guide, battle ally and emotional soul of the adventure, with her Magic Circles, her 1,000-Fold Arms and her folding magic. Naïve, cheerful, deeply kind, she carries the most heart-rending arc in the series: that of a creature who must choose between her creator and the world.

2003 · Superstar SagaBeanbean KingdomThe first explorable neighbouring kingdom

Beanbean Kingdom in the original version: a sovereign nation sharing its north-eastern border with the Mushroom Kingdom, with its own queen, its own army and its own culture. Where Peach's kingdom runs on mushrooms, this one revolves around the bean, the pea and above all laughter — its geography, its inhabitants and its treasures all draw on the same vegetable humour. It is the first neighbouring territory the saga makes fully explorable, and it will have served only once.

2003 · Superstar SagaCacklettaShe steals Peach's voice, then Bowser

Cackletta in English, Geragemōna in Japan: a Beanish witch with a shrill laugh, twice the height of the brothers, who first presents herself under a false identity as a goodwill ambassador in order to get close to her targets. Her plan comes in two stages. First, steal the princess's voice, the only one capable of waking the Beanstar. Then, when that fails, take possession of Bowser's body — the fusion produces Bowletta, and it is in that form that the final battle plays out.

2003 · Superstar SagaFawfulThe most improbable rise in the saga

Fawful in the original version, Gerakobits in Japan: small, green, a single tuft of hair and enormous glasses. He starts out as a mere servant to Cackletta, and that is what makes his career remarkable — he climbs the ranks of evil episode after episode until he becomes a final boss in his own right in Bowser's Inside Story, the Dark Star in his hands. His real signature is verbal: a deliberately broken English, packed with culinary metaphors, that has made him the community's favourite character.

2003 · Superstar SagaQueen BeanThe sovereign turned into a boss by a worm

Queen Bean in the original version: purple hair, orange gown, the benevolent authority of an entire people. She rules over the Beanbean Kingdom and over the treasure everyone covets, the Beanstar. That is precisely what makes her the first victim of the plot — Cackletta, unable to wake the star herself, inflicts a Chuckola worm on her that turns her into a raging creature. Mario and Luigi therefore have to fight the queen they had come to help. Chuckola Cola then lifts the curse.

2003 · Superstar SagaPrince PeasleyThe prince turned into a dragon, and a show-off

Prince Peasley in the English version: heir to the throne of the Beanbean Kingdom, long blond hair thrown back with a theatrical gesture, flowing cape and a rock star's ego grafted onto fairy-tale dash. His fate turns in the first few minutes — Cackletta transforms him into a dragon, under the name Dragohoho, and you have to go and free him at the top of Hoohoo Mountain. Back to himself, he establishes himself as a key ally in the quest for the Beanstar, without ever losing an ounce of his self-satisfaction.

2003 · Superstar SagaPoppleThe genius thief who loses every duel

Popple in the original version; the French name is a clipping of “épargne” (savings). This small masked Beanish, grey beret on his head, proclaims himself “the shadow thief” and has only one idea: becoming a legendary master thief. What he lacks above all is a sidekick, whom he invariably calls his “Rookie” — first an amnesiac Bowser, then Birdo. He talks like a gangster from the movies and ends his sentences with a “see?”. He is the most frequently fought boss in the Mario & Luigi series, and he wins not one of them.

2005 · Partners in TimePrincess ShroobThe alien invasion, disguised as a princess

Princess Shroob in the original version: sovereign of the people who invade the past of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the younger of two twin sisters who reign together. It is nonetheless the younger one who personally leads the invasion for almost the whole adventure, which makes her the figurehead of the story. Her main trick is a disguise: she passes herself off as Princess Peach. The fight takes place on a levitating throne — before the game reveals who was really in command.

2005 · Partners in TimeProfessor E. GaddThe inventor whose name announces the disaster

Professor E. Gadd in the English version; the French name reads as “catastrophe”, which sums up his method. This small man in a white coat, round glasses and a single tooth, first appears in Luigi's Mansion in 2001, where he supplies Luigi with his ghost vacuum, the Poltergust. He is also responsible for the F.L.U.D.D. of Super Mario Sunshine. His contribution to the RPGs carries heavier consequences: it is his time machine that sends Peach and two Toads into the past, and launches the whole adventure.

2005 · Partners in TimeToadbertThe scholar who can no longer name them

Round glasses, notebook always in hand, a thoughtful tone and a tendency to panic the moment things go wrong: Toadbert is the scientific adviser of the Mushroom Kingdom. He is part of the first journey into the past, alongside Princess Peach and Toadiko, and he is one of the first to witness the invasion. He comes back traumatised, to the point of being incapable of pronouncing the invaders' name — a detail that becomes a running gag. He would return four years later, in Bowser's Inside Story.

2005 · Partners in TimeToadikoThe briefest appearance, and the cruellest

She accompanies Peach and Toadbert on the inaugural journey to the past of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the expedition goes wrong: the two Toads run into the invaders. Toadiko is captured and held in Toadwood Forest, then hit by a saucer's blast that transforms her. Her gentleness and her loyalty to Toadbert are conveyed in a handful of scenes, and that is precisely what makes her fate striking — it announces the tone of an episode far darker than its cover suggests.

2005 · Partners in TimeBaby PeachA parasol, tears, and two mechanics

Unlike babies Mario and Luigi, known since Yoshi's Island in 1995, Baby Peach is an entirely new creation — and her introduction owes nothing to chance: it is her kidnapping, as a child, that triggers the whole story. Where Baby Mario reused animations from 1995, everything had to be invented for her. Nintendo gives her a parasol that lets her glide and slow her fall, a hesitant walk, and a propensity for tears that would become her signature across the whole saga.

2005 · Partners in TimeYoobThe living dungeon: you explore his stomach

Created by the invaders from a Yoshi, in the Yoshi's Island of the past, Yoob has a precise and chilling function: swallowing every Yoshi on the island to hold them prisoner inside his body. Hence the design find that made him memorable — his stomach is a level in its own right, which Mario and Luigi have to explore in order to free the captives. The final fight is settled against the entity Sunnycide. He has never reappeared anywhere else in the saga.

2009 · Bowser's Inside StoryMidbusA pink Bowser lookalike, designed to humiliate him

Midbus in English: Fawful's chief minion, a cross between a pig and an armadillo, conceived as a grotesque mirror of Bowser — a rival cut to measure to make a fool of him repeatedly. The European name is a play on words: “Méta” refers to the metabolic syndrome associated with obesity, “Boss” to his function. This mountain of muscle with a slow brain crosses the Koopa King's path three times over the course of the adventure, and ends up coming back in a frozen version, Blizzard Midbus.

2009 · Bowser's Inside StoryStarlowThe one who speaks in the brothers' place

Starlow in English, a contraction of *star* and *yellow* — the Japanese says exactly the same thing, and the French keeps the gold. This star sprite appears in 2009 and immediately establishes herself as the voice of the series: she guides, she comments, she puts everybody in their place, and she speaks on behalf of two plumbers who do not speak. Her best turn remains the pseudonym Chippy, under which she passes herself off as an informant in order to lead Bowser by the nose.

2009 · Bowser's Inside StoryCharlie BlocHe calls Bowser “Mr Turtle”

In the brothers' RPGs, merchants are usually extras. Charlie Bloc is a block on legs who keeps shop, and the official Japanese site gives him a title that says it all: the Mushroom Kingdom's foremost block collector. He is not a trader who sells blocks, he is an enthusiast who agrees to part with them. The gag lies in his clientele: he calls Bowser “Mr Turtle”, and Bowser never gives him anything but “block face”. Around him orbit a dog made of cubes and a collection of square kittens.

2013 · Dream TeamAntasmaThe great villain who owes nothing to Bowser

Akkūmu in Japan, after *akumu*, “nightmare”. Originally an ordinary bat from Pi'illo Island, the land of a people of living cushions able to send sleepers travelling into the dream world. Everything changes the day it feeds on a Pi'illo's nightmares: the feast turns it into the king of nightmares. Armed with the Dark Stone, he plunges the island into a great sleep, allies himself with Bowser — and betrays him, as was to be expected. Final battle at the top of Neo Bowser Castle.

2013 · Dream TeamPrince DreambertThe living pillow on which Luigi must fall asleep

Prince Dreambert in English, Prince Rêvebert in Canada: sovereign of the Pi'illo people, those cushion-creatures who have always watched over sleep and dreams. Antasma petrified him with nightmare blocks; the brothers free him from his stone prison and he becomes their guide for the whole adventure. His function is not merely narrative: it is by having Luigi fall asleep on him that you open the portals to the dream world. Royal red outfit, golden gloves, pillow-shaped head.

2015Mario & Luigi: Paper JamTwo Bowsers, two Peaches, one paper Mario

Released in Europe on 4 December 2015 on 3DS under the title Paper Jam Bros., this fifth AlphaDream episode starts from a piece of clumsiness on Luigi's part: he opens a mysterious book, and Paper Mario springs out of it into the brothers' three-dimensional world. Hence a playable trio never seen before, attacks that mobilise all three heroes, and a kingdom suddenly populated in duplicate — two Bowsers, two Peaches. The game adds the Papercraft, giant paper constructions, and a marked use of amiibo cards.

2024Mario & Luigi: BrothershipThe return after nine years, and one more studio

Brothership in the original version, released on 7 November 2024. It is a double first: the first Mario & Luigi designed directly for a home console, and the first developed without AlphaDream, closed in 2019 — the Acquire studio takes up the torch alongside Nintendo. Destination Concordia, an archipelago whose islands have come apart and must be reconnected one by one. The battles keep the house tempo, demanding to the button, and the series recovers along the way its Luigi Logic and its Snoutlet.

The whole branchThe badge systemThe budget that forces you to choose

Badges are equipped against a cost in Badge Points, from 1 to 6 depending on their power, and the total available rises with every level gained. Since the budget is capped, every badge equipped rules out another: it is that trade-off, and not the accumulation, that gives the system its flavour. Three families share the catalogue — offensive, defensive, utility — some pieces stack, and the guide details where to unearth them as well as the combinations that hold up in the endgame.

The whole branchThe Paper Mario partnersEight on Nintendo 64, seven on GameCube

Each chapter brings its ally, and each ally brings two things: a battle attack and a field power that unlocks specific puzzles. You control only one at a time, but you can switch at will during your turn. None dies for good — knocked out for a few turns, then revived. The dossier details the two complete castings, the difference in hit points between the two episodes, and why the formula died out in favour of the Pixls in 2007.

The whole branchThe rarest itemsWhat the RPG branch places in the ranking

The ranking of the items hardest to obtain in the whole saga gives two places to this page. The Jumpman badge from The Thousand-Year Door, first, reputed to be one of the hardest items to get in the paper series — and consistent with the logic of the system, since it strengthens jump attacks at the price of giving up the hammer entirely. Then the hidden badges of the series as a whole, which call for backtracking and side quests long after the end of the main story.

The whole branchBowserThe saga's first enemy to become playable

Miyamoto had first imagined him as an ox; it was Takashi Tezuka who made him a turtle, and Yoichi Kotabe who signed off the final spike-covered design. Since 1985, he kidnaps and he loses. It is the RPG branch that tips him over : from Super Mario RPG in 1996 onwards, he joins the party as a playable character in the face of a threat that overwhelms them all. Thirteen years later, Bowser's Inside Story takes the idea to its conclusion by handing him half the game — and his own body as the terrain.

The whole branchPrincess PeachA second narrative thread, rather than an objective

In the West, she was called Princess Toadstool for eleven years — it was Super Mario 64, in 1996, that imposed “Peach”. That same year, Super Mario RPG ranked her among the five playable characters. The Thousand-Year Door goes further by reserving playable passages for her between the chapters, in parallel with Bowser's, then by making her body the stake of the final battle when the Shadow Queen takes possession of it. On this branch, the princess is no longer a destination.

The whole branchToadsworthThe butler whose age the RPGs pin down

Toadsworth in English: white beard, round glasses, cane and chronic anxiety, he appears in Super Mario Sunshine in 2002 as the princess's personal attendant. Official documents specify that he has looked after her since her earliest childhood, in the manner of a guardian — which long fed the rumour that he might be her father or her grandfather. It is his appearances in the Mario & Luigi series that supply the most concrete detail about him: it is there that his age, sixty, is specified.

The whole branchBaby MarioFrom Yoshi's passenger to playable hero

He appears in 1995 in Yoshi's Island: carried by the stork with his twin brother, separated from him during an attack by Kamek, then saved by Yoshi who carries him on his back. His crying is a mechanic there — losing sight of him triggers the countdown. That appearance opens a parallel “baby” chronology in the Mario universe, of which the RPG branch makes the most concrete use: Partners in Time makes him a fully playable hero, alongside his adult double.

The whole branchBaby LuigiA stake for ten years, then a hero

His case is stranger still. Kidnapped by Kamek in the opening scene of Yoshi's Island, he spends the whole game out of the player's reach: the central character of the story is absent from the screen almost throughout. He is not a hero, he is an objective. It would take close to ten years and Partners in Time for him finally to get an active role — and it is again an RPG that repairs the anomaly, after a detour via the kart and the sports field.

The whole branchBirdoThe reluctant sidekick of a failed thief

Catherine in Japan, Birdo in the West: a textbook case of localisation. She starts out in 1988 in Super Mario Bros. 2 as a recurring mini-boss who spits eggs to be sent back, a mechanic unheard of at the time, and her gender identity has caused much ink to flow depending on the version. Her passage through the RPGs is less glorious and funnier: she becomes one of the two reluctant sidekicks of Popple, the Beanish thief desperately looking for a “Rookie” — after an amnesiac Bowser.

The whole branchKamekThe Magikoopa the RPGs preferred to duplicate

Blue robe and pointed hat, flying broom, round glasses: Kamek receives an identity of his own in Yoshi's Island in 1995, where Super Mario World made do with anonymous Magikoopas. He is the one who kidnaps the baby Mario brothers, and the one who enlarges the bosses with a flick of his wand. A detail that reveals how the branch works: rather than reuse him, Paper Mario gave itself its own Koopa witch at Bowser's side, Kammy Koopa, mounted on an identical broom.

The whole branchPiantasThe decorative people who found themselves an underworld

Good-natured colossi in leaf skirts, with a genuine palm tree planted on their skulls: the Piantas are revealed by Super Mario Sunshine in 2002 as the majority inhabitants of Isle Delfino, where they catapult Mario towards the heights. Their tastiest career change lies elsewhere. In The Thousand-Year Door, one of them runs the Rogueport underworld in a suit under the name Don Pianta — a picture-postcard people turned mafia family, in two games.

The whole branchEnemies turned alliesBowser and Vivian, two switches signed by the RPGs

In Mario, the border between heroes and villains is porous — and this analysis lists those who have crossed it: Donkey Kong, first antagonist of 1981 turned star in 1994; Wario, usurper of 1992 promoted to top billing; Birdo, from mini-boss to spin-off regular. Two entries come directly from this page: Bowser, recruited in the RPGs as early as 1996, and Vivian, defector from the Shadow Sirens. Paper Mario even pushes the principle to the scale of entire species.

The whole branchYoko ShimomuraNo, the music is not by Nobuo Uematsu

Born on 19 October 1967 in Hyōgo prefecture, a graduate of the Osaka music school, she joined Capcom in 1988 — at a time when the profession was overwhelmingly male — and wrote some fifteen soundtracks there, including Street Fighter II in 1991. She joined Square in 1993, composed Super Mario RPG in 1996, then almost the whole Mario & Luigi saga. She came back for the re-orchestrated version of the 2023 remake. The received idea attributing that soundtrack to Nobuo Uematsu is stubborn, and wrong.

The whole branchThe games never releasedThe Super Mario RPG 2 that wasn't one

The survey of Mario projects never brought to market contains an entry that belongs directly to this page: a Super Mario RPG 2 announced in the Nintendo 64 era. The name disappeared, the game did not — the project is the one that came out under the title Paper Mario, after a change of machine and studio. It is the opposite of a cancellation: it is a working title that survived in players' memories longer than in Nintendo's plans.

The whole branchIn what order to play themBy sub-series rather than by date

The general guide to the saga reaches the same conclusion for all the Mario games: better to group by family — two-dimensional platforming, three-dimensional platforming, role-playing games, spin-offs — than to follow release order. No strict narrative continuity requires starting in 1985, and the reasoning applies doubly to this page, where thirteen games fall into three families that almost never answer one another.