Paper Mario Character Design Commentary (Under Construction)

Note: There's a lot of borrowed images here. I claim no credits unless I mention otherwise. TTYD remake sprites are the same design wise(?), just upscaled and etc unless noted.

Mario:

In 64 he has a simplified style to fit in with 'story book', with some discrepancies of course between artwork and in-game sprites. In TTYD he’s redesigned to look like how we think of Paper Mario today. SPM keeps that but it is a slightly sharper image. Sticker star changes his gloves and adds a felt like texture to him, but only in concept art. Color Splash adds the white outline. Mario's proportions are tweaked regarding hat and nose. It is worth nothing that he has new animations depending on the game, such as dancing in the newer games. There are some subtle tweaks. The outlines become only black in the modern games and things such as sharpness is tweaked.

From left to right: General comparisons; The excellent concept art of Sticker Star; Paper Mario Color Splash in game and on the far right concept art making Mario a sticker.

From left to right: Front facing Mario models in which he manages to strike a different pose every time. It's rather impressive how they kept tweaking that; Mario being defeated poses; Mario afraid: TTYD vs CS.

Left: A big composite of Mario using official art. Right: Mario bracing for impact, tweaking the design a touch. Let's give a round of applause for the TTYD remake sneaking in here.

Above: A highly specific sprite you wouldn't get in older games.

Luigi: His design cycle is just like Mario’s, with more varying poses depending on game because he's always a side character living his best life doing random things and usually without partners to drag him down. (I'm kidding. Sorry partners.) After TTYD his overalls get darker than Mario's to fit in with his 3D design.
Top row left to right: Luigi in a rareish pose in Color Splash; Paper Mario (64); A standard Color Splash pose; Paper Mario TTYD.
Bottom left to right: Several poses from Origami King, notice how we see his eyebrows!!; A pose you might not have seen in Super Paper Mario. He's dying. Notice how strange the body looks.

Peach: If not for the orange hair early on (which was sometimes reflected in 2D art) she's consistent. In TTYD we get her basic template with a few alterations that sneak up later. In SPM her dress is more elaborate to match 3D art and she has lipstick. In Sticker Star that vanishes and her facial proportions are a bit off, though resolution might be the cause of that. Color Splash and Origami King are the same. While we are glossing over animations mostly, note that her modern design doesn't have a back sprite until Color Splash. Besides Sticker Star the player COULD control her in previous games at some point, yet when moving upwards she would awkwardly remain facing the screen because of this.

From right to left top row: PM (64); TTYD; SPM; SS. Bottom: CS; TOK (yeah it's the same); And finally that back sprite we waited so long for!

Bowser:

He can keep his bad attitude because we won't be here long. He has the least changed spanning across all the games, especially if we are looking at static poses and ignoring sprites specific to fighting animations. Very stylized from the start, his posture became more erect in SPM alone (just not enough to climb ladders I guess), and from Color Splash onward they changed his spikes to align with his 3D model.

In the left side of the ring we have King Bowser from Paper Mario 64. In the right his modern design per Color Splash!!! Who will win??? Far right: TTYD vs SPM. Being playable or not makes all the difference apparently for posture.

Goomba: Stylized in PM64 and cleaned up just a bit for TTYD and SPM. SS darkens their skin, thins out their eyebrows to match 3D renders of the mushroom enemies and doesn’t exaggerate the eyes as much.

Paragoomba: Same, well... There's another row of feathers like the 3D models have.

Koopa: Ahh! My eyes. Sorry, I was dazed for a moment because I lost my shades. In all fairness, the glasses in the older games meant that they were ‘bad’ koopas, or in SPM case, the ones that worked for Count Bleck. Upon closer inspection, the Sticker Star and onward keeps the body the same, but redraws the head to be a little more on model. It's less obvious than the Hammer Bro below, but still there.

Dry bones: This is where things get drastic. The completely stylized Dry bones is changed to a design that pretty much perfectly resembles their 3D game render.

Hammer bro, boomerang bro, fire bro: Another casualty of the so-called 'NSMBization'. Their snouts are shortened like their 3D versions. For Hammer bro the color of his helmet is made to match. Their eyes are less cartoony and they just seem a bit more serious.

Lakitu: Stays very very close. Suspiciously so! I don’t trust those jerks!

Magikoopa/ Kamek: Remains close. Remember that SS has no magikoopa enemy but Kamek, except Kamek has always appeared to be a generic blue magikoopa. (And yes in Japan Kamek and Magikoopa can be synonymous.)

Buzzy beetle: Another drastic one with a distinctive Paper Mario only style that was stripped away in Sticker Star to look just like NSMB. It was always a little strange that the old design as one toe nail on the entire foot, but cuteness was sacrificed too. Worth it?

Spiny: Just like above.

Spike top: Again like above.

Podoboo/ Lava Bubble: Totally copied the current day 3D design.

Toad: Subtle, but there are some changes, which snuck up on me too I admit.

Clubba/ Spike: Clubbas are in the older games but the newer only have Spike. We can’t make a comparison yet.

Shy guy and variants: Nearly the same but you can see changes in proportion regarding their garb and also the features of their mask.

Bob-omb: Strikingly stays the same!

Bullet Bill: Loses some cartoony features like larger eyes and given more detail around the arm.

Chain Chomp: Remains close enough, just less exaggerated.

Swooper: Literally stays the same, which of course matches their 2D and later 3D art.

Blooper: Literally stays the same, beyond PM64 at least. Some of what's pictured are bosses but you get the point.

Cheep-cheep: Basically redrawn to match 3D renders.

Pokey: Loses exclusive ‘ghoulish’ Paper Mario style for their modern ‘chippy’ 3D design.

Piranha plant: Almost the same except detail on the leaves. Also whiter teeth, so someone gifted it some dental care at some point.

Fuzzy: Remains close enough, including the crooked eyes. (This is worth noting because other enemies with strabismus like Whomps have that design element stripped in modern times.)

Boo: Loses exclusive and stylized Paper Mario style for what’s basically a 2D version of Boo’s modern 3D sprite.

Ninji: Close but less cartoony.

Rocky wrench: A comparison here isn’t exact but notice that they lose the distinctive Paper Mario glasses. However the style is noticeably cartoony still.

Wiggler: This is a little different, because we didn't have him before later games anyway and when we get him it's just like his 3D render basically. The SPM beta does show legs, which the SS version sheds to add stylization in a rare instance.

Global changes:

1. Plot: The first three games go for a Mario version of an RPG plot. A bad guy gets a powerful thing, or there's an ancient bad thing or prophesy, or etc with lore to it. From Sticker Star onward, the paper world will become very diegetic. Royal Stickers come from a comet which (oddly) comes down into town personally to gather up all the wishes. Things go wrong of course and they make bosses of a lot of folks, some innocent and some not, including of course Bowser. Your helpful tools of regular objects or 'Things' are etheric weapons. In Color Splash paint is the source of life and energy and it's needed for the paper cast to live, for the world to not have voids in it, and for your cards to be useful. Black Paint, the real villain was created by simply mixing the colors and Huey, your partner in that game is initially not a paper character, but little is dug into that. Origami King does give some background, though origami is still the focus and in fact what you're fighting against. 'Things' return.. as sentient bosses!
2. The environment itself: Textures and materials emphasize being made of paper or cardboard construction in later games.
3. Shading: Characters intentionally have flatter colors in later games, particularly starting in Color Splash where the HD textures make it obvious.
4. The 'hated' white outlines: Debuting in Color Splash, this makes characters pop considerably but emphasize the paper quality too
5. Animations: Not easily demonstrable on a page that isn't going to be full of gifs, the animation of characters while fighting or even in idle poses is intentionally choppy in later games

*Bonus Round*

My commentary in text. NOT created by me.

Notable characters in modern games and general attributes:

If a character that is a toad is special in some way, they will usually have a different colored cap other than red and/or the mildest accessory such as glasses, or a hat on top of their toad hat.(This is worth clarifying as in older Paper Mario games the toad hats would be modified much more.) There will be no gender markers either. They will not normally have a unique name other than a title, but there are exceptions we will cover:

Main partners: Let's get a large thing out of the way immediately. The main partners ARE allowed a unique appearance but of a basic nature and not of an enemy species like in older Paper Mario. Kersti is of course a sticker. Huey is a 3D normal object initially but transforms into a paper character like the rest. Olivia is paper, albeit origami but still. Other partners in modern games will be covered below.

Forebear and Steward (Sticker Star):The Forebear toad previously owned The Enigmansion and the ski lift. He is in greyscale because of the interesting way you make him come of life from a portrait. The Steward owns the haunted mansion currently. He is a pink capped toad. Both characters are posh like and proper.

Traveling Toad (Sticker Star): While his appearance is just a red toad, his story is of some interest. He travels around throughout the game and consequently gets in trouble a lot. Each time he's saved he writes a postcard to his 'Bud' where he embellishes some details, not unlike what Luigi does in TTYD.

Other Toads (Sticker Star):One toad 'Swindler Toad' is a con-artist toad that will rip you off on an expensive Poison Mushroom. Origami King later reuses this idea with a Monty Mole selling an important object. In this game however this comes off a bit out of character for a toad. 'Crybaby Toad' is exactly that. A green toad Mario must assist via an escort mission. 'Sling-a-Thing Toad' is purple and runs the Thing Sticker creating giant board thingy. 'Shady Toad' is likely the same character. he sells you Things at a price so that you don't have to revisit levels. The game treats it like a black market deal.

Wiggler/ Flutter (Sticker Star):Wiggler is a main character for World 3 of this game. Kamek brutally rips his body segments apart and that becomes the focus of that chapter. He later becomes a Flutter. His character is nice enough, he just suffers from generic species name character syndrome. At least he has some neat stuff in his house.

Rescue Squad (Color Splash): Semi-prominent characters in that game who do various task for Mario after of course you rescue THEM first. They are color coded red, blue, yellow, green, and purple and they have a Squad Chief with a different attire. They have unique outfits with a scarf and the Chief looks like a normal toad but with sunglasses and a clipboard in his hands. There is an Apprentice Toad who is normal but with a pink scarf because he hasn't earned the full outfit yet. Concept art shows that they could have been normal toads with stars glued to their heads, so at least we got something better than that. These characters have their 'character' through their dialogue primarily.

Legendary Captain (Color Splash): A yellow toad with a pirate hat on his toad hat and a sword. He is the greatest captain ever but we all know that's wrong because Captain Toad is the best ever. Alas he's not a Paper Mario character so no more on that.. His character is entertaining enough but I just don't get how old he's supposed to be. Origami King would do something weird like this again, but more on that below.

Violet Passage Captain (Color Splash): The red toad that idolizes the above. He has a less impressive pirate hat atop his head and a sword. He acts like a typical pirate albeit with some work to do here and there.

Piper and friends: Purp, Redd, Greenie, Yella, Bloo (Color Splash): Named characters! Granted their appearance is drab but this kind of surprised me on my first play through. They are old friends of the patooie plant named Piper (who is also lacking any unique characteristics) who long to see him again. Eventually they do with the twist being that Piper is a patooie and not a toad.

Prof. Kinopio and Princess (Color Splash): Another named character. Yes it translates to 'toad' regardless but we're counting it. He is simply a yellow toad, without even a lab coat or something stereotypical. He however has a pet named Princess who is a chain-chomp with a bow. (Origami King borrows a gag like this.) Princess is notably not a flat paper character due to Kamek's meddling.

Five Fun Guys (Color Splash): Green identical quintuplets who aren't blood related however and call themselves insufferable and irritating at one point. Oh and a infamous event that ends with a 'gate' is mentioned in their presence. At least they dance.

Toads with title names (Color Splash and Origami King): 'Lighthouse Keeper' is a purple toad with sunglasses and owns the lighthouse on LIghthouse Island. Oh and he's radical. The 'Sunset Express conductor' wears a dirty work uniform which is somewhat distinguishing. The 'Tangerino Grill Chef' is a yellow toad with a chef had added to his toad hat. In Origami King his exact sprite it seems is reused and called 'Chef Kinopio'. 'Toadmaster General' may seem to be a Parakarry replacement in Color Splash but actually he is the one stuffed into the mail and shipped off. Brutal. He's okay later of course. 'Card Connoisseur Toad' is purple and has again those thick glasses. He is proper speaking. 'Deep Cuts Toad' is purple and doesn't show his face. 'Guide Toad' is a green toad that does just that. He carries a matching green flag and book. 'Green Energy Plant researcher' is another ostensibly brainy green toad.

'Toad Researcher' in Origami King runs the Sensor Lab. He is a yellow toad with a professor's attire with a wrench in his hand. 'DJ Toad' in Origami King is a purple toad DJ with sunglasses. He is 'hip' and cool even when stuck in the bad situation he's in with the Hole Punch and the faceless toad zombies. The 'Mustard Cafe Chef' is a green toad with sunglasses who is a bit of a slacker but can cook. 'Love Toad' in Origami King is just a red toad. He gives hints of MAX UP Hearts, thus the love part. Kind of. 'Peddler Toad' in Color Splash is a purple toad that restocks the Tangerino Grill. He will assist Mario if you are horribly failing that Steak challenge. We wouldn't blame you. 'Wringer' is a red toad that that sells Things to you in Color Splash. 'Informant Snifit' is a helpful enemy NPC in Color Splash that hangs out outside the Cobalt Base. He will give you some cards that may be useful for the sadistic game show section ahead.

Rock Paper Wizard: The final boss of the Roshambo Temple or he would be if something more than random number generating was occurring. He wears stylish white glasses and a goofy hand shaped hat with a white cape. In concept art he may have been some sort of duplighost which is more interesting but in their defense not exactly theme fitting.

Tea Party Toads (Color Splash): These are six toads friends who are deceased in current times and haunts a hotel that's also suffering a time loop. Actually kind of cool. Their appearance isn't anything special aside from one wearing the round thick glasses several characters also wear.

Chosen Toads: Justice Toad, Mountain Sage, Surfing Kinopio (Color Splash): Three toads, red, yellow, and blue who are actually like..spirits or something? They have special powers and are also the literal keys to open the gate to Crimson Tower. You can them again at points with new dialogue for how far you've made it. I kind of liked their characters and the dramatic happenings around them. In concept art they may have been all red and with different looking keys on their heads.

Bob-omb 'Bobby'(Origami King): A bob-omb with memory loss at the start. Without revealing too much there is more than meets the eye with him, but not exactly with his design. He's just a bomb.

Captain T. Ode (Origami King): An ancient character that once did something very daring and was punished for it. You unthaw him later and he's just fine apparently and much more mellow. He is a red toad with a really fancy jacket. Fun fact: in other languages his name is just 'Captain Toad' just like the other Captain Toad with the brigade.

Sea Captain Toad (Origami King): Yes we're really doing this with the names. He is a blue naval toad with a white admiral hat and turquoise scarf.

Earth Vellumental Temple Curator (Origami King): A green toad with sunglasses on, likely to hide the guilt that he's running a sort of tourist trap. He is identical to the Mustard Cafe Chef in Color Splash who also was of questionable nature. There must be something about green toads with sunglasses.

Kancho Kinopio (Origami King): A yellow toad with glasses who runs the Musee Champignon in Toad Town. Not more to say.

Ol' Grandsappy and Sap Sisters (Origami King): Original characters, talking trees that Mario encounter at the very start. The victim of toads with an ax, you have to help restore him to his former glory. He and the other trees can sing as well.

Origami Craftsman (Origami King): A green toad with a blue shirt and yellow overalls but there's more to it than that. Much more actually. While a kind person, his desire to bring one of is papercraft creations to life with a forbidden technique starts the plot of the game.

Oarsman and Shogun Studios cast (Origami King): The Oarsman is a blue toad with a Chinese straw hat and robe. He assists you with the Eddy River. Several kinds of Mario species wear traditional Asian garb at the Shogun Studios attraction.

Enemy groups (Color Splash and Origami King): 'Penabros' are five 'Juggler Bros' (or just Hammer Bros and Boomerang Bros) who ambush Mario in Mossrock Theater. They wear large circus like red and yellow top hats. They behave like true performers, with a bow upon defeat. 'Shai Guyz' is a group of shy guys in Color Splash.

Professor Toad (Origami King): A partner for Mario, he is an intelligent yellow toad in an explorer's outfit. As a college professor and archaeologist he assists you in the Sandpaper Desert and has a shovel that that unearth items or attack in battles. He's one of the closest things to an old-school toad design I feel.

Sencho Kinopio (Origami King): Another nautical toad but of a more classy nature as the captain of the Princess Peach ship. He is a purple toad with a white suit with a white captain's hat.

Feelin'Fungi: Joy, Anger, Pathos, Humor (Origami King, not pictured): Sort of like the Five Fun Guys from Color Splash. All green toads but with a 'name' that also describes their emotion. Collecting all of them works as a mission for the island they're on. The most notable thing is that Joy forces you to help but.. characters do that a lot so..

Shangri-Spa (Origami King): The angel like toad inhabitants here seem nice but are actually forcing Bowser's minions into harsh labor when Mario's back is turned. Sometimes literally. This is another example I feel of what could be an oldschool design.

Host Snifit (Sticker Star, Color Splash): Just a snifit but with a pink bow so he can look presentable while attempting to kill you in a game show. Twice!

Emcee Shy Guy (Origami King): Shy Guy game host following the steps of the Snifit or Whiffit host. He wears a pink bow, the typical small accessory allowed.

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