Nintendo Survey Hints at RPG Plans After Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Nintendo wants to know your thoughts on the next Mario RPG.
On May 23rd, Nintendo will release Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Nintendo Switch. The GameCube original is often considered the best game in the series, and the remaster is the end result of years of fan demand. We're still a few weeks out from the game's release, but it seems Nintendo is already starting to plan for the next Mario RPG. A survey has gone out to some Nintendo fans, asking questions about games like Super Mario RPG, the Mario & Luigi series, and Paper Mario. The questions seem to be an attempt to gauge where fans want to see the next game go.
Interestingly enough, these questions hit on discussions Mario RPG fans have been having for years, including things like party members. Super Mario RPG offered a mix of classic characters like Peach and Bowser alongside wholly original ones like Mallow and Geno. Meanwhile, the early Paper Mario games featured unique takes on existing Mario characters like Goombario (a Goomba) and Kooper (a Koopa Troopa). The survey asks questions about whether players prefer to see familiar faces, new characters, and whether they prefer "characters to behave and appear like they do in other Mario games."
Images from the survey were shared on Twitter by user @Aspharon, and can be found in the Tweet embedded below.
oh this is about all the toads in the newer RPGs, I see now pic.twitter.com/Eft8H5nowE
— Asph (@Aspharon) April 2, 2024
Nintendo Switch 2
Given the fact that Nintendo seems to be gathering opinions on the next Mario RPG, it will likely be a few years before we actually see a new game happen. Rumors suggest that a new Nintendo system will be released in early 2025, so we probably shouldn't expect to see a new Mario RPG to release on the current Switch hardware. Hopefully Nintendo will listen to the fans and deliver an RPG experience that can stand alongside the best in the series. Until then, fans will just have to settle for remakes and remasters of existing games!
The History of Mario's RPGs
The Mario RPG series has had a disjointed nature over the years. It all started with 1996's Super Mario RPG, which was developed by Square. In the N64 era, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems made Paper Mario, which was originally known under the working title "Super Mario RPG 2." The game proved popular enough to launch a series, and several Paper Mario games have been released in the years since.
A second Mario RPG series started with the release of AlphaDream's Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga in 2003. The Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series coexisted for years, and even got a crossover game at one point. In a seeming attempt to differentiate the two, Paper Mario started becoming more adventure based, while the Mario & Luigi games continued to build on the RPG elements. That was the status quo for a while at least, but the Mario & Luigi series basically came to an end following the closure of AlphaDream in 2020.
What do you want to see from Mario's next RPG? Are you happy Nintendo is asking fans about what direction to go in? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!