Paper Mario: Partner Up!

Paper Mario: Partner Up!
Developer(s)	Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch
Genre(s)	RPG
Series	Paper Mario
Release Date(s)	JP: August 11th, 2020 Everywhere Else: February 5th, 2021
Age Rating(s)	E10+

Paper Mario: Partner Up! is the sixth installment in the Paper Mario series. It is the 3rd RPG in the series, and features the return of Paper Mario's partners from Paper Mario 64 and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. This installment is meant to be the celebration for 20 years of Paper Mario.

In this installment, Paper Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser are captured by a mysterious being, and it's up to the partners to save him from the being's clutches.

Characters: Playable

Character	Description
220x220xp Goombario	One of Mario's partners in PM64. He's very kind, and likes to dish out information on the baddies you meet.
220x220xp Goombella	One of Mario's partners in TTYD. She's smart, sassy, and can dish out info just as well as Goombario can.
220x220xp Kooper	One of Mario's partners in PM64. He's adventurous, sports a sick blue color, and pretty wise.
220x220xp Koops	One of Mario's partners in TTYD. He's a coward, pretty timid, and is the exact opposite of Kooper.
220x220xp Bombette	One of Mario's partners in PM64. She's pretty nice, but don't be fooled, as she'll explode on contact and deliver a demolishing body slam.
220x220xp Admiral Bobbery	One of Mario's partners in TTYD. Once fell into doubt that his wife had died, and once sailed a ship, which had crashed. Poor fellow. ;/
220x220xp Lady Bow	One of Mario's partners in PM64. She's a strong headed and snooty leader of the Boos in Boo's mansion, but also kind hearted.
220x220xp Madame Flurrie	One of Mario's partners in TTYD. She's a cloud spirit actress who retired to Boggly Woods to save the Puni of the Great Tree.
220x220xp Sushie	One of Mario's partners in PM64. She's a pretty strict babysitter, but cares about the safety for the Yoshi kids.
220x220xp Yoshi Kid	One of Mario's partners in TTYD. He hatches into any random color, and you can name him whatever you like. He's known as "The Great Gonzales Jr."
220x220xp Watt	One of Mario's partners in PM64. She's an energetic girl, and it shows because she can electricute her foes in a lightning fashion.
220x220xp Ms. Mowz	One of Mario's partners in TTYD. She likes to flirt with the man himself, Mario. She can sniff for any item, as well.
220x220xp Lakilester	One of Mario's partners in PM64. He prefers to be called nicknames, such as Spike and Michael, rather than his real name. He has a girlfriend named Lakilulu.
Vivian	One of Mario's partners in TTYD. She's kind and compassionate, and had to betray her sisters, the Shadow Sirens, due to a poor relationship.

Characters: Helpers

Character	Description
220x220xp Kersti	A sticker fairy who is pretty kind, but also has a temper. She allows Mario to "paperize" different stickers.
220x220xp Huey	A paint bucket who's pretty much the funny man of Color Splash, and changes color depending on his mood. He allows Mario to "cutout" certain landscapes using Thing Cards.

Characters: Non Playable

Character	Description
220x220xp Paper Mario	The main star of the series. Wears red, gets the girls, stops the turtles, nothing can stop him.
220x220xp Paper Luigi	A lean green machine. Not as famous as his big bro, and he's a coward, but still has a big heart.
220x220xp Paper Peach	The sweet damsel in distress. Always being kidnapped by the evil Koopa King, until Mario stops to save the day.
220x220xp Paper Bowser	The big ol' brute who wants nothing but to stop the red plumber. He occasionally spends time with his son and the Koopalings.

Story

Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Huey (who has returned from Color Splash) are having tea at the Bros. house, until Parakarry (one of Mario's partners in PM64) stops by to deliver a letter. The letter is an invitation to Kersto's, Kersti's brother, castle for a party. So the gang stops by to meet up with Kersto and Kersti. What felt like a party ended up turning into a nightmare, as Kersto showed the gang to a secret room that led to a surprise. The surprise ended up leading the gang to get trapped in cages. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Huey, Kersti, and Bowser who stopped by early and was trapped. Kersto had planned to take over the Mushroom Kingdom and it's residents ever since, which is why he had gotten the Bros. to join his so called "party". Overtime in the game, he slowly begins to take over the Paper world. Right before Kersto unleashes a demon named Diaphanous, who originates as a demon smoke cloud that had been sealed away for thousands of years, Kersti and Huey escape just in time. During that, Goombella, making a triumphant return, decided to visit Mario in order to inform him about a magical crystal called the "Phantom Shard", which has the ability to give people specific powers. While they do no harm, if it leads into the wrong hands, it would lead to utter destruction to the Paper world. So she sails away from Rogueport to the Mushroom Kingdom. She eventually arrives, but ends up in Goomba Village, where Goombario, who returns again, and his family lives. Goombario is seen playing and running around with his sister. At this point, while Goombella searches for the red plumber, Goombario runs by and trips, leading Goombella to help him. After a long conversation on introducing each other, knowing about Mario, and the Phantom Shard, Goombario and Goombella decided to search for Mario at his house. During this time, Kersti and Huey, whom have escaped from Kersto's clutches, end up meeting the two goombas and talk about how Kersto is going to take over the Kingdom. Kersti and Huey are your helpers in the game, like Starlow from Mario & Luigi. They appear during battle to tell you tips, tutorials, etc. During battle, they will also start a conversation between each other, which leads to arguments. After making it to the Bros. house, they find the letter Kersti and Huey were talking about, and they go inside to find anything they can use to save them. After little to no investigation, they all decided that the only way to stop Kersto and Diaphanous from world domination was to form a familiar team. In other words, they setted off to find Mario's other partners from PM64 and TTYD.

Chapters

Like any Paper Mario game, this installment will be divided into a Prologue, 8 Chapters, and an Epilogue.

• Prologue - Darkness Rises (Goombario and Goombella are located there)
• Chapter 1 - A Goomba Tale (Kooper, Bombette, and Lady Bow are located there)
• Chapter 2 - Just Like the Good Ol' Days (Sushie, Watt, and Lakilester are located there)
• Chapter 3 - Welcome to Rogueport! (Koops, Admiral Bobbery, and Madame Flurrie are located there)
• Chapter 4 - The Partner Reunion (Ms. Mowz and Vivian are located there)
• Chapter 5 - Finding Goomba (Goombella goes missing)
• Chapter 6 - Entrance of Dreams (Dream World where anything can happen, is taken over)
• Chapter 7 - Confrontation at the Castle: Boss Rush
• Chapter 8 - Space: The Final Frontier (Final Boss is there)
• Epilogue - The Big Festival

Gameplay

The gameplay for Paper Mario: Partner Up! is relatively the same as the battle system in PM64 and TTYD. However, there is a catch.

Phantom Shard

The Phantom Shard, as Goombella mentions in the Prologue, is a crystal that contains the essence of powerful phantoms, and can give someone the ability to show off their powers. The shard is used in battle to give the partners a powerful hitting move, like the Z-Crystals from Pokémon Sun and Moon. The catch being that, no matter which partner you have, say, Vivian and Goombario, you will pull off a uniquely powerful move. The move will be completely different depending on which partners you use. They are only used once during battle.

Bosses

Most of the bosses from PM64 and TTYD have returned as well as some new ones. Each boss is assigned to each chapter except for Chapter 7. These bosses being:

Character	Description
220x220xp Koopa Bros.	The main boss of Chapter 1 in this game. They strike back revenge after defeat in PM64, so they appear at the end of Chapter 1.
220x220xp Goomboss	The main boss of Chapter 2 in this game. After getting out of the tree that he was in before, Goomboss plans on getting revenge on Mario and his partners. He stops the partners as soon as they leave Rogueport.
220x220xp Lord Crump	The main boss of Chapter 3 in this game. After living life peacefully in Poshley Heights, he decides to go back to Rogueport and get the revenge he wanted for so long.
220x220xp Kersto	Kersto is a new character in the Paper Mario Universe and is the main boss of Chapter 4. He wants to take over the Paper World, so halfway into the game, he stops by to fight you after you have found all the partners in the game. He eventually returns to fight them again in the first phase of the final boss.
220x220xp Mr. L	Mr. L makes a grand return in this installment, only becoming the main boss of Chapter 5. Kersto had hypnotized Luigi into returning back to his evil form, Mr. L, to stop the Partner Gang after receiving defeat in the previous chapter. He has Goombella hostage and won't stop 'til he gets revenge.
220x220xp 220x220xp 220x220xp The Shadow Sirens	The Shadow Sirens, Vivian's Ex-Group made up of her 2 sisters and Doopliss, have returned to Paper Mario and are the main boss of Chapter 6. Vivian's sisters wanted Vivian to come back and join them, but Vivian didn't forget how they made her feel. Doopliss came back after receiving a call from the Shadow Sirens to search for Vivian. They are the only boss group that don't plan on revenge, but rather receiving love from Vivian again.
220x220xp 220x220xp 220x220xp Kersto, Diaphanous, and Kerstaphanous	Kersto returns to fight the Partner Gang in the first phase of the battle. He is a lot more powerful than his fight in Chapter 4. When he is defeated, Diaphanous, who appears as a dark demon cloud, is summoned by Kersto in the second phase of the battle. Diaphanous is pretty powerful, so he dodges attacks almost always. When he is defeated, Kersto had no other choice but to combine with Diaphanous to create the ultimate being: Kerstaphanous. Kerstaphanous takes his battle up into space, where gimmicks like meteorites and stars crash down as their attack. After defeating Kerstaphanous, The two split up, Diaphanous gets sealed, Kersto is defeated, and everyone celebrates.

The boss in Chapter 7 is a collaboration of all the bosses from Chapters 1-6. They are only cloned versions of the fights and not the actual bosses themselves.

Extras

There is a multitude of extra content in Paper Mario: Partner Up! These modes include:

• Boss Rush Mode: Where you fight all the bosses in Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8
• 2 Player Mode: This mode allows for 2 players in Partner Up! The players will each have a split screen mode, and when one of them gets into battle, the other player is forced to join the battle as well
• Minigame Mode: There are over 30+ minigames in Minigame Mode
• Mario Classics: This mode allows you to play classic demos of Mario games, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Sunshine. Each demo is 5:00 minutes long, and if you do each of these challenges in each game:

-Reach the Goal Post in Mario 1

-Defeat Birdo in Mario 2

-Reach the Goal Card in Mario 3

-Reach the Goal with Yoshi in Mario World

-Collect a Star in Mario 64

-Collect a Shine Sprite in Mario Sunshine

Then you will be able to play 10:00 minute demos of each Paper Mario game. From 64 to Color Splash, relive classic moments and experience new ones in this nostalgic mode

Trivia

• Parakarry from PM64 and Tippi from Super Paper Mario were planned to be in Paper Mario: Partner Up! With Parakarry as another playable partner, and Tippi as another helper. But due to time constraints, Parakarry only makes a cameo at the beginning of the game, and Tippi was never seen in the game