Paper Mario - Do we have a kart race scheduled for today?

God, it's like the writing is there, but the game play isn't man, it's almost something I want to buy. It doesn't need to be exactly like TTYD, it just needs to not be Sticker Star battle mechanics. I'll probably buy it when it goes on sale or price decline in a year or two.

Okay, maybe out of context, this might make sense, but consider this: This is the Paper Mario series. One of the Mario franchise's many, many, many spinoff series'. So, what makes this one unique? The gameplay? Well, kind of. The gameplay is unique for this series. But that's not what makes PM truly special. The very concept of having unique gameplay in and of itself isn't unique. The Mario Kart series is unique in that it's the only Mario series that plays like a racing game. The Mario Party series is unique in that it's the only Mario series that plays like a board game. Et cetera, et cetera. So yeah. Do you want to know what makes Paper Mario really special? It's the fact that, aside from Super Mario RPG (which is only one game) and the Mario & Luigi games (which focus more on humor than characters/plot), the Paper Mario series were the only games in the entire plethora of Mario games that actually try and put some semblance of a story in them. I mean, look. If you want to get all technical, then yes, most Mario games do have stories. But do you want to know what those fucking "stories" all boil down to? "Bowser did something bad. Then Mario defeats him and saves the day." Yeah. Not much of a plot, huh? Which is what made the Paper Mario games all that more special. I mean, sure, they weren't fucking Shakespeare, but at least they gave a shit. At least they tried to put some effort into their plots, unlike what can be said for 90% of Mario games.