Super Paper Mario

"Ahem! Today... I'll tell you the story of the lost book of prophecies. This prophetic book was a mysterious tome full of stories of future events. Of course, many people desired this book, wishing to glimpse their futures. But no person, after obtaining this amazing book, ever found happiness. The reason? The book held frightful secrets not meant for people's eyes. The book came to be called the Dark Prognosticus and was sealed away. This... is the tale of the forgotten book's last owner. It is a tale of love..."

The third installment in the Paper Mario series of RPGs, Super Paper Mario mixes it up a bit by being...well, totally different from its predecessors. Instead of being a turn-based RPG with action elements like the first two games, Super Paper Mario is a side-scrolling platformer with RPG elements. One of the most interesting features of the game is the ability to switch between 2D and 3D view at will - a lot of puzzles can only be solved in 3D, and switching to 3D will often show enemies and items that you couldn't see (or interact with) before.

The plot is noticeably darker than the previous entries. Mario and Luigi hear that Princess Peach has been kidnapped (again) and go off the Bowser's Castle. Except that he didn't do it. At that moment, a strange guy named Count Bleck appears with Peach and takes Bowser, the Koopa Troop, and Luigi to his stronghold, Castle Bleck. Mario is left out cold until he is awoken by Tippi, a Pixl. She brings him to the town of Flipside. Meanwhile, Bleck forces a marriage between Bowser and Peach, summoning the Chaos Heart and causing a rift called The Void to appear. Mario must fight Bleck and his strange Five-Bad Band to save the multiverse.

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Tropes used in Super Paper Mario include:
  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Mimi.
  • Action Girl: Princess Peach, believe it or not, after getting rescued in the second chapter, decides that it's time to stop getting kidnapped, go out there, and kick some ass.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Wracktail, the evil prototype of Fracktail.
    • Dimentio actually turns Fracktail into this, forcing you to fight him.
  • And Now You Must Marry Each Other: Bowser and Peach. Peach is literally forced into saying "I do". Bowser obviously doesn't have to be forced to say the same.
  • Anti-Villain: Count Bleck, who - despite wanting to unmake the world - genuinely cares for his henchmen, and is driven by the loss of his love rather than actual evil (even helping the heroes near the end after being reunited with her).
  • Apocalypse Maiden: Luigi. No, really. He gets Brainwashed by Nastasia and further manipulated by Dimentio.
  • Apocalypse How: Count Bleck's plan is to bring about a class Z.
  • Applied Mathematics: The first few levels feature "joke" equations in the background, made up of random numbers and mathematical symbols combined with famous Mario icons such as the Fire Flower and mushrooms.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In Chapter 7-2, when you encounter Bowser, he complains that he's hungry, among other things.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Chaos Heart.
  • Ash Face: Subverted; after tricking you into opening an exploding chest, Mimi complains when this doesn't happen.
  • Batman Gambit: Dimentio needs the heroes to retrieve the Pure Hearts and use them to beat Count Bleck in order to steal the Chaos Heart and remake the universe. If the heroes fail, Dimentio cannot get the Chaos Heart and would end up getting erased from existence just like everyone and anything else.
  • Battle Royale With Cheese: Towards the end.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Francis can be deadly if you don't take him seriously as a boss because of his character. But you just know you can't take him seriously.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: When you begin the game Luigi is talking to Mario saying that he wants some "KERBLOOEY" events to happen. Needless to say they end up meeting Count Bleck who plans on ending all of existence. And later on in the story the game has plenty of Wham Moments, starting in Chapter 6 when the entire world of Sammer's Kingdom gets destroyed. And then there's Luigi, himself.
  • Big Damn Heroes: See Rebbi's example under Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Big Good: Merlon.
  • Blackout Basement: Underwhere Road.
  • Body Horror: Mimi's Transformation Sequence is quite freaky for an E-rated game.[1] It certainly doesn't help that the end result is a Gonkified version of her with giant spider legs coming out of her upside-down head. Plus there's the whole cracking neck thing...
    • Flip to 3D; her head is full of gears.
  • Bonus Dungeon: Two, and one has to be done twice!
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Lui- *cough* I mean, Mr. L.
  • Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: When Timpani almost dies from being doomed to wander all the dimensions forever, she gets transformed by Merlon into the butterfly-shaped Pixl we all know and love.
  • But Thou Must!: Subverted, in which you can refuse to save the world and get a Nonstandard Game Over before the real game even starts.
    • You can also vehemently refuse to wear a helmet in space, resulting in another Nonstandard Game Over.
    • And also if you refuse to look for Nimbi when Jaydes asks.
    • In a different vein, the interaction with Carrie the Pixl in Fort Francis has her asking you what you thought of Francis. She'll agree completely with you no matter what you said.

Carrie: So what you're saying is, Francis is awesome and irresistible. A stallion basically. I was thinking the exact same thing!

  • The Caligula: The poisoned King Croacus.
    • Bowser, too.
  • Calling the Old Man Out : It's implied that Blumiere's first act as Count Bleck was to kill his father. It's also implied that he wiped out the Tribe of Darkness.
    • Don't forget the part where Luvbi discovers her true identity as a Pure Heart. She believes that Grambi and Jaydes's overprotectiveness was not out of love, and that they did not let her enjoy life, knowing that her time was short.
  • Can You Hear Me Now?: Cell phones work in the afterlife.
    • Though the phone in question belonged to the Queen of the underworld.
      • And she was being called by her husband in another part of the Afterlife.
  • Chain of Deals: There's a very long one that makes you backtrack across all the worlds you previously visited, but thankfully, it's optional.
  • Chaos Is Evil: The Five-Bad Band is trying to destroy The Multiverse with the Chaos Heart.
  • Check Point Starvation: You cannot save during the Pit Of 100 Trials at all.
  • The Chessmaster: When it comes to Mario characters, Dimentio is the best of this trope of the bunch.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Kammy. She was a major character in the first two games, but is absent from this one with no explanation. This might have been done because giving her a role alongside the now playable Bowser would be awkward.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: The Pixls (except for Tippi). They don't have many lines, but what little dialogue they do have is extremely bizarre.

Thoreau: I express concern when the Ancients stuffed me in that chest 1,500 years ago. But now I see my worries were unfounded!

    • Although, even the ones like Barry and Dottie that weren't imprisoned anywhere (we don't know how Dottie got in the Floro Caverns, and Barry was just kinda wandering around the Bitlands) are a little strange (although, they may be the most normal).
  • The Collector: Francis.
  • Collision Damage: Being based on traditional Mario platform games than turn-based RPGs, it plays this straight with pretty noticeable knock back, making places like Chapter 3-3 more unbearably annoying than they already are.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Mocked with one of the True or False questions Francis's door gives to Peach before entering Francis's room, and provides the page picture.
  • Cute but Cacophonic: Mimi, judging by the jagged purple Speech Bubbles. Of course, in that form, she's not so much "cute" as OH MY GOD WHAT IN THE NAME OF MIYAMOTO'S FLOOPY HAIR IS THAT.
    • Said purple Speech Bubbles were previously used by the Shadow Queen, an ancient demon who served as the Final Boss in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: A Koopa in World 3, who upon seeing Mario actually collects a Mega Star to power himself up and chase down Mario.
  • Darker and Edgier: This may well be the darkest Paper Mario, let alone any Mario game, out there.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: As creepy as the Underwhere is, the people there are all pretty nice.
  • Dating Sim: Spoofed in Chapter 3-4.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Peach, surprisingly enough. The standout example is her scene with Francis.
  • Deep South: Specifically, Louisiana. Taken to the extreme that Mario actually becomes a slave on Mimi's estate.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Subverted more than once with Bowser, who joins due to reasons completely different from the defeat, and clearly states the first time that he is only doing it for his own benefit, not that of the heroes. Specifically, so he can take his castle back AND ensure there's a world that he can actually take over in the first place. Acts as a nod to another game in the series.
  • Defictionalization: Digibutter.nerr is now a fansite for Paper Mario games.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: Castle Bleck. Nothing but pure blackness with white outlines.
  • Descending Ceiling: Traps in Merlee's Mansion and Castle Bleck.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Peach and Mimi face off in the last chapter of Super Paper Mario.
  • Disc One Nuke: It's possible to clear the first Pit of 100 Trials and get the optional Pixl, Dashell, before you finish Chapter 2.
    • Not sure that counts because it only makes you run a lot faster.
      • Much more devastating is the number of levels you will gain from completing the pit. You'll have far more hit points and attack power than you should have by chapter 2. Of course, this is more of an example of Level Grinding than disc one nukage.
  • Disney Death: Damn near every heroic character by the end.
  • Divide by Zero: Bowser and Peach getting married is the direct cause of a multiversal apocalypse.
  • Drop the Hammer: The Pixl Cudge.
  • Duel Boss: In Chapter 3, there's Mario vs. Bowser. Chapter 8 brings us Bowser vs. O'Chunks, Peach vs. Mimi, and Luigi vs. Dimentio, all followed with both opponents suffering Disney Deaths.
  • E=MC Hammer: The background of Lineland features floating mathematical equations consisting of random symbols and various Mario icons such as Fire Flowers and mushrooms.
  • Emergency Transformation: Tippi, who had to be turned into a Pixl by Merlon.
  • Enigmatic Minion: Dimentio.
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Subverted. Queen Jaydes, ruler of the Underwhere, seems pretty intimidating at first, but it's quickly revealed that she's pretty nice off-duty.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: This is Bowser's reaction to seeing what happens to worlds consumed by the Void.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Dimentio used the Heroes to get the Pure Hearts, and allowed them to use them on Count Bleck so that he could get the Chaos Heart easily. He honestly thought that the heroes using the Pure Hearts meant that they were gone for good. He ended up legitimately shocked when, due to Bleck/Blumiere, Tippi/Timpani, O'Chunks, and Mimi's love for one another, the Pure Hearts had returned and stripped him of his invincibility.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: After you free it, the guard dog creature in Merlee's Mansion immediately proceeds to chase after Mimi. His reaction to seeing "Merlee" for the first time in the chapter is also a nice bit of foreshadowing.
  • Evil Is Deathly Cold: Bonechill.
  • Evil Versus Oblivion: Bowser and Count Bleck. Later, Dimentio and Count Bleck.
  • Exact Words: The prophecy only said that the Man in Green would harness the Chaos Heart to destroy the universe. It never said anything about the Man in Green doing so willingly...
  • Expy: Dimentio is basically the Mario version of Final Fantasy VI's Kefka Palazzo.
    • Count Bleck is Count Dracula
    • Red and Green are clearly based on Mario and Luigi.
    • Dimentio seems to take a similar role of Beldam from the previous game, having a bigger plan in their agenda and ultimately betraying their boss in the end. In this way, Count Bleck is similar to Lord Grodus. However, Dimentio doesn't reform.
  • Fairytale Wedding Dress: Peach's, even though it was just a white version of her usual dress.
    • She actually complains about it.
  • Fake King: The first time you meet King Sammer, he's real. The second time, it's actually Mimi impersonating him.
  • Fake Weakness: Mimi tries shapeshifting into Merlee and asking Mario his weaknesses...in a place where Merlee has no business being. She'll put power-ups and helpful items out if you tell her you're weak to them.
  • Fallen Angel: Bonechill is implied to be a fallen Nimbi.
  • Fartillery: O'Chunks uses this as his exit in the first three encounters, but he actually uses this as an attack against Bowser as Super O'Chunks.
    • In Super Paper Mario, this is possibly how the Cherbils attack. If you use Tippi to tell you about the creatures, she says "some say the gas comes from its mouth. Others say it comes from... elsewhere." Due to the creature's appearance (basically a set of eyes and a large pair of cheeks), it's difficult to tell which end it's coming from.
  • Five-Bad Band
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Free Sample Plot Coupon: Mario gets the first Pure Heart handed to him before the player even officially has control of him. Hilariously, you can avert But Thou Must! by refusing multiple times to accept the item, eventually leading to the giver just giving up and a Nonstandard Game Over before the game even begins.
  • Genre Blind: When Toad mentions at the beginning that Peach is kidnapped, Luigi ponders who would do such a thing before deducing it must be Bowser. At this point in the series history, it shouldn't take more than 1/64th of a second to figure that out. Of course, it doesn't help it's also one of the few times it's not him.
  • Global Currency Exception: 1 million rubees to pay for the vase.
  • Go Out with a Smile + Dissonant Serenity: Dimentio.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck: "DOOFUSES!" from Mimi; it makes sense, though, as she's intentionally meant to be childish.
  • Gravity Screw: On the Planet Blobule, Mario can jump much higher than usual. The Whoa Zone allows him to walk on the walls and ceiling.
  • Green Aesop: The Cragnons learn one at the end of chapter 5.

"I mean come on! Water is easily our most precious natural resource!"

  • Hand Wave: The game doesn't even bother coming up with a decent reason for why Luvbi comes back.
    • Simple. She wished on herself.
    • A logical explanation is that they loved Luvbi when she was a Pure Heart, so perhaps they just created a new one.
    • The other possibility is that just like how the Pure Hearts are recreated twice during the ending, Grambi and Jaydes's love for Luvbi created a new White Pure Heart that also took on Luvbi as a form.
  • Heel Face Turn: Most of the main villains, including Count Bleck, team up to help you stop Dimentio.
  • Heroic Sacrifice/The Power of Love: Done by Count Bleck and Tippi to destroy the Chaos Heart.
  • High-Class Glass: Count Bleck.
  • Hollywood Chameleon: Francis.
  • Hollywood Nerd: Francis again.
  • How Do You Like Them Apples?: The Golden Apple, as well as the Pink, Blue, Yellow, Red, and Black Apples scattered throughout Chapter 7-3.
  • Hub Level: Flipside and Flopside.
  • Humanity Ensues: Nastasia is probably a transformed bat.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Brobots.
  • Hurricane of Puns: Listing all the punny names, events, and other innuendos in this game could take up an entire article on its own.
    • Each and every one of the Sammer Guy's 100-Man Army has a punny name (examples: See Shout-Out), complete with pre- and post-battle text.
  • Hypnotize the Princess: Peach in the beginning of the game, to make her cooperate with being married to Bowser.
  • Adventure Narrator Syndrome: Bowser, when he attempts to climb ladders.
  • Incoming Ham: BLEH HEH HEH! BLECK!
    • Dimentio. "We meet again, like two angry, burly dinosaurs with indigestion!"
  • Inevitable Tournament: The Sammer Kingdom.
  • Inn Between the Worlds: Flipside and Flopside, which are said to exist between dimensions.
  • Innocent Innuendo: A lot of what Squirps says, like wanting to be squeezed and twisted into small spaces and also twice asking the player if they were in love with him (whether it was Mario, Peach, or Bowser didn't matter).
  • In the End You Are on Your Own: Subverted when Mario gets separated from his teammates one by one in Chapter 8, but they come back together to assist him in the final boss fight.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: The Super Star turns the character into a giant 8-bit version of themselves.
  • It Makes Sense in Context: "Look, nobody likes having their butterfly kidnapped by a geek, but it's dangerous!"
  • I Was Quite a Looker: The Hag Sisters.
  • The Jester: Dimentio.
  • Lampshade Hanging: It's more or less at the core of the game's humor.
  • Last of His Kind: Squirps.
  • Leap of Faith: Occasionally appears.
  • Leitmotif:
    • Appropriately enough, the theme of the final boss, Super Dimentio, who is a fusion of Dimentio, the Chaos Heart and Luigi, is a mixture of their individual leitmotifs.
    • Count Bleck's theme undergoes many repeats and variations, forming the backbone of the soundtrack, along with the main fanfare and the "Memory" theme.
  • Living Crashpad: Bowser and O'Chunks were last seen holding up a Descending Ceiling. The camera cuts to Mario and his friends in another room, and we hear the ceiling come down, suggesting Bowser and O'Chunks were crushed. Later, we see Princess Peach and Mimi fall down a hole in the floor, into their apparent doom. Eventually, Bowser and Peach return unscathed during the battle with Count Bleck.

Tippi: You're all here... But how?
Bowser: I fell through the floor before I got flattened by the ceiling.
Peach: I fell through, too, and landed right on Bowser! It was a surprisingly soft landing...

  • Loners Are Freaks: Francis. He gets incredibly nervous once Peach shows up.
  • Lost Aesop: The ending of the game basically said, "Prophecies are meaningless, now let's eat!"
  • Love Freak: Luvbi.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Count Bleck.
  • Love Redeems: See above.
    • For those who don't get it... Count Bleck finally sees the error of his ways, and helps the heroes save the world by restoring power to the Pure Hearts, and then, after Dimentio is defeated, marries his true love, Timpani, to stop the Big Bad's last resort, and undoes the Chaos Heart's damage. Unfortunately, this kills them in the process.
      • Except The Stinger reveals a shot of what appears to be a couple standing in a meadow, one of whom is wearing a top hat, which suggests that it's Count Bleck/Lord Blumiere and Timpani. Whether their location is another world or something else entirely, though, is up for debate.
  • MacGuffin Girl: Luvbi is the white Pure Heart.
    • Also, Tippi could be seen as one of these. If she didn't have amnesia and had just been able to tell people who she was a lot sooner, there's a good chance that none of this would have happened in the first place. Then, when Count Bleck finally DOES find out that Tippi is Timpani, it's enough to make him glad that you beat him in his boss fight, do a Heel Face Turn, and come up with the plan to REALLY save the worlds. Yes, the reason for all the trouble in SPM can be boiled down to the Quest for Identity of an Exposition Fairy.
  • Magikarp Power: Piccolo.
  • Marathon Level: The Pit of 100 Trials.
  • Meaningful Name: Nastasia, which means "She shall rise again". She survives an apparently fatal attack.
    • Especially brilliant, in that most players merely see a play on words between the word "nasty" and the name "Natashia", suggesting that it's just a name for a villain.
    • Also Luvbi (as in "love" - hearts), who transforms into a Pure Heart.
  • Mirror Boss: The boss(es) of the Pit of 100 Trials in Flopside are like this.
  • Mirror World: Flopside is a mirror image of Flipside.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: A canon example: Luvbi is a Pure Heart in the form of a Nimbi.
  • Monster Clown: Dimentio. Heck, he's essentially the Expy of Kefka Palazzo.
  • Mood Whiplash: A lot of the later chapters get dark.
    • Let's see: One world gets sucked into the Void, leaving nothing but a white void left, and in the second part of the Bonus Level of Heaven, the Void actually appears in the background!
      • What's more, the Void grows larger as the game progresses, and if you revisit an older level, you may see the Void in the background when it wasn't visible before. (Revisit World 1-1 after the Void has grown a couple times to see this effect.)
  • Mook Bouncer: The Back Cursya and Gnips.
  • Moon Logic Puzzle: At one point in Chapter 5, you progress to a series of floating blocks. The only way to make the pipe appear to get to the next area is to it the blocks in order in a long, complicated sequence. The only way to know the sequence (without using an external source) is to talk to one of the villagers, whom you have to say please to five times (by repeatedly typing the word "please") before he gives you the very long pattern. Definitely a Guide Dang It for those who don't bother to Talk to Everyone.
  • Mr. Exposition: Merlon.
  • My Greatest Failure: Not explicitly shown, but the Violent Glaswegian O'Chunks used to be a military commander, until a betrayal cost him the lives of all his men.
  • Mythology Gag: The Pal Pills are very similar to a brigade of miniature Marios who briefly appeared in the Super Mario World cartoon episode "Rock TV". They also use the 8-bit Mario sprites, complete with death animation.
    • That's not the only one. These types of gags make up much of the game's humor, to the point where listing all of them would make this page even longer than it already is.
  • Never Say "Die": Whenever death is mentioned, it's referred to as a Game Over. This is actually played for laughs, rather than censorship. At one point, your whole party visits the after life and gets a chance to speak with the dead, all of whom have died in ways you'd expect to die in a Mario game. When your party is ready to leave the after life, they even get a literal continue.
    • Actually, during the Final Boss battle, Dimentio says "dies" when relating to Count Bleck.
    • And the queen of the afterlife says that she has power over life and death. It seems more like the word "life" is simply interchangeable with "game".
    • Interestingly, it seems that the afterlife in the games is laid along the same lines as in Greek Mythology.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Mimi.

Mimi: Stupid-heads... I'd mimicked her perfectly! You know it! ...I guess I'll congratulate you... by tearing you to little bits like stupid confetti!

Mimi: But... But... That explosion didn't even turn you black with soot! That totally didn't even hurt you at all! This stinks!

  • No Sneak Attacks: Averted; at one point, Dimentio DOES appear in Merlon's house as the heroes are delivering the petrified Pure Heart, and, after a brief dialogue, kills them without giving them a chance to fight. However, he only did this to send them to the afterlife so they could get the eighth Pure Heart, as well as to reunite Mario and Luigi, as part of his grand Batman Gambit.
  • Nostalgia Level: A room in chapter 3-1 is identical to level 1-2 from the original Super Mario Bros, complete with warp zone.
  • Not Me This Time: Peach is kidnapped at the beginning. Immediately, Mario and Luigi go to Bowser's castle to rescue her. However, it turns out that Bowser was in the middle of a rallying speech in preparation for invading Peach's castle and did not actually do anything yet.
  • The Not-Secret: Merlon claims that only he and Nolrem know about Flipside and Flopside existing within their own towns. There are a few NPCs who mention the opposite town and mention having been to the opposite town. Also, it's mentioned that Bestovius only teaches his flipping technique to the hero. Several NPCs make reference to going places they can't possibly go without flipping, and many Mooks can flip as well.
  • Number of the Beast: Well, sort of referenced. They used 667 instead of 666 for one of Dorguy's questions referencing the unlucky numbers.

"Shayde B buys 667 pens for 13 coins and buys 108 notebooks for 42 coins each.

  • Oh Crap: More specifically, "OH CRAG!"
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Count Bleck. Until he learns that the love of his life is still alive, that is. Then he becomes more of a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
    • He was actually a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds from the start, as the reason why he even attempted to summon the Chaos Heart in the first place is because the love of his life was believed to have been killed, and spent a lot of time trying to search dimensions for her, never finding her.
  • Ominous Floating Castle: Castle Bleck.
  • Optional Party Member: Barry, Dashell, Piccolo and Tiptron.
  • Overly Long Gag: Super Paper Mario loves these, least of all being the repeated block-hitting and hamster-wheel running in Merlee's Mansion.
    • "Um... Um... Um..."
  • Paper Thin Disguise: No one on Mario's side ever knows who Mr. L really is. Not even Mario himself, who only finds him "familiar".
  • Parental Marriage Veto: Blumiere's father to Timpani and Blumiere. Of the 'she's the wrong race' type. This involved banishing Timpani to the edges of the universe, as well as damn near killing her. Let's just say it didn't turn out well for the father.
  • Party in My Pocket
    • To the point where if a cutscene calls for more than one playable character to be on camera, the others have to appear or disappear Behind the Black. A notable instance takes place during the Overthere Stair level -- in the cutscene where Peach returns to your party, whichever character you are using (Mario, Luigi, or Bowser) feeds her a black apple to wake her up, which tastes disgusting. Her Wild Take knocks the single character off camera, then Mario, Luigi, and Bowser all walk back on camera. After a while of discussion, Luvbi interrupts, and the camera moves to get her in frame, conveniently leaving Mario, Luigi, and Bowser out of the shot again. Peach remains on camera for the rest of the cutscene, and when gameplay returns, Mario, Luigi, and Bowser are no longer standing there -- you're controlling Peach now, but you can switch back to one of the others.
  • Party Scattering: Dimentio sends Mario and gang to the Underwhere, the Mario-verse equivalent of Hades. Mario wakes up alone and has to team up with Luigi before they can escape, then go back and reunite with Bowser and Peach so they can advance the plot.
  • Perky Female Minion: Inverted; Nastasia is gloomy and Count Bleck is perky. Played straight by Mimi.
  • Perspective Magic
  • Pet the Dog: Count Bleck's treatment of his minions.
  • Playable Epilogue
  • The Player Is the Most Important Resource: Played for Laughs; the "Almighty Player Who Watches Over Us" is said to be the only one who will understand the fourth-wall breaking control instructions.
  • Potty Emergency: In Chaper 4-2, Squirps ends up having to go to the restroom, but it was occupied by Fleep the Pixl.
  • Power of Love: The game's main theme.
  • Press Start to Game Over: You can end the game right at the beginning by repeatedly refusing to help Merlon.
  • Product Placement: The recipe computers look like Nintendo DS, and the cards needed to expand their list of suggested recipes resemble DS game cards. One item in the Chain of Deals is also apparently a Nintendo DS.
    • Also, all Nintendo consoles can be seen in Fort Francis. Even the Virtual Boy.
  • Promoted to Unlockable: Bowser.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Mimi, possibly.
  • Punny Name: Every Pixl has one based on their ability - Tippi gives you tips, Thoreau throws things, Boomer blows obstacles and enemies up, and so on.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Your partners are the lady who's typically your Damsel in Distress, the giant monster who's typically your arch-nemesis, and your typical sidekick, who bears a striking resemblance to one of the Big Bad's minions. And you have about a dozen Fairy Companions, all of whom have their own eccentricities from thinking a princess in a pink dress is worth lots of girth to constantly singing in a French accent.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mimi gives on to Peach. Big mistake.
  • Record Needle Scratch: Happens to the music played during Tippi's Flashbacks when she realizes Count Bleck is really her lover, Blumiere, who kills his father in vengeance for banishing Tippi to walk all the worlds until she dies.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Tiptron for Tippi, despite a mild identity crisis on whether she really is Tippi or was created by Francis. Trust me, you will want to buy Tiptron -- still heartbreaking to see the circles at the ends of her antennae, though.
  • Retraux: The Bitlands.
  • Robot Maid: Giant cat robot maids, in fact.
  • Rousing Speech: Debatable, but when Dashell is obtained, he gives quite the rousing speech, including the line "You! Must! Treasure! Life! You've got to! Got to! GOT TO!"
  • RPG Elements: This game is a platformer with RPG elements like attack stats and health. This is the inverse of the other Paper Mario games, which are RPGs with platform elements.
  • Save the Villain: As she begins to fall, Peach grabs Mimi, surprising her into turning good.
  • Saving the World: Or worlds, rather.
  • Scoring Points: Though due to the RPG Elements the score also doubles as an experience system.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: Nolrem, the Flopside counterpart of Merlon.
  • Secret Diary: Dimentio quotes Mimi's and asks if she was dreaming about "pools of gems and hunky pool boys." Mimi turns into Bowser as she yells at Dimentio for reading her diary, in a Continuity Nod to the first Paper Mario.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Blumiere, a.k.a. Count Bleck. To be fair, his dad was a Jerkass (see Parental Marriage Veto above).
  • Sequel Escalation: The previous game merely involved Saving the World; this game has you traveling across dimensions to save the multiverse.
  • Serious Business: It's implied left and right that Francis lost friends over arguments about their favorite shows.
  • Shaped Like Itself: This game gives us the "Dark Dark Boo", a dark version of an already dark enemy.
  • Shipper on Deck: Luvbi spends at least half of her screentime speculating about relationships between the characters.
    • This is arguably an example of Fridge Brilliance, since Luvbi is actually one of the Pure Hearts and would thus be made completely out of love, so it is absolutely logical and perhaps even expected for her to be interested in the love affairs of others.
  • Shout-Out: Tons.
  • Shows Damage: Bonechill and Mimi; the latter looses one of her spider legs every time you damage her enough.
  • Sickening Crunch: Mimi, of course.
  • Sissy Villain: King Croacus IV.
  • The Sociopath: Dimentio.
  • Something Completely Different: Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are both RPGs with turn based combat and other typical RPG elements. Super Paper Mario, on the other hand, features real time combat and is more of an adventure game with several RPG elements. Only time will tell whether another Super Paper Mario game will come and make it its own series.
  • Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying: Averted; no dinosaurs were present in chapter five, only large mammoth-like enemies.
  • Sorry I'm Late: Midway through the battle against Count Bleck, Mario is joined by Peach, Bowser, and Luigi.
  • Spider Limbs: Mimi.
  • Spoiler Title: Once you enter the second segment of Chapter 6 and see that it's titled "The End of a World", you know what's coming.
  • Stalked by the Bell: Mimi on level 2-4 and the game's Pit of 100 trial levels.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Count Bleck and Tippi, on account of the Parental Marriage Veto.
  • The Starscream: Dimentio actually usurps the throne at the end of the game.
  • Storybook Opening
  • Straw Fan: Francis is the absolute epitome of this trope.
  • Stupidity Is the Only Option: In 2-3, you wind up having to pay off a 1,000,000 Rubee debt for breaking Mimi's vase at the very beginning of the level. You could just ignore the vase, thus never bringing up the debt in the first place... but the game won't let you leave the area this way, so you have no choice but to break it.[2]
    • And another when Mimi!Merlon makes you hit a block, opening a pit beneath you that you fall into, despite her dialogue heavily hinting that something is amiss.
      • No way is this not deliberate though. If you refuse enough times, she even lampshades it, explaining how event flags work and how you need to fall for the trap to progress the game.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: Unlike the previous games.
    • Except for a small pool of polluted water in the Cromag village.Which foreshadows the true motive behind the Floro Sapiens' invasion
  • Super Speed: The secret pixl, Dashell, allows your character to run much faster. Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach can be seen to outrun a sound wave without Dashell, though Bowser is just barely slower.
  • Surprise Creepy: Especially if you're coming from one of the other games in the series.
  • Take That: "I love going on message boards and complaining about games I've never played!"
    • More like Francis himself. They even parody the fact that the Internet itself is a cat-person with Fort Francis being full of cats (Either that or parodying Catgirls).
    • Rumor has it that review copies of the game replaced this with something to the effect of, "I will give a game a lower score because I think my readers won't like it." This is a dig at GameInformer's review of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.
    • A Sammer Guy deep within the Duel of 100 is a dig against Real Is Brown.
  • Talks Like a Simile: Dimentio. His talent for weird similes that still somehow make sense is rivaled only by his prowess in dimensional magic.

"And so I arrive, like a sudden windstorm at a kindergarten picnic!"

  • Ted Baxter: Flint Cragley.
  • That Man Is Dead: Subverted; Count Bleck gives this speech, but ends up turning good at the end all the same.
  • Theme Naming: Fracktail and Wracktail.
  • Theme Song Reveal: There's a clever one hidden rather well: Count Bleck's theme is the "Memory" theme played in ragtime and transposed to a different key.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Very possible to pull off. The basic Goomba has one single hit point. There is an item that temporarily doubles your attack. There is a Pixl that doubles your attack with a butt-stomp. There is a card that globally doubles your attack. By leveling up and obtaining certain power-ups, you can reach a maximum of 198 attack for Bowser (the other characters cap at 99). Finally, you can hold a maximum of 99 cards of an enemy, and each card multiplies the damage you deal to it. So in conclusion, with the maximum circumstances, you can give a poor weak Goomba a total damage of 2 x 2 x 2 x 198 x 100 (99 cards = 100x damage). This sums up to a brutal 158,400 points of damage.
  • Third Person Person: ...said Count Bleck!
    • He is probably reading his own dialogue from the Dark Prognosticus, so this is justified. Or it's just a Verbal Tic.
    • Squirps and most of the Cragnons also do this.
  • Throwaway Country: Sammer's Kingdom.
  • To Hell and Back:
    • Your whole party is seemingly given a Game Over, and end up in The Underwhere. Luckily, the Queen is pretty friendly and gives you a Continue when it's revealed that you aren't really dead and shouldn't be there.
    • And then the door to Chapter 7 brings you right BACK into the Underwhere, because that's where the final Pure Heart is located. And then you get back. So it's a double dose of this trope in the same game. Although the second trip was via dimension-hopping both ways, not death.
  • Treacherous Spirit Chase: In the final chapter, Mimi appears before you disguised as Merlon and Merlee, both of which are so ridiculously obvious that if you keep talking to her, she'll lampshade the Stupidity Is the Only Option of this situation, as Mario falling for her extremely obvious trap is the only way to progress.
  • True Companions: Perversely enough, Count Bleck and his henchmen.
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Dark Prognosticus.
  • Tomes of Prophecy and Fate: The Dark Prognosticus and the Light Prognosticus.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Peach.
  • Totally Radical: The Floro Sapiens, once you get to know 'em. Their hippy-like speech patterns may be a bit of a Stealth Pun - they're flower children!
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change: Besides the Unexpected Shmup Level, there's the Underchomp battle, which plays like a Dragon Warrior battle.
  • Unexpected Shmup Level: Outer Space has sections like this, such as the Brobot boss battle.
  • The Unfought: Nastasia.
  • Unlimited Wardrobe: Mimi, in one of the few video game examples of this trope.
    • She's a Shape Shifter, though.
  • Unwinnable by Design: Early in the game, when asked to help out, you can ignore it, by choosing the "No" option three times. You'll get a game over, and since there hasn't been a Save Point yet, have to start over at the very beginning. Before you even take control of Mario.
  • Vague Age: Mimi.
  • Verbal Tic: ...said Count Bleck!
    • Nastasia has one too, 'k?
    • Don't forget Squirps! SQUIIIIIIRP!!!
    • There's also the Crags, brah.
    • Flint Cragley should be here too, Cragley ho!
    • Francis thinks that TV Tropes is hi-technicaaaaaaaaaaal, NERR!
    • Don't forget Old Man Watchitt, WATCH IT!
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: "A bump from a poor, defenseless Whacka. Restores 30 HP and cures poison. ...How do you sleep at night?"
    • Hit the Whacka eight times, and he dies for good. By the way, he was the Last of His Kind.
      • Not exactly. Maybe in the Paper Mario series, but about a million of them appear in Mario Party 6 on the snowflake place.
      • Afterwards you can find a woman in his place waiting for him. She figures out he's gone and cries "Bring back my Whackaaaaaa". As if you needed to feel even worse.
    • And if you talk to him in between the whacks leading up, he apparently becomes more and more incoherent and confused. So not only do you kill him, but you give him brain damage leading up to it as well.
      • Try reading all this dialogue, I guarantee you will feel like a monster, the poor thing loses its sense of self. Damn you recipes...
    • Do you know what? You don't even NEED to whack Whacka at all in Super Paper Mario. Do you know why? Because you can buy Whacka Bumps in the Flipside Arcade.
  • Villainous BSOD
    • When the Pure Hearts depower Dimentio allowing you to defeat him.
    • Before that, Count Bleck goes into a mild one after getting overthrown by Dimentio.
  • Villainous Harlequin: Dimentio, of course.
  • Villain Teleportation: Done repeatedly. Dimentio and Bleck even have the nerve to do it during battle!
  • Violent Glaswegian: O'Chunks.
  • Visual Pun: At one point, you have to feed Peach the correct apple to wake her up. One of the incorrect ones turns her into a literal peach.
  • Voice for The Voiceless: Tippi is this for Mario.
  • We Can Rule Together: Dimentio does this. You can accept for a Nonstandard Game Over.
  • Wedding Day: The game opens with Peach being forcibly wed to Bowser. Amusingly, he insists on referring to himself as her husband for the rest of the game, and even sort of acts like it, lending credence to the theory that he's in love with her.
    • When Bowser sacrifices himself in Count Bleck's castle, Peach turns around to look at him one more time before she goes. It may not just be Bowser.
  • Wham! Episode: A twofer in Sammer's Kingdom succumbing to the void, making the Pure Heart useless, followed by Dimentio sending the party to the Underwhere.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Chapter 7 is full of it, such as the forbidden apple that brings trouble when eaten, the chapter boss being a former Nimbi who was exiled to the Underwhere, the Nimbis' battle with the Skellobits, and the fact that the daughter of a seemingly deistic figure sacrifices herself to save the universe.
    • In Sammer's Kingdom, you might notice lycoris flowers growing along the path. In legends, they're often believed to grow when people who meet shall never see each other again. Pretty epic foreshadowing for The End of the World as We Know It.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: In Chapter 1, Tippi instantly recognizes Dimentio when they first meet him. How Tippi knew him or why she recognized him was never explained or mentioned again afterward.
  • Where I Was Born and Razed: It is implied that, after the heartbreak of Blumiere/Count Bleck's love, Timpani/Tippi, being exiled to multiple dimensions by his father and presumably killed, that Blumiere ended up wiping out his race, the Tribe of Darkness.
  • White Void Room: Sammer's Kingdom becomes a blank white expanse after being consumed by the void, only leaving behind small bits of debris.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: Chapter 7 is the Divine Comedy.
  • Wicked Cultured: Dimentio
  • Wild Teen Party: It is implied that the remaining unbrainwashed members of the Koopa Troop intended to throw one of these while guarding Bowser's fort in the Bitlands when he joins Mario and Peach.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Count Bleck. Hoo boy.
  • Word Salad Title: Parodied with Francis's manga collection: Android Love Patrol.
  • Wutai: Sammer's Kingdom. Which is completely wiped off the map by the BigBad.
  • Wrong Side of the Tracks: Flopside is like a run-down, depressing version of Flipside.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: The Nimbis speaketh this way.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Dimentio, to Mr. L. This serves the secondary purpose of allowing Luigi to join the heroes.
    • He does it again later - and to Count Bleck, no less.
  • Your Makeup Is Running: Mimi taunts Peach this way right before their duel. As if she needed more of a reason to tick her off...
  • Your Soul Is Mine: Catch Cards capture an enemy's soul and turn them into Cards. The more Cards one has of a species, the more power Mario (and the other heroes) have in their attacks on them. This includes Koopas and other creatures we know are fully sentient. What the Hell, Mario?
    • Making it worse is the fact that many players use capture cards to make huge fortunes by capturing vast numbers of Amazee Dayzees with them, which are also fully sentient. It's no wonder that the species is so rare, You Monster!
  1. ↑ She basically spins her head like in The Exorcist, only instead of turning around sideways, her head turns vertically.
  2. ↑ Slightly justified in that, without going through the level, you wouldn't be able to get Slim, who is needed for the rest of the game.
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