Paper Mario or Pokemon - which series has been better recently?

[Ramsay]

Both modern Paper Mario and modern Pokemon haven't exactly had the best reputation here on Era - though which of the two series have been better recently (and why)?

• Modern Paper Mario refers to Sticker Star and Color Splash.
• Modern Pokemon refers to X and Y, Sun and Moon (and their Ultra versions) and Sword and Shield. Remakes do not count.

Bonus question: Since this poll's gotten very one-sided, here's another question: which of the two series would be better if Sticker Star did not exist (i.e. if the only Paper Mario game released since Super was Color Splash)

 

[MrConbon210]

Pokemon has been putting forth very little effort but at least their games are build upon the previous one with QoL improvements. Paper Mario seems to take out all the RPG mechanics causing the game to have little depth.

 

[Etrian Darkness]

I mean modern Pokemon is awful but that's not fair it still wins. At least Pokemon is still an RPG.

And remakes should count because ORAS wasn't that great.

 

[Reyes]

Pokemon is still great competitively as Dynamaxing is a plus & still an RPG with great designs while paper Mario has lost the RPGs where battles are discouraged and has no great designs

 

[Cess007]

Damn, those options really makes it really hard to pick. Neither has been good in a long, long time.

I guess Pokemon are at least fun for a couple of hours before tedium sets in.

 

[Belthazar90]

God... it's hard to find anything good in the titles you provided. I guess Pokémon since XY are okay.

 

[Big Yoshi]

SUMO are good games.
Difference between the two is paper mario changed too much while pokemon doesnt change at all. Even a real bad pokemon game like sword/shield still has the pokemon gameplay, which is really fucking good.

 

[coolcam52]

The core of Pokémon is still great and intact, modern Paper Mario is fundamentally bad

 

[ItIsOkBro]

welp, looks like ya got me to say something positive about pokemon

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

both are currently terrible.

 

[perfectchaos007]

I'm not sure but the poll options just make me frustrated and angry

 

[GarudaSmiles]

I'll reserve judgement until I play Origami King. I'm not impressed by either series recent outings.

 

[SJUG]

I liked Sun/Moon and SWSH is ok
Other than the online (PSS was great) and pokemon themselves, X/Y are really boring games that failed to leave any impact on me.

Haven't played Color Splash and I'm not interested in Origami King.

 

[Wariobenotware]

Modern Paper Mario is nearly unplayable. That's how bad it is.

 

[Khanimus]

All anyone says over about Paper Mario for the past decade is how disappointing it's been.

 

[Lusamine]

This is the Era quality content, shitting on games for the hell of it.

 

[MrConbon210]

This is the Era quality content, shitting on games for the hell of it.

Click to shrink...

? Are we not allowed to discuss two franchises that have both been poorly received in recent years?

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

Moon > XY > Let's Go > Sword

 

[jdh96]

Should have a third poll option as the true answer is neither, as both continue to downward spiral into a shell of their former selves.

 

[Mr. Genuine]

I don't play either series but I voted for Paper Mario.

 

[Strings]

I mean Pokemon, just because they've stuck to a formula that works, even though it feels like they're getting worse at executing it.

I struggle to think of anything I'd put Paper Mario over.

 

[Ramsay]

X/Y>Color Splash>Sword/Shield>Sun/Moon>Sticker Star

X and Y are at least passable, so Pokemon wins by default.

 

[Anti]

Did you mean to ask which one is less disappointing?

 

[jdh96]

Did you mean to ask which one is less disappointing?

Click to shrink...

if that was the case I'd say Paper Mario it as least looks great graphically comapred to Sword/Shield.

 

[GJ]

Color Splash
Sun/Moon
Sword/Shield
X/Y
Sticker Star

In that order. Maybe switch SwSh with XY, but I really don't like XY and I had more fun with SwSh. This poll isn't really fair since there aren't a lot of Nintendo games that are as bad as Sticker Star, lol. Color Splash is a great game. It's just not an RPG anymore, but it looks amazing, it's very charming, the writing is great. Play it if you haven't. Origami King is shaping up to be the best of all of these games though.

 

[Giga Man]

Pokemon, easily. They're still competently designed and fun games. Sticker Star and Color Splash are spectacle over function, and the function is complete ass.

 

[EloNoolah]

I honestly can't really decide because we're in a situation where Pokémon has remained true to the formula and gameplay that made it popular despite the quality of the individual games, while Paper Mario has done a complete 180° from the elements that made the series popular in the first place but I can't in good faith argue that those games are "poorly made" outside of some of the most harebrained puzzle/battle solutions that showed up in Sticker Star.

I thought SM/USUM were great and the best translation of traditional Pokémon gameplay to 3D we've ever had, which makes it even more disappointing that SwSh seem so... amateurish by comparison.

Paper Mario on the other hand has never felt as "low quality" (by Nintendo standards) to me as stuff like the Gen 6 and 8 Pokémon games and I actually really enjoyed Color Splash for what it was, but it just has always sucked to me that that series entirely changed direction to something so completely removed from the gameplay that made it popular enough to warrant sequels to begin with.

I've honestly never understood why the Sticker Star "puzzle adventure" style had to become the new norm for the series when it ended up being so poorly received, especially when the other big stylistic shift we got in SPM has remained a complete one-off. To me it's comparable to if something like Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble or Canvas Curse had just suddenly become the direction for the entire rest of the series and HAL had never made a traditional Kirby platformer ever again. Just really bizarre all around.

 

[Pokemaniac]

As disappointing as the current state of Pokémon is, it's nothing compared to what's happened to Paper Mario.

 

[GamerJM]

Modern Pokemon easily. The core mechanics of Pokemon are still absolutely excellent, it's just the game around them that's lacking in a lot of ways. Modern Paper Mario has poor mechanics and a mediocre game design surrounding it. Game Freak has spent the past 25 years perfecting the Pokemon battle system, Paper Mario threw theirs out for gimmicky nonsense. Can you imagine if the next mainline Pokemon game was suddenly about Pokemon cards, where the player didn't have XP, and you had to build a constantly revolving deck because cards expired? That's basically what the last Paper Mario game did.

Sun/Moon > X/Y > Sw/Sh >>>>> Color Splash >> Sticker Star, though there's honestly a decently big gap between all of those

 

[Reyes]

NM read poll wrong

 

[Foffy]

People are upset with Pokemon because it seems like they're not taking advantage of being the largest media franchise on earth.

People are upset with Paper Mario games because they have little of the charm the first few titles did. People argue if they're even the same kind of games beyond art style.

 

[halcali]

PKMN has regressed the furthest, I feel.

But it's still better than the recent Paper Mario outings.

 

[ItchyTasty]

They suffer from two different problems

Pokémon hasn't changed meaningfully since it's inception while Paper Mario changed so much from what fans want that it's almost a different series.

I'll give them the Origami King to change my mind, but at least I know what I'm getting with a Pokémon game so I'll have to say Pokémon.

 

[cw_sasuke]

This is the Era quality content, shitting on games for the hell of it.

Click to shrink...

Yes.

? Are we not allowed to discuss two franchises that have both been poorly received in recent years?

Click to shrink...

Completly different kind of games with completly different rel ase schedules.

The fact that you think that Sun/Moon or Sh/Sw are poorly received considering it sales and critical reception just tells me that you need to leave your bubble at some point for some air xD

In the real world people have other expectations for a children RPG series.

 

[jdh96]

Yes.

Completly different kind of games with completly different rel ase schedules.

The fact that you think that Sun/Moon or Sh/Sw are poorly received considering it sales and critical reception just tells me that you need to leave your bubble at some point for some air xD

In the real world people have other expectations for a children RPG series.

Click to shrink...

Ah yes, the "children" excuse like we haven't heard that a thousand times already.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Ah yes, the "children" excuse like we haven't heard that a thousand times already.

Click to shrink...

It's not an excuse, it's a fact.
But go on.....

 

[Pokemaniac]

People are upset with Pokemon because it seems like they're not taking advantage of being the largest media franchise on earth.

People are upset with Paper Mario games because they have little of the charm the first few titles did. People argue if they're even the same kind of games beyond art style.

Click to shrink...

The modern Paper Marios don't even really have the same art style. It used to be more of a pop-up book type thing, but Sticker Star switched it to be more papercraft based.

 

[Deleted member 40179]

I never played Paper Mario so that's probably saying something if they couldn't sell to someone who's played every 2d and 3d MARIO platformer and a few Sports and spin offs. I'm just as much as a Mario fan as I am Pokemon but Paper Mario is kinda like the Pokémon TCG for me. Only the truly dedicated Pokémon fans will overlook a somewhat inferior TCG when compared to Yugioh or Hearthstone, likewise I imagine the same applies to Paper Mario, there are simply too many better RPGs out there at the moment.

Pokemon as a creature collecting RPG is untouchable, TemTem was a bust and Digimon or Ni No Kuni just don't hit the right spots. I enjoyed Sun/Moon, Let's Go, and Sword/Shield immensely. In fact I think I liked all three better than Diamond/Pearl, Black/White,X/Y, and OR/AS. We truly are in the midsts of the Golden Age of Pokémon, despite what Dexit says. Before Dexit Pokemon teams had to rely on a few old and reliable Pokémon meaning there was gradual change between generations but now we're forced to switch up our strategies and try Pokemon which used to be outclassed.

 

[jdh96]

It's not an excuse, it's a fact.
But go on.....

Click to shrink...

Just because the franchise targets kid's doesn't excuse the quality of recent titles which, is lacking.

 

[Mory Dunz]

oof

 

[Giga Man]

oof

Click to shrink...

 

[EllipsisBreak]

I'm not a fan of the direction Pokemon has been going. But against Sticker Star, it's not even a contest. Pokemon is better and it's not close.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Just because the franchise targets kid's doesn't excuse the quality of recent titles which, is lacking.

Click to shrink...

That's a personal opinion. I enjoyed Sword quite a lot.

Reviews and sales say something else as well. It's okay to have high expectations in a bubble that are constantly being reinforced if you visit the same places online, we all fall victim to that.

Acting like this is the general reception to these games and series is ridiculous though. So i might suggest to take a couple steps back from the situation and reassess the the statement.

 

[Strings]

I never played Paper Mario so that's probably saying something if they couldn't sell to someone who's played every 2d and 3d MARIO platformer and a few Sports and spin offs. I'm just as much as a Mario fan as I am Pokemon but Paper Mario is kinda like the Pokémon TCG for me. Only the truly dedicated Pokémon fans will overlook a somewhat inferior TCG when compared to Yugioh or Hearthstone, likewise I imagine the same applies to Paper Mario, there are simply too many better RPGs out there at the moment.

Click to shrink...

Basically, that assumption was wrong. Mario RPGs were extremely high quality until the 3DS era where both Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi torpedoed (well, Dream Team was still a pretty good game, but Paper Jam :/ ... ).

 

[Fuchsia]

Not a huge fan of how Pokemon has been going lately. Just feel like their resting on their laurels.

Paper Mario on the other hand has actually been regressing for my tastes.

 

[Lotus]

Paper Mario hasn't been good in a long ass time, so I'll pick that anyday

 

[Deleted member 4532]

I mean, I think SM and SwSh are good just not on par with the DS era

 

[Crayolan]

At least Pokemon is still mechanically sound and continues to introduce strong, varied designs.

 

[Toxi]

Sticker Star automatically disqualifies Paper Mario.

But modern Pokémon hurts more for me. Pokémon Red was my first video game. I miss the feeling of getting excited by Pokémon.

 

[NioA]

Haven't played Sw/Sh, but I had a good time with both Pokémon X and Ultramoon, while Sticker STar was rather boring and Color Splash was so bad... It was the first Nintendo game I haven't finished.