Paper Mario
- This article is about the stage. For other uses, seePaper Mario (disambiguation).
| Paper Mario Paper Mario | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
   Paper Mario in its Hither Thither Hill form. | |||||||
| Universe | Mario | ||||||
| Appears in | SSB4 (3DS) Ultimate | ||||||
| Availability | Starter | ||||||
| Crate type | Presents | ||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| Articles on Super Mario Wiki | Hither Thither Hill S.S. Flavion | ||||||
Paper Mario (ペーパーマリオ,Paper Mario) is astage inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS andSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Stage overview[edit]
The stage is based on three areas from thePaper Mario series. The layout shifts between the three in a pop-up book style, with each transition being accompanied by a rising or falling xylophone sound effect.
The starting variation is based onHither Thither Hill fromPaper Mario: Sticker Star. It features a windmill that will spin under a heavy player's weight and a Warp Pipe that pushes into the air anyone that stands on it (Smash 4 only). Near the end of this variation, theFanThing appears in the background and generates strongwind which blows away several stage elements and pushes fighters to the right of the stage. When the stage transitions from this form, the cloud going up will KO anyone on it.
The second variation is based on theS.S. Flavion, a ship fromPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The ship may be accompanied by a giantBlooper, a recurring boss in the series: it can form waves in the water that can rock the boat and carry players. Another possible occurrence is the appearance of the Whale from the originalPaper Mario, which raises the ship with water spouting from his blowhole. This stops the ship's rocking and carries it closer to the upperblast line.
A giant pop-up book appears in the background, and from it emerges the last variation:Bowser's Sky Castle fromPaper Mario: Sticker Star, which features a large bust of Bowser's head plus two floating platforms (modeled color-wise after theKoopa Clown Car) that move up and down on either side. The head's eyes will occasionally glow to denote what it does next: Red means it will start spinning, making it hard to stand on, and white precedes the head's jaw clamping shut, which deals moderate damage and knockback to anyone inside it.
The edges on Bowser's head cannot be grabbed, potentially causing KOs when it spins.
After a while, the castle retreats into the closing book as the stage switches back to Hither Thither Hill and the cycle repeats. During this brief transition, the stage temporarily gains a walkoff surface on the right side; a few seconds later, it will sink into the lower blast line.
Ω forms and Battlefield form[edit]
InSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, theΩ form takes place on a completely flat version of the Hither Thither Hill part of the stage that extends below theblast line. The stage also does not transform.
InSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Ω form andBattlefield form are set on a slightly redesigned version ofSSB4's Ω form; however, the main platform no longer extends below the blast line and is resized and reshaped to matchBattlefield. The windmill is also absent in the background. The threesoft platforms of the Battlefield form resemble the platform attached to the hanging cloud in the Hither Thither Hill phase of the normal stage.
Ω form inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
Ω form inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Battlefield form inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Hazards Off[edit]
With hazards off inUltimate, the stage will stay in the Hither Thither Hill phase for the duration of the match. The fan does not appear or cause wind. The windmill blades will still tilt if players stand on them, and the cloud platform still sways back and forth.
If thePaper Mario Medley is selected as the song, it will only play the Hither Thither Hill portion.
Origin[edit]
Hither Thither Hill comes fromPaper Mario: Sticker Star. In that game, Mario had to use the Fan sticker to access the windmill, since the blades were blocking its entrance (oddly, the windmill blades no longer reach far enough to block the entrance inSmash). When he used the sticker, a cutscene played where several nearby obstacles, including the windmill's blades, were blown away. When used in battle, the Fan sticker would blow all enemies around.
TheS.S. Flavion appeared inPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, where it was the ship ofFlavio. DuringChapter 5, Mario and his party had to use it to sail toKeelhaul Key. After several days of sailing, they were ambushed by severalEmbers. The ship wrecked on Keelhaul Key, and its scraps were used to set up camp on the island.
An enemy from the originalSuper Mario Bros., largeBloopers are recurring bosses in thePaper Mario series, most notably in the first three (Paper Mario: Sticker Star andPaper Mario: The Origami King featureGooper Blooper fromSuper Mario Sunshine instead). The specificBlooper in the second segment bears a strong resemblance to the one fought inThe Thousand-Year Door.
TheWhale fromPaper Mario, who took Mario and his party toLavalava Island, makes an appearance in the second segment, using its water spout to lift the S.S. Flavion a notable distance above the water. The sunset background used in this section is the same one fromRiverside Station inChapter 6 ofThe Thousand-Year Door.
While having Bowser's Castle in the air is a reoccurring element of thePaper Mario series (dating back to the originalPaper Mario), the third section is specifically inspired byBowser's Sky Castle fromPaper Mario: Sticker Star. After the floating castle retreats fromGate Cliff, Mario andKersti face off against Bowser in the final fight for the lastRoyal Sticker. The spinning, clamping, and changing eye color of the Bowser head are exclusive to the stage'sSmash iteration; inPaper Mario: Sticker Star, it merely functions as the entrance into the castle.
InUltimate, the overall artstyle for the stage is brighter and more influenced by the realistic cardboard-crafted designs ofPaper Mario: Color Splash. As an example, the path and sorrounding grassy terrain in the Hither Thither Hill phase of the stage are almost identical to the terrain found in the forest levels Mario andHuey traverse while on their quest to recover the Big Paint Stars, such as Mondo Woods and Sacred Forest.
Gallery[edit]
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS[edit]
The Hither Thither Hill section inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
The S.S. Flavion section inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]
The Hither Thither Hill section inUltimate.
The S.S. Flavion section inUltimate.
Incineroar, threePikachu, and twoPichu on the stage.
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
 Japanese | ペーパーマリオ,Paper Mario | — |
 English | Paper Mario | — |
 French | Paper Mario | — |
 German | Paper Mario | — |
 Spanish | Paper Mario | — |
 Italian | Paper Mario | — |
 Chinese (Simplified) | 纸片马力欧 | Paper Mario |
 Chinese (Traditional) | 紙片瑪利歐 | Paper Mario |
 Korean | 페이퍼 마리오,Paper Mario | — |
 Dutch | Paper Mario | — |
 Russian | Бумажный Марио | Paper Mario |
 Portuguese | Paper Mario | — |
Trivia[edit]
- InUltimate, if the stage transitions back to the beginning while the speed is set to 1/4 inTraining Mode, after a few seconds the background will vanish, exposing the void. The void quickly becomes a bright white light due to the game's renderernot clearing the framebuffer, causing anything in front of the void to be rendered multiple times, making that area bright enough forbloom to occur, leading to recursive bloom. The bloom effect becomes strong enough that it starts to mask characters in front of it.
- Fittingly, the only thing that can consistently block out the white light behind it is theBlack Hole item, which will appear to absorb the light in the area around it.
- If the game is set to frame advance and frozen, it can be seen that the void for this stage is indigo.
- Paper Mario andPac-Maze are the only non-DLC stages inSuper Smash Bros. for 3DS from universes with a playable character to not appear inAll-Star Mode.
- Interestingly, in the SSB4 Ω form of the stage, it appears there is a small gap underneath the stage where a fighter could go, but in fact the stage's collision box goes all the way to the blast line. This is most noticeable when using a wall-cling capable character, as it can appear they are clinging to air.
- InUltimate, the followingAssist Trophies can only appear on the Battlefield and Omega forms of this stage: theMoon,Nightmare,Andross,Ashley,Kapp'n,Devil,Dr. Wright, and theSquid Sisters. Additionally, the followingPoké Ball Pokémon can only be summoned on the stage's Battlefield and Omega forms:Lugia,Palkia,Lunala andMarshadow.
- The Hither Thither Hill segment is the only one out of the three whose corresponding song inPaper Mario Medley is accurate to the source material; while "Blue Skies, White Clouds" played in the level inPaper Mario: Sticker Star, and is reflected properly inSmash, the S.S. Flavion segment uses theRogueport theme, and the Bowser's Sky Castle segment uses the "Battleship" theme, which played inBowser Jr.'s Flotilla (which may be justified due to the fact that the entrance to the castle, of which the stage inSmash is based on, is devoid of any music at all).
