However, 2004's Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door surpassed its predecessor in nearly every way.

The fun, papercraft diorama look of Paper Mario has arguably aged better than anything else on the console, and its combat that pushed Super Mario RPG's action command system solidified a formula still replicated by AAA and indie games. The N64 era saw many franchises dipping their toes into 3D for the first time, but while many games like Super Mario 64 created a then-groundbreaking look for the titular plumber mascot, Paper Mario tried a more unique art style. Released in 2000 as a follow-up to Square's Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the first Paper Mario is a somewhat revolutionary game. RELATED: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Game Drip-Feed Needs to Get Better Paper Mario's Contentious History

However, including the original Paper Mario at all is a potentially good sign for fans of the RPG series going forward. It isn't clear how long it will take for the extra N64 games to arrive, and they likely won't become available all at once. NSO is rather notorious for how slow its drip-feed can be, only adding a handful of NES and SNES titles every few weeks - thus far not including some highly requested cult-classics like Earthbound. For N64, classics such as Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, and Ocarina of Time will be available at launch, and Nintendo confirmed more including Pokemon Snap, Banjo-Kazooie, and Paper Mario will arrive later.

During the September 2021 Nintendo Direct, the company announced a more expensive 'Expansion Pack' for subscribers to access libraries of Nintendo 64 (N64) and Sega Genesis games. The Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) service has long used a steady drip-feed of NES and SNES games to incentivize subscribers.

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