The Gamers with Glasses Show, Episode 30: A Bloodthirsty Man with a Beautiful Mustache

It’s the Paper Mario episode! Mario has a glorious mustache, but he’s bad news when he comes to town. The Paper Mario series is the thing to play if you want to experience the everyday lives of the many Mario characters and, maybe especially in The Thousand-Year Door’s case, if you want to meet a lot more. The idea of character, at all, isn’t as present in the other games for the plumber, and it does a lot for this one. Bowser is a sensitive boy, Peach is a super spy, and Mario is so disgustingly talented that he can both stomp heads and solve mysteries. It even turns out that there are non-stomping ways to socialize in the Mushroom Kingdom. Why play Paper Mario TTYD in 2024? Because it’s a great game with a unique understanding of Mario and company, and because, whether it was a cash grab by Nintendo or not, it’s easier to play it now on the Switch than it has been to play it in the last 10 years. Don is microdosing Mario; Edcel’s GameCube is Nintendo’s most portable console; Luis can understand why Bowser hates this guy.