Nintendo 64 ad: Paper Mario cutout

This here is a clever Nintendo 64 ad. Paper Mario came out at a very weird time for the time it came out. It was released in 2000, toward the end of the N64’s lifespan, and is quite arguably the best RPG for a system that little to no RPGs at all. It was a game which had all of its characters made out of paper, which turned the entire idea of making the N64 a 3D-based console on its head. The characters were 2D, but interacted with a 3D environment, and this was its selling point in most advertisements including this one, the Paper Mario cutout ad.

The Paper Mario cutout ad

The ad is so bare-bones, it’s almost not even worth making a proper transcript of it. The main body of text reads “Free Demo” and that’s it. The Mario image to the left shows a Paper Mario cutout which is literally a cutout. It has the dotted scissor line around it indicating that it’s meant to be cut out. I’m not going to explain the obvious joke because that would be insulting to your intelligence, just connect the dots.

The bottom of the ad reads “Mario’s back with a paper-thin look in his own RPG adventure. This time he’s got new sidekicks and over 200 badges and items for new abilities and attacks. Which means he may be paper, but he ain’t no lightweight.” I almost skipped this bit because it looked like the fine print of the ad, but it turns out that the fine print was located on the top left of the Paper Mario cutout ad.The right column of the ad then goes to show screenshots from the game. Nothing too remarkable so I’ll just leave it at that.

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