Paper Mario: Star Nova

What's new

Star Nova is not a remix of the original adventure but a new story built on the Paper Mario engine. Mario ends up in Stellaria, a holy kingdom full of secrets, and the mod gives it:

• several new chapters with their own plot and lore;
• a whole new world map, starting from the capital, Star Port;
• new characters and new partners to recruit;
• new enemies and boss fights;
• more than 70 new Star Pieces to hunt for.

The creator states that no generative AI was used to make it.

Playing it

The mod is applied to your own copy of Paper Mario following the instructions on NicTube's itch.io page. The author recommends the Parallel Launcher emulator; Project64 and the Wii U Virtual Console also work but run less smoothly, and flash carts such as the EverDrive are not supported. Bugs can be reported on the project's Discord, which is linked from the page.

One known quirk in version 1.3.0: pressing down during the opening can make the game end in a game over once Mario enters the pipe, and that save slot then never gets past the intro, so start the intro without touching the stick or use a fresh slot.

All credit goes to NicTube.