List of Mario role-playing games

The "Mario" franchise, which originated as a series of platform games, has inspired a variety of role-playing video games released on multiple Nintendo video game consoles. All games feature Mario as the protagonist, who is often accompanied by one or more playable characters, with the goal of defeating the main antagonist, primarily Bowser. The first role-playing game in the franchise, "Super Mario RPG" (1996), was developed by Square for the Super NES. The two primary sub-series, "Paper Mario" and "Mario & Luigi", follow conventions established in the original game. Nintendo later released "Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle", a crossover game with "Raving Rabbids", for the Nintendo Switch in 2017.
The "Paper Mario" series is developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo, the first game being "Paper Mario" which was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. The original Paper Mario games are role-playing games, though installments in the series since "" also incorporate action-adventure elements. The series has received positive reviews, being praised for its paper-inspired aesthetic, writing, and characters, but changes to gameplay, such as in combat, received mixed reception.
The "Mario & Luigi" series was developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo, the first game being ' for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. The Nintendo 3DS remake of ' was AlphaDream's final game before declaring bankruptcy in 2019. Three months after the declaration, however, Nintendo filed a trademark for the series in Argentina. The series had generally received critical acclaim, being praised for their writing, gameplay, and graphics, with some criticism for lack of innovation.