IGN's Matt Casamassina praised the game's accessibility, commenting that "it serves as the perfect introductory game to any person hoping to explore the genre". Nonetheless, other reviewers complained about the "brain-dead easy" puzzles and bosses requiring "basic strategy at best". The game's nostalgic value was lauded, with reviewers noting the sense of familiarity with the "Mario" series present in the game's settings and characters. The game has often been compared to the previous Mario RPG title, "Super Mario RPG". Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell judged that ""Paper Mario" is a vastly superior game to "SMRPG"", while IGN compared the game's simple plot unfavourably with the SNES game and RPGFan claimed that some of "Paper Mario"s story was copied from it. RPGFan also questioned the name of "Paper Mario", as there were, in their opinion, insufficient gameplay features or aspects which used the paper theme to justify the name.