2-D Tussle! – Paper Mario vs. Mr. Game & Watch

: Alright, our fighters are ready.

Catch the Prelude Here: 2-D Tussle! – PRELUDE

: Which of these 2-dimensional denizens will overcome the other?

: Let’s find out in the Clash! Dibs on Mr. Game & Watch by the way, I grew up with those classic handhelds after all.

: Alright, I’m a bit new to Paper Mario’s skill set, so here’s hoping things go well for me.

***

Location: Peach’s Castle, 11:30 am

Denizens from across the world fill into the Mushroom Kingdom in droves. Visitors from Delfino Island such as Piantas and Nokis and even from Bowser’s own kingdom such as Goombas and Koopas alike join together for the festivities. Paper lanterns decorate the streets and a constant confetti snowfall rains over everyone. Vendors with rare delicacies from their hometown are abundant in numbers and entertainers in high supply for the many hungry bellies and eyes.

It is the illustrious G&W Festival! Celebrating the enigmatic entity known only as Game & Watch, the festival is meant to give recognition and respect to the father of handhelds. Once one passes through the jovial streets, Princess Peach’s castle is next on the visitors’ schedule for an incredible display from Mr. Game & Watch himself. Among those in attendance at the banquet hall among the many anthropomorphic flora and fauna, only two truly stick out of the partygoers, those being Paper Princess Peach and her bodyguard for the evening, Paper Mario.

While the festive folks tell story after story of their homeland or their activities or talked about how hype this year’s festival is, a Toad in a toga wielding a spear exits the throne room and addresses the hall rife with paper people.

“If I may have your attention please,” The Toad says with its shrill voice. “The Throne Room has finally been readied and the ceremony will begin soon! Please enter the Throne Room at your leisure!”

With a great cheer, the partygoers enter, with Peach and Mario leading the ocean of people. In front of the throne, a giant console stands with outlines of dark light figures moving around on its screen. They seem to be bouncing individuals into an ambulance and away from an apartment fire. The partygoers watch on in interest as the small men on the screen move a trampoline to save another man falling. Peach stands at the front of the room while Mario stands nearby in case things went awry… As they usually did. The Mushroom Kingdom is often a magnet for trouble after all…

“Everyone!” The Princess speaks. “On this Star Month, we celebrate the genesis and continued adoration of the mysterious Game & Watch!”

She gestures toward the console behind her with enthusiasm, causing the screen to light up. The crowd claps and hollers in excitement.

“For forty years now,” She continues. “This man of many shapes has protected the prospect of video games, as well as shaped their future! I’m sure very few of us would be here without his help. Please, let us show him our appreciation!”

The crowd erupts in applause. The screen grows brighter and brighter until a small orb of light pulls itself out of the console. It hovers in the air ominously. Paper Mario watches in awe, much like the other partygoers. The orb hovers unassumingly. Once the applause quiets completely, the orb flies up into the air with an ecstatic energy, just above the console from which it was spawned.

“What is that?” A Toad asks aloud.

“So pretty!” A Koopa exclaims.

Suddenly, the orb explodes in a bright flash, coating the room in a blinding light. Once Mario opens his eyes, he finds the light slowly dispersing, a dark figure emerging from the center of the bright light. He is featureless, only a rounded silhouette of a cartoonish man.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Peach says. “It’s the spirit of the games himself! Mr. Game & Watch!”

The figure floats gently to the floor. He looks up in an instant, taking in his surroundings. His movements seem to lack any articulation, rather just being different poses he instantly switches to as he moves. He has no eyes, but the crowd could sense he is looking at them too.

“Wow!” A young Toad gasps, stars in his eyes.

Before anyone could fully process what was going on, however, the wall behind the console breaks open in a burst of flames and dust. Chunks of stone rain all over the crowd as panic ensues. Several large pieces fall on the G&W Console, denting its frame and earning the ire of the black silhouette that comes from it as he panics.

“Gwahahahahar!” Laughs a large monster, Paper Bowser, as he leaps in through the hole. “Sorry I’m late, but I’m taking this shindig over!”

Paper Mario gets between Peach and Bowser, readying himself for a fight. Paper Peach sets her hand on his shoulder, causing Paper Mario to turn to her in concern.

“Look,” She says, pointing at Mr. Game & Watch.

The dark figure inspects the damage done to the Fire Game, finding the corner badly dented and the screen’s backlight flickering.

“I’ll take over by using the power of Mr. Game & Watch!” Bowser states. “With his help, I’ll be invincible and I will finally take over the Mushroom Kingdom! Gwahahahar!”

Mr. Game & Watch solemnly walks up to Bowser and reels a thick, black hammer over his head. Paper Bowser looks down at him and smiles.

“Good to see you already know how this works!” Bowser says, leaning down and outstretching his hand for a handshake. “Whaddaya say?”

He wasn’t expecting the hammer to collide with him, but if he knew the real yield of the [9] he would have shown more caution. The red sparking hammer did him in quickly, firing him out of the wall he came from and sending him flying across the kingdom at speeds beyond the limits of Mach. Mr. Game & Watch sighs as the once panicking partygoers now turned to joy.

“Hooray!” They exclaim. “Three cheers for Mr. Game &–”

All of a sudden, Mr. Game & Watch bashes a nearby Toad guard into the ground with the hammer. Everyone stands in terrified silence. Mr. Game & Watch looks up and makes a loud pinging noise before chasing the group around, brandishing another hammer and swinging wildly.

“Eeeeek!” A Toad exclaims. “You already beat up the bad guy, why are you coming after us!?”

Mr. Game & Watch offers no understandable response, electing to instead throw a snapping turtle at the inquisitive Toad. The Toad never stood a chance and is torn to shreds by the turtle in an instant. Mr. Game & Watch runs around in a panic until it sees Paper Princess Peach, still standing close to the console. Assuming she also wants to damage it, he swiftly closes the distance to her.

“He must be frightened,” Peach says to Mario. “Without even knowing who any of us were, his console was attacked and damaged. He doesn’t know who’s friend or foe.”

Mr. Game & Watch leaps for Princess Peach, but is intercepted by Paper Mario, knocking him back with a punch. Mr. Game & Watch gets back up and saunters closer with his hammer held out, and Paper Mario readies his hammer in response. The two hammers clash violently, sparking across the room with bolts of dark electricity and radiating sheer force. Their clash also luckily forces the rest of the panicking visitors out of the castle from the waves of pressure. Peach watches the struggle nearby, gripping the nearby window for stability.

“Mario!” Peach calls out. “Maybe we can calm him down if you knock him out!”

Paper Mario nods as he continues to struggle with the embodiment of handheld gaming.

***

***

Paper Mario relents only slightly, but it was enough for Mr. Game & Watch’s incredible luck to pull a [9] and fire Paper Mario through the walls of the castle. He flips through the air, far into the heart of Toad Town careening through several Toad houses on his flight. He finally skids to a stop in one Toad’s living room, where a child plays with a small paper doll of, funnily enough, Paper Mario.

“Wow!” The little boy exclaims. “Can I have your autograph?”

Mario jumps up and sees Mr. Game & Watch closing in swiftly. Mario throws the kid out of harm’s way into a nearby awning and raises his arms, anticipating an attack. Mr. Game & Watch stops short of his foe and pulls out a pesticide sprayer. When Mario peeks over his hands, he sees a black mist swirling around him, and through it, Mr. Game & Watch is seen pumping more and more toxins into the air. Completely ignoring the poisonous gas, Paper Mario runs to his foe and dropkicks the silhouette-figure in the nose.

Mr. Game & Watch skids to a stop several feet away, rubbing his nose. He pulls out his dual hammers and swings at the chasing Paper Mario, who dons his own hammer to intercept the attack. The black cut-out quickly slams his hammers where Paper Mario is standing, only to miss as his paper adversary sidesteps the bludgeons. Paper Mario quickly twists his body with his hammer at the ready and lets loose a harsh hammer swing, slamming hard into the sewer cover Game & Watch defends himself with. Though the attack is blocked, Paper Mario drives the hammer still, firing Game & Watch high into the air. The paper hero crumples himself down like a spring and launches himself into the sky to give chase.

The red and blue plumber raises his hammer once more, ready to smite the pixel-thin avatar, but Mr. Game & Watch grabs him by the hat before he can swing. Paper Mario feels odd as he is crushed and transformed into a small sphere, which Game & Watch haphazardly lobs away.

As soon as he leaves the mascot’s hand, Paper Mario returns to normal and falls through the air. Mr. Game & Watch follows up, flinging a salvo of torches Mario’s way, all while gliding safely on his parachute. Paper Mario quickly folds himself into a paper airplane and weaves through the rain of flames.

Mr. Game & Watch turns in surprise to find Paper Mario giving chase. His foe unfolds himself and readies his hammer. As if to match Mr. Game & Watch’s sentiments from earlier, Mario somehow manages to lob several fireballs out of nowhere, each one he strikes like a baseball with his hammer. The gaming mascot drifts around each shot with careful grace, even catching one of the fireballs in a peculiar bucket. Paper Mario sees how fruitless it is to use the projectile attack at this point, so he folds back into a paper airplane and flies at high speeds with the intent to ram Game & Watch.

He slides across Game & Watch’s slender body quickly, slicing his pixel-thin skin with ease. Game & Watch eyes Paper Mario with concern. Once more, Paper Mario slashes Game & Watch with a tackle. Mario leads in with another rush, but Game & Watch is too wary now. He unleashes the Oil Panic Bucket’s oil, which slams hard into Paper Mario. Continuing the combo, Game & Watch flips up with his parachute, puts it away, and slams a large key straight into Paper Mario’s back, unfolding him instantly and sending both weightless fighters hurtling to the ground.

They crash into a plain with an explosion of dirt.

Game & Watch hops to the edge of their crater in time to see Paper Mario pull out a large, ornate star seemingly made of diamond. Mario leaps atop of the Diamond Star as it grows larger and larger, eventually dwarfing the black cut-out. The star then lifts up and slams down repeatedly, sending shockwaves through the ground and launching Mr. Game & Watch into the air. As the shockwaves persist, Game & Watch manifests a trampoline and bounces over the attack. Game & Watch readies his Judge hammer, ready to blow away Paper Mario, who hid under his cap to guard. The gaming mascot let loose his hammer.

[1]

Mr. Game & Watch launches himself away and mangles his body slightly instead of damaging his foe. Mario lifts his cap inquisitively, wondering where the incoming attack went, only to see Mr. Game & Watch on the ground in front of him tanking the final shockwave of the Earth Tremor. Once the Crystal Star disappears, Paper Mario wanders over to Mr. Game & Watch’s twitching body, wondering why he had such a self-destructive technique in his arsenal.

Game & Watch struggles to get up, but when he does, he takes a cheap shot by thrusting out a snapping turtle in hopes that it would tear apart his foe. Paper Mario simply swats the turtle out of his hands and slams his hammer down, but Mr. Game & Watch cartwheels around his foe and grabs him again. This time, however, Paper Mario does not shrink into a ball, but he instead feels weightless and compressed in other ways. He feels like he’s falling, being dragged away at the speed of light, everything at his sides stretching out almost infinitely and his vision blurring until he came to a stop.

He looks around… In the only two directions he could at least, as he was now trapped in the Flat Zone.

The prisoner of the second dimension tries to figure out what was going on until a trampoline manifests under him and fires him skyward, slamming his head against the top border of the world. He falls to the ground, only to find two Mr. Game & Watches commanding the trampoline. He readies his hammer to attack them, but they raise the trampoline higher and bounce Paper Mario into the fourth storey of the nearby burning building. As Mr. Game & Watch himself watches from atop the nearby ambulance, he is astonished to see the flames freeze solid. Paper Mario swiftly leaps to the trampoline Game & Watches again, glowing a slew of rainbow colors. He struck the trampoline itself with enough force to send the two Game & Watches flying into the ambulance from the tension snapping back at them. The trampoline lands with Paper Mario atop it, aiming his hammer at Mr. Game & Watch. In response, the figure raises his hands and the world went blank momentarily.

Suddenly, the world warps and shifts, and Paper Mario falls through the air. There was a giant Mr. Game & Watch, with the original Game & Watch sitting on its head. The large one grabbed Mario out of the air and crushed him with his giant hand. It throws Mario through the air, catching him with his other hand and crushing him again. Mario is tossed up again, but he took the opportunity of air time to lob his hammer at the Game & Watch atop the bigger Game & Watch. Before it made contact, the world warps again.

Paper Mario stands in a grassy backyard. He grabs his hammer off the ground before noticing Game & Watch on top of the shed adjacent to Mario. He rushes over but immediately gets struck in the head by a hammer. He rubs the crown of his head and looks up, finding a slew of home improvement tools raining from the skies. He ducks and avoids the falling tools, especially the scissors, trying to carefully make his way to Game & Watch. The black cut-out on the other side of the screen, however, makes things harder by introducing a number of his own projectiles, mostly sausage and bacon, to make the game harder. Paper Mario avoids the attacks easily and makes it over to his antagonist… Before the scenario changes once more.

Finding himself in front of a large house, Mario searches out the next threat. Incoming dark clouds put an end to his search as Mr. Game & Watch pings maliciously from the incoming storm. He lets loose a biblical flood, hoping to drown his paper adversary or at least render Mario soggy. As the screen in engulfed in water, Game & Watch pings again, watching the plumber sink below. He thinks his plan succeeded, however, out from the water pops Paper Mario, folded as a paper boat. The flood rises higher and higher until Mario leaps atop the house, unfolds himself, and strikes the edge of the cloud. Thanks to Ice Power, the cloud begins to freeze solid, ice and frost creeping along the cloud surface slowly. Before he could be completely frozen over, Game & Watch changes the game once more.

Paper Mario looks around, finding himself in a cage with… Lions. one of the lions quickly bites into him and slashes him away. Close to the exit now, Paper Mario gets to his feet and runs, but is immediately batted back inside as another Game & Watch with a chair denies him an exit. Mario rises and lions assault him again, clawing at him violently. He is tossed aside, bruised and, in spots, torn. He quickly activates his Fire Drive ability and drops a slew of fireballs to his feet, deterring the lions from leaping at him. Once the fire dies out, the lions pounce at… Nothing? Paper Mario seems to have perfectly vanished. All Game & Watches, the lions, zookeepers, even the original Mr. Game & Watch, watching the events from the top of the cage, all are confused.

The trick is simple. Paper Mario just turned sideways. In a 2-dimensional area, it’s the same as turning invisible, except a paper thin line would still be visible. Paper Mario pulls an orange box from his overalls just as the original Game & Watch notices the thin line.

Suddenly, an army of Paper Marios erupts from where Paper Mario was hiding, each one brandishing a hammer of their own. Mr. Game & Watch is surprised and calls to the zookeepers and lions to attack in a series of pings only Game & Watch can understand. Two of the Paper Marios grab a lion and a third begins to bash its head into its neck, while the other lion starts tearing up another Paper Mario. One Paper Mario slaps away the chair of a zookeeper and freezes him in place while another Paper Mario smashes him to pieces. The other zookeeper breaks his chair over a now deceased Paper Mario and continues doing battle with another. The last two Paper Marios battle the true Game & Watch on top of the cage.

The copied Paper Marios continue to duel the true Game & Watch while the original Paper Mario gets an idea and sneaks off. The copy Paper Mario knocks Mr. Game & Watch into the air, where he transforms into a dragon and lets loose a rain of flames on all the Paper Marios in sight.

The original Paper Mario uses his dimensional flip to create a path toward the screen of Flat Zone, hopefully so he could break it open to be free of the two-dimensional world. He reaches the edge, but can’t break the screen no matter how hard he tries. So, instead, being effected by the third dimension and, by extension, perspective, he flips back into the second dimension from where he stands, turning him into a giant compared to the others in the screen. Mr. Game & Watch flies out of the way as Paper Mario crushes his own copies instead. He stomps on the whole cage, destroying all of both Game & Watch’s copies, as well as his own.

He reels his hammer back, ready to annihilate Mr. Game & Watch next, but the small black silhouette flies around him angrily. He spews fire, but it was no match for the Ice Power. Paper Mario slaps the dragon out of the sky, causing it to crash into the ground. Mr. Game & Watch gets back up, angrily sighing and glowing rainbow gradients surged across his body. Paper Mario watches in awe as his opponent grows, his limbs and torso growing and morphing until they became tentacles. His head grows as well, until it inflates into a bulbous octopus head. Paper Mario swiftly swings his hammer down in an attempt to crush it, but whatever Mr. Game & Watch had become stops the hammer with ease, not budging an inch. It swiftly floats over the hammer and grabs Mario by the neck with its suction cup-laden tentacles. It speeds straight into the border of the Flat Zone, breaking through it with ease, Mario returning to normal size as a result of not being trapped in the 2-D world, abusing its perspective.

The two speed across the universe, the sheer speeds shearing off pieces of Paper Mario, including his Ice Power badge, which causes him to erupt in a cone of flames from their velocity. Mario screams in agony until the two finally reach the edge of the universe.

With a single ping, Mr. Game & Watch throws Paper Mario into the unknown void beyond, deciding that would get rid of him for good. Once he finishes watching the paper man sink into the dark, syrup-like void, he returns his attention to the Mushroom Kingdom and speeds off, still worried about his Fire Game.

Paper Mario floats in nothingness, drifting for what already feels like an endless time. He looks at his wounds, too deep and too serious to recover from alone. And so, he drifts, alone. In the dark. Falling ever deeper and waiting for death.

***

***

: What a sad ending to that fight!

: I know right? I feel very sorry for him. He was only trying to do his duty after all and protect Princess Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom.

: Ah, ah, ah. PAPER Princess Peach and PAPER Mushroom Kingdom. And even then, I think this fight went pretty well, and it makes a lot of sense too.

: Yeah, I know, I just feel shitty for PAPER Mario man. I mean.. Hey. you wanna turn that light off?

: What light? I’m not doing anything.

: Yeah? Well you’re shining something in my eyes, it’s really annoying. Stop it.

: I’m not doing anything! Actually, woah, that is bright, where’s that coming from?

: Hold up, isn’t this like that one time… In the older works…

: Hey! Look at Paper Mario!

: Hey, you’re right! What’s going on?

***

Waiting for death? He floats alone in the void, but Paper Mario does not dream of giving up that easily. Paper Mario holds his hands clasped together, wishing in his heart of hearts that he could find some way to get back to Peach to protect her. To protect his home. It’s all he can do in the abyss.

As he floats, alone in the dark, something bright illuminates his lonely drifting. He opens his eyes to find the Crystal Stars floating around him slowly. He is confused at first, wondering why the Crystal Stars suddenly appeared. He then realizes that they must be here to give his wish form. He remembers their incredible powers and he smiles. Paper Mario’s brow sharpens with determination, realizing that it’s not a lost cause anymore…

Leaping atop the Garnet Star, he rockets further into nothingness until…

***

    Location: Mushroom Kingdom, 1:00 pm

Mr. Game & Watch lands, returning to his normal form. He dispatches the last guards with ease and moves on to the throne room. Princess Peach sits there, terrified, but resolute.

“Please, understand!” She demands as Mr. Game & Watch slowly walks toward her. “This was meant to be a celebration of you, and Bowser ruined it! He isn’t allied with us and we don’t want to hurt you! Please!”

It was no use. Still angry about being attacked by Paper Bowser and hyped on the adrenaline of fighting Paper Mario, reason wouldn’t work on him. He raises his hammer and swings down.

“AAAAHHHH!!!” The Princess screams.

Suddenly, Paper Mario rips through the air itself as though it were paper atop the Garnet Star, stopping the show with Showstopper. He intercepts the [3] hammer blow, and rams the Crystal Star into Mr. Game & Watch. Together, the two 2-D fighters fly skyward atop the jeweled star, leaving an overwhelmed princess to cheer on her Mario…

Paper Mario strikes Mr. Game & Watch several times, knocking him down the star slowly until the silhouette responds by striking Mario’s face with a frying pan. The two of them hold on for dear life as the star rockets into space. They climb atop and shortly match hammer-blow for hammer-blow, until Mr. Game & Watch misses a strike and Paper Mario rockets his foe into the moon itself, cracking the massive rock in half.

Atop the star still, Mario charges with his Charge badge, earning a rainbow aura that drips with sheer power. Mr. Game & Watch leaps from the moon and takes aim at his opponent. Paper Mario flies to Game & Watch with his hammer at the ready as well. Then…

The two clash. Mario’s supercharged hammer collides with Game & Watch’s [9].

Bolts of red, black, and rainbow dance across the galaxy, so intense they slice whole planets and planetoids to ribbons in seconds. Stars intensify and brighten from the sheer output. The Mushroom Kingdom feels immense pressure and windstorms plague the city, while the moon’s dust is blown all the way to the other side and trails off like a comet’s tail.

The two are resilient, not letting up on the force they put out. Paper Mario strikes with incredible power while Game & Watch swings with unnatural energies. They push hard, Mr. Game & Watch pings and Mario shouts. A crack forms in the handle of both hammers, and with one last push, Mario breaks Game & Watch’s hammer, sending the silhouette through the moon and into Mars. The moon splits, each half floating away as Paper Mario watched on, determined to see this battle through. Mr. Game & Watch shook off the shock of the attack and returns his attention to Paper Mario who is clasping his hands with a new star, the Crystal Star. Mr. Game & Watch transformes once again, becoming the hideous octopus, before flying to Paper Mario. The Crystal Star floats upward and showers glittering stardust over Mario, who remains resolute.

All of a sudden, the near impervious form of the octopus loses a tentacle, trisected along the tentacle by thin rays of teal light. Mr. Game & Watch speeds toward Paper Mario ever faster, losing another two tentacles from the same attack. He lunges with his last tentacle and grabs Mario. Mr. Game & Watch pings maliciously until he realized he can’t draw back the tentacle. His facial expression changes from a lack of emotion to genuine concern when he notices his last tentacle amputated like the rest of them. Finally, he lunges with the last of his power with a headbutt to finish off Paper Mario, but is finally done in by the last three slashes of Supernova slicing his head apart into pieces.

Pinging in desperation, the octopus returns to Game & Watch’s true form only for the fifteen sections of his body to stop moving and fade into a dark mist, becoming indistinguishable from space itself as it vanishes from view.

Paper Mario huffs and huffs until he loses his balance and falls off the Garnet Star. The other stars appear around him and gently lower him back to the papercraft kingdom, where the Paper Princess waits in earnest for her hero to return.

***

***

: That ending was a little overkill, wasn’t it?

: Nah, I mean they were both Universe+ Level after all.

: Fair enough, but still. I never would have expected some epic space-faring ending like that.

: Me neither, but that was one hell of a kill!

: Alright, down to business. These two boast their own strengths and weaknesses, but Paper Mario is simply a more overpowered version of Mr. Game & Watch.

: In terms of Attack Potency and strength, they are actually equal. While Mr. Game & Watch is capable of defeating Tabuu, the personification of Subspace, as well as Galeem and Dharkon at the same time, who both are capable of destroying the universe and whose death actually resulted in the absolution of the Smash Bros. Universe, Paper Mario scales to 3D Mario.

: As a result, he scales to a lot of Mario’s Super Mario Galaxy feats, like fighting on par with Bowser after he absorbed a Supreme Star, which can both birth and wipe out a universe. Pretty even to be fair.

: In terms of speed, Mr. Game & Watch is far faster than Paper Mario. According to this article here by user ArbitraryNumbers, Mr. Game & Watch can react to and match attacks from Galeem, whose attacks can reach speeds of over 489 billion times the Speed of Light! And that’s low-balling the numbers!

: Which is ludicrously faster than Paper Mario’s scaled 15.7c, making Mr. Game & Watch 311 billion times faster than Paper Mario. That said, 3D Mario does have several calculations that COULD put him at over a quadrillion times the Speed of Light, but they won’t be included as fact here.

: Mostly because the varying inconsistencies really question whether they’re applicable as they fail to take into account feasible time frames and the Super Mario Bros. galaxy’s unique cosmology. After all, their moon isn’t like the irl moon, it’s smaller. What else could be sized differently besides just the moon?

: One concern a lot of people had in regards to scaling arguments here is that if Mario is also featured in the Smash Bros. Universe, shouldn’t he be able to scale to the same speeds Game & Watch does?

: Sorry, but no. Smash interpretations of characters and their realistic versions are not exactly 1:1. The Smash Bros. Universe is an entirely different universe to the Mario Bros. Universe, and thus Mario Bros. Mario is not the same, nor is capable of the same things as Smash Bros. Mario. Paper Mario does not scale to Smash Bros. Mario at all.

: Mr. Game & Watch technically had his debut in the Smash Bros. Universe, and as he is an amalgamation of non-canon content all wrapped together, therefore his scaling here makes sense.

: But wait, doesn’t that mean Mr. Game & Watch speed blitzes Paper Mario?

: He might if not for Paper Mario’s durability. While Mr. Game & Watch has only ever dealt with Universe+ Level threats and tanked hits from them, Paper Mario has tanked Multiverse Level hits. Recall Super Dimentio and our lack of ability in scaling Paper Mario’s AP to his due to the Pure Hearts taking away the Multiverse Level durability of Super Dimentio.

: Even though Super Dimentio did not have Multiverse Level durability at the time, his attacks never lost their potency, continuing to deal the same 16 damage they did before he was powered down by the Pure Hearts. Paper Mario can tank those same, powerful shots, making him Multiverse Level in terms of durability.

: Furthermore, Mr. Game & Watch only has Universe+ Level AP, which doesn’t even come close to Multiverse Level durability. If we base this Multiverse on any number of Multiverse theories, then Paper Mario is depicted as tanking anywhere from several Universe+ Level hits to a nigh infinite number of them.

: Makes you wonder how a Goomba in that universe can harm Paper Mario then. Maybe that’s just how powerful the universe is? Man, VS Debating is weird…

: That said, there’s still the matter of their arsenals. After all, Mr. Game & Watch has the speed advantage and the versatility advantage, right? Plus he can trap Paper Mario in his Flat Zone, right?

: Not exactly. Paper Mario, as we previously said, is just an overpowered Mr. Game & Watch. He has the Ice Power badge which nullifies fire-based attacks like the Fire Game, the Dragon Form’s fire breath, or the Judge’s [6]. Pesticides are meaningless when Paper Mario has the Feeling Fine badge which makes him immune to most Status Effects, including Poison.

: Paper Mario can outmatch Flat Zone simply by turning sideways or by using his Dimensional Flip to return to 3D. Game & Watch’s duplication can be countered by Paper Mario’s Copy Block which, on average, usually outnumbers Mr. Game & Watch’s own scenario-locked copies. Close Call, Charge, Lucky Day, and Mega Rush can change the tides of the fight if Mr. Game & Watch would try to speed blitz him, enhancing his durability even further and powering him up to be able to one-shot Mr. Game & Watch back, not to mention a luck-based evasion ability to counter the speed advantage regardless.

: Mr. Game & Watch’s healing is locked behind the chance of getting a [7], while Paper Mario has Happy Heart for regeneration and Sweet Feast for instant recovery. Paper Mario’s FP weakness isn’t as notable since he wears the Happy Flower badge and can get more FP from Sweet Feats too. Game & Watch can glide with a parachute, but Paper Mario can fly as a paper airplane. Hell, Paper Mario barely has any energy attacks outside of Fire Drive for Mr. Game & Watch to use his Oil Panic Bucket on, so he can’t boost his AP that way. His strongest attack, the [9] is even locked behind a gamble while Paper Mario’s Crystal Stars are always ready for use.

: Even Mr. Game & Watch’s trump card, the nigh invulnerable octopus, could be overcome by the Crystal Stars’ space-time abilities. Most notably, Supernova’s durability bypass.

: Mr. Game & Watch’s only notable advantage is his speed, and that can be challenged by Paper Mario’s own Lucky Day and Close Call hax, as well as his other skills like the Dimensional Flip if in Flat Zone since Game & Watch would be locked to the 2D plane while Paper Mario can mess around in 3D.

: Mr. Game & Watch needs to land a large number of hits just to deal notable damage to Paper Mario, while Mario just needs to use Charge, Power Lift, or Mega Rush to raise his AP over what’s needed to wipe out a universe and effectively one-shot Mr. Game & Watch.

: Seems like there was a thin veneer of success for Mr. Game & Watch, but like the proverbial rock, he couldn’t beat paper.

: The winner is: Paper Mario

Happy 40th Anniversary Game & Watch!