Fans have been craving classic 'Paper Mario.' Indie games are filling that void.

But the 2007 release of "Super Paper Mario" on the Wii and its choice to drop encounter-based battles heralded a split in fan reception early in the series' lifespan. The major rift came in 2012 with the release of "Paper Mario: Sticker Star" on the Nintendo 3DS. Gone were the charming personalities, the leveling system and the emotional story elements; in its place, the game featured a roster of generic characters thrown into a dumbed-down version of the original game's combat system that was stripped of player experimentation. And although the 2016 entry "Paper Mario: Color Splash" made an effort to home in on the series' trademark humor, the Wii U game's remix of the series' classic battle system ultimately fell flat.