In Paper Mario, the first battle against Bowser at the beginning of the game is intended to be unwin

In Paper Mario, the first battle against Bowser at the beginning of the game is intended to be unwinnable. The battle unfolds in a predetermined fashion until Bowser uses the Star Rod to make himself invincible. At that point, Mario can no longer deal damage to Bowser and Bowser defeats Mario shortly afterward, which starts the game’s story.

By using cheats to give Mario the ability to damage invincible enemies, we can see what happens if the predetermined script is disrupted. Usually, if an unwinnable battle is won in an unintended manner in an RPG, the game either crashes or simply ignores the victory and proceeds as though the player was defeated. Paper Mario’s response to this is notable because instead of simply crashing, the game unloads all objects from the scene, leaving only the skybox. The game still continues running, but due to no objects being present, the only action left for the player is to reset the game.

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