Hey everyone! It’s been a minute since I’ve posted something on the blog (darn website problems), but regardless I’m back with another review and this time it’s about a new entry in a Nintendo franchise that I’ve always cherished!

Today’s review is going to be about Paper Mario: The Origami King on the Nintendo Switch! So without further ado let’s ago into this one~

Story and Development

So for anyone that’s ever played a Mario game, the premise of this game is for Mario to save Princess Peach (Alright spoiler but, no spoiler), this time however the villain at large appears to be a well folded character named Olly that believes origami to be the superior paper product versus the regular flat sheets of characters that inhabit the Paper Mario Universe. (Minor Spoilers ahead)

Without going into too much detail, the ever changing plot involves Mario and his friend Olivia going around the Mushroom Kingdom and defeating each of the streamers that holds Princess Peach and her castle hostage.

Each streamer is guarded by a certain type of uh…. product? Ok, I’ll be honest when I thought I was playing a Paper Mario game, I wasn’t expecting to play a game about literal paper arts and crafts, but good ol’ Nintendo worked their magic charm and really made these aspects of the game delightful and comedic.

Mario can use certain abilities such as throwing confetti to help repair damaged areas that might block your path.

I won’t spoil the actual bosses but will just say… some of them are quite sharp.

One thing that I wasn’t impressed with however was the lack of party member involvement considering how they have been a staple in past Paper Mario games. While the game does add a partner that follows Mario in various chapters, these characters are usually only around for one chapter each and don’t really provide much in terms of gameplay advantages and are more so there for dialogue and character interactions.

While the dialogue is interesting and helps build the characters, they don’t stick around long enough to make a solid impact on my impression of the story.

The game is also rather short and can be completed in around 25 hours, but there are quite a few collectibles to find and trust me some of them are truly mind boggling to somehow discover.

Some of these collectibles include finding figurines of various objects and characters in the game where they can be viewed in a museum in Toad Town.

Gameplay

Alright so this part of the review might draw some criticism here, but the combat wasn’t bad.

The game’s main combat system incorporates a ring that gives it the feel of fighting in an arena. However this takes away a large portion of rpg elements of the game and mostly makes it feel more like a tactful puzzle game of arranging enemies for the best position of taking them out.

It’s like solving a puzzle under a time limit with enemies having tricks such as disappearing during fights or preventing Mario from hitting them with certain attacks. Don’t worry though, there are ways to get around these tricky puzzles if you aren’t the puzzle solving type, but be prepared to get adept at the combat system if you haven’t braved a Paper Mario game before.

Like most Paper Mario games you have action commands that involve timing to deal the most damage to enemies using your boots, hammer or items. However unlike previous games where you can upgrade your weapons and items, this time these upgrades come at the cost of having durability and thus all upgrades in this game are essentially items.

This puts a focus on earning lots of coins in this game, which is easily done by fighting enemies and thus serving the incentive to actually fight enemies… that is unless you have lots of coins then there really is no other reason to fight them as you don’t gain levels or any kind of experience.

To remedy this, there are some additions to the game that do help add some spice to battles. I won’t talk about the boss battles themselves too much other than to mention that they are the opposite of regular battles and involve some guesswork/thinking as to what works best.

In particular the addition of some origami related powers are at Mario’s disposal. Like how in Thousand Year Door, Mario had paper curses that gave him specific powers. In this game Olivia aids Mario by allowing him to tap into his folding potential and unleash special origami abilities!

I will admit that thankfully there are different forms of fighting in this game and it’s not limited to just the ring battles. There are also real time fights where you can run and jump and hammer enemies so it doesn’t feel as stale the whole time.

To add to this there are also a variety of platforming segments ( It is a Mario game after all~ ) and an assortment of fun minigames (Mario Party anyone?)

Music/Audio

*Sigh* finally a portion of the review that I don’t have much to say other than fantastic all around! The soundtrack offers a variety of orchestrated arrangements mixed with the colorful video game sounds.

I’d have to say the highlights of the game’s music comes from the boss fights as they fit the tension quite well when you’re nervously trying to figure out the best route to take when the timer is almost always near 0…

My particular favorite track is from a specific boss fight, I won’t list the name to avoid potential spoilers but it’s quite the jam if you want to give it a quick listen HERE

I could definitely play this game comfortably without getting tired of hearing the game’s music and the touching video game noises.

Graphics/Design

I probably don’t need to talk about this section much either other than the fact that it does look like a Paper Mario game and most likely the finest one to date considering it’s on the latest and greatest hardware. The mixture of flat paper characters and origami characters is a creative way of displaying the world as well as the different kinds of buildings and environments make the whole game feel like a montage of paper art.

It should also go without saying that each area of the game had lots of thought put into each theme and are presented with that Nintendo badge of authenticity. The amount of work that has gone into this game might be surprisingly easy to miss if you don’t take the time to look at all the details.

I’m still flabbergasted that Nintendo took the effort to handcraft a lot of the origami models in game and translate it so well into the final product. These Thwomps shown below are a great example of how impressive this kind of texture can look in a game that’s already a colorful art show.

Summing it up…

I think that before this game even had a chance to shine there were some expectations that it would be the next Thousand Year Door or a game that would do away with more recent Paper Mario titles that some did not like.

The Origami King took the concept of the series and ran with literal colorful streamers all over the game and it’s a beautiful display of a paper universe brought to life and really focusing on bringing out the aesthetic of the game rather than the gameplay, which still was enjoyable despite its faults.

This is a game that may require some time to get into but once it starts rolling you’ll love it more and more and realize it still holds that magical Paper Mario charm.

As always,

Brother Ghesh out~