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Description
PAPER MARIO: THE ORIGAMI KING.
Developed by: Intelligent Systems.
Published by: Nintendo.
Genre: Action Adventure/JRPG.
Rated: U (Suitable for everyone).

So, I tried watching that Escapist video the other day asking "is Mario a better character than Sonic?" How is that even a question?

First of all, you're banking on an ancient rivalry that didn't work or make sense even back in the day (because Sonic has more in common with Mega Man if we're being honest with ourselves), and second of all you're implying Mario even HAS a character to begin with!

Fanboyism aside and ask yourself: What exactly does Mario contribute to his games besides the platforming? Everyone else do all the talking, drive the plot forward, and have the bits you truly remember, while Mario jumps on things and says "let's-a go!" which stopped being cute around the time the first Harry Potter film was still playing in cinemas.

I bring this up because the Paper Mario series is the best possible spin-off in Nintendo history, because the paper like aesthetics matches Mario's paper-thin personality.

It was the series where Nintendo could dodge the usual accusations against the Mario franchise with the phrase "yes it's the same old thing, BUT!" as Paper Mario was free to go off the rails and do something weird for a change.

I have fond memories with the second entry so I've popped my head around the Thousand Year Door to see if Paper Mario: The Origami King can live up to those warm memories. Because as my time with Pokémon Sword has proven, the fastest way to kill my nostalgia is to spend time with a series again to remind me why gave it up in the first place.

Kryten: Sigmund Freud, eat your heart out.

Spoiler Alert.

As I said earlier, Paper Mario was always a little different than convention, and Origami King kind of plays to that strength.

The game opens to an almost Resident Evil styled manner as the Mario Brothers arrive in a deserted town bereft of life and atmosphere. Ya know something boys, maybe it's about time you stop accepting invites from Princess Peach because it's usually a trick to get you roped into the same adventure you've had for the last 35-sodding-years!

However, they soon discover Peach and the locals have been transformed into origami like zombies by the big bad of the game: the titular Origami King. He wishes to expand the Origarain raise and wipe out all who wish to defile "The Fatherland" so Mario goes through the usual moments you've come to expect so let's move on.

While I expected weird and "out-there" from Paper Mario, zombies are kind of mundane and normal for a series that gave us Mario as a wrestler or Peach being the vessel for an ancient demon queen - after being sexualised by "I can't believe it's not HAL 9000."

Then the game quickly drops the grim facade for a while in favour of the usual jokes involving Luigi being useless, and the cringey gags you'd find in a Joss Whedon script. Mind you this is The Mushroom Kingdom, where the most troubling thing that befalls the locals is if Bowser kidnaps the Princess, or it's Go-Karting Wednesday.

The horror theme comes back during the ancient Egypt level to hype up a hole punch monster, as Toads with their faces removed wander and dangle throughout the corridors. Then it drops the facade again and goes back to wacky shenanigans when we find a discotech inside the temple. Just pick a fucking tone already, Paper Mario! Do you wanna be Silent Hill, or Scooby Doo?

The inconsistency began to annoy me around the time a party member killed themselves so we could advance. Considering characters get their faces removed or cut into pieces, I was actually surprised anyone could DIE in this universe. Our heroes have a little cry and vow they can't go on... Then Mario puts on a Goomba head, does his best Boris Johnson impression, and we quickly forget about it.

Now I say "party members", but those pinning for the days of Thousand Year Door's buddies are going to be shit out of luck. The only thing you'll get here is a party member who sticks around for a segment of the game, and they're pretty useless in battle... Stop crying.

As per Nintendo-Law, Mario finds himself with another comedy sidekick that varies between cute, to mildly irritating. F.L.U.D.D. at least doubled as a super soaker, Luma let you fly in space, and I was glad to be spared that "Cappy" nonsense, but Olivia is essentially Captain Obvious. She will stop the action to tell you the blindingly obvious while treating the player like an absolute cretin.

"Gosh Mario, your normal attacks won't do anything. If only you had a HAND-y way of using your HANDS on this boss with a sort of HAND attack cus that will help HANDle the situation. Wink wink. Nudge nudge!"

Speaking of which, I was fearful when the game introduced the 1,000 feet arms, and began instructing me on how the motion controls work. However, before I could put the game in my toaster and curse its entire existence, I thankfully noticed that you can turn the motion controls off in the options menu. Well done, Nintendo, for you seem to be coming around to the idea that motion controls are something most of us are frankly over at this point.

Having said that, I think a game like this is crying out for some voice acting, for this was the game that made me officially sick of reading text boxes. I'm not complaining about the story, that's not what I'm talking about. What annoys me is that everything has to come to a grinding halt, just so the characters can say "Look guys, A LADDER!!" and make a bunch of corny jokes about it.

I know humour is a highly subjective thing - and I'm the evil bastard that has 1000 jokes prepared for Tony Blair's funeral - but I would rather sit through Sonic's godawful attempts at humour than whatever the fuck this game thinks comedy is; With the lone exception of everything Bowser says/does in this game, for that is solid gold! I found his single parent "never say die" attitude truly adorable, and his little speech to Olivia near the end was priceless!

Back to text boxes: There are no means to speed these things up or mash a button to make them go away. I can understand why they don't have Link say anything, but the mime shit with Mario is really getting old; especially when after 35 years it would warm my heart if he dropped a bit of snark like this.

Bowser: Where would you be without me?
Mario: I dunno, probably enjoying life without you kidnapping Peach 24/7!

So the story is kind of "eh" so how about the gameplay?

I am aware recent Paper Mario titles have a "frosty" relationship with fans for not being Thousand Year Door, though I sadly haven't the experience to share in everyone's mutual hatred. I haven't played Sticker Star, Colour Splash, or that unwanted crossover with the Mario & Luigi series, so I'm judging this game without that baggage. So, with that in mind, I found Origami King to be a rather mixed bag.

The weakest aspect of the game can be found in the rather flimsy RPG battles. Instead of a standard turn-based combat arena, players are now tasked to rotate/slide sections of the circular grid to arrange foes in one of two different shapes. Once lined up correctly, the player can damage enemies with higher stats and reduce the risk of enemies striking back.

While this arrangement works, I kind of feel Nintendo and Intelligent Systems are attempting to fix something that wasn't broken to begin with. Speaking of things breaking, you can use secondary items such as boots or hammers that will break after a set number of uses.

This can get very annoying if you've found/bought a particular type of hammer for battle, only for it to break in half after maybe five or seven swings. You can also unlock 4 different transformations for Olivia, but strangely they're unreliable in combat. The magic icon rarely to never appeared in battles outside of boss encounters, and there use outside of battle were always situational.

Oh but that's okay, for you can always just "pay-to-win" battles if you're lazy!

I should explain: One feature you can use is to literally pay the audience of Toads coins to arrange enemies in the right combinations and replenish your health upon command. Granted it costs a total of 999 coins but this means you will never see the Game Over screen outside of boss battles. I mean Paper Mario isn't exactly the most challenging games in human history, but shelling' out the dosh really makes the game insultingly easy.

But you might be saying "Surely you'd want to save those coins to purchase items and weapons, right?" Not really... And don't call me Surely.

If you abuse the pay-to-win feature Toads will occasionally toss Mario secondary items, also items can be found in Coin Blocks or in random treasure chests. And lastly, the game will SHOWER you with far too many coins that you'll never know what to do with, so if you want the game to last an hour you could just have the Toads do all the work for you.

The secondary type of encounters with the papier-mâché goons felt more in-line with the main Mario series. You essentially hit these giant dillholes in a weak spot three or four times before they crumble into bits of shredded paper. I found these encounters highly cathartic to sneak up behind them and smash 'em in with a mighty hammer swing!

Before I quibble about this next bit, I'd like to briefly acknowledge all the hard work that probably went into the models for the main bosses. I don't know how to model things in 3D and wouldn't even begin to know how one goes about that sort of thing... But what the fuck is up with these lazy as hell Bosses?

Here are the main dungeon bosses in order of progression: box of coloured crayons, rubber bands, hole punch, Sellotape, scissors, and finally a stapler. Not anthro-versions of those objects or villains with those themes, literal 3D models of those objects that feel incredibly out of place with the rest of this cartoony world. I get this is the PAPER Mario series, but I think we're taking that aspect a bit too literally.

What's jarring to me about this is when you consider earlier games had more inventive bosses, character designs, and more imagination. Now it's basically the same Toads, Bowser minions, and objects that were probably on the designer's desk. I'm just waiting for the game where our heroes must fend off evil black and white clones of themselves created by a photocopier, or "The Laminator" comes back in time to stop Princess Peach becoming a monarch!

Outside of battles, you have a large overworld to explore that have puzzles to solve and mini-games that range in quality. The real drag of the experience is this tedious Shyguy gameshow that I really wish wasn't in this game, though I found this strange homage to Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker to be a little suspect.

As strange as this may sound, the one aspect of the game I truly enjoyed was the confetti. During the course of the adventure, segments of the map have been ripped out by the villains, and you are tasked with essentially repairing holes in reality by throwing confetti at it. You get confetti by smacking objects with your hammer, defeating enemies in battle, or in certain question blocks.

There is this almost creepy vibe about killing your enemies and using their bodies to fix holes in existence, which ultimately sounds like a much better game I'd rather be playing. You can also give confetti a cosmetic upgrade to become cherry blossoms during the Shogun Studios chapter.

The other amusement came from rescuing Toads that have been folded into various Origami formations by smacking them with your hammer. The incentive to find them is that they'll attend in the audience during the battles, and as we've established, they can play the game for you with the right price tag.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if the game ditched the Paper Mario franchise, which feels more like an obligation at this point, and focused on their new ideas then Nintendo could have another killer IP on their hands... For about 3 sequels before it gets dropped in favour of a new Fire Emblem, and the IPs only claim to fame will be "being in Smash Bros." At least F-Zero and Metroid will have company.

(Conclusion)
Paper Mario: The Origami King is a game that has its moments, but I'm probably never going to play it again in the near future. It doesn't take many risks, plays it far too safely, and seems more interested in being a comedy show than a serious gaming experience. If you've never played a Paper Mario game before, you may get some enjoyment out of the experience, but ultimately, you're still better off playing Thousand Year Door in all honesty.

Now if Nintendo released a game about fixing holes in reality with bags of confetti, that would be a truly unique experience.

Description
PAPER MARIO: THE ORIGAMI KING.
Developed by: Intelligent Systems.
Published by: Nintendo.
Genre: Action Adventure/JRPG.
Rated: U (Suitable for everyone).

So, I tried watching that Escapist video the other day asking "is Mario a better character than Sonic?" How is that even a question?

First of all, you're banking on an ancient rivalry that didn't work or make sense even back in the day (because Sonic has more in common with Mega Man if we're being honest with ourselves), and second of all you're implying Mario even HAS a character to begin with!

Fanboyism aside and ask yourself: What exactly does Mario contribute to his games besides the platforming? Everyone else do all the talking, drive the plot forward, and have the bits you truly remember, while Mario jumps on things and says "let's-a go!" which stopped being cute around the time the first Harry Potter film was still playing in cinemas.

I bring this up because the Paper Mario series is the best possible spin-off in Nintendo history, because the paper like aesthetics matches Mario's paper-thin personality.

It was the series where Nintendo could dodge the usual accusations against the Mario franchise with the phrase "yes it's the same old thing, BUT!" as Paper Mario was free to go off the rails and do something weird for a change.

I have fond memories with the second entry so I've popped my head around the Thousand Year Door to see if Paper Mario: The Origami King can live up to those warm memories. Because as my time with Pokémon Sword has proven, the fastest way to kill my nostalgia is to spend time with a series again to remind me why gave it up in the first place.

Kryten: Sigmund Freud, eat your heart out.

Spoiler Alert.

As I said earlier, Paper Mario was always a little different than convention, and Origami King kind of plays to that strength.

The game opens to an almost Resident Evil styled manner as the Mario Brothers arrive in a deserted town bereft of life and atmosphere. Ya know something boys, maybe it's about time you stop accepting invites from Princess Peach because it's usually a trick to get you roped into the same adventure you've had for the last 35-sodding-years!

However, they soon discover Peach and the locals have been transformed into origami like zombies by the big bad of the game: the titular Origami King. He wishes to expand the Origarain raise and wipe out all who wish to defile "The Fatherland" so Mario goes through the usual moments you've come to expect so let's move on.

While I expected weird and "out-there" from Paper Mario, zombies are kind of mundane and normal for a series that gave us Mario as a wrestler or Peach being the vessel for an ancient demon queen - after being sexualised by "I can't believe it's not HAL 9000."

Then the game quickly drops the grim facade for a while in favour of the usual jokes involving Luigi being useless, and the cringey gags you'd find in a Joss Whedon script. Mind you this is The Mushroom Kingdom, where the most troubling thing that befalls the locals is if Bowser kidnaps the Princess, or it's Go-Karting Wednesday.

The horror theme comes back during the ancient Egypt level to hype up a hole punch monster, as Toads with their faces removed wander and dangle throughout the corridors. Then it drops the facade again and goes back to wacky shenanigans when we find a discotech inside the temple. Just pick a fucking tone already, Paper Mario! Do you wanna be Silent Hill, or Scooby Doo?

The inconsistency began to annoy me around the time a party member killed themselves so we could advance. Considering characters get their faces removed or cut into pieces, I was actually surprised anyone could DIE in this universe. Our heroes have a little cry and vow they can't go on... Then Mario puts on a Goomba head, does his best Boris Johnson impression, and we quickly forget about it.

Now I say "party members", but those pinning for the days of Thousand Year Door's buddies are going to be shit out of luck. The only thing you'll get here is a party member who sticks around for a segment of the game, and they're pretty useless in battle... Stop crying.

As per Nintendo-Law, Mario finds himself with another comedy sidekick that varies between cute, to mildly irritating. F.L.U.D.D. at least doubled as a super soaker, Luma let you fly in space, and I was glad to be spared that "Cappy" nonsense, but Olivia is essentially Captain Obvious. She will stop the action to tell you the blindingly obvious while treating the player like an absolute cretin.

"Gosh Mario, your normal attacks won't do anything. If only you had a HAND-y way of using your HANDS on this boss with a sort of HAND attack cus that will help HANDle the situation. Wink wink. Nudge nudge!"

Speaking of which, I was fearful when the game introduced the 1,000 feet arms, and began instructing me on how the motion controls work. However, before I could put the game in my toaster and curse its entire existence, I thankfully noticed that you can turn the motion controls off in the options menu. Well done, Nintendo, for you seem to be coming around to the idea that motion controls are something most of us are frankly over at this point.

Having said that, I think a game like this is crying out for some voice acting, for this was the game that made me officially sick of reading text boxes. I'm not complaining about the story, that's not what I'm talking about. What annoys me is that everything has to come to a grinding halt, just so the characters can say "Look guys, A LADDER!!" and make a bunch of corny jokes about it.

I know humour is a highly subjective thing - and I'm the evil bastard that has 1000 jokes prepared for Tony Blair's funeral - but I would rather sit through Sonic's godawful attempts at humour than whatever the fuck this game thinks comedy is; With the lone exception of everything Bowser says/does in this game, for that is solid gold! I found his single parent "never say die" attitude truly adorable, and his little speech to Olivia near the end was priceless!

Back to text boxes: There are no means to speed these things up or mash a button to make them go away. I can understand why they don't have Link say anything, but the mime shit with Mario is really getting old; especially when after 35 years it would warm my heart if he dropped a bit of snark like this.

Bowser: Where would you be without me?
Mario: I dunno, probably enjoying life without you kidnapping Peach 24/7!

So the story is kind of "eh" so how about the gameplay?

I am aware recent Paper Mario titles have a "frosty" relationship with fans for not being Thousand Year Door, though I sadly haven't the experience to share in everyone's mutual hatred. I haven't played Sticker Star, Colour Splash, or that unwanted crossover with the Mario & Luigi series, so I'm judging this game without that baggage. So, with that in mind, I found Origami King to be a rather mixed bag.

The weakest aspect of the game can be found in the rather flimsy RPG battles. Instead of a standard turn-based combat arena, players are now tasked to rotate/slide sections of the circular grid to arrange foes in one of two different shapes. Once lined up correctly, the player can damage enemies with higher stats and reduce the risk of enemies striking back.

While this arrangement works, I kind of feel Nintendo and Intelligent Systems are attempting to fix something that wasn't broken to begin with. Speaking of things breaking, you can use secondary items such as boots or hammers that will break after a set number of uses.

This can get very annoying if you've found/bought a particular type of hammer for battle, only for it to break in half after maybe five or seven swings. You can also unlock 4 different transformations for Olivia, but strangely they're unreliable in combat. The magic icon rarely to never appeared in battles outside of boss encounters, and there use outside of battle were always situational.

Oh but that's okay, for you can always just "pay-to-win" battles if you're lazy!

I should explain: One feature you can use is to literally pay the audience of Toads coins to arrange enemies in the right combinations and replenish your health upon command. Granted it costs a total of 999 coins but this means you will never see the Game Over screen outside of boss battles. I mean Paper Mario isn't exactly the most challenging games in human history, but shelling' out the dosh really makes the game insultingly easy.

But you might be saying "Surely you'd want to save those coins to purchase items and weapons, right?" Not really... And don't call me Surely.

If you abuse the pay-to-win feature Toads will occasionally toss Mario secondary items, also items can be found in Coin Blocks or in random treasure chests. And lastly, the game will SHOWER you with far too many coins that you'll never know what to do with, so if you want the game to last an hour you could just have the Toads do all the work for you.

The secondary type of encounters with the papier-mâché goons felt more in-line with the main Mario series. You essentially hit these giant dillholes in a weak spot three or four times before they crumble into bits of shredded paper. I found these encounters highly cathartic to sneak up behind them and smash 'em in with a mighty hammer swing!

Before I quibble about this next bit, I'd like to briefly acknowledge all the hard work that probably went into the models for the main bosses. I don't know how to model things in 3D and wouldn't even begin to know how one goes about that sort of thing... But what the fuck is up with these lazy as hell Bosses?

Here are the main dungeon bosses in order of progression: box of coloured crayons, rubber bands, hole punch, Sellotape, scissors, and finally a stapler. Not anthro-versions of those objects or villains with those themes, literal 3D models of those objects that feel incredibly out of place with the rest of this cartoony world. I get this is the PAPER Mario series, but I think we're taking that aspect a bit too literally.

What's jarring to me about this is when you consider earlier games had more inventive bosses, character designs, and more imagination. Now it's basically the same Toads, Bowser minions, and objects that were probably on the designer's desk. I'm just waiting for the game where our heroes must fend off evil black and white clones of themselves created by a photocopier, or "The Laminator" comes back in time to stop Princess Peach becoming a monarch!

Outside of battles, you have a large overworld to explore that have puzzles to solve and mini-games that range in quality. The real drag of the experience is this tedious Shyguy gameshow that I really wish wasn't in this game, though I found this strange homage to Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker to be a little suspect.

As strange as this may sound, the one aspect of the game I truly enjoyed was the confetti. During the course of the adventure, segments of the map have been ripped out by the villains, and you are tasked with essentially repairing holes in reality by throwing confetti at it. You get confetti by smacking objects with your hammer, defeating enemies in battle, or in certain question blocks.

There is this almost creepy vibe about killing your enemies and using their bodies to fix holes in existence, which ultimately sounds like a much better game I'd rather be playing. You can also give confetti a cosmetic upgrade to become cherry blossoms during the Shogun Studios chapter.

The other amusement came from rescuing Toads that have been folded into various Origami formations by smacking them with your hammer. The incentive to find them is that they'll attend in the audience during the battles, and as we've established, they can play the game for you with the right price tag.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if the game ditched the Paper Mario franchise, which feels more like an obligation at this point, and focused on their new ideas then Nintendo could have another killer IP on their hands... For about 3 sequels before it gets dropped in favour of a new Fire Emblem, and the IPs only claim to fame will be "being in Smash Bros." At least F-Zero and Metroid will have company.

(Conclusion)
Paper Mario: The Origami King is a game that has its moments, but I'm probably never going to play it again in the near future. It doesn't take many risks, plays it far too safely, and seems more interested in being a comedy show than a serious gaming experience. If you've never played a Paper Mario game before, you may get some enjoyment out of the experience, but ultimately, you're still better off playing Thousand Year Door in all honesty.

Now if Nintendo released a game about fixing holes in reality with bags of confetti, that would be a truly unique experience.