Paper Mario: The Origami King Review

I’m a fan of the Paper Mario franchise. I’ve been one for over a decade. I’ve had bits of dialogue and gameplay memorized for years. I routinely listen to the music. I replayed Super Paper Mario last month. I even wrote a piece on the franchise’s decline when I was working for Nintendo Enthusiast! The games mean a lot to me.

So I was confused by Paper Mario: The Origami King being announced two months before its release; after all, why not do it a year ago? It doesn’t spell confidence when you shove it out last-minute. Still, I remained optimistic. The game looked solid, so why shouldn’t I have been? Yeah, diehard fan backlash was unsettling, but diehard fans aren’t the be-all-end-all. What really matters is if a game’s solid.

Paper Mario: The Origami King starts with Mario and Luigi heading to Princess Peach’s castle for an origami festival. Once there, they realize something’s off. For one, Princess Peach not only looks weird, but she sounds weird. And two, The Mushroom Kingdom’s barren, with no Toads in sight. An origami creation named King Olly has taken over in an attempt to shape it to his liking. Now it’s up to Mario, together with Olly’s sister Olivia, to restore balance.

One of the downsides to the Paper Mario franchise over the years has been prioritizing experimentation over quality. It began with Super Paper Mario, slowly rotting with the succeeding two entries. Fortunately, this one fixes much of that by reverting to something that works. It borrows from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars with its over-world and battle mechanics, all while maintaining the simplicity in story of the original two Paper Mario entries. There’s some missed potential, more on that later, but it works.

I’m not kidding, either. Paper Mario: The Origami King, while tinkering with the franchise again, is the most straightforward and fun entry since Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It opts for a puzzle/grid battling system, in which you line up enemies for maximum damage, instead of a turn-based approach, but the additional strategy makes the fights more interactive and exciting. Doubly-so the boss fights, where you guide Mario to the enemy and think in 3-dimensions.

And the over-world? It’s standard fare, but with a twist. Mario traverses the different areas and interacts with NPCs, many of whom are pre-programmed with humour, tragedy, charm, or all three, but there’s the additional component of fixing the damage Olly’s done. Any destroyed areas can be patched with confetti, something you collect at various locations. And there are Toads hiding everywhere, giving additional incentive to explore everything.

The music and aesthetics are also lovely. This is the first entry for the Switch, a console that’s portable and stationary, and it takes advantage. Whether it’s the battle tunes, using the console’s motion controls for puzzle solving, or admiring how much attention to detail went into the game’s look, there’s no shortage of awe-inspired imagery. This is good, as it helps to compensate for the occasional parts that can be frustrating, like when grid puzzles don’t co-operate.

I have some minor gripes about the mechanics. I’m disappointed that conventional level grinding doesn’t exist. The first two Paper Mario entries had you collecting Star Points that could be cashed in for upgrades after you defeated enemies in battle. This had limitations, but it made battling more enticing. Paper Mario: The Origami King, however, has none of that. Instead, you’re forced to find heart containers scattered throughout the over-world. It’s not a bad trade-off, but it’s not “great”.

I also don’t like how your allies only do so much. Mario and Olivia encounter several of them throughout the game, but they’re not great fighters and you can’t always access to them. You also don’t get to control them in combat, robbing you of fighting possibilities. I honestly found them hit or miss: when they’re helpful, they’re incredibly helpful. But when they’re unhelpful, they’re practically useless.

Finally, I don’t like how most of the battle accessories have limitations. Mario can equip different boots and hammers to make fights easier, which they become with them at hand. Yet while I appreciate the strategy of learning when to use them, counting down until they break is frustrating. It’s a problem I have with modern Zelda games too, and I long for the Badges of earlier entries.

Did I mention the game is funny, though?

Overall, this is a great entry in a franchise that was previously on life-support. Is it the “best” Paper Mario game since the first two? No, and I wouldn’t rank it above Super Paper Mario. But it sits comfortably at fourth place. Not to mention, it’s a return to form that has you battle origami animals alongside artist tools as bosses. If that’s not enough creativity to sell the game, I’ll eat my paper crane!