Paper Mario adds a new twist to proceedings
Enemies pack a cerebral punch
Superb writing and animation bring🀅 the story to life
Diverse blend of RPG
platformer
and more
You might miss the old-school sprites
Overly familiar for some series veterans
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Princess Peach, taking a long look at the two Bowsers (one familiar, one made of paper) marauding aroundℱ the throne room of her opulent castle, sighs heavily. Turning to her own paper counterpart, she complains about her imminent kidnapping. “It’s this part of the story again, huh?” The po-faced princess of the Super Mario Bros games never utters anything beyond “MAAAAAAAAARIO”, she’s vapid, useless, and all-around rubbish. Paper Jam’s ravishing royal, on the other hand, is knowing, witty and rather capable despite her tendency to end up as a damsel-in-distress.
That’s Paper Jam, and the wider Mario & Luigi series in a nutshell, really: this is the Mushroom Kingdom you know and love, except funnier, weirder, and often downright more interesting. Few developers would get away with the liberties that AlphaDream takes with Nintendo’s most precious characters, but with such a great track record it’s easy to see why Nintendo is happy to let the team run wild. Over the years, they’ve sent the Mario Bros. on quests to tackle a toad obesity crisis, explore the depths of Bowser’s innards, and fight off an alien invasion with the help of their infant selves. This time, the worlds of Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi collide, leaving papery allies and enemies strewn across the world, as well as double the threat from the aforementioned Bowser duo. Of course, it’s not long before the perma-schtum Paper Mario and the pseudo-Italian babbling ﷺbrothers team up to get things back to normal.
What follows sticks closely to the tried-and-tested Mario and Luigi formula. Make no mistake, this is an M&L game with Paper Mario guest-starring, not the other way around. Making a welcome return is the turn-based battling of previous entries, in which timing is more crucial than boring number-crunching. The standard jump atta🙈ck becomes an acrobatic double strike with a perfectly timed button press, and the ultra-satisfying hammer-thwock noise (plus oodles of damage) only occurs if you strike at the opportune moment.
Even when enemies attack you, there’s no obligation to just stand there and t🥀ake it, you can always dodge, or even counterattack, with some deft𓃲 fingerwork. Also back is the Dream Team Bros art style, and while I still miss the crisp sprite-work of the first three games, animations remain as delightfully characterful as ever.
One of Bowser’s frequent tricks is to send giant, papercraft enemies to stop you proceeding. Luckily, you’ve got a few papercraft creations of your own (hefted around by some poor toads). Battles between these hulking, origami brutes play out like a weird, real-time 3D brawler punctuated with rhythm action sections which recharge your paperc🐭raft. They’re a 🔯welcome change of pace, much like the giant battles of Bowser’s Inside Story, despite being one of the weaker elements of the game.
| Genre | Action RPG |
| Description | Mario and his brother, Luigi, return to 3DS for another RPG adventure, only this time their 3D world is teeming with 2D enemies and even 2D versions of themselves. |
| Platform | "3DS" |
| Release date | 1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK) |
