The classic Mario game is back, but this time in paper form. I was pleasantly surprised when developers Intelligent Systems first developed this cross-genre video game. This is the sixth installation in the Paper Mario Series called Paper Mario: The Origami King. It has been available since July 2020, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch console. 

This game combines action-adventure elements with puzzles and role-playing (RPG), making it quite dynamic. It is a single-player game, meaning you cannot enjoy the paper goodness with friends on the Switch platform, which hurts more than a papercut.

Impressive Gameplay That Rewards Attention And Adventure

Long story short, you play Mario, who goes to Princess Peach’s castle for the Origami Festival. At the castle, you discover that the Origami King, Olly, has folded Princess Peach, Toads, and minions into origami versions of themselves. You set out on an adventure to make the world right and unfold as many allies as possible. Thus begins another cliché “hero saves Princess Peach” story again.

The gameplay and style of The Origami King are very similar to the preceding Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Color Splash. However, The Origami King abandoned the individual-level approach for a more organic world exploration approach. Although you can only access one new destination at a time, it still instills a sense of community as you move through the different locations. This dynamic gameplay has you battling bosses, wading through rapids, and solving puzzles.

The Paper Mario: The Origami King gameplay needs you to be more observant than ever. The clues and cards you need to progress are carefully hidden in the most unlikely places. The puzzle elements in the game are also interesting as they require a combination of hammering, jumping, and other special abilities to unlock them. The scripting of The Origami King is pretty good, using self-deprecating and self-aware jokes.

Impressive Yet Simplistic Battlefields

You battle many bosses and mini-bosses in your adventure, which keeps you on your toes. Battles are initiated in the real world but occur in a circular arena with Mario in the center. Once initiated, you snap into a battle arena where combat combines puzzle and game tactics, and the enemies are arranged in a puzzle disc of four rings with twelve sections. You try to rotate these rings so that the enemies are in a pattern that allows you to execute either the two-by-two square hammer attack or the four-rowed jumping attacks. 

This puzzle ring is supposed to be a continuation of the titular origami theme, but this attempt falls flat due to the overly complicated nature of the arena. In the arena, you take turns with the enemies, making moves until one is defeated. If done right, you can take out your enemies in one move. For most battles, you take a position in the middle of the puzzle disc until you have to face the bosses. 

The game switches up when you’re fighting the major bosses, with each boss taking center stage while you’re fighting them. This leaves you on the outside and with the arduous task of charting a course to defeat the boss. All of this happens with a timer on your head and a hard-to-kill boss giving you the best attacks, from the tortoise-like Earth Vellumental and the sea horse-looking water Vellumental to the Phoenix-like Fire Vellumental and the polar bear-looking Ice Vellumental. There are other stationery-based Legion bosses, such as the Rubber Band, who shoots rubbers at Mario.

The boss games can be frustrating because sometimes, executing a perfect attack after a long time may inflict zero damage, but it gets better with time. You can get some help from the toads you rescued, who, over time, serve as your spectators. The battlefield section starts quite interestingly but quickly gets boring and predictable. Although there are instances that surprise you, nothing much is done to switch up the overly simplified gameplay. You can attain almost certain success by figuring out the bosses’ weak points. As you proceed through the games, you also get a series of mini battles that attempt to bring variation.

Great Paper-Themed Graphics

I can’t get over this new installation’s great visual style that Intelligent Systems and Nintendo created. They made sure to milk every opportunity to remind you how unique this world is with stickers, papercraft, and paper-mâché themes littered all over the screen.

The world is colorful and vibrant, which makes the game more exciting than perhaps the actual gameplay.You can tell that the developers took great care with how they wanted every part of the world to feel. Some scenes and sections evoked enthusiasm and astonishment, which was in tandem with the game’s emotional flow. 

Weapons And Allies

The two main weapons you get for battles in this game are boots and hammers. They come in various forms, such as fire hammers, hurl hammers, gold boots, legendary boots, gold hammers, etc. These weapons come in at different times and unleash various levels of damage on your enemy.

You also get allies who perform more interactive roles than action roles. Olivia is your main ally and has a few cool tricks up her sleeve. There is Bob-omb, who is of very little help. However, they push the narrative forward and are more like NPCs.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, The Origami King is not a bad addition to the Mario paper game collection. But apart from character names, it lacks a major connection to the legacy Mario brothers. Fortunately, the developers found a way to infuse fun into an otherwise average game using cool visuals. The use of self-aware humor is refreshing and cute, but the game doesn’t deliver much on the gameplay battlefront. 

I believe there was an intentional attempt to minimize the RPG element of the game to accommodate casual players. Altogether, Paper Mario: The Origami King is very likable, well written, and visually stimulating but falls short as a shallow, predictable game that somehow underdelivers.

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