Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

There are many game series that undergo drastic style shifts as the developers pursue new ideas or technology allows for different types of gameplay, but Paper Mario’s shift away from story-focused role-playing games is perhaps one of the more widely maligned. While the series definitely stumbled in establishing its new identity since the shift, Paper Mario: The Origami King nearly feels like the developers have finally realized where they want to go with the new exploration-focused adventure angle, to the point a clean break would have done wonders for opening the hearts of potential players. Had the name Paper Mario not existed before this title, it could have been perceived more as the world of Super Mario reimagined in a paper style similar to how Yoshi’s Woolly World and Kirby’s Epic Yarn both explored their arts and crafts aesthetic, and more people would have likely been open to giving it a shot. I’ve said before that I try not to let a series history taint my perception of a title that shifts into a new genre, and while games like Hey, Pikmin! unfortunately flopped in their attempts to try it, Paper Mario: The Origami King is a sterling example of how a game can be immensely enjoyable if viewed as an independent entry.

Paper Mario: The Origami King wastes little time in setting up the stakes for your adventure. In this world, the inhabitants and their environment are made of paper and other forms of papercraft, a fact they are not only aware of but embrace in different ways. One such way is the celebration of an origami festival, but it turns out, when paper beings are folded up into origami themselves, it distorts their world view and makes them almost zombie-like in their desire to fold up the rest of the world. After Princess Peach herself is brought into the fold, the perpetrator of the origami invasion reveals himself, King Olly aiming to make the entire world into his loyal origami kingdom. Perennial hero Mario tries to set things right, but after the princess’s castle is captured and bound in streamers, he must travel the world to find the anchor points of each streamer so he can unravel the castle and stop Olly’s plot.

While Mario himself is a silent protagonist, he is joined on his adventure by the king’s origami sister Olivia. Olivia is one of the few other people in the world who can fold origami, but she aims to help Mario out with her knowledge, capable of folding herself and others into useful forms that allow you to get around environmental puzzles or even assist in battles. Olivia begins as a fairly typical companion, but the game takes advantage of the fact she’s your only consistent travel companion and able to speak when Mario otherwise can’t participate in the conversation. Olivia is quickly established as absolutely ecstatic to have a chance to see the world, her sheltered life beforehand meaning she barely has any context for the things she’ll see on your adventures to distant lands. When Mario finds his old nemesis, the giant fire-breathing turtle Bowser, folded into a square with only his face showing, Olivia immediately believe that this commander of an entire army has always been a face and is impressed with how much deference others give such a humble creature. She takes things at face value, since when someone humbly declines an offer or tries to spin a dangerous path as fun, she believes them and sees little reason to question why they did it. Olivia is definitely the heart of the adventure, feeling the impact of its highs and lows and being delightful while doing so. One scene in particular stands out is one that didn’t need to exist but adds a lovely bit of character to her. Hopping aboard an elevator, this origami princess shyly requests a chance to do something she’s always wanted to do: pretend to be an elevator operator.

It’s easy to get attached to your little companion, but she’s not the only interesting character on your quest. A living bomb named Bomb-omb joins you for a while as a partner, Olivia’s nickname of Bobby helping him stand out from the others of his species. Bobby sticks with you for a surprisingly long time, so much so that he manages to have an entire character arc that makes him a surprisingly memorable character despite technically having a generic name. At another point, Bowser’s wizard assistant Kamek tags along, and hearing him explain how he gets by as the right-hand man to a constantly failing villain makes this perhaps my favorite look at the character I’ve seen yet. Our antagonist unfortunately falls into the background for quite a lot of the quest, and some characters like Professor Toad are more defined by their role rather than having any outstanding personality traits, but Paper Mario: The Origami King keeps its lens focused on a select few to help them shine, and other characters like Mario’s brother Luigi continue to have fun brief highlights that make them a delight to see.

One thing that makes up for a lot of generic side characters though is a world that is a joy to explore. While some might still attach the RPG genre to this game due its combat mechanics, Paper Mario: The Origami King really feels more like it’s about exploring the world and solving little puzzles along the way, almost making it closer to an adventure game in the vein of point-and-clicks. Your quest sends you around the world, and there are many incredibly creative places to be found along your adventure. One stand-out has to be the ninja theme park that culminates in a multi-genre stage play that even includes a parody of West Side Story just because it felt like it would be fun to do so. Turning up to a new location is always exciting as you wait to see what will show up next, and while there are a few spots that sound conceptually generic like an autumn-themed mountaintop, they’re usually part of a larger area. You may find yourself in a forest, but the weird whispering makes it more than just a starting grassy area. You turn up to a desert, but the sun has been stolen from the sky and the nearby city has turned from humble bazaar to a seedy city of lights thanks to the new inhabitants. The game isn’t only trying to think of a new place to take you next, but it tries to make exploration of it feel different as well, and while there are dungeons full of enemies to explore along the way, those often get to really dive into the puzzles that ensure you’re still active outside of battling.

Even when you’re not solving puzzles, Paper Mario: The Origami King has plenty of diversions that keep you active and reward you for engaging with them. King Olly’s forces have torn up chunks of the land, so by filling the holes with confetti you can get coin rewards or access special areas. The mushroom-headed Toads who inhabit the land have all but vanished, but that’s because the Folded Soldiers have tormented them by folding them up, crumpling them, cramming them in places, and otherwise turning them into a massive scavenger hunt with its own associated rewards. Every Toad you find becomes a potential asset since they all sit in the bleachers and watch any battle you participate in, willing to help with healing items, strategy suggestions, and weak attacks for the right price. Some Toads though play vital roles like running shops, but like many characters in the game, the Toads are used for a lot of humor.

The writing in this title manages to build up its focus characters while also turning the world into a wonderfully humorous place, plenty of light-hearted quips, jokes about the paper world, and sight gags making it so that Paper Mario: The Origami King can frequently put a smile on your face. At other times though, it is happy to be a little eerie with the origami threat, evoking the kind of kid-friendly horror a game like Luigi’s Mansion is better known for but able to take it even further because its citizens are made of paper. Characters can be sliced to pieces and put together wrong and yet, because they’re made out of paper and sometimes still able to speak after it, it softens the blow while still being eerie if you stop and think about what exactly is happening here. The enemy manages to feel threatening because of how often it dips into this spookier tone, yet on the other hand much of the world is filled with funny moments and silly situations that keep things jolly overall.

Creative use is made of paper and its associated materials throughout, making for a world that is packed with conceptual variety, and during the moments you traverse it or spend time engaging with the optional tasks like the Toad scavenger hunts, there is very little to fault. The adventuring is done excellently, but the RPG side of the Paper Mario series is perhaps lingering past the point it should have been completely shed. The world is filled with the Folded Soldiers who serve Olly, classic Mario enemies folded into evil origami forms that are fought in a curious battle system. Mario stands in the middle of a set of four rings that can be spun around or have vertical slices be moved forward and back. When regular enemies attack Mario, they position themselves in these rings, and to hit as many as you can and get a power bonus, you need to line them up so you can either jump on them in a row or hit a cluster of four with your hammer. It’s not bad conceptually, they are all essentially puzzles and they get more complications as the game goes on, the player having to really think how to use their limited moves to set up the situation properly. If you can’t line it up right, they get a turn to attack, and even the humblest of foes like the Goomba can deal a fair bit of damage, meaning that lining things up right is vital to avoid losing too much health across the different fights.

Making these regular enemies tough is actually a wise decision, mainly because the fight is clearly more about the puzzle than the combat. You fail the puzzle, you get punished with some damage, and you try again on the next attacking round. However, the combat has more going on to it than just this. You have different levels of equipment for jumps and hammer swings that determine the strength of them, and if you don’t realize you can stock up on the strongest stuff and use it pretty safely, it slows down these regular battles a fair bit. Doing so does cost a fair bit of coins though, your battle reward and reward for interacting with the environment often cash that gets funneled into a lot of things. Some are useful like permanent accessories that change your stats, buying new equipment that can be equipped freely in a fight is a good way of speeding up skirmishes, and you can buy extra time to solve ring puzzles or call in Toad support with it. However, it is also specifically drained by situations in the world to try and prevent you from hoarding, such as needing to buy access into a place or using it for a coin-operated tour of a cave. The coin system isn’t the real problem here though as it feels like a smart use of it and frequent deviation to side tasks will keep you right around a good amount, but the frequency of regular fights wears down the design of normal battles.

Facing the same enemies multiple times doesn’t get more interesting even if you shuffle them around a bit to make the puzzle harder, and the puzzle element slows these battles down a fair bit as you need to figure them out. There aren’t too many required fights with regular foes overall and many can be avoided, but it’s clear that the better course of action would have been to have more unique ring battles with regular grunts instead of just having more battles total. Enemies I barely fought at all like the Stingby bees and the Piranha Plants ended up more interesting and challenging by being sparse and thus were an injection of something fresh when faced, especially since you need to learn how to time button presses to guard properly and you can’t be sure what attack is coming your way with the new foe. When it’s something new you’re up against, the ring battles are a suitable form of combat, but the game even seems to have an idea for a suitable replacement for more regular fights. Paper Macho Soldiers exist in the environment and are not fought in turn-based ring battles. Instead, you fight them by running around them and swinging your hammer in real time, needing to figure out their weaknesses and keep yourself safe in a fight befitting an action title instead of an RPG. Even some bosses use this style, and while the ring battles could still have their place, having more quick battles in real time like this could have alleviated some of the tedium of regular skirmishes.

However, one thing that never gets old are the boss battles fought in an a wildly different take on ring battles. Rather than Mario standing in the center, Mario is now on the outside, the boss in the middle of the rings and surrounded by tiles with different effects. The player needs to arrange arrows on the rings to move Mario to spaces where he can attack or use special origami skills, and things like hearts and power-ups can appear on the rings to incentivize taking a longer route to the boss. The angle of your approach can be vital to actually hurting some bosses and each one has weaknesses and tricks to suss out, some even tampering with your ability to customize the ring paths. One might lay flaming traps that hurt to pass over, another will tape rings together so they can’t spin independently of each other, and some will tamper with panels to invalidate them or completely knock them away. These definitely do the puzzle combat idea much better as you need to weigh the variables at hand to maximize your effectiveness, and the bosses make it all the more interesting with how strange they are and how creative their powers are.

The elementally associated creatures known as Vellumentals are mostly just forces of nature who are interesting in how they fight rather than what they are, but King Olly’s Legion of Stationary is both hilarious and surprisingly imaginative. You might think this comment strange when you go up against a giant box of colored pencils, but not only does the lead up to the fight involve avoiding a rocket barrage but with flying pencils, but the boss himself manages to have the personality of an uptight and snooty artist despite literally being art supplies. A roll of tape has a Brooklyn accent just because, and the giant hole punch is incredibly passionate about dancing. Their ties to the paper world become apparent too, as almost all of them can maim the paper people with ease, and some can devastate Mario with their associated powers if you aren’t careful. For example, the hole punch will little take holes out of Mario’s body and trim down his max health in doing so, the player needing to try and recover them to keep healthy, the aggressive office supplies proving to be inventive and intense foes to face that ensure the battle system still has plenty of highlight moments to make up for the basic battles growing stale.

THE VERDICT: If you check your expectations for a Paper Mario title at the door, Paper Mario: The Origami King provides a wonderful world to explore packed with character, creativity, and humorous writing. Some of the lingering RPG mechanics like the regular RPG battles feel out of place and a little tedious, but the boss fights are exciting and inventive thanks to the twists to ring combat feature, and the journey itself continues to whip out new ideas for how you can explore it while sprinkling in side activities to keep you engaged. Your partner Olivia is a delightful lens for viewing a world that keeps providing interesting new concepts, so while it’s weighed down a touch by the series’s baggage, most of Paper Mario: The Origami King still turns out be a great adventure game.

And so, I give Paper Mario: The Origami King for Nintendo Switch…

A GREAT rating. Even though calling this Paper Mario is more fitting than almost any other entry in the series due to the many creative ways it finds uses for the aesthetic, that name does it its biggest disservice. Many of the game’s small issues could have likely been fixed if it had been willing to throw off the shackles of the past entirely and chose to embrace the new ideas that make it such a compelling play. The creative uses of the ring battle system show it is a valuable part of the title and every boss fight that uses it as a highlight for its twists on the formula, but the regular enemies could have been dialed back in number to ensure that component doesn’t wear thin. So much more attention is spent on the world and its exploration anyway, and the Paper Macho Soldiers intelligently integrate into that, so devoting more time to them instead of repeats of ring battle opponents would allow for the quicker combat of regular play to keep you active while the ring battles become the proper engaging puzzles by being more reserved in their distribution.  Beyond that, while giving more character to the Toad characters and such would have added more depth to the adventure of course, there are still plenty of enjoyable scenes and lovable characters to pick from already, and the jolly tone so much of it is delivered with keeps it a pleasant romp. The brushes with unsettling ideas are done to make the enemy seem more intimidating and the bosses themselves pack powerful moves despite often goofy personalities, so the foes feel like a proper threat on top of it all instead of the whole game becoming a farce.

I do feel for the fans of classic Paper Mario and would turn any of them aching for a new entry to the fantastic Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling to get their fix, but Paper Mario: The Origami King does a stellar job with its direction for a Mario adventure and would have succeeded much more if it could fully break away from the past of this series. Paper Mario: The Origami King has a lot of heart and thought put into it and shines for it, so if you want to go on an irreverent and inventive adventure in a strange take on Mario’s world, it definitely delivers. Whatever debate there is to have about the state of this uneven franchise is unrelated to the quality offerings found in this delightful Switch title.