Review: Paper Mario: The Origami King (Nintendo Switch)
Face off against the Origami King and his army of paper invaders, team up with some extraordinary companions, and master magical powers on your quest to save the world.
Pros:
- Beautiful graphics.
- Download size.
- Ongoing tutorials as you play.
- Action-adventure game.
- Motion controls-on/off.
- Confetti-falls from trees (you hit them) and use confetti to fill in holes in the ground.
- Olivia-your helpful companion. She is the sister of the big bad. She helps you throughout the game and you can call upon here at will.
- 3D world.
- Humor throughout.
- Combat-wave and turn-based. It takes place on a circle and you can use actions to move the rings of the circles or slide enemies, the reason for this is to line/group up enemies so you can do a big series of attacks.
- A button is used to combat a lot. Press it as you are attacking to deal extra damage, press it as you are being attacked to block some damage.
- You see enemies in the world and can get an opportunity attack.
- Save blocks you hit.
- Cheerful soundtrack.
- Separate save slots for each account on the Nintendo Switch.
- Toad points–earn a point every time you rescue/find a toad. Spend them in the museum to unlock images of your locations.
- Museum-shows off all your collectibles, encountered enemies, insects, and music tracks.
- Collectibles-secrets to be found are items from the Mario universe.
- Toads are hidden everywhere and can be in trees and even be insects.
- Find and unlock new music tracks.
- Pipes-unlock shortcuts and numbered ones will take you to a pipe hub world part where you can jump between areas.
- 1 up mushroom-allows you to revive after dying.
- Main town hub with many shops.
- Training room-go in and practice all aspects of combat and take on a set of tasks with ring placements.
- Buy/find/earn new weapons and items to use in battle, they degrade over time.
- New enemies are unveiled over time and introduce new mechanics.
- End of battle breakdown-earns coins based on performance and get bonus coins for not getting hit and solving the puzzle placement.
- Many hidden areas and blocks.
- 100 percent sticker pop up when you have done all of the confetti fill-ins.
- Toads can be paid in a battle to damage to enemies, the more you rescue and have watched you in the bleachers, the more options and damage you can have them do.
- Benches-sit and get all your health restored.
- Replayability in areas as you unlock new shortcuts and abilities.
- Boss fights-they add more puzzle to combat as you must line up arrows and attempt to get pickups on the ringed arena.
- Can replay boss battles.
Cons:
- Difficulty spikes.
- Boss fights are long and drawn out.
- Hard to judge jumps and attacks in the game world.
- No replay value.
- Little reason to care about collectibles.
- Slow starter.
- Can at times feel lost with no help from your “helper”.
- Combat outstay its welcome and becomes a long laborious task.
- Items breaking seems like a cheap way to add difficulty.
- Tedious platforming sections.
- Graphics - 8/108/10
- Sound - 7/107/10
- Accessibility - 8/108/10
- Length - 8/108/10
- Fun Factor - 7/107/10
Summary
Paper Mario to me felt like it wasn’t sure it knew what it wanted to be? The roaming around the world is all fine and totally playable but then they jam in a long drawn out combat system that is very Marmite. I don’t mind the combat personally but I did mind how much time it took to just get through an encounter, it sucked so much enthusiasm out of it all, then if that wasn’t enough they make it even longer and headache-inducing by making boss fights the combat style but times 10 and adds in puzzle-like elements with arrows and hot spots for attacks. I am so conflicted with Paper Mario overall as outside of combat I find it fun and just another Mario, but the combat always produces a sigh because of its length and repetition. I will continue to play it as if I do just short little sessions then it’s not as troublesome but I cannot marathon it as I want too. Overall its a Mario game through and through but with shoes in overly time-consuming combat interactions.