If you are a fan of the first Paper Mario “The thousand-year door”, which was released on Gamecube 22/07/2004, be prepared to be disappointed in many ways.

Before we move on to the actual game, let`s get one thing straight, the new Paper Mario The Origami King, is not a role-playing game. It`s more an adventure puzzle game.

So, if you were a fan, like me, of the old Paper Mario, it`s not really the sequel on Nintendo Switch which we were waiting for.

Furthermore, they only built in little to nearly non-existing JRPG elements and unfortunately the new combat system is quite annoying.

Let`s skip my grudge and get to the game itself.

The story:

Once again Mario and his friends must save the Mushroom Kingdom from being transformed into origami, by King Olly, who transforms inhabitants into origami and wraps the castle in multi-coloured streamers. To achieve that, Mario must travel to five different locations of the Kingdom. With the help of Olivia, Olly`s sister, he has to destroy the five streamers.

Gameplay:

Exploring the paper crafted world feels like any other Mario game. You can jump on enemies, hit boxes, stones, trees etc. with your hammer, solve puzzles and saving plenty of Toads. By hitting plants and rocks you shake free confetti, which you can collect and fill up holes in the world to get some coins or explore new paths.

You can also attack or be attacked by origami enemies, like Goombas, Shy Guys, Koopas etc.

Once a fight is triggered you end up in a fighting ring. The battles are half-puzzle, half-turn-based challenges. Normal fights put you in the center of the ring, with the enemies spread over the field. By sliding or rotating the different rings you can arrange the enemies so that they are aligned or in a group of four. If you manage to do so, you get an extra bonus on damage. After the arrangement follows the actual fight, where you can equip different weapons, like boots or hammers. Your weapons degrade by using them, so you must stock up those items, because the damage you deal is only determined by those weapons.

Boss fights are a bit different, because Mario is put on the outside of the ring and the Boss is in the middle. In these fights you have arrange arrows and other useful icons on the different rings to move Mario towards the center. These combats are definitely more challenging than the “normal” ones, because every boss has his own attack patterns, special attacks and weak points.

Besides the fights you can explore a huge, interesting world, full of secrets and funny scenes. You can look out for treasures, which are collectibles for the museum, search for hidden Toads and many more enjoyable side quests.

Compared to previous Paper Mario games, the world in which you travel through your journey, is a lot bigger and more diverse. You have the possibility to explore fields, valleys, caves, mines etc. Which helps to forget the boring and stubborn combat system.

Conclusion:

The new Paper Mario “Origami Kingdom” has a wonderful and charming world to discover and explore, with interesting boss fights and plenty of collectibles. On the other side, in my opinion, the game is not a worthy sequel to previous Paper Mario games. The regular fights are in some point annoying and your weapons degrade and break. You also find plenty of coins, which you can invest in useful items, but as already mentioned they are useless after some usage.

All in all, the game is quite fun to play, due to story, the huge world, and the challenging boss combats. But as already mentioned, if you are a fan of the classic JRPG Paper Mario games do not give it a shot.