Paper Mario: The Origami King
Year: 2020
Rating: E
Time Played: 1,590 minutes / 26.50 hours
About ten years ago, I think Nintendo perfected a “craft” vibe with games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn that they’ve been milking for a decade now. These games look hand-crafted in a way that’s extremely charming and visually stunning for how homemade they appear. The Yoshi series has used this craft aesthetic multiple times, but the franchise ripe for such things is none other than Paper Mario. In The Origami King, the paper-craft feel of origami is merely accentuated by the plot and game-play.
As a pseudo role-playing game, The Origami King has a peculiar way of executing its battle mechanics. Each battle is a ring puzzle that requires the player to line up enemies or find a path to the center to attack the boss. The boots and hammers Mario uses are breakable, but easy enough to acquire and equip that it wasn’t frustrating to lose them in mid-battle. Occasionally, partner characters would help out in battle, which made things move that much faster. At the very least, I didn’t dread the random encounters.
This series is known for its grand storytelling, and this game is no exception. There are great character moments, even if some of the supporting characters feel a little bland/flat (har har) when compared to previous entries like Thousand Year Door. I’m still not sold on the 4th wall breaking bosses, though. The worlds weren’t entirely generic, but had some fun references that the adults would definitely get. Ultimately, though, this game looked great, was fun to play, had a unique gimmick, and gave me hope that the Paper Mario franchise isn’t dead yet.
A fun and creative “craft-like” Paper Mario game, I give Paper Mario: The Origami King 4.0 stars out of 5.
