Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)
Sep. 29th, 2017 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroWhen Luigi and Toad find a mysterious book in the castle's storeroom, they accidentally release the population of the Paper Mushroom Kingdom into their own—including Paper Bowser, Paper Bowser Jr., and Paper Kamek. Who proceed to team up with their 3D counterparts to kidnap both Princesses Peach and take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario to the rescue!
Paper Mario actually adds a new wrinkle to the standard M&L formula, because not only is he a third character (mapped to the Y button), but his copies make him play completely differently that the other two. (And even without them, his in-battle jumps are different.)
The abundance of minigames is amusing. Many of them are for catching the paper toads, but there are also Yoshi races, quizzes, pseudo-battles that switch things up, and assorted ways of catching the thief that stole all of the Bros attacks.
The kaiju battles (giant Bowser, giant Luigi) are replaced with papercraft battles that are more of an action game, rather than a glorified quick time event. Each new papercraft comes with a new set of quirks that set that battle apart, such as the Princess one being able to super-stomp and the Yoshi one being able to grapple across gaps / pull things closer.
By this point in the series, the fact that I saw the bean dig spots everywhere but couldn't do anything about them for a rather long time drove me nuts. You revisit a bunch of the areas naturally in the progression of the game (there are only half a dozen areas, though the revisits usually introduce something new), but there are still places that you need to just hike back to if you want to get the hidden secrets.
The story isn't really trying, but I'm not sure it really needs to. Luigi and Toad find a magic book, all of the Paper characters pour out, the Bowsers team up and kidnap the two princesses, and you need to rescue everybody. There are cute assorted side bits and complications, but this isn't literary brilliance. It's just fun, don't think too hard about it. (If you were actually that invested in rushing to save the princesses, then the constant distractions and digressions across the world map would likely drive you nuts. As it is, there's more of a, “Oh, that's what we're doing now? Okay.” feeling to it.)
Overall: Credit to the creators that each Mario & Luigi game has kept the same basic feel and gameplay but added enough quirks to make it feel like a different game. If you like non-series rpgs with action commands and lots of minigames, here you go (again).
Paper Mario actually adds a new wrinkle to the standard M&L formula, because not only is he a third character (mapped to the Y button), but his copies make him play completely differently that the other two. (And even without them, his in-battle jumps are different.)
The abundance of minigames is amusing. Many of them are for catching the paper toads, but there are also Yoshi races, quizzes, pseudo-battles that switch things up, and assorted ways of catching the thief that stole all of the Bros attacks.
The kaiju battles (giant Bowser, giant Luigi) are replaced with papercraft battles that are more of an action game, rather than a glorified quick time event. Each new papercraft comes with a new set of quirks that set that battle apart, such as the Princess one being able to super-stomp and the Yoshi one being able to grapple across gaps / pull things closer.
By this point in the series, the fact that I saw the bean dig spots everywhere but couldn't do anything about them for a rather long time drove me nuts. You revisit a bunch of the areas naturally in the progression of the game (there are only half a dozen areas, though the revisits usually introduce something new), but there are still places that you need to just hike back to if you want to get the hidden secrets.
The story isn't really trying, but I'm not sure it really needs to. Luigi and Toad find a magic book, all of the Paper characters pour out, the Bowsers team up and kidnap the two princesses, and you need to rescue everybody. There are cute assorted side bits and complications, but this isn't literary brilliance. It's just fun, don't think too hard about it. (If you were actually that invested in rushing to save the princesses, then the constant distractions and digressions across the world map would likely drive you nuts. As it is, there's more of a, “Oh, that's what we're doing now? Okay.” feeling to it.)
Overall: Credit to the creators that each Mario & Luigi game has kept the same basic feel and gameplay but added enough quirks to make it feel like a different game. If you like non-series rpgs with action commands and lots of minigames, here you go (again).
