Review – Paper Mario: The Origami King

July 25, 2020August 2, 2020 Pendragon article, common sense, criticism, critique, information, judge, judgement, opinion, origami king, Paper mario, parent, parent's guide, rating, Review, suitable, video

Courtesy of the folks at Nintendo today I’m bringing in a full review and common sense parent’s guide for Paper Mario: The Origami King. This new 2D title in a 3D world is one I’ve had my eye on for a little while. As ever find the full review video just here, and read on for the full written review

The Basics

It’s been a long time since I’ve headed into the papercraft world of Paper Mario, and I’ve been really happy to see that Origami King has lost none of the charm which the sub-series used to bring. You’ll journey with your “but wafer-thin” Mario through a bright and beautiful card-and-paper world, joined by origami pal Olivia.

Within the Staples-store reimagining of the Mushroom Kingdom you’ll find new and old friends, and work alongside even old enemies in order to defeat the nefarious King Olly. Hopefully, you and the new Mario Gang can stop his evil antics, before he turns all of the smooth paper world into Origami. You’ll find power-ups as well as items to help you along your way, and put an end to his atrocities once and for all.

Outside the general exploration, which contains some light combat in itself, you’ll battle enemies using a new ring-based battle system. Whether it’s a quick fight, a wave battle or one of the larger stationary inspired bosses, these simple puzzle mechanics bring something different to the franchise.

While it’s pretty family friendly, there can be some weird cult-like moments throughout the title

Parent’s Eye View

Paper Mario: The Origami King is rated by PEGI at 7 and above, and by the ESRB as E for Everybody. There’s a fair amount of cartoon violence in here, as you would likely expect if you’ve ever seen Mario before. While the ring battle system does provide this in a different context, it’s mostly a similar level, with pretty kid-friendly battles.

One thing to note is fear. While I don’t think it’ll cause a huge issue, the origami imposters taking over the land can be genuinely creepy. For the vast majority it’ll not be a problem, but if you have an especially-anxious young one, there’s an almost Coraline lie “Other Mother effect.

Overall, with the bright and bold visuals and simple cartoon battle sequences, as you may have guessed I’m giving this one the green light as a family-friendly fun, and perfect for the younger generation.

The Run Down

Visuals – Great: In both docked and handheld modes, the visuals for Paper Mario: The Origami King are pretty splendid. The different styles of papercraft have been well implemented, and you can genuinely believe you’re running around a little diorama world. As ever with Paper Mario, the 2D characters and their movement within the 3D world has been really well animated, with a load of little touches to polish off the visual content.

Audio – Great: Your adventure is set alongside a wonderful classical score, with all the joy and playfulness you’d expect from the Mario franchise. It would have been improved slightly with some full voice acting, but I’ve kept this one up at Great simply because it’s not really expected from the franchise

Narrative – Great: Again, I know, you wouldn’t really expect anything less from Mario. There are old faces and new here, and a lovely new narrative which will see you working alongside even old enemies in order to bring the Paper-Mushroom Kingdom back into order. Again, it doesn’t rely on the much-overdone “bowser has stolen your girlfriend” trope, which is really a breath of fresh air.

Replay – fair: With the more narrative based gameplay, there’s not an opportunity to skip back to levels as you can with the main Mario franchise. This of course doesn’t lend itself brilliantly to playing again through old levels, though the narrative adventure itself is great to follow and has kept me and the Micro-Bandits engaged.

The ring base battle system could definitely do with more nuance for adults, but will be great for kids

The Verdict

Overall the Pixel Bandits It’s-a-me Level for Paper Mario: The Origami King is Grab It. This is a great title which manages to retain the feel of the franchise, while bringing a new story and new battle mechanics.

There’s one niggle I have from an adult perspective and that’s simple that the battle system could have definitely done with more depth and nuance. Even through he main boss battles this has been fairly straight forward, and for me not too taxing from a strategic point of view. I have to acknowledge though, that while we love it, the Mario titles really are aimed more toward the younger generation. This level of complexity, I think, is going to be really in their wheelhouse.

With this aim in mind, a great story, wonderful visuals and audio, I think Paper Mario: The Origami King is perfect for the younger generation. So much so, in fact that it wins the first of our newly created Pixel Bandits Family Hit awards, which will be given to excellent titles which are geared towards family play.

Pick It Up

If This one has tickled your gaming tastebuds, you can grab it on;