Nintendo’s famous mustachioed plumber has headlined so many games, I wouldn’t be able to list them all in one or two breaths. A share of those titles are role-playing games and the latest addition, Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam for the Nintendo 3DS, attempts to build on its predecessors by making use of new in-game mechanics as well as hardware functionality.
The game’s plot focuses on the aftermath of the citizens from the world of Paper Mario (another fine RPG series, not counting Super Star) being spread higgledy-piggledy throughout the Mushroom Kingdom. This, as you might imagine, causes some issues. Two-dimensional duplicates of baddies like Bowser and Kamek now run amok. Thankfully, they are joined by Paper Mario, Paper Peach, more Paper Toads than you can shake a glue stick at.
With Paper Mario on your team, you have control of three characters rather than the usual two. This is all well and good for the overworld; Paper Mario’s flat frame can be manipulated to get around many of the obstacles created by the terrain. But in battle, it feels like too much.
In the Mario and Luigi series, battles are a very hands-on experience. Not only do you need to put in the correct button command when prompted on the screen (which buttons and such vary with each character) but you are expected to dodge/counter your enemies’ oncoming assaults. With just characters to manage, it was fine but with the addition of Paper Mario, keeping track of who is being targeted and when can be tough.
One new part of battles I did enjoy was the additional of the Battle Cards. You gain access to your first set a few hours into the game. Using the cards during an enemy encounter can cause effects like damage to certain enemies, boosting stats, or even increasing the rewards your reap post-battle.
The Battle Cards are also where the amiibo functionality is. When you use a special card item and then scan a compatible amiibo, you are granted a special Battle Card unique to the character the amiibo is based on. These Battle Cards cannot be obtained any other way. What I thought was nifty was that those special Battle Cards are stored on the amiibo, not the game save, and you can unlock more than one Battle Card per amiibo (24 to be exact). Simply scanning your desired amiibo during a battle will allow you access to the Battle Cards stored on it. The icing on the cake are the illustrations on these special cards. I only saw Yoshi’s and Bowser’s but, judging from those two, I can tell you that the card contain images from the entire range of the character’s history (note the Yarn Yoshi from Yoshi’s Woolly World along with Yoshi’s Island illustrations in the screenshot above).
Besides the issues with battles, the portions I liked the least were surrounding the giant papercraft. I can’t tell which part I disliked more: catching all those Paper Toads required to upgrade the thing or the actual battles. Actually, I take that back; it was the Toad part. Let’s take them one at a time. Rounding up the Paper Toads are set up as missions in the Lakitu Info Center. These quests are repetitive and just not fun. It would be one thing if they were “side quests” but they are obligatory.
And why do you need to collect a bunch of Paper Toads? To have them make these giant papercraft that your team fights with against Bowser’s own giant papercraft creation. They play like arena tank battles. Your attacks are charged by standing on a base and performing a little rhythm mini-game. Because that makes perfect sense. I don’t think I would have minded it as much as I did if they didn’t take so dang long. It takes several rounds to get to the Boss and even then, physical getting near the enemy takes a chunk of time. Papercraft Kamek’s teleporting especially drove me nuts.
I give Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam a 3/5. It had with potential but ultimately fell flat. It isn’t a bad game by any means, but it could have been awesome had they left certain features out.
Note: This review is based on a promotional copy of the game provided by Nintendo.