- Nintendo 3DS / Rated E / $39.99 / released January 2016
- OFFICIAL SITE: nintendo.com
- PURCHASE LINK: Amazon
- FINAL: You can SKIP this game. 2 out of 5 stars
It may not seem like much of a mash-up – Mario plus Another Mario – but Nintendo’s “Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam” is a painfully cute mix of two separate franchises that, for years, have shared more than just Mario himself. Both the “Mario & Luigi” series and the “Paper Mario” series traffic in turn-based combat and light adventure, peppered with minigames that test your reaction time. The differences between the two are largely in asthetic, with the traditional cartoon design of “Mario & Luigi” contrasted against the flat cut-outs of “Paper Mario.” In “Paper Jam,” these two sub-brands collide, resulting in a serviceable game that unfortunately doesn’t last beyond the initial joke.
The gag that plays out across hours of playing “Paper Jam” is how the paper world and the cartoon world mix. There are now two Bowsers – one flat, one round – and the bickering, villainous duo teams up to kidnap the two Princesses Peach. While the Peaches do not seem overly bothered by their imprisonment (Paper Peach reveals she can simply turn sideways to slip through the bars), it is up to two Marios and one Luigi to find their way to the Bowsers’ castle and liberate the kingdom.
In “Paper Jam,” you control all three heroes, leading them around the map like a family of ducks. When they encounter an enemy, the game flips to a turn-based battle system where you select the Mario Bros’ attacks and dodge incoming baddies. The trick is that each enemy has its own unique patterns that can be blocked and countered by pressing specific buttons during the attack.
With three heroes and dozens of enemies, “Paper Jam” battles can throw a lot of complicated situations at you, each requiring quick and accurate button responses. It’s very easy to miss the rhythm and flub a battle, and most encounters are just long enough that it’s not something you’ll feel like unecessarily repeating. “Paper Jam” quickly turns into a very strange loop, where you’re always fighting something new but being immediately punished for it because you have yet to learn the proper response patterns.
After you get past the “mirror universe” gags of the characters meeting their paper clones, “Paper Jam” doesn’t have much else to offer. Portions of it are surprisingly low-budget, like the idea that each mushroom-capped Toad town you discover has identical houses and shops. Previous “Paper Mario” and “Mario & Luigi” games established unique communities of different creatures, but “Paper Jam” is just one same Toad town after the next.
The Toads themselves also star in the game’s worst feature: an odd menu of Toad-herding challenges. Although likely intended to break up the game’s usual routine of exploring and combat, these events instead feel like complete roadblocks. The giant papercraft battles that follow Toad-rustling feature adorable cardboard versions of Mario-world characters, but they are marred by dull combat and an unworkably slow camera.
“Paper Jam” offers optional ways to cut through the game’s grind. You can fast-forward through just about every scene while still being able to read it. “Easy mode” shifts battles to your favor, and slows down the challenging reaction sequences. (Although this helps with some attacks, the throttled tempo is sometimes just as difficult for different reasons.) The game also has amiibo support, which amounts to free attacks and other bonuses if you own any of Nintendo’s compatible, scannable toys.
“Paper Jam” feels like two elder franchises were out of ideas, so the bare basics were poured into a blender and called done. It’s not a bad game, just surprisingly rough around the edges. “Paper Jam” skates by on the thin novelty of one Mario meeting another Mario, but this crossover isn’t over soon enough.
This review is based upon product supplied by the publisher. Image courtesy Nintendo of America.
