SUPER LATE REVIEW: Paper Mario: The Origami King

 Paper Mario has two main things that distinguishes it from other Mario games:

- The fact that every character is made out of paper.

- The writing, which is probably the funniest that Nintendo produces.

The writing is not HA HA funny, but it definitely keeps things light, and the dialogue is constantly tongue-in-cheek. It's just refreshing and fun to play something that does not aim to be too dramatic, but which also tries to be a bit more mature than your typical Mario game.

Still, I was not expecting a Paper Mario game to give me a lesson on life and death, the meaning of both, and how to deal with grief. I will not go into much details, because there's always someone who has not played the game no matter when this is published, and this is a moment that is too good, too beautiful, to be messed with.

So The Origami King has great writing, but what about the rest of the game?

The story focuses on an evil king who conquers the Mushroom Kingdom through the fact that he knows how to fold its citizens. It's up to Mario, and the evil king's sister, to flatten everything back the way it was, and save the day. It sounds like a totally pedestrian story, and it might have been in less talented hands, but once again, the writing truly shines in the dialogues, which livens up the whole thing. And since the original jokes were all in Japanese, then I have to give props to the localization team, because everything sounds totally natural in English (and in French!).

The big change for this iteration of the series is the battle system. Every battles shows the bad guys on a bunch of stacked circles which must be rearranged to make the fight easier for Mario. Failing to complete this circle puzzle will not make it impossible to win, but you will take more damage and things will be tougher than they should be. The circle puzzles do take a bit of time to get used to, but thankfully there is a gym in Toad Town, the game's central hub, where you can practice those puzzles in various mini-games. Furthermore, if you are like me, which means that you can't wrap your head around puzzles that were probably designed to be completed by kids without frustrating them too much, then you can spend some coins to let a bunch of Toads rearrange the grid a bit for you and rough up the baddies at the same time. Once the fight actually starts, it's the usual Paper Mario system of jumps and hammers, with the expected bonus if you time your button presses just right with the animation.

The boss fights are a bit more difficult, however. Every boss has a different weak point, which must be exploited to triumph. Mario must navigate the circles himself this time, dodging obstacles and making his way to an attack point. This is done by rearranging arrows, and if it's starting to sound complicated, well, it kinda is! It took me until my fifth boss fight to get more comfortable with this system, but I'm sure that's a "me" problem because it makes sense once you figure it out. Still, I can see younger gamers being frustrated by it.

A big star of this show is the soundtrack. The music is exceptional this time around. Every area has its own, distinctive sound, which creates unforgettable atmospheres all over the game's world. Even the battle music adapts to the place you are visiting at the time. The soundtrack also goes through many genres, from rock music with a bit of a hard edge, all the way to classical music right out of Swan Lake. My favourite track is from Snif/Shroom City, some kind of Vegas hub in the middle of the desert. Coupled with Breath of the Wild's banger of a track for Gerudo Town, this is coincidentally the second game in which Nintendo assign their best tune to the sandy area.

Origami King's encourages the player to explore its gorgeous world by hiding collectible treasures and Toads in every nook and cranny. These can all be tracked easily via the menu, which indicates what percentage of each you have found and completed in every area of the game. So not only is that an incentive to keep going, it also makes it more rewarding because you don't feel like you are flailing around in the dark. 

But wait! There's more!

The collectible treasures are displayed in a museum in Toad Town, while the Toads that you rescue become a part of the crowd during your battles AND give you Toad points, which can be redeemed for EVEN MORE collectibles. A bigger crowd means that you have more help when you call for it. So keep exploring and saving those Toads, because it makes your life easier in the end.

I'd also like to mention the minigames that are scattered throughout the world. I've counted over a dozen of them, all of which will give you rewards like coins, items and trophies for completing them. The fishing game is simple enough, and reminiscent of Animal Crossing's fishing system, but it's the shuriken throwing game which made me go back on my steps more often than not.

While the game does have the usual suspects when it comes to overworld themes (water, forest, desert), I do want to congratulate Nintendo for thinking outside the box for most of the game. You get to visit a Universal Studio-like theme park, a haunted cruise ship, and a particularly peculiar spa. It's pretty refreshing to play an adventure that strays away from the established tropes every once in a while, or at least, tries to do something new with them.

I might be a few months late with this, but hey, it's in the title of the review. Still, I must declare Paper Mario: The Origami King my best game of 2020. This is of course subject to change as I keep going through the backlog which I have accumulated over this endless pandemic. But as I am writing these lines, there are no other games in the last year that have been as original, unexpected, or downright fun as this one.