Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Review

I wish those hunts had been more like the more energetic and surprising sumo-style papercraft battles. These bouts between huge house-sized representations of Mario and friends played out like a sort of slow-paced Mario Kart battle mode. Papercraft challenges were spread out just enough to avoid becoming repetitive, and each new arena introduced a unique twist on the action that kept things fresh.

When those obstacles got out of the way – which wasn’t often enough – I welcomed chances to engage in the beating heart of Paper Jam: the deep battle system. In a single encounter I could juggle cooperative Bros. Attacks, powerful Trio combos, harrowing paper-airplane escape sequences, and augmentations from my custom battle-card deck. Amiibo character integration offers rewarding effects, and my Yarn Yoshi was rarely far from my side thanks to his handy card-duplicating powers. The sheer variety of options would have been overwhelming, but abilities are smoothly doled out over nearly 30 hours, allowing me to master each in turn.

Every power seems useful in multiple situations. Regular encounters rarely feel routine, and the boss fights are superbly orchestrated to stretch my skills. Old mechanics I’d almost forgotten sometimes proved necessary in surprising moments, but most techniques are easily practiced with helpful interactive training sessions that are available even in the middle of combat, allowing me to tune up my skills before an important attack.

All of this takes place in a version of the Mushroom Kingdom where environments are colorful but uninspired. Cookie-cutter plains, forests, and mountains zones are largely devoid of any particularly interesting landmarks that might distinguish them from any other Mario game. Equally bland is the story and dialogue. The occasional one-liner hits home, but for the most part this is a simple slog toward Bowser’s Castle with little more personality to it than in the original Super Mario Bros.’s “Save the princess!” quest, interrupted with a near-endless series of uninteresting characters and increasingly annoying obstacles.

As the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom are mostly static personalities, Mario RPGs typically rely on guest characters to provide a sense of growth and dramatic development, but Paper Jam neglects to introduce anyone new worth caring about, and the result is an RPG without a sense of consequence. The paper incarnations of familiar characters are cute but predictable, and the legions of Toads are generic fodder without memorable personalities. Potential comedic subplots involving treacherous mirrored incarnations of Bowser or ruminations by the two Peaches simply fizzle. I desperately hoped that as the duplicate princesses chatted and gained insight into one another’s’ mirrored personalities they’d build their assertiveness into a more active role in the story, but the moment the Marios arrive it’s damsel-in-distress business as usual. Without character development or consistent laughter, Paper Jam often feels dull and grindy.

The sense of frustration is compounded by the overly linear framework of the quest. The bulk of Paper Jam is spent journeying from Peach’s castle toward Bowser’s fortress, with nearly every step dogged by walls, pits, and impasses. After hours of having literal piles of junk dumped in your path, repeatedly climbing steep ascents after missing jumps, and stopping for the occasional Toad Hunt, I finally reached Bowser… only to be forced back to the beginning so I could traverse the same areas again and climb back to the big bad. What a waste of time.