Nintendo is damn good at taking old things and making them new again. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is an excellent example of this, taking from two established franchises and producing a game that’s fresh and, most importantly, a joy to play.
Paper Jam borrows quite heavily from both Paper Mario and the Superstar Saga franchises, combining them to make some magical and new. The charm of both properties lends to the other, and the result is an adorable little romp through rhythmic RPG land.
Superstar Saga is really the base of the game, with Paper Mario really just thrown into the mix. As a player, you’re tasked to control three characters – Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario – with three different buttons. A and B on the 3DS gamepad are for Mario & Luigi, respectively, and the Y button is Paper Mario himself.
When traversing around the world of Paper Jam, those three buttons are really important. If something’s too high, the three brothers can combine their efforts to propel Paper Mario upwards. All it takes is a well-timed press of A, then B, then Y. The same can be said for dashes around the environment as well.
In the short time I had with Paper Jam, I was tasked to locate seven Paper Toads. Some were easy to find, provided you thought like a grouping of three; you needed to combine to reach tall cliffs, as an example. Other Toads were basically hostages of Mario’s cavalcade of baddies. Upon engaging the baddies, including the time-honoured Goomba, both enemies and the Bros. could take advantage of numbers to stack up and attack in kind.
While each character works well on its own, it was super fun to team up for team attacks. Paper Jam retains turn-based combat, and each move you make – as an individual or team — requires said rhythmic precision. The damage you deal really depends on how well you can mash a button in time with on-screen prompts.
There’s a lot familiar with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, but there’s also enough there to provide a different experience than you’ve had before. All up, I’m quite excited for the upcoming 3DS release.
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