Game Review · Purchased January 25, 2022 · $50.85 CAD via Amazon.ca
The Setup
Peach’s Castle has been wrapped in giant paper streamers by the origami villain King Olly, who’s folded most of the Mushroom Kingdom’s inhabitants into paper along with it. Mario and new companion Olivia set out to remove the streamers one region at a time, in the latest entry to swing the Paper Mario series away from traditional RPG mechanics and toward pure adventure-game structure.
The Review
The headline mechanic is the ring-based battle system: enemies are arranged on a rotating circular battlefield, and before you can attack you have to rotate and slide segments of the ring to line everyone up in a row or a 2×2 block. It’s a clever spatial puzzle wrapped around combat, and for the first several hours it’s genuinely fun to solve. The writing carries just as much weight — Olivia is a fantastic companion, the jokes land consistently, and the papercraft art direction gives every region its own distinct, charming look, especially in the boss fights, which are the clear highlight of the whole game.
Where it stumbles is the thing longtime Paper Mario fans actually wanted: there’s no experience points, no leveling, and nothing meaningful gained from fighting regular enemies at all, which makes the ring puzzles start to feel like a toll booth rather than a reward the longer the game goes on. A weapon-durability system on top of that adds friction without adding much fun. It’s a genuinely funny, gorgeous adventure game that happens to have Mario’s face on it — just don’t go in expecting an RPG.
What I Liked
- Olivia is one of the best companion characters in a Mario game, full stop
- Consistently funny, well-written dialogue throughout
- Boss battles are creative, varied, and genuinely challenging puzzles
- Papercraft art direction gives every region real personality
What I Didn’t
- No experience points or character growth from regular combat
- Ring puzzles feel tedious by the back half of the game
- Weapon durability adds friction without adding fun
- Puzzle difficulty swings unevenly between trivial and frustrating
The Verdict
Rating: 4/5
Judge it as the charming adventure game it actually is, not the RPG its name promises, and this is one of the funniest, best-written Mario games around.
