Mario & Luigi Paper Jam Reviews
Paper Jam isn’t a bad game, but it’s hardly a series highlight.
Mario & Luigi Paper Jam Bros. is a fun and enjoyable romp through the Mushroom Kingdom with dialogue that will genuinely make you chuckle. It is not a must but for veterans of the Mario RPG games, but it is not one to avoid either. This is a good introductory title for anyone interested in either franchise.
Mario RPGs continue to defy my expectations of them. These characters and universe that you would never expect to work once you apply a proper narrative to them do far better than many titles that aren't inhibited by a heritage in platformers. Satirical and self-referential, backed with some boundlessly creative combat systems and the endlessly bright Mario aesthetic, Paper Jam might not be a huge step forward from its predecessor on the Nintendo 3DS, but it is every bit as much fun.
Without a doubt, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. is just as solid an RPG adventure as its predecessors, avoiding the pit that Partners in Time fell into with its multi-character approach. Paper Mario slots into this new romp perfectly well, although there are times where the 'Paper' world is not exploited as much as fans may have wanted. Nevertheless, the laughs are still there, as are the innovative 'Bros.' moves for battles, more than making up for the incessant mandatory 'Toad Hunt' mini-games included. This may not be Mario & Luigi at its best, but it still rises high above the recent Paper Mario entries and will keep fans of the series entertained until the end of the impressively lengthy adventure.
The best way to sum up Paper Jam as a game: safe. Too safe for its own good.
AlphaDream has refined its own RPG formula to near-perfection while accommodating another series. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is a modern classic.
Material and the diegetic real come into interesting conversations throughout Paper Jam, but that is the reach of the game's ambition. As with many Nintendo games of the last few years, its gameplay elements are immaculately designed but risk nothing.
'Mario and Luigi Paper Jam' is the next Mario spin-off for the Nintendo 3DS, bringing an enjoyable and challenging RPG to the handheld console.
Regardless of your inclination towards Nintendo's mascot, it's safe to say that you can avoid Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. It's a soulless crossover with a penchant for mission design that frustrates more than it should.
Though slow in parts, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is fun, funny, and simply feels good to play. A must-play for Mario RPG fans of all stripes.
Those clever, dialogue-driven interludes are all the downtime Paper Jam needs. Yet it pads itself out with mindless chores that waste time and momentum.
Surprisingly, however, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam dishes up an interesting take on the Mario RPG formula without wandering too far from its roots. Some may scorn the lack of drastic change in the gameplay and while it's fair to conclude it is more of the same in most parts, Paper Jam is — at its heart — a solid RPG with plentiful personality. It may not be the RPG we had sought at the beginning, but it's one that marries together most (though not all) of what makes this Mario spin-off so immediately engrossing.
The bar has been set high for 2016: The wonderful meshing of twitch and RPG based combat, constantly growing list of abilities, ever changing enemy types, and all around charm sets Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam apart from other RPGs. Almost every aspect of Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam coalesces into a near perfect game. That's quite the feat considering how many different things are jammed into this little package. There's almost always something new to do after every notable encounter, which is important in a genre that is flooded with games that become exercises in rote repetition long before they end. Paper Jam is roughly 30 hours of portable gaming joy, and a great start to a year that should be loaded with JRPG styled goodness.
It's certainly not a bad game by any means, it just doesn't do enough with the Mario and Luigi RPG or Paper Mario brands to really stand out.
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam has personality. There's a little bit of extraneous filler here, in the form of papercraft battles and optional amiibo cards, but people who chose to focus on the delightful story, fantastic battle system, and assortment of mini-games will be more than happy to join Mario, Luigi, and Paper Mario on their adventure.
One of the better JRPGs on a system that's full of them.
For what it lacks in a "unique" storyline, Paper Jam makes up for in spades, leaving it as the best Mario & Luigi title yet.
While it may stick too close to the formula, this 5th entry improves upon its predecessor.
But it turns what could have been just another fantasy storyline into something closer to a puppet show. We, rapt by these figures on sticks, know it's all malarkey but can't wait to see what happens next. Even if—especially because?—we know they're all just cardboard and glue.
A good game that retreads a lot of old ground and uses its last few hours to squander the good will it's earned up until then.