Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Classic Humor
The Origami King lives up to the series' family-friendly humor.
Visual Design
Successfully delivers on its Origami visuals; its open world is vibrant and fun to explore.
Combat System
Combat has few interesting choices and quickly becomes repetitive.
The Origami King is no Thousand-Year Door, but Paper Mario fans will still find a lot to love if they can look past the combat system.
Paper Mario: The Origami King Gameplay - Nintendo Treehouse: Live | July 2020
We Play Paper Mario: The Origami King – Favorite Moments!
Paper Mario: The Origami King - Arriving to Nintendo Switch July 17
The Origami King suffers from one-note combat and few real choices, but its personality and visual design are a joy.
Nintendo sketches another warm and colourful Paper Mario adventure, though never traces its full potential.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is fun, light-hearted and a celebration of Super Mario with a strong story, great humour and brilliant characters.
As usual, Nintendo's quirky writing is full of laugh-out-loud moments, but your quest is full of tiresome backtracking
The Origami King keeps its RPG systems and character work light, but revamped combat and solid gags throughout are the course-correction Paper Mario needed.
That simplicity is overridden by originality and vigor, then – but I also know all too well that some fans of the older Paper Mario games will once again walk away a little disappointed. This is still undoubtedly no Thousand Year Door. Perhaps the next outing can bring back a little of that RPG depth – but regardless of that, this is still the best Paper Mario game in years.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is a wonderful new entry that helps sell the idea that trying new things was the right move.
