Paper Mario: The Origami King Reviews

Paper Mario: The Origami King is ranked in the 71st percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
IGN
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Jul 15, 2020

The Origami King suffers from one-note combat and few real choices, but its personality and visual design are a joy.

Read full review

No Recommendation / Blank
Jul 15, 2020

Nintendo sketches another warm and colourful Paper Mario adventure, though never traces its full potential.

Read full review

7.5 / 10.0
Aug 11, 2020
Paper Mario: The Origami King - Easy Allies Review video thumbnail
Metro GameCentral
Top Critic
8 / 10
Jul 15, 2020

One of the most relentlessly charming video games ever made and the best Paper Mario since The Thousand-Year Door.

Read full review

Jul 15, 2020

Paper Mario: The Origami King is fun, light-hearted and a celebration of Super Mario with a strong story, great humour and brilliant characters.

Read full review

7.8 / 10.0
Jul 15, 2020

As usual, Nintendo's quirky writing is full of laugh-out-loud moments, but your quest is full of tiresome backtracking

Read full review

Unscored
Jul 15, 2020

I want to share it with my nieces and nephews, as well as my grown friends. But I hesitate due to the frustration of the combat and those imposing boss battles — those moments where I wish I had someone else to take over on the controller.

Read full review

8 / 10
Jul 15, 2020

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.

Read full review

Kotaku
Top Critic
Unscored
Jul 15, 2020

Origami King might not be the successor to Thousand-Year Door for which fans have been clamoring, but this time the formula works, allowing the series’ great writing and worlds to shine through.

Read full review

USgamer
Top Critic
Jul 15, 2020

If you're OK with Paper Mario's turn to action, you'll find an enjoyable game packed with humor, secrets, and unique boss battles.

Read full review

8 / 10.0
Jul 15, 2020

There's room in my heart for both styles of Paper Mario. The old games still exist and this newer, sometimes thinner formula is fine too. That said, it's possible Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have folded this subseries every which way they can at this point. I hope the next one is a little more fresh.

Read full review

8.5 / 10.0
Jul 15, 2020

Paper Mario: The Origami King is the best installment of the saga since The Thousand-Year Door: it is not an RPG in use, nor does it seek to be.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

7 / 10
Jul 15, 2020

Paper Mario: The Origami King is a solid, but unremarkable sequel. It's like a table of snack food at a party, where you'll happily nibble away just because you're stood next to it or feeling a bit peckish, but it's not exactly going to fill you up. The new battle puzzles and the boss fights in particular stand out, but the world and endless Toads fail to spark the same delight. This feels like a missed opportunity.

Read full review

7 / 10
Jul 27, 2020

The best thing I can say about Paper Mario: The Origami King is that it has some major problems, but the story is great enough and so worth experiencing that it's worth trudging through the negatives to experience it at least once. Like a lot of first-time origami projects, it starts rough, but it's worth seeing through to the end.

Read full review

IGN Spain
Top Critic
8.5 / 10.0
Jul 15, 2020

New first-party from Nintendo, new great game for Switch. Despite the fact that being announced just two months ago, the new installment of Mario's RPG saga is brilliant, even if its combat puzzles mechanics end up getting too repetitive.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

Alex Donaldson
Top Critic
Jul 15, 2020

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.

Read full review

Jul 29, 2020

While it may not return to the heights of The Thousand-Year Door, Paper Mario: The Origami King is by far the best entry in the series in over a decade and gives us hope for the future of the series for the first time in awhile.

Read full review

9 / 10.0
Jul 15, 2020

A creative triumph, with new ideas that last the entire game, some of the best boss battles in ages, and praiseworthy presentation. Paper Mario: The Origami King is only let down by some of the general combat being a bit skippable.

Read full review

GamesBeat
Top Critic
85 / 100
Jul 15, 2020

So don’t sit this one out. Pick it up, play through it, complain about it with me, but then stick around for all of its joys.

Read full review

7.5 / 10.0
Jul 15, 2020

It’s smart, creative, and rarely less than lovely to look at, but its combination of odd combat mechanics and sporadically subversive wit are bound to reinforce the franchise’s status as distinctively niche within the Marioverse.

Read full review