Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam
Nintendo
Release Date: Jan. 22, 2016
 
Mario and Luigi have never been better. Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam is a turned-based role-playing game and is the fifth installment of the Mario and Luigi series. In the story, Luigi accidentally knocks over a magical book which summons paper-like versions of everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom. To restore order for both worlds, Mario and Luigi set out to save the Paper Toads and Princess Peach along with her paper version from Bowser and Paper Bowser, along with teaming up with Mario’s paper-like doppelganger, Paper Mario.

The game is similar to the Mario and Luigi and Paper Mario series. In battle, you must avoid getting hit from enemies to get as little damage as possible and give out the most amount of damage to your enemies. Like previous installments of Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time and Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, this game has a third party member. In Partners in Time, Mario and Luigi teamed up with their younger selves, while in Bowser’s Inside Story, the big and tyrannical, Bowser would steal the show. In this game, the third party that the duo will travel with is Paper Mario. Paper Mario is the weakest ally in Mario and Luigi series, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad character to use. The developers decided to balance this out by allowing Paper Mario to “copy” himself so he could hit multiple enemies at once, make his powers increase when there are less enemies, and prevent him from actually taking damage when an attack hits a “copy.” Outside of battle, Paper can squeeze into areas that normally couldn’t be explored.

The Mario and Luigi series always has humor in it, and this game is hilarious. Whether it being Paper Bowser and Bowser constantly fighting each other to trying to keep all of the Paper Toads in line. The battle system actually works very well, though I haven’t actually mastered it yet. However, this game is not perfect. My only real complaint of this game is that I sometimes forget to press a certain button which can get me into some trouble and that could be frustrating at times, especially with Paper Mario. The special effects and graphics aren’t breathtaking, but they certainly look great on 3DS standards. If you’re a fan of Mario franchise or like RPG genres, I’d highly recommend to get this game. It’s just flat-out fun.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars