Let’s make this quick so I don’t get too mad. Paper Jam Bros. has all the wit and engaging battle mechanics of previous Mario & Luigi games, but it has had the soul sucked out of it. It squanders the potential of a Paper crossover and exemplifies the blandness of what the Mario series has become.
This is the fourth Mario & Luigi game. Hmm. Unlike Paper Mario, which often reinvents itself and not always for the better, this series is reliable but can feel safe. Sure it’s been beefed up (pardon the pun) and had extra bits bolted on, but it’s still following the formula established way back in Superstar Saga. But it’s a good game nevertheless, and often manages to overcome staleness or bring a smile.
These games are JRPGs with a platforming element. As always you control both Bros, Mario always using the A button and Luigi being assigned B. You jump around, hammer stuff, learn new ways to jump or work together to get around the environment and collect stuff, and then there are turn-based battles. They try to keep these fun and dynamic with timed hits and the ability to dodge and counter any enemy attack, which requires observation and reflexes. This is successful, but towards the end I found my favoured special attacks and just used those to make the battles go quicker.
A significant portion of the game’s mechanics are recycled to some extent from previous games, but presented in new ways or at least tweaked slightly. For example, Bowser’s Inside Story had Bowser growing to giant size and fighting with the DS held sideways. This game has Luigi becoming huge instead. The big new idea of this game is the dream world, where Luigi will sleep and Mario will enter his dream. This isn’t executed in a way that develops his character though unfortunately (except in a couple of instances), as it’s more like an alternate surrealist 2D version of the environment you’re in. It does give lots of fun gameplay opportunities though with Luigi gaining many bizarre abilities, and battles in the dream world being taken on solo but with flashy group attacks on swarms of enemies.
As always with this series, the script and characters are very pleasing and funny. Silliness abounds and fun new characters are introduced along with a fanservice parade of returning ones too. Popple, Kylie Koopa, Broque Monsieur, Starlow, and Bowser’s three minions Goomp, Paraplonk, and Guy all make welcome returns from previous games, along with a world populated by Beanish, Toads, Yoshis, and Hoos acting as tourists on Pi’illo Island. The island itself has new NPC races as well as instant standouts such as the Zeekeeper, the Massif Bros (pictured above), Britta, and others. The antagonist Antasma is mostly just cheesy and new helper partner Dreambert has his moments despite being played mostly straight, especially when he loses his composure. It all works together to create a quite busy world that feels good to run around in and interact with.
The first thing I noticed about the game though in trailers was how amazing it looks. AlphaDream have become absolute masters of 2D spritework, with wonderfully drawn characters that are so animated and shaded as to appear 3D. They can’t hack actual 3D though apparently, so the Giant Battles which appear with polygonal graphics were outsourced to Good-Feel! The graphics are definitely a selling point for this game, and this bright and colourful world is captivating.
Apart from the many small improvements to the game formula (quick example: selectable perks on ranking up), I just want to applaud this game for, like its predecessors, making the Mario world feel expansive and interesting. The newly released Paper Jam Bros looks to be following in Sticker Star’s doomed footsteps and adopting the tired, basic New Super Mario Bros aesthetic. Getting to know this new setting of Pi’illo Island was nice and the range of characters felt like a celebration of the quirkiness of this series. Its slow pace may have felt a drag at times but Dream Team (Bros.) can stand with the best of the Mario RPGs, a nice solid entry.
As part of readying myself for Dream Team, I had to finish the first three games, and this was the last one I needed. It may just be the latest-played-game effect that I’ve experienced before, but I felt like this was the best of the three. This contradicts opinions I’ve read that place it below the other two. Just taste, I guess. Since the gameplay is very similar to the other two, I’ll mostly just try to compare them.
The first thing that grabbed me coming straight off Superstar Saga is the increased graphical and sound fidelity on the DS system. The effects look better, the resolution is higher, it sounds better. The second screen is also used very helpfully, with maps of the area you’re in most of the time. It’s got that functionality from having the screen, whereas Bowser’s Inside Story only sometimes had a map, and sometimes Bowser or the Bros, depending on what was happening. It was inconsistent.
That principle follows through into other game aspects. BIS uses both screens, and the microphone, and touch controls. It’s cool to use the hardware but got gimmicky at times. PIT is more pure, like SS, but more advanced technically. I appreciate that. The “minigame” segments were also more organic, and less forced (and less often, I think).
The item systems are cool in this game. We still have eqipment badges rather than the activated badges of BIS that I didn’t use much. Special attacks are also activated by items rather than a character’s points stat, which is cool because you can stock up then feel better about using them more often, and you also get more different rewards on the map more often, which feels good.
The big feature of this game is the 2x2 gameplay, with the Bros. teaming up with their baby counterparts. I thought this was a very fun dynamic, and totally cute too! Instead of cycling through many abilities, they’re activated by different interaction between babies and adults, together or separate. Unlike the alternative of Bowser in the third, these characters are together and working together most of the time. The teaming-up mechanic weaves through both overworld and battles, and even to item management, not to mention the cutscenes. It’s a strong system, and getting more level-ups is always cool.
The presence of babies is due to the time-travelling plot. I liked being in the Mushroom Kingdom this time, and interacting with its residents under attack by a conquering alien race. Rather than the open world of the first or third games, this one is based around a hub in the present with portals leading to isolated locations in the past. It allows for a bit more variety to locales than in SS, and the stage-based structure has its pros and cons, but they do feel cut off. I did approve of having a Yoshi’s Island location, though.
The time travel was used a few times in cool ways, most often in interactions between younger and older versions of characters. Unfortunately there was no sense of consequences to locations, since you were stuck in the castle in the present, and the implications of an attack in the past to the present was not really explored.
The plot had a few little twists to it, which kept it interesting, as well as good use of recurring characters (I especially loved Stuffwell, Baby Bowser and Kamek, and the Toadsworths). However, the Shroobs made for less interesting antagonists. Despite their eeriness and apparent power, they didn’t really communicate with you so you didn’t have an equivalent to Fawful with his amusing writing. There was a stronger through-line than SS and even BIS, though, the plot being more focused.
So this game was a good sequel to SS, expanding on it and polishing its mechanics. The complexity of the 2x2 team was a good kind of complexity, and the babies were just great characters with a lot of potential and fun interactions with their older selves. It also is more focused than the other two I feel, especially the gameplay systems which got a bit out of hand in BIS. I was surprised that I seem to hold this one in the highest esteem of the three, judging from other reactions I’d read. But now it just leaves me to find out how Dream Team will stack up. Now that I’ve written this, I think I may be ready to play it now. Back to adventure!
Recently I was gifted a copy of Dream Team (Bros), the 4th Mario & Luigi game. Having already played the third, Bowser’s Inside Story, I decided I should go back and catch up on the others before playing the latest, which apparently references the previous installments. I think I made the right choice in playing the older ones before the newest one, because I’ve done both 1 and 2 now and they seem to be improving with each one (in my opinion, common consensus seems to be first is best).
But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. The series has carved out a niche very distinctly from Paper Mario, which has quite gone off the rails in its last couple of entries. And unlike the latter, it seems to retain a core through each one, not changing too much at once. This may seem a classic Nintendo recipe for stagnation, but I say there'senough each time to keep it relatively fresh, and refinement of a formula can be rewarding—evolution as opposed to Paper Mario’s contentious revolution.
Er, more getting ahead. I can’t help but make these broader comparisons though, going from the third back. And I can’t help but feel hard done by on the still clunky design aspects of the first installment. For example, there are a ton of different modes and configurations for actions in the overworld. You get jumps, combo jumps, front and back hammer options, hand powers, and they all change depending on which Bro is in the lead. The difficulty curve is also a little wonky in places. We also have a lot of mandatory minigames that aren’t much fun, but at least break up the grind a bit.
These gripes are pretty minor though. As I said, the core is there and it is strong. The mix of isometric 3D puzzle platforming and RPG gameplay is a winning formula. Making it feel like Mario with these unfamiliar elements is an accomplishment. In fact these RPGs are my favourite Mario games, filling out this colourful world with imaginative settings and fun writing and characters. That skillful execution of these aspects is a big part of their appeal, and fortunately pretty much all the RPGs have it, despite some design shortcomings at times.
The Beanbean kingdom is an odd choice for location, taking us out of the Mushroom Kingdom. Ultimately it’s a great idea, fleshing out this world and playing with bean-related variants on familiar drones and such, as well as bringing in an interesting political dynamic at times. The antagonists and secondary characters are memorable, with recurring rogue agent Popple amusing and Fawful especially stealing any scene he shows up in, leading to his prominence in the third game. Cackletta is not as great as Fawful unfortunately but she gets the job done. Prince Peasley is fun too.
What really sells the game though is the Bros. dynamic, with Mario and Luigi playing off each other both in battles and the adorable cutscenes (not as adorable as the second game’s babies, though). Pulling off special moves is satisfying, but hard to do (so I didn’t use them often at all, except boss fights…). Their animation is wonderful, very fluid and expressive with plenty of cartooniness.
Anyways with this game apparently coming soon to Wii U Virtual COnsole of all things, it’s worth checking out for sure. But I do feel that the sequels build on the formula, as well as streamlining certain things to improve the experience. Now that I think of it though, this one probably edges out the others in its cast of characters and its immersive interconnected world (the second’s world is quite segregated and the third’s is too complicated). So I’d dispute the general feel that the first is best, but it does have its strengths and is in itself a great game. So if you just write it off, I will have fury! (it’s something Fawful says guys)
I’ve been knocking some games down quickly, so I need to catch up on blogging! M&L RPG 3 was a game I bought back when my 3DS was new and I wanted some games for it. I’d heard good things about the series, so I picked up the latest one when I saw it pretty cheap at one of those shops that doesn’t know how to price good games sometimes. Also I’d played Super Mario RPG for the SNES… somehow… and that was pretty fun.
I ended up starting this game at the same time as Paper Mario 2, so there were lots of comparisons invited. At the time, I wavered for a while before deciding I preferred Paper Mario, and dropped this for a while. The main reason for the hiatus was the game’s difficulty. I got to a bit that I was underleveled for and was getting killed too much (I never had similar problems later, for what it’s worth), and I also had endeavoured to beat the special move challenge minigame things. The minigames are just gruelling if you’re trying to get a high score.
Eventually I decided to return, give up on the minigame and power through the part I was at in the story. I don’t like letting a game languish, unfinished. It really picked up after the bit I was up to, as well. Now the comparisons with the Paper series has shifted, especially after Super and Sticker Star which were on the whole pretty disappointing. I ended up preferring the M&L battle system in particular.
There are a lot of unique and very interesting things about M&L. You control the Bros, and Bowser in this game, with different buttons. So A is always Mario’s action button to jump, etc, B is Luigi’s, and Bowser uses X and Y. It’s cool, but can be limiting when you have three different action modes to swap between for different actions. It’s not oo complicated either since swapping between Bowser and Bros changes the focus. Unfortunately this means you only sometimes get a simultaneous map on the opposing screen. I wanted that map all the time!
The battles are really cool. Every enemy attack is telegraphed in a unique way and you have to react differently to avoid them. It’s a very dynamic system, and makes you feel involved to a much greater degree than the Papers, which are overly simplistic in comparison and only use timed hits (which M&L also has).
Of course, the “good” two of the four Paper Mario games have a range of characterful partners. M&L takes the Tippi/Kersti route of the one guide-type character who tags along. Contrary to popular opinion of such characters, I liked Starlow/Chippy. She didn’t take any of Bowser’s crap and for that I really admired her. That is to say, I think she was characterised well and didn’t get in the way too much.
The other characters are pretty good too. There’s a very memorable villain, and some good secondary antagonists, the supporting characters are fun and all have their distinctive looks and catchphrases. It’s basically the opposite of your standard main series Mario game. But, this one has callbacks and references to Mario games too. That’s what I like, more than actually playing them because they’re a bit boring. I love the universe though, especially when it’s actually used and explored a bit.
To compare a little further still, the advancement system here, in terms of levelling up and also plot, feels good. You sometimes need to go back to old areas, but with new abilities to explore further. It feels cohesive too. And levelling up is kind of a big deal. I feel it edges out ahead of the Papers in these respects, but I guess there isn’t quite the variety of wacky locations those games have.
Even now it’s very hard to decide which sub-series of Mario RPGs I prefer. But I’m glad that their differences in gameplay and presentation let them both exist, and even for the same system now! I guess you could say M&L is a little more “serious”, at least in terms of mechanics. But the writing is just as strong, full of humour, and the character animations are expressive, silly, and just fun. The teamwork-based gameplay of the Bros is very compelling, too, and highlights their relationship and their strength as characters, in a way pretty much unique among the Mario series. I give Bowser’s Inside Story much chortles.
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