Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (known as Paper Jam Bros. in European language countries) is the 5th and final non-remake Mario & Luigi series installment, which was developed by AlphaDream for the Nintendo 3DS and released in December 2015. The game serves as a crossover between Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario games, introducing both gameplay elements and design style from the respective installments.

Story
While being with Toad on attic and finding Luigi accidentally knocks a book which contained characters from Paper Mario, who are released immediately (most notably Paper Mario, Princess Peach and Bowser with his son), and the Bros. from "real world" come to castle to see Peach with her "paper" counterpart and a lot of Paper Toads, who are scared (most of their friends are stolen by "real" enemies like Goombas or simply don't know what to do there). Going to rescue the mushroom people, the Bros. encounter a horde of Paper Goombas, and after their defeat, Paper Mario comes in clutch, so they are teaming up with the latter. While the 8 Toads are rescued, both Bowsers kidnap Peach Duo, and Bros. should rescue them by going through a lot of locations and some situations in their way (most of them are fighting bosses and helping to characters like Toadette).

Gameplay
As previous Mario & Luigi games, Paper Jam is a turn-based role-playing game, which is a crossover between Paper Mario: Sticker Star, containing some elements from that game, most notably Paper Mario (who moves when player taps the Y button), acting differently in comparison to the Bros. such as being able to copy himself, go through narrow gaps and perform Trio Attacks (he and the Bros. will go to "paper" dimension and perform an attack, there are five of them). Progressively, the player also learns some moves: Trio Drill, Grab and Drill, which consists of pressing buttons A, B and Y in order and choosing a move with the R trigger.

The Giant Battles also make their return from Dream Team and Bowser's Inside Story, but instead of traditional console tilting scheme (a giant boss and a giant character are present on their respective screens, in Dream Team you could choose in whatever direction you could tilt your 3DS), you attack an enemy Papercraft with yours and vice versa at the same time.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Hence the name of this game, Paper Mario makes his debut in Mario & Luigi series, and as already mentioned in the "Gameplay" section, he can perform a lot of moves and some unique abilities on the map and in the battle that are different from the "real" Mario and Luigi (such as flying briefly while dodging an attack, copying himself to do more damage, but he is more vulnerable to fire attacks from enemies, because he is made out of paper).
 * 2) Although some of sprites and 3D models were rightfully taken from other games (as Dream Team and Sticker Star), there are a lot of new ones, and in general, the design of this game is as fantasic as in other games developed by AlphaDream.
 * 3) Incredible OST, most notably some underrated tracks like "Time's Running Out", "Springtime Breeze", "Falling to Pieces", more/less known as "Double Bowsers!", Shiny RoboBowser fight theme and "Big Bang!", huge thanks to Yoko Shimomura's work, who also composed songs for Mario & Luigi, Kingdom Hearts franchises and Super Mario RPG.
 * 4) *Going further, after you complete the game it's possible to listen the entire OST and even see Paper Luigi as an easter egg napping; interestingly, he has different reactions on some songs like sweating while Falling to Pieces! plays, snoozing on Mountaintop Secrets, or showing his love on the Tea Time on the Clouds, while you can see some characters on the background running (Toads, Nabbit or the Bros.).
 * 5) Speaking of RoboBowser (the second phase of Bowsers' fight), he is considered to be one of the best not only final boss in the series, but bosses in general by having a great health, amount of attacks, his power and the awesome theme that plays during his fight.
 * 6) Paper Jam also has more bosses than Dream Team, and their abilities are similar to ones from previous games (i.e. King Boo acts like Dark Star from Inside Story, King Bob-Omb is basically 2nd stage of Pi'illodium battle from the previous installment), although a few of them uses player's weapon against them: Paper Petey Piranha steals the Copy Block and copies himself, Larry and Ludwig use the cards against player by earning Dark Star Points and previously mentioned Shiny RoboBowser even brings his version of Trio Attack Hammer.
 * 7) This game's story contains a lot of funny moments (the examples are when the both Bowsers keep argue with each other even when they kidnapped Peaches while their sons are making friends, or when Luigi tries to hug Paper Mario, but the latter crumples); the story, while follows a traditional formula of Mario games: "Something interesting happened -> Peach is kidnapped -> Bros. how to save her", is more twisted and complicated like other Mario & Luigi games.
 * 8) Lakitu Info Center can give you a lot of quests (most of them are mandatory to proceed), which includes finding or chasing Paper Toads (Paper Toad challenges, as well as Paper Toads themselves are considered to be rather bad than good, being mentioned in BQ #2), catching Nabbit, defeating certain enemies as Koopalings and Bowser, reaching a goal before Yoshi and answering some questions like "How are Mario and Luigi related?". If you completed a specific amount of these quests, you are given a certain card (there are 70 medals you can earn, 26 of them are from the Hard Mode, which are just harder versions of challenges you completed).
 * 9) The Battle Cards concept was taken from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and two previous Mario & Luigi games: by successfully performing attacks, the player is given Star Points, which can be used for using Battle Cards, and each of them do a certain action such as restoring 40% of Paper Mario's BP, or nullifying damage from enemies which is under 10% of character's health.
 * 10) Paper Jam also introduces a lot of changes of the previous Mario & Luigi core game mechanics/design itself.
 * 11) * You can block enemy's attacks by pressing X button, like it was in the first two Paper Mario games;
 * 12) * The tutorials are entirely optional (i.g.: how to move, what is "Special Attack", but the game introduces you the new elements); if you need to see them, go to the Guide in the menu by pressing "START" button;
 * 13) * There are seven ranks: the Boomerang and Leaf, which the player has between 12-18 and 27-35 levels respectively are present;
 * 14) * A lot of improved UI, such as health icons and animation when you start a battle.
 * 15) You can speed up the cutscenes with the use of R trigger, or simply holding your finger/stylus on the touchscreen.
 * 16) * This was made because players were criticizing the inability to skip/speed up long text boxes and unnecessary things like Starlow's tutorials.
 * 17) Some "Bros. Attacks" were taken directly from Dream Team with some minor changes (mostly the price of attacks and them itself):
 * 18) * Mario's 3D Red Shell costs 3 BP (Bros. Points) instead of 4;
 * 19) * Mario's another special attack Bomb Derby costs 7 BP instead of 9;
 * 20) * Luigi's Fire Flower has returned to it's gameplay from Bowser's Inside Story (instead of tapping A and B buttons at the right time and shooting a lot fireballs if done correctly, now the player has to tap fast depending on character, and if done rightly, player can get an "Excellent!" rank and mash buttons for Mario and Luigi), and costs 3 BP instead of 5;
 * 21) * Luigi's another special attack Dropchopper doesn't require tilting 3DS for aiming (instead, player has to use the circle pad), but its price is still 7 BP.
 * 22) Speaking more about Bros. Attacks, the Toad Trail, Mega Thwonk and Trio Shuriken are best of them.
 * 23) As in Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team, you can complete again the bosses you encountered throughout the game (, the final of the bunch being Dry Bowser''.
 * 24) This is the first game in series to introduce amiibo support: you can use the compatible ones (which include Mario, Peach, Luigi, Toad, Bowser and Yoshi) to create some cards (the BC themselves were mentioned earlier).
 * 25) Most of story/character-related Paper Jam weaknesses can be redeemed since the developers wanted to make a third active button in a battle, so they implemented Paper Mario, who could fit perfectly without making a giant story, and, to be fair, it was a good implementation for the most part.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Misleading title (depends on your point of view): even though the idea of Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario franchises mix is perfect, this game was mostly inspired by previously mentioned Sticker Star (what is considered to be the worst game in Paper Mario series) and instead of making a crossover with introducing major elements from both series like antagonists (i.g. Shadow Queen and Cackletta), the only major Paper Mario series-relative things that Paper Jam introduce are of course, the character and paper theme throughout the game.
 * 2) Paper Toad-connected missions, such as finding them or making a group of these mushroom people can be annoying, because the player is constantly forced to complete them, and the Paper Toads themselves run around fast (the reason is because they think Mario is a monster or one of Bowser's minions). You'd expect for Princess Peach or the Lakitu or someone to tell the Toads that Mario isn't a villain and he came for helping them. While some of the Paper Toads are in real danger (such as having bad memories with real world enemies or being captured), the other half are just running around in fear.
 * 3) Missed Opportunities:
 * 4) * Paper Luigi doesn't appear in the main story at all, being reduced to appearing in the sound test, and the worst part that it makes a European title "Paper Jam Bros." look incorrect.
 * 5) * Almost none of the events from previous games in either Mario RPG series are mentioned, apart from Starlow and numerous Sticker Star bosses appearing in the game. While some fans label this as a waste of potential, others believe that the excellent writing for the main series characters gives Paper Jam its own identity that makes it a different experience from previous Mario RPGs rather than the spectacular crossover most fans were hoping for. Many people believe that Paper Jam would have received more positive attention if it was designed as a new spinoff entirely a la Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, rather than a crossover between two beloved Mario RPG series known for their bold and unconventional direction.
 * 6) Controlling three characters with separate buttons at once can be confusing, but you still can use the X button to jump at the same time.
 * 7) A giant amount of glitches and out of bounce clips. While a vast majority of them are just confusing (sudden Japanese texts or missed sprites) or used for completing this game as fast as possible (clips through solid structures actually shows how broken the collision and the Trio Grab move are), there are some which can softlock the game/crash it, which makes Paper Jam the most broken game in Mario & Luigi series.
 * 8) * The fact that Paper Jam can be completed in under an hour doesn't help neither.
 * 9) Like Dream Team and Bowser's Inside Story DX, this game runs in 30 FPS instead of 60, which can be uncanny (though this can be justified since your 3DS can overheat).
 * 10) Battle Cards, while being great (read GQ #12 for their good sides) are broken once you obtain them, most notably ones that lower the enemy's level by 5 or 10, raise the EXP given by foes in 1.5x+ times (it can be justified since the cards make the level earning easier), and the game itself is really easy in comparison to Partners in Time or Dream Team.

Reception
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam received generally positive reviews from critics, holding an aggregate 76 score on Metacritic and having generally favorable reviews. Nintendo Life gave the game 8/10, praising the mechanics and core gameplay, but saying that "Paper Jam's simplicity that makes it a great starting point and an easy recommendation, but also holds it back from taking full advantage of more dimensions than ever before", and criticizing a lack of interesting locations and characters. An other publication Nintendo World Report gave it 7.5/10 rate, mentioning the Papercraft battles, funny dialogue and the battle system as pros, but the cons consist of Paper Toad missions and story.

However, the reception from average users was rather mixed-to-positive than positive, having the score 7.4 on the Metacritic: the players were disappointed by the story, hit-or-miss implementation of Paper Mario, locations and some Paper Toad missions, but appreciated the design part, soundtrack, battles and minor improvement over Dream Team.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam sold about 50,000 copies in Japan during its first several days of release, which was under a half the equivalent for its predecessor, selling around 1 million coies worldwide as the end of 2019, becoming the worst-sold non-remake Mario & Luigi series game. An edition of the game bundled with Mario Kart 7 sold an additional 2,400 units.

In the E3 2015 trailer, it was said that Paper Jam was scheduled to be released on Spring, but it was released by December in most countries. Going further, Paper Luigi was planned to be in game, but the idea was scrapped because it could be harder to control four players simultaneously; there also was said that the game was planned to have a big story with characters from both franchises (Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, respectively), although in the final version focuses the showdown between major characters.

Trivia

 * Most of in-game characters from "real" world (as Starlow and Bowser) are 2D sprites, while the flat paper characters are 3D models.

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