Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

[E-Man]

This is most confusing when you think about it. This means that the Paper Mario series is an alternate universe, which means certain characters (like Goombella and Vivian) don't exist in the same world as other characters (Fawful and Popple).

But does this mean that neither M&L series and Paper Mario series take place in the same universe as the main Mario games?

Is every spinoff an alternate universe?

I-I'm so confused...

I was thinking how this would work entirely myself. Even before this game was released, my theory was that the actual events of the Paper Mario games actually did happen. It's just that the paper world is used as a tool for retelling the story and the paper like elements (such as Paper Mode) are used to add a little fun to the story and otherwise exaggerations of what actually happened. As far as I'm concerned, the Paper Mario characters are real.

As for why they are going for this direction, it's either based on what I previously said or it's their last ditch effort to get away with inserting original content into Mario RPGs. Basically, if they convince Shigeru Miyamoto that the games all takes place in different universes apart from the official one, then they might get him off their backs, which means we'll be one step closer to the Paper Mario we always dreamed! Still, it is a bit of a shaky plan and Shigeru Miyamoto still is able to shoot it down if he wants. On top of that, it's a little awkward to the continuity if the Mario & Luigi games take place in a different universe compare to other Mario games. In addition to the other Mario references scattered about, if you recall Partners in Time, Kamek mentions how he kidnapped the Mario Babies (a reference to the more or less mainstream Yoshi's Island). With that said, I'm not sure if it means that the Mairo & Luigi universe is the same one as the offical one or the Mairo & Luigi universe does a very good job paralleling and emulating the events from the official games. It gets even more confusing if you consider that Paper Mario is already referenced in the Mario & Luigi games (specifically the first one). I know that the block that appeared in Paper Mario is probably nothing more than a little Easter Egg, but it does imply that the events of that game actually did happen in one way or another.

    Sigh..... TELL US E-Man tell us interesting things about this game. (Did you cover why there's no Paper Luigi I'm going to be backhanded for a second and tell you to shut up if you can't explain logically why Luigi despite not being the hero (But is still present in teh paper timeline!!!!!!!!!) isn't present (And don't be a smart ass and say Mario's THEIR partner like everyone's a partner to Mario in the Paper games! Don't do that I will end you, that's not a reason. No you're not Nintendo but if you try to poison me with BS I'll look at that as an attempt on my life and end you.) ~imagine I said that aside with spooky music as it zoomed in on my avatar.

I touched a little bit on that in my analysis of the trailer. If I were to touch on the other bits and pieces of media associated with this new game, I would have been a lot more in depth and share my thoughts on what the heck Paper Luigi is up to. Right now, I'm not only going to use the trailer to base my new thoughts on the lack of Paper Luigi, but also the bits of information I found recently. From what I gathered, the prospect of a playable Paper Luigi doesn't look possible. The first sign is the color assigned to Paper Mario. If it was like how it was in Partners in Time, then Paper Mario would have red as his color instead of that shade of orange. While it doesn't exactly prove that Paper Luigi isn't playable right off the bat, it would be nice if the orange was a little more red. That way, if Paper Luigi is playable, then he wouldn't have to use an outlandish color choice, such as blue. The other evidence that shows that Paper Luigi is unlikely a playable character is the gameplay. While it makes sense to give Paper Luigi the X button, I recently found out that the dash feature (something that I'm okay with since it offers movement speed and puzzle opportunities) occupies that spot. Even though getting rid of that mechanic to make way for Paper Luigi will make the fans happy, I don't think it'll be that easy to drop a mechanic of that nature so easily without finding a way to have both the dash feature and Paper Luigi coexist naturally.

On top of that, when I looking at gameplay footage, I was thinking that Paper Luigi isn't playable at this point to streamline overworld exploration. You see, Mario is only able to progress on a higher ledge as long as Luigi is also up there. That's mostly how it is in every Mario & Luigi game as long as the Bros. are together. With Paper Mario tagging behind, you now have a third character you have to manually get up on a ledge or else Mario and Luigi are unable to move forward. From the footage, I noticed how cumbersome it is to press three different buttons just to get the team on top of a simple ledge. Just imagine having to press four different buttons to do that kind of action if Paper Luigi is thrown into the mix. :/ I know it's terrible not to have him playable (at least this point in time), but sometimes Nintendo (and pretty much any video game developer for that matter) has to make a decision to either be awesome or practical. I'm not saying that it's impossible to put Paper Luigi in there, but they honestly need to make it work in a comfortable way. If you look at Partners in Time, there are four playable characters in that game; however, the Mario Babies didn't follow behind the adults to make simple platforming a major pain in the rear. Instead, you are not only able to control each pair separately at will, but also carry the babies to simplify moving across the overworld with both sets of characters. To allow Paper Luigi (or just Paper Mario for that matter) to move with the other characters without being a burden, then a similar system is required to store the Paper Bros. (the way the Paper Toads fold up works nicely here) until they are needed. Either that or the paper characters should jump automatically up ledges (and possibly teleport if they are too far behind), much like the partners do in the first two Paper Mario games. That way, it places another Paper Mario reference in there that actually benefits the gameplay!

Now, as for where Paper Luigi is, I only have a few thoughts to go by since none of the media makes his fate any clear. It's unlikely that he'll be cut (no pun intended) from this game due to his presence in that series (espically if Super Paper Mario is taken into account); however, if he's not even going to be playable later on in the game, then he probably holds some story importance. Even though it would be a huge disappointment if they go this way, making Paper Luigi nearly useless would result in some interesting fridge brilliance. Also, in the comments section of a YouTube video related to the game (I don't remember if it was one of Gamexplain's videos or Nintendo's official trailer), some guys are talking about how Luigi is either kidnapped or the villain (they even stated that he's working for Popple under his Mr. L alter ego). Still, there's still the possibility of Paper Luigi pulling another Waffle Kingdom misadventure where he tells the playable Bros. about what he's up to behind their backs... Regardless of what road they take for Paper Luigi, I honestly hope Paper Luigi has some hilarious reactions to the "real" Luigi's gibberish and silent protagonist treatment since the former is awfully chatty (especially when you consider all interpretations of the RPG Mario Bros. aren't typically like that).

There seems to be a lot of fear-mongering about this game "killing" the Paper Mario series or whatever.  

It's worth mentioning that this is officially a pure Mario & Luigi title (hell, the M&L brand even has top billing); all of the M&L stuff (from what was shown) has higher precedence.  The Paper Mario cast is just taking a backseat and coming along for the ride.

I'm certain we'll be getting a true Paper Mario later down the line; Intelligent Systems probably has their hands full with all of that Fire Emblem stuff.  Heh, now I'm expecting them to return the favor and make Luigi a partner in the next Paper Mario game (if it even has partners at all).

I actually touched on this in the Gamer Lounge topic. Instead of making a recap of that, I'll simply show you a link.

http://www.vg-resource.com/thread-25335-...#pid591694

If anything, this is probably the last Mario & Luigi game because I'm concerned that Alphadream is starting to run out of solid ideas before the new Mario & Luigi games after this one go to pot. Speaking of Intelligent Systems, I'm wondering if they had a hand in this new game and if they're going to employ some ideas and references from this game (and other Mario & Luigi games for that matter) in the eventual Paper Mario game they'll create. Already, they used two or three Beanish characters in the Thousand Year Door and there's even references to Chuckola Cola and Fawful in the second and third games receptively (but those last two examples are probably in there due to localization on Nintendo of America's part). With that said, I'd like to see characters like Broque Monsieur make an appearance in a Paper Mario game. Also, I'm wondering if this game is Alphadream's way of testing the waters of the Paper Mario series, so they can move onto developing games for that in Intelligent Systems' place. I'm not saying this is what's going on, but it is an interesting thought since they understand how to make a Mario RPG better than Intelligent Systems (with some of its employees actually working on Super Mario RPG).


Now, to wrap this all up for now, I'd like to talk about this piece of official artwork.



Please tell me that I'm not he only one somewhat bothered by the fact that Paper Mario has three visible knuckles as opposed to two. While I think I know why they did that (it's to show that Paper Mario has five fingers), it's a little bit silly since Paper Mario always has five fingers in spite of only two knuckles. If anything, the additional knuckle just makes the hand look cluttered and it's more or less assumed that the thrid knuckle is obscured by how the hand is rotated (even if there are front hand poses that have two knuckles and five fingers at the same time). While it shouldn't be that big of a deal, it's made even more foolish if you take a look at the in game sprites for Paper Mario. If you look closely, he still has his two visible knuckles there.

As for Paper Mario's shadow, I was going to take about it in my original analysis before I forgotten about it due to how sick and tired I was when writing it. It makes sense for the paper characters to have those kinds of shadows, but they could honestly look better. Besides, the current shadow makes me think the characters are made of cardboard instead of paper. Anyway, instead of a rectangle, a better idea is to use a very thin oval. As much as I would like to take credit for that idea, let me point out that Sticker Star, of all things, incorporated that idea before this game was even likely a thought. :/