06-09-2016, 08:27 PM
So I've been playing Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam lately, because I got the game for free, so why the hell not, right?
I'd say the game isn't as good as the first three M&L games, but at least it's definitely way better than Dream Team was. I'm not disliking the game, but I feel like it is noticeably way more bland than previous entries.
I mean for instance, when you think of a M&L game, what kind of details about the game seem very distinct to you? You can probably name a few things, but I bet one of the top things anyone would mention is the weird, quirky, and unique enemies that you encounter. There are a lot of enemies invented just for these games that are completely off the wall and have really distinct personalities in their attack patterns. You never really know what to expect when you encounter one for the first time.
Paper Jam's enemies? Literally just the same tired classic Mario enemies you see in every game. Goombas, Koopas, Buzzy Beetles, Spinies ... you know the drill. And also there are paper versions of each enemy, so you basically get two variations of the same enemy, minimizing the amount of brainstorming Nintendo has to do. Hell, I haven't even encountered a unique boss enemy yet. So far they've all been faces you've seen time and time again; Petey Piranha, Giant Pokey, Wiggler, The Koopalings, Kamek ... I get the impression that Miyamoto's ruling that Paper Mario games only use established Mario enemies has extended to the M&L games as well.
The environments in the game suffer from blandness as well. While in previous entries we got interesting environments like a volcano made out of thwomps, or egyptian-like koopa ruins, or a beach covered in giant teeth, so far in Paper Jam all I've encountered has been ... generic plains ... generic desert ... generic forest ... generic icy mountain. Are the creators of these games just suffering from a drought of creativity? Jeezins.
Oh, and there aren't any interesting NPCs either. No Broque Monsieur types in this game no sir. Aside from Peach, everyone is literally just toads of varying colors. You could argue that there's Toadette, but let's be honest here, she's honestly just another colored Toad. They couldn't even throw in some established Mario NPC characters to give it a bit more flavor. Where's Toadsworth? E. Gadd? Hell, I'd take some generic Piantas.
ON THE POSITIVE side, I will say this much, I really like Paper Mario's "copy" stacking gimmick in this game. I feel like if they were to use this feature in a true Paper Mario RPG they could expand on it considerably; there is a lot of interesting potential here that isn't getting used, although understandably because they don't want to make the game too focused solely on Paper Mario himself.
I also appreciate the way that the game is divided up into many different mini-missions. Even though a lot of the missions simply consist of finding all the paper Toads in a given area, getting to see a "MISSION COMPLETE" message as you progress does a nice job of making you feel like you're actually making progress through the game as opposed to just meandering about pointlessly, which some of the earlier M&L games are guilty of. So kudos for that.
I'd say the game isn't as good as the first three M&L games, but at least it's definitely way better than Dream Team was. I'm not disliking the game, but I feel like it is noticeably way more bland than previous entries.
I mean for instance, when you think of a M&L game, what kind of details about the game seem very distinct to you? You can probably name a few things, but I bet one of the top things anyone would mention is the weird, quirky, and unique enemies that you encounter. There are a lot of enemies invented just for these games that are completely off the wall and have really distinct personalities in their attack patterns. You never really know what to expect when you encounter one for the first time.
Paper Jam's enemies? Literally just the same tired classic Mario enemies you see in every game. Goombas, Koopas, Buzzy Beetles, Spinies ... you know the drill. And also there are paper versions of each enemy, so you basically get two variations of the same enemy, minimizing the amount of brainstorming Nintendo has to do. Hell, I haven't even encountered a unique boss enemy yet. So far they've all been faces you've seen time and time again; Petey Piranha, Giant Pokey, Wiggler, The Koopalings, Kamek ... I get the impression that Miyamoto's ruling that Paper Mario games only use established Mario enemies has extended to the M&L games as well.
The environments in the game suffer from blandness as well. While in previous entries we got interesting environments like a volcano made out of thwomps, or egyptian-like koopa ruins, or a beach covered in giant teeth, so far in Paper Jam all I've encountered has been ... generic plains ... generic desert ... generic forest ... generic icy mountain. Are the creators of these games just suffering from a drought of creativity? Jeezins.
Oh, and there aren't any interesting NPCs either. No Broque Monsieur types in this game no sir. Aside from Peach, everyone is literally just toads of varying colors. You could argue that there's Toadette, but let's be honest here, she's honestly just another colored Toad. They couldn't even throw in some established Mario NPC characters to give it a bit more flavor. Where's Toadsworth? E. Gadd? Hell, I'd take some generic Piantas.
ON THE POSITIVE side, I will say this much, I really like Paper Mario's "copy" stacking gimmick in this game. I feel like if they were to use this feature in a true Paper Mario RPG they could expand on it considerably; there is a lot of interesting potential here that isn't getting used, although understandably because they don't want to make the game too focused solely on Paper Mario himself.
I also appreciate the way that the game is divided up into many different mini-missions. Even though a lot of the missions simply consist of finding all the paper Toads in a given area, getting to see a "MISSION COMPLETE" message as you progress does a nice job of making you feel like you're actually making progress through the game as opposed to just meandering about pointlessly, which some of the earlier M&L games are guilty of. So kudos for that.