Gallery: Paper Mario: The Origami King - 20 Gorgeous Screenshots And Box Art Revealed

Visually stunning.

Kinda sucks that the non-villian NPCs look to be generic characters rather than the unique ones found in TTYD but I can live with that.

It looks so amazing, I am so excited. I can't wait to play it

Hmmm...I can't tell what the battle system is like from the pictures. Hopefully they went back to a more traditional system.

Day 1 buy if anything like the first two in the series.

Unfortunately, with the way the recent games have been, I may have to wait and see.

I am excited for this, but my one concern is the combat system with that dartboard-looking platform.

Still not seeing enough to convince me that the battle system will actually be fun.

Not feeling this yet

On the one hand: Yay! More Paper Mario!
On the other hand: Why didn't this get announced in a proper Nintendo Direct? I feel that, unlike Iwata, Reggie & co., Nintendo's new bosses don't understand the appeal of that format

Please RPG elements. Just give me a reason to battle and I will. I'm afraid if it doesn't again I may just give this a miss, which is sad

I can't watch the trailer yet but these screenshots give me one heck of a bad first impression as it does nothing but remind me of Color Splash and Sticker Star which are two games I would rather forget ever existed...

I'll wait for some gameplay before I decide to buy it or not, but it seems like a step in the right direction.

It looks great but maybe they're just distracting us with pretty graphics? The battles seem confusing.

Day 1 for me. I liked paper mario colour splash and this looks better.

I bet those are all the “Partners” on the cover art

I'll wait. If this is anything like Color Splash it's gonna be hard to buy this for full price.

Anyone else think the trailer needed an upbeat voice over telling us what Mario was up to? You know, direct style.

More 1st Party Nintendo for 2020, please!

sees the cover

Small rant at Nintendo, please give people the option to change a game language in game without the need to change system language.

My Switch is set to english, because I don't want to play games in dutch which this paper mario does support (see lower right corner of that cover)

Plenty of games that give you a language menu Nintendo, it's 2020.

As for the game, must buy for me.

Where did THIS come from? And releasing in under two months? Yowzers. Good work Nintendo!

Most beatiful game I've ever seen.

Very excited about this one, leads a bit of credence to all of the other Mario rumors as wel!

@mesome713 Still trolling?!

@Kochambra Because they probably dont have enough stuff to put together a direct

Having just seen the trailer - it looks great stylistically, but have slight concerns that the NPCs will be boring and we’ll have no memorable characters - looks closer to Colour Splash to Thousand Year Door in that respect.

Think long term fans of the series want a memorable cast and a decent battle system and we’ll be happy enough.

Hope this one hasn’t been rushed out the gate to fill a gap in the calendar, which (at present) looks like it could be the case.

Yep Nintendo beats everyone xD I want this game !!!

For those who are bit on the fence, I suggest you should read this blog post
https://askagamedev.tumblr.com/post/189629692776/different-anon-guy-here-continuing-on-from-paper

@Archius9 from IGN “ There will also be a new ring-based battle system that requires both "puzzle-solving skills and a quick wit."
Can’t they just revert back to a standard battle format?

Not entirely sure why with every new incarnation they’re trying new things with the battle system. The card based battles in Colour Splash really weren’t great, and that’s putting it kindly.

Very cool. Nice stealth announcement for a Nintendo title. I'm hoping the Mario & Luigi series will make it over soon. Those were fun DS and 3DS titles, they deserve to be played on the big screen.

Makes you wonder, what else is Nintendo going to drop with no Direct in sight?

Got that Wind Waker vibe during the sailing scene in the trailer. I'm all for Nintendo padding their games with references. The Samus helmet at the end... Yeah I think this game is gonna be amazing

So many Color Splash haters! I really enjoyed Color Splash. Paper Mario is no longer an RPG, but it's still a great adventure game.

@chardir I think that's debatable, I don't see too many people praising it for being a good adventure game.

It not being an RPG anymore is kinda of a big deal, like is mario kart suddenly decided to be a point amd click game.

Something seems off to me. Obviously time will tell, but it kinda just looks like any ol paper Mario game to me. Looks pretty good, but it doesn’t seem like, special.

@andyc777 i'm OK with other battle systems - i'd prefer original and straight forward but whatever.
What I can't get behind is a battle system, like in sticker star and colour splash that has no EXP therefore no actual reason to battle.
I never finished CS as I got bored of it

Never played a Paper Mario game, this might be the first. Will wait for some reviews while avoiding story spoilers at all costs xD

Fortunately here in France the Auchan store sells games with "pre-purchase" discount even one week after the game's release.

Well paper mario isnt what it used to be for a long time, that said it looks interesting, give me a reason to battle and I will.

I really don’t get why people are being so toxic about this game, it looks pretty great.

@mesome713 I’d say the PS5 alpha footage is the most beautiful but this is pretty good too.

The battle system gives me slight chrono trigger vibes. Something about it being 2d but still using 3d space

Haha. The cover had some influence of me, looks like.

No Deluxe Version or Pre order bonus with an included Mario themed origami book and folding paper?? Missed opportunity...

Toads were once tall!

I am curious if this means the rest of the Mario rumors were also true, at least to some kind of extent.

Also, likely means no Color Splash port, which is a bummer cause sans second screen I think that game was pretty good.

@Kalmaro - I am on your side with that. Looks way more convoluted to me. But will take it over Sticker Star or SPM anyday.

@andyc777
This series got Starfoxed thanks Miyamoto

I’m probably one of the few who really enjoyed Colour Splash. I didn’t like it as much as the original two games, and I certainly didn’t like the card system for battles, but I thought the adventuring and humour were spot on.

The trailer for this looks good, but not sure about that quick look we got of battles. I don’t know why they can’t go back to the ‘stages’ for battles like the first two games, they worked really well.

Yet another Mario, so boring!

Looks promising so far, though knowing how the battle system functions will determine on how soon I pick this up or if I'll wait for a discount.

I'm beginning to think with some of the comments that I'm in the minority that actually played and enjoyed Color Splash. Sure, the game had flaws - combat being my main complaint - but I found the writing entertaining and liked most of the paint mechanics and areas to explore.

I don't want to be too negative before we really know anything, but right out the gate I'm noticing two things I don't like: no traditional partner characters and no unique npcs. I was hoping Nintendo would take this series back to its roots as they've recently done with 3D Mario and Zelda. If there really is no RPG battle system then this might as well be Color Splash 2

Conflicted. Not enough to know if its a return to form for the battle system. Are the NPCs going to be like -idk- ACTUAL characters as opposed to copy-paste toads and "assorted npc baddies"? Couldn't tell for sure even after watching it a few times. Cautiously optimistic but hope they do not retcon the great mushroom kingdom world building of the original (like 3d mario seems to do every game) in favor of linear "map stages"....

@TheNewButler The new Nintendo releases the game first, then takes feedback after. Like them having to patch in the ability to play with friends in Mario Maker 2. Or patch in the ability to back up your island in Animal Crossing.

So. Much. Color.

Can’t wait. I’m playing through Bowsers inside story at the moment 🥰

@Nerdfather1 he won’t have it any other way. Never met someone so blinded by fanboy-ism as this kid...

@Kochambra
Because the current pandemic has made assembling a traditional Direct very difficult.

@RazorThin Mainly because Sticker Star papercut a lot of us so dang deep: it had a lot of really sketchy gameplay elements (its battle system had some major game design problems with rewarding the player for avoiding it and the sticker mechanic as it was implemented forced loads of perpetual backtracking as two of many examples), paper thin puzzle design (buy a sticker, put it in the right spot, watch a cutscene) and it erased all the character and plot. Besides its graphics, it was an amateur effort. And since the last 3 games before it were so good, a lot of us weren't expecting it and got burned bad.

Color Splash doesn't exactly deserve the fan reaction, except it sort of does. I don't care about change in the series but I do care about charm and I do care about game design. Color Splash brought back charm and fixed some of the poorly designed mechanics. But it latched onto some less fun design choices from Sticker Star that most of the fans (still washing the salt out of their numerous Sticker Star caused wounds) were very unhappy to see: the battle system still got rid of exp points without a system in place that was as effective at rewarding the player for battles (the paint system is better than nothing, but once you get enough paint, running is better than fighting). The unnamed Toads are more charming, more funny, but it wouldn't have been hard to write characters instead of unnamed identical NPCs. And while the Koopalings are written characters, so they probably don't deserve the hate, it gave off generic New Super Mario Bros vibes compared to the unique, personality filled bosses of the first 3 games. The main reason people hate it when it probably deserves to be remembered as good-but-not-great is because Nintendo showed they still liked some of the less great ideas from Sticker Star. Also nobody bought the Wii U.

So some people are probably being toxic because this is the internet, but after a hard miss and an okay but flawed entry, I do think people are justified in hoping this new game is something different and in not trusting the game will be good until they see more. A reasonable position as a consumer.

@andyc777 Yeah, I browsed his comment history. It’s a shame some people are like that. Who would want to live in such a bubble? Not me, I can tell you that much.

@Nerdfather1 agreed. Nintendo are my favourite video game company of all time, and are typically my go to console of choice. But to be so blindly biased is bordering on the pathetic. He bashes certain franchises for being repetitive and defends Nintendo when they do the same thing.

As a gamer, I’d be missing out on a TON of great games if I stuck to the one console.

@Agramonte up for pre order on the official Nintendo UK store if you’re based over here. Either way, not worth panicking over - it won’t be one that sells out instantly

As long as it's a Color Splash and not a Sticker Star, I will be happy

Absolutely awesome

Cool, it's the Dutch cover. Hope it's coöp!

First glance - awesome
will need to see more to make decision
love the visuals, don't have a good view of battles
"partners" seem to be bowser (paper) and sister of bad guy
was hoping for the traditional partners, not like everything after ttyd
cute metroid reference at end

Color Splash still had great writing, but the whole NPC bit and battle system were weird. At least the little bit we see of this one is different from Color Splash (way too slow, too simple and random), but fingers crossed it's engaging in some way and not weird/random...

I want to be able to spend coins on More HP and more battle skills and abilities. Looks like it could be like that. Is it random enounter? Is there a level cap (like TYD) or finite experience (like + Rabbids)? I've played a couple finite experience games, and I like them less. Just let a guy level up. Also, I'm wondering if the meta of a paper world will destroy the feeling of a journey (like Yoshi's Crafted World, which felt like sitting at a table). So far, I'd roll the dice, I think, but the ~6gig file size is like half of what Okami HD was, so this might be shorter game than the price warrants. I was SCARRED--SCARRED by Wario World on the Gamecube, and I (luckily) only rented it. I beat it in six hours. The unlockables were micro game slash teasers for Warioware. Wario World Switch is the kind of lesson that lasts. Don't trust... hope.

There seems to be much more exploration in the 3D space, if you know what I mean. And as the big, biased, game community destroying, ultra hardcore Nintendo fanboy that I am, I'll have to say this looks great.
I'm deeply sorry, if offended someone with my fanboy opinion. 😘

At this point, going by the numbers, I guess I am no longer a fan of the Paper Mario franchise. :/

The first two were brilliant games. The third one was weird and didn't really do well at blending the elements it tri d to, but still had a unique charm to it that was fine. But now Sticker Star and Color Splash have taken away that magic that made Paper Mario what it was and Origami Whatever looks to be obstinately pulling that train into the same station. Alas, nothing gold can stay.

@Dodger Never before have I agreed with a comment so intensely. Perfectly and objectively summed up the experience of being a Paper Mario fan, well done you

Might be the prettiest game on Switch. WHY IS IT NOT JULY YET?????

@DawgP Combat is turn-based in Origami King, no? Seems to me that it should be a return to form, though I confess that I never played the most recent two installments (which I understand to have abandoned the turn-based format so as not to be duplicative of Mario & Luigi titles, right?).

But I liked your comment because I think your assessment as to the first 3 games is spot-on. Thousand Year Door is one of my absolute favorite games.

@rdm22 I mean, Sticker Star and Color Splash were turn-based. That alone the magic does not make. I've been thinking about this a lot today, for obvious reasons, bit while there are mechanical deficiencies that take the afformentioned two (and likely the new third) away from being what I want from a Paper Mario, it's something else that ruins it for me.

It would take way too much to do all put here, and ain't nobody got time to read all that, but I'll give a very concise and not-at-all nuanced version for ya.

The good Paper Mario games use "Paper" as a reference to how they feel like a fantastical storybook adventure. They are full of locations with odd, quirky, alien, and interesting characters. The partners, even if of a species familiar to Mario games, are different, and they all have their own personalities, motivations, and eccentricities. The scope, scale, impact, and "weight" of the story itself isn't as important as that it feels like you're playing a JRPG Mario Fairy Tale adventure; finding a magic box in a vacant house in town that shrinks you down and takes you to a toy world full of shy guys, going through a magical gate to the flower realm where you have to free the sun, raiding the dragon's castle for its treasure, having to go to the creepy tower in the horizon of the perpetually twilit town in which someone turns into a pig every time the tower bell rings. This is why, while I would hardly want all goes that came after it to play like Super Paper Mario, I thought Super Paper Mario was a good addition to the franchise.

It goes hand-in-hand with that meme image of 50 identical toads for Sticker Star/For Splash and the slew of different and unique toad designs from TTYD.

Holy aliasing, batman. Very distracting when things move, especially when the background slowly moves.

I'm not sure I'll be able to get over that. Some games do well to mask it, but in this one it's like sand in your eyes.

"begging Nintendo for a Mario RPG reveal"

@Kalmaro Who knows: maybe there will be a partner ring right next to Mario: a thwomp blocking attacks from a line of enemies or some such. Or maybe partners provide different special moves that hit different spaces on the grid. The biggest beef of Sticker Star and Color Splash was the collect-a-thon attacks, where you couldn't splurge on a special attack without going back to town to get another.

Here’s a screenshot of an explorer toad as a partner in battle!

https://www.resetera.com/threads/chinese-trailer-of-paper-mario-the-origami-king-has-a-unique-toad-partner-in-your-fight.205023/

@RoyanRannedos thay was one of the major beefs.

The other complaints were the lack of partners, how boss battles devolved into just finding the right stickers and the removal if battles.

I’ve never played a Paper Mario game. So I can’t really comment to the quality of this new game in comparison to the older ones.

I will say I’m not surprised that Nintendo suddenly surprised dropped this. It’s not like Nintendo hasn’t done it in the recent past and these kinds of bombs were expected when it was clear that COVID-19 was gonna force things to change

The graphics look gorgeous, and I'm watching a gameplay of Ghost of Tsushima by the way...

But the game itself is strange, wasn't this supposed to be a return to the series roots? What I'm seeing looks more like an attempt to reboot everything to make it similar to something like Tearaway... Probably I need to see more of the game. Wait, I just realised, the combat system is similar to the first two entries... but with a twist (literally?).

Kinda sad that the Paper Mario franchise will forever live underneath the shadow of "Being TTYD2."

I'm reserving judgment on the battle system because, if nothing else, there appear to be no stickers or cards. That's one step in the right direction. On the other hand, there is no indication that there's an XP system so it's hard to say why I should care about getting into a battle.

In any case, it's very pretty.

@Dodger - well said/written. Cautiously optimistic.

My sister has no interest in playing this game, it’s not her thing, but she really hopes they release some origami kits based on this.

@westman98 Maybe, but I think if Nintendo pushed the envelope and had good game mechanics, a number of people would appreciate not TTYD2. Maybe that's optimistic of me (not a quality usually attributed to me), but a lot of people appreciate things about Super Paper Mario and that really isn't TTYD2.

Personally, speaking as myself, after 2 games which had some noticeable game design flaws (For instance, why would they put so much time and effort into battles and then punish players for playing the battles? It wastes resources without getting a meaningful reward. That's RPG design 101.), I would appreciate it if the Big N could prove they get what makes the first two/three games so beloved before they innovate. I think I see that sentiment with a number of Nintendo properties right now. (Mario Party comes to mind: if they showed that they got why people like say, Mario Party 2 and 3 and found those games fun, I'd trust them to innovate, but by this point, I'm going to assume a new Mario Party game replaces the basics with worse mechanics until I see otherwise. But if they do release a good one that's different, I'll enjoy it.)

But if they release something that's mechanically well-designed and fun to play, I'll personally play it and enjoy it even if it's different. I have no love for TTYD so overwhelming that I cannot enjoy an innovative take, but I also suspect occasionally that someone at Nintendo doesn't get why TTYD was fun and that kind of attitude rarely makes a good sequel.

I think your mileage in this game will depend on what you want in a paper Mario game. I see most people want a specific battle system. Fair enough. It’s not a problem for me, because the battle system is not what I find important in a paper Mario game. The environments, music, and writing are what I love in a paper Mario game, so this looks right up my alley!

@gokev13 It looks like it is the traditional system mixed with a system where you can take the enemies out all at once or risk having them crowd upon you. The timing system looks promising because that means there are stakes or consequences for not being a quick thinker.

@Alpha008 Either have a good battle system or make it into a click and point adventure game. I love the writing as well but it is a pain having the story stop with a weak and time consuming battle system with no challenge.

Looks amazing, but as with any other Paper Mario game after TTYD it’s a wait and see for me.

@MysteryCupofJoe like I said, that’s what you look for in a PM game, fair enough, but for me, who finds most rpg battles tedious, it’s not a dealbreaker.
Plus, how can we judge the battle system so far... we’ve seen it action for a total of... 30 seconds? That’s not enough time to form a fair judgement.

@Kochambra Whhyyyyyyy do people care so much for the damn directs? I do not get it. Every. Single. Announcement. Always with the pouting and crying over a 20/30 minute YouTube video that Nintendo CLEARLY care nothing about. Y’all are some sad ex girlfriends on this site.

@MysteryCupofJoe
Yah, I commented on here before I noticed there was an actual video, the battle system looks promising and I am open to new ideas as long as they are fun and engaging.

I enjoyed Colour Splash but I do wish the battle system was better. I would have even been fine with the card system but it should have been implemented differently in my opinion. Also, bosses should have been beatable without bringing a specific thing card, just harder to beat.

I'm looking forward to learning more about this new Paper Mario game though. The trailer looked pretty good.

I am so excited, the art is greatttt, what a reveal!

@gokev13 I so wished for the card battle system to have a Yu-Gi-Oh like flair. Having trap cards and summoning old partners would have been fun. Instead, we got a time waster. I am hoping this battle system is awesome.

@Alpha008 Sorry, not this current battle system but the Color Splash Paper system. I just commented now how I would have loved the Color Splash system to be more Yu-Gi-Oh like with summons and trap cards. That would have been great.

@MysteryCupofJoe maybe. It does sound cool.
Well, either way, I’m hyped for this game. I’ve already installed it. That’s how much I love Paper Mario. Even the less popular ones are still amongst my favourite games. Even if this is more of colour splash, I’ll take it. The fact that it is clearly another step up from colour splash has me even more excited!

@VegasToad I'm curious: Did you honestly expect an answer to a question worded in such an obviously derogatory way, or were you just venting your frustration with the fact that some people have different interests than yours?

@RupeeClock that's scarily accurate. Honestly Nintendo is kinda full of ***** with there blatant disregard of fan feedback, if they listen to fans more Metroid samus returns would be ported to switch already as well as the prime trilogy, smh Nintendo smh

@RupeeClock Well, that's the trailer for the general audience, you know. I'd wager, the ardent fanbase is the vocal minority. For most people, it has too look charming and intrigue them with the story. Just the fact that there's some kind of battling, and it seems to be fun, is enough for them.

But if they did try to improve on stuff, the'll definitely show it the next feature-specific trailers (like they did with Paper Mario, if I'm not mistaken).

Amazing another great updated game by nintendo.

@Kochambra I said what I said.. if the shoe fits then where it. If a 30 minute commercial has you clutching your pearls or melons, that badly, then so be it. Just stop crying about it allll the time.

@VegasToad That makes perfectly clear that you have zero respect for people with different points of view, so I can ignore your comments. Thank you!

The blend doesn't work for me. You have Mario and pals as 2D stickers and the game world and characters in glorious 3D origami. I don't get it. Why not do everything in 3D origami?

Ugh... I've played so many RPG:s with a traditional battle system I'm full of it. Gladly, Paper Mario series always try something new and interesting with the battles rather than just offering the same thing in every installment.
Edit: My favorite game in the series was Super Paper Mario, so far.