Paper Jam (Bros.) thoughts

So, Paper Jam is going to be released in two days in North America. I thought it'd be interesting to tell my opinions about it so far. I feel like people might avoid this game just because of Sticker Star and Dream Team (Bros.) leaving a bad taste, but I'd say this game actually isn't that bad despite the reviews it has gotten so far. The dialogue and jokes are much improved from Dream Team and overall the game feels more polished. It has its annoying bits, but nothing too bad.

There's some notable additions too, like the ability to run that you get in the beginning of the game. Having to walk everywhere felt like a chore at times in DT so I'd say it's a welcome addition. One feature I especially like is the new Fast Forward button that basically allows you speed up cutscenes a lot. While not a skip button really, it's nice for speedruns of the game.

If there's one thing I gotta give credit to Alpha, it's the tutorials of the game. The beginning of the game explains the controls like normal, but not only are they short as hell, but most tutorials are added to a guide book that you can read optionally. Doesn't force an already experienced M&L player to go through stuff they already know while still allowing new players to practice moves all they want. Really awesome.

One of the reasons I bought Paper Jam in the first place was to hunt for glitches actually. When I finally got the game I noticed that basically everything you would try in Dream Team had been patched and I lost hope pretty quick, I'm not sure if its the engine that's been modified or what, but it felt like a solid game. Luckily I came across the Paper Mario community by accident soon after.

Now the silly thing itself. As Paper Jam is really a M&L game and not a Paper Mario game, you wouldn't expect the Paper Mario community to be the one to break the game, but they did. It's weird thinking about it. If Paper Mario wasn't in this game, I'd assume the community wouldn't even give a shit about this game and it'd be solid as a rock to this day, but luckily not. Guess they needed something fresh after Sticker Star Kappa.

As for the finds themselves, some just blew my mind. While there's a lack of different techniques, what it makes up for that is with its vast amount of out of bounds spots. If there's something you want to skip like a boss battle, you can count on there being a spot you can clip with in the room. Pretty insane stuff. Just as a comparison, the general speedrun time for Dream Team is around 8-10 hours, whereas Paper Jam currently is around sub 4 hours roughly. A clear improvement.

Overall I'd highly recommend to buy it when it comes out, even if you didn't like Sticker Star or Dream Team. Alpha clearly has listened to the feedback of people and fixed the noticeable flaws from the previous game. It's a fun casual game and a fun game to glitch as well.