Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam Thoughts

	So I went into Paper Jam thinking it would be an average Mario and Luigi game and well I got just that. I think that the game at its core is a fun and enjoyable experience but it has some elements that are questionable. I thought the combat was amazing as always and was decently challenging. I absolutely loved the battle card system in game and I loved customizing and strategizing with the cards. I have heard people complain about Paper Mario being broken, and too be fair I think he was a little OP early-mid game and you could do a little bit of cheesing with him, but I don't think it breaks the battle system to try and cheese fights with just Paper Mario since it takes significantly longer to do it like that. As for the special moves, they were all really fun and while some were a bit on the long side it did not bother me at all. I did not like that they re-used bro multiple bro attacks from other m&l games but it was only two for each bro so it was forgivable. So really I only had minor problems with the combat.
	As for the minigames which largely including rescuing paper toads. I found them to be largely enjoyable but were a little tedious when they piled them too close together which I only felt hurt the pacing twice in the game. There were other minigames with kamek and the koopalings too which were fine with me too. I did not find it much different than minigames in other m&l games but they were definitely more "in your face" with these minigames with the "ready, go" and etc. there was also a larger amount of the minigames too. While most where enjoyable, there were some bad minigames and having fewer of them in general would have probably been better.
	I left the worst for last, the papercraft battles. They were... mostly bad. The bosses were the best part of them but it was extremely lacking in general even with the thinking that went into the bosses. It was extremely easy with basically no strategy aside from the little that went into the bosses. It felt really weird that the game built up the papercraft battles like the giant battles in dream team since they were mostly boring and bland. It was an okay idea and I think the final papercraft battle showed signs that the papercraft fights could have been done well. It felt disappointing that the final papercraft fight felt like it should have been the 1st or 2nd papercraft fight. It almost felt like it should have been a separate minigame mode in the arcade? 5 papercraft battles was way too much especially with only 1 part of the last one being good. With that being said it wasn't painful to play the papercraft sections it was just very dry gameplay.
	There are some overall things extra I want to mention that does not heavily influence my enjoyment of the game but I feel is worth mentioning. The overworld felt a bit on the small side. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing. There were definitely things to explore if you wanted to, but I kinda felt like having another area would have been better. Maybe it was having two castles that were somewhat similar. The areas themselves did not feel super fresh and were a bit generic but it did not really bother me. The area that felt the best to me was Dupe Dupe Dunes, but it was still a bit of a generic desert. I did have fun exploring the areas regardless. The writing of the game was very good but that is almost a given with m&l games. Some of the humor was really cheesy but I find it charming. The plot/story was also very generic but I did not expect to be wowed with the story anyway in this game. The other m&l games crush this game in terms of plot/story. The puzzles were also standard but again, still enjoyable.

TL; DR / Overall Ratings:
To me, there were 3 main gameplay elements: The standard turn based combat, minigames, and the papercraft battles.
Combat: 9.5/10
Minigames: 6.5/10
Papercraft: 4/10
If I averaged them, I would get about 6.7/10 but since the combat is the most prevalent, I will give it a 7.2/10.
Fun and worth playing, but did not particularly wow me and had some questionable parts.

*Side Note I think if I were to rank M&L games now it would be BiS>DT=SSS>PJ>PiT (Disclaimer: I like PiT but it is my least favorite)
**Side Side Note, I am interested in this game as a speedrun and will most likely be picking it up as it has cool glitches, and good speed mechanics such as a dash, cutscene fast forwarding, and fast text. With or without 3ds capture. (Hopefully with if I can get it fixed locally)