Another batch of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam details have been published through a new preview on Nintendo World Report. We’ve rounded up the various tidbits below.
– Luigi is in a storage room high in Peach’s Castle, where leaks are a normal occurrence
– He and a Toad find a mouse that made a hole in the wall and chase after it
– After some crazy hijinks, Luigi falls from a bookcase and it is here where a magical book is discovered
– That’s when the book unleashes the Paper Mario universe into the Mario & Luigi one
– The opening starts to bring in the paper characters fairly quickly and it doesn’t take long before you take control of Mario & Luigi
– Some banter between both versions of Bowser Jr
– The Princess Peach versions discuss the irritation of being kidnapped constantly
– After wandering around for a bit and an initial Toad Rescue mission, you bump into Paper Mario and your true travel can begin
– Luigi loses the book that contains the world of Paper Mario and it lands in the hands on Bowser’s minions
– He’s upset, and Paper Mario decides to cheer him up by allowing himself to be used as a napkin
– Big goal seems to be to reach Bowser’s Castle, save a variety of Paper Toads and Princesses and bring the Paper characters back to their own world
– Paper Toads are terrified of the new world that they have entered
– Because of this, they hide themselves somewhere in the world, simply to ensure that they won’t be spotted
– While walking through the game or accepting missions at Lakitu Center, you get tasked with finding Toads in an isolated area
– There are puzzles where you have to break certain blocks to get the Toads to you
– There are moments where you have to move the Toads to a certain part of the map and make sure that they don’t escape
– Other times you’re battling enemies to free the mushrooms from their clutches
– Mario and Luigi have their usual array of Jump and Hammer attacks
– Some new Bros. Attacks
– Rocket Blast: Mario and Luigi will fly high and drop down on their opponents; if you do both button presses correctly, the last brother flies off with the rocket and gets one extra chance to hurt the opponent even more
– Drill Shell: the brothers lift each other up into the air and you have to press at right time to drill directly into the enemy; this will rack up the hits and causes a ton of damage at impact
– 3D Red Shell and Fire Flower are back
– Get Bros. Attacks in a unique way
– In special chase segments, you follow Nabbit around
– When you are able to catch him, it earns you new attacks that can be used in combat
– Can earn Trio Attacks this way
– Paper Mario’s first basic ability is that he can make up to five extra copies of himself
– This protects his low Hit Points from harm and lets him do more damage in battle
– When he jumps, every copy follows up him up in quick succession
– Need to time your presses of the Y button just right
– With the hammer, his copies will spread across all of the opponents on the field
– Paper Mario’s flutter jump allows him to stay in the air longer
– His hammer will charge and automatically moves if you don’t let go
– Trio Racquet: entire party on the court shoots the ball back to the wall where the enemies are strapped onto it
– Trio Kite: choose one enemy that will be strapped to the flying object
– Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario have to press their buttons in quick succession and get the enemy high up into the air
– The higher it comes, the bigger the impact will be when Paper Mario slams that opponent to the ground
– Badges are gone
– Can still equip certain suits and gear to adjust stats
– Leveling system is back
– With every new rank, you are rewarded with rewards that will change up your character in some unique ways
– Battle Cards added
– These can be used after obtaining Star Points
– These stars are earned by pulling off perfect moves and having enough can be your savior in battle
– Card effects include raising your defense by 25% for a limited time, nullifying your damage for a single turn or giving every enemy on the field 20 points of damage
– Can purchase cards
– Cards come in special sets of ten
– Manage cards from the menu screen
– amiibo character cards as well
– If you have other data saved to the figurine, you can’t use the abilities that this feature offers
– By finding or buying special ?-cards and scanning in the amiibo, you get one new card from that set
– amiibo character cards don’t take up any Star Power and can be used any time it is your turn
– Battle Cards can only be used once per battle and you have to scan the amiibo to access the card set
– Paper and regular versions of enemies
– Regular Hammer Bros. throw their hammers high up into the air
– Paper version shoots them straight at the enemy
– One boss has you fighting two big Pokeys (regular and paper)
– Paper Pokey will shoot regular Pokey’s body parts to the trio
– With Papercraft battles, you stand on a gigantic Mario or Luigi and use dash and charge attacks to outsmart your opponents
– Attacks use energy and you will have go to specific spots to refill it
– Here you will play a small rhythm mini-game to replenish your health and get back to business
– Paper variations of Goombas, Pokeys and Kamek all come along for the ride and each of them moves differently across the field
– Toadette is in charge of it all, and she constantly makes inventions with an army of Paper Toads
– Events start to unfold in the lush green area of Sunbeam Plains
– This is followed up by the Doop Doop Dunes and the grotto of that same area
– Environments use the trio mechanics in Paper Jam
– Ex: can jump and dash together with the X-button, which will allow you to walk through the terrain rather quickly and even escape some enemy attacks if you want to
– This is also important at special ramps that will launch you to other places on the map
– The Toad missions will also use this a lot
– Trio Hammer allows you to break huge blocks together so that the way to new areas can be cleared
– Trio Grab lets you reach poles and obstacles that are far away
– Paper Mario takes a cylinder type and this stretches Mario and Luigi to places more easily
– Find new towns
– Play or replay (harder versions available) missions at the Lakitu Centers, buy your gear and items and talk to various NPCs
– Some of them have fun mini-games for you to play, puzzles to solve or extra items to give you
– There is usually also a block to bring your characters back to full health
– Can save almost anywhere you want and come back to it later
– Tutorials are relegated to text books that you can easily skip
