Paper Mario Is Coming To Switch - Why I'm Excited

Out of nowhere this morning, Nintendo announced a new Paper Mario game for the Nintendo Switch. Dubbed Paper Mario: The Origami King, perhaps the existence of this game shouldn't be a complete surprise. After all, 2020 marks Mario's 35th anniversary, and rumors have claimed that Nintendo is looking to pull out all of the stops in celebration, including launching a new Paper Mario game.

In any case, the release of Paper Mario: The Origami King is coming up fast, as Nintendo announced a July 17th release date for the game today. While details about the game are still fairly slim at this point, it seems that this could be something of a return to form for the Paper Mario series, and that certainly has me excited.

While the first two Paper Mario games – the original Paper Mario on N64 and The Thousand Year Door on GameCube – were role-playing games, more recent titles in the series like Sticker Star, Super Paper Mario, and Color Splash have shifted more toward action-adventure titles. We don't know what genre Paper Mario: The Origami King will slot into, but in its announcement today, Nintendo promises "dynamic, turn-based battles," that use a ring-based system, requiring you to line up enemies to deal the most damage to them.

In Paper Mario: The Origami King, Mario will go up against King Olly, an enemy who has a plot "to fold the entire world." Nintendo says that players will "enlist the help of characters old and new," including King Olly's sister Olivia and even Bowser as they attempt to stop him from turning the world into one big origami creation.

The trailer Nintendo shared along with today's announcement even starts off a little creepy, as we see that Olly has captured Princess Peach and turned her into origami as well. We'll definitely see a lot more from Paper Mario: The Origami King as its July 17th release date approaches, and hopefully it'll become clear if this is indeed a return to form for the series. Stay tuned for more.