Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

 MARIO & LUIGI: PAPER JAM

So, there's this thing going around lately, this interview with the director of Origami King, where he strongly implies that sometime following the release of Super Paper Mario, the Paper Mario development team were not allowed to make original characters any more and had to stick pretty much entirely to the core Mario cast and enemies, which we can very clearly see the effects of in all three games following in the series. Even in Origami King, where the writing and characters were strong, it's rather telling that one of the most interesting characters was only really named "Bob-Omb." Considering all this would have been roughly post-Dream Team, I think it's fair to say that had its effects on the Mario & Luigi series as well. (Though, to AlphaDream's credit, at least they still made a good game of it regardless).

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam acts as a crossover of sorts between the Mario & Luigi series and the Paper Mario series, with the plot involving Luigi accidentally opening a magic book and releasing paper versions of all the characters in the Mushroom Kingdom, leading the brothers to team up with Mario's paper self in order to put all the pages back together and return the paper characters to their own world.

The game's main playable characters are Mario, Luigi, and Paper Mario all working together as a threesome. Together, they can run, jump, dash, and whack with their hammers. Paper Mario can also flutter jump, stack up several copies of himself, and turn into a paper airplane. Working together outside of battle, they can perform a number of trio moves, such as smacking all three hammers together to make a powerful shockwave, drill into the ground, fly across pits with Paper Mario in his airplane form, and form a rope to reach out and grab stuff. In battle, Mario can kick around a red shell, fire off on a rocket, throw a bunch of bombs, swing around a cannonball, and run along a trail of Toads. Luigi can use a fire flower, use a shell to drill into enemies, use the dropchopper, blow up a balloon, and grow giant to whack with a hammer. All three together have a set of moves including turning the enemies to stickers and lobbing tennis balls at them?, turning the enemy into a kite?, dropping from a high distance and hitting all the enemies on the way down, throw shurikens at the enemy, and launching a meteor at them.

I should also mention the Papercraft battles, a new form of minigame I suppose, wherein Toadette (clearly possessed by the spirit of Kylie Koopa in her mannerisms) puts together giant blocky versions of the characters to do battle with giant blocky versions of enemy characters, while our heroes ride on top. It's fun . . . I guess. The heroes' Papercrafts include a basic one for Mario, a hammer-wielding Luigi, one for Peach with a floaty parasol, an egg-throwing Yoshi, and a fireball-throwing Fire Mario. Their opponents respectively include a basic Goomba, a Kamek that shields, teleports, and casts spells, a Bowser Jr. that throws shells, drops bombs, and uses a punching glove, a King Boo that tends to float, and a fire-breathing Bowser.

Our heroes are once again joined by Starlow, once again in a mostly exposition role and once again being a dick to Luigi. We also have both Peach and Paper Peach, a number of Toads and Paper Toads, Toadette on Papercraft construction, and a few Yoshis here and there. Next, we have Nabbit, doing mostly as Nabbit does, but maybe just maybe inheriting the spirit of Popple (honestly, I would bet money that Kylie and Popple were originally intended to fill the roles of Toadette and Nabbit before all the crap went down). He will steal things, run away, toss spike balls to block pursuers' paths, burrow, create duplicates, hop on clouds, throw out coins and enemies, spin and throw his bag, sneak up on people, sleep, give healing items to the heroes, steal one of the brother's hammers and use it, and kick around a Buzzy Beetle shell. Well, thank you, Nabbit for providing for yourself such a nice and easy moveset. Good bunny.

Our villains include both regular and paper forms of our standard Mario enemies, including Bowser, Kamek, and Bowser Jr. Regular Bowser will breathe fire, ride around in his Klown Kar, throw bombs, jump around and stomp. Paper Bowser also breathes fire and has a Klown Kar, but can also form a suit of armor around Bowser for the big special Bowser battle at the end. (At least they are the main villain this time). Additionally, Dry Bowser appears in the game's battle ring and will breathe fire, throw bones, and throw his own head at you.

Bowser Jr. and his paper form have a genuinely kinda sweet friendship in this game, and both will ride around in Klown Kars and breathe fire. Additionally, Paper Bowser Jr. can turn into a paper airplane and regular Jr. sets up a giant bomb. The Kameks will both fly around on brooms, summon up new paper terrain with Magic, create force fields, teleport, cast spells, create portals, and summon magic barriers. All seven Koopalings appear in this game, although act in separate groups for most of it. Roy and Wendy (the pink team) will throw giant boulders and cannonballs and throw rings. Ludwig and Larry (the blue team) will both spin in their shells, throw giant bombs, and cast spells. And Lemmy, Iggy, and Morton (the . . . um, yellow, green, and brown team, I guess), will do their regular thing of riding around on balls, using Chain Chomps, and throwing cannonballs.

Our bosses outside of these include a few Mario favorites. They include a regular and paper version of Petey Piranha, who will bite, fly, stomp, burrow underground, spew out sludge, suck in, and cause shockwaves; King Boo, who will spit out spirit fire, shapeshift, suck things in, split into multiples, and disappear; King Bob-Omb, who throws Bob-Ombs, grabs you, and fires cannons (hey, buddy, just in time for a certain Mario Kart game to make me reconsider you as more than just part of the regular Bob-Omb moveset. Good for you!); a rampaging Wiggler who stomps, charges, rolls around on a ball, spits seeds, and grows wings; and a pair of giant Pokeys who will roll up into a wheel, lie down on the ground and roll like a bar, fling their body parts, and rise from the ground.

Our recurring enemies (mostly all regular Mario enemies) come in both paper and regular varieties. They include: Goombas, Scaredy Rats, Koopas, Biddybuds, Spinies, Sandmaarghs, Shy Guys, Bob-Ombs, Chargin' Chucks, Hammer Bros., Cheep Cheeps, Urchins, Monty Moles, Ninji (who multiply, hide behind fake walls, spin down from the ceiling, throw themselves as shurikens, and basically use substitution jutsu (man, we are getting everybody in today, aren't we?)), Piranha Plants, Buzzy Beetles, Bullies, Spikes, Pokeys, Fire Bros., Ant Troopers, Swoops, Boomerang Bros., Dry Bones, Boos, Broozers, Chain Chomps, and Mechakoopas (who breathe fire and give off electricity).

Our stages this time include Princess Peach's Castle of course, a pretty standard grassland called Sunbeam Plains, the desert Doop Doop Dunes, a beach area called Twinsy Tropics, a forest called Gloomy Woods, an icy mountain named Mount Brrr, and Bowser's Castle, later becoming Neo Bowser's Castle. Pretty basic, all things considered. But let's be honest here. The real stage to include for this game is the Papercraft Battles, with the various papercrafts acting as our platforms.

The items are pretty much standard at this point, though we do now have some paper items like Blocks to give Paper Mario more copies to stack up and Battle Cards. You know, like from Color Splash.

So, here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Paper Mario: run, jump, hammer, flowers, confetti bag, 1000-fold arms, pull, punch, boot car, flutter jump, copies, paper airplane, Trio Hammer, Trio Drill, Trio Glider, Trio Grab, Trio Racquet, Trio Kite, Trio Whirligig, Trio Shuriken, Trio Meteor, Papercrafts

Mario & Luigi: jump, hammer, fire and lightning, spin jump, high jump, mini Mario, Luigi dunk, dash, tickle, Swing Bros, Cyclone Bros, Bros. Ball, throw babies, spring helmet, yoo who cannon, super bouncer, mighty meteor, spin pipe, snack basket, magic window, falling star, kick shell, fill up with water, side drill, bomb rally, jet-board, dropchopper, starsling, star rocket, Zeekeeper egg, Trio Hammer, Trio Drill, Trio Glider, Trio Grab, cannonball, Toad trail, drill shell, balloon blast, grow giant, Trio Racquet, Trio Kite, Trio Whirligig, Trio Shuriken, Trio Meteor, Papercrafts.

Luigi: Mario Kart

Baby Mario & Baby Luigi: drill into ground, fill up with water, flatten, float, hammers, jump, ride shell

Dreamy Luigi OR Dreambert: Luiginoids, stack, cone, ball, ground pound, spring jump, spin, spin jump swing around as a weapon, hookshot, become giant, dream portal, pillow form, float, dream bunny, seadrings, Zeekeeper

Starlow: fly, star power, pick at Luigi's face

Princess Peach: explosive vocabulary, Baby Peach

Bowser: folded, breathe fire, grow giant, stomp, throw hammers, spit poison, spin in shell, shockwaves, punch, suck things in, pull and push, body slam, roll around as a spike ball, Goomba, Shy Guy, Koopa, Bob-Omb, and Magikoopa squad attacks, charge, grab, Dreamy Bowser, duplicates, create minions, Klown Kar, throw bombs, suit of armor

Dry Bowser: breathe fire, throw bones, throw head

Baby Bowser: fire, hammer, Koopa Klown Kar

Bowser Jr.: Koopa Klown Kar, spike ball, Bob-Omb, breathe fire, paintbrush tickle, giant bomb, paper airplane

Kamek: spell, broomstick, multiples, summon enemies, paper terrain, force fields, teleport, create portals, magic barriers

Koopalings: throw boulders, throw cannonballs, rings, spin in shells, giant bombs, cast spells, ride on balls, Chain Chomps.

Birdo: blow kiss

Olivia: all origami based moves, Vellumental transformation

King Olly: fold, Vellumental, grow giant, paper airplanes, hammer fists, sword arms

Prince Peasley: floating pillow, rose, hair, slash with rapier, turn into dragon (other bean-related stuff, easily best gimmick rep)

Popple: steal, dash, failed Bros. Attacks, throw items from bag, run away

Cackletta: lightning, transform, flying chair, lasers, curses, bat duplicates, possess, fireballs, shooting stars, suck you in, essence.

Fawful: flying hat, bean gas, laser blasts, suck up, antenna lightning, dome, laser ring, blorb mushroom, vacuum mushroom, flying machine, energy beam laser, giant hand, rockets, Dark Star, walls, float, shooting stars, energy balls, wormholes, fog, self-destruct, Fawfulcopters, Fawfulized minions, Fawful Mountain, Peach's Castle.

Princess Shroob/Elder Princess Shroob: hover throne, flying saucers, Shroobs, shield, fire lasers, beam from above, electric orbs, spider legs, teleport, ride flying saucers, stomp, charge, throw meteors, grow bigger, spew poison clouds, swing tentacles, possess Bowser.

Midbus: punch, roll up into a ball, belly flop, swing around a heavy ball, puff out his stomach, Blizzard form, snowballs, creating snowmen, climb up walls and divebomb, roll into snowball.

Dark Star: punch, fire breath, spiky shell, Dark Bowser, suck in, create fog, throw lightning, create minions, fire lasers, bounce around, dark hurricane, cage of darkness, giant rock

Antasma: claws, cloud, pillow form, swarm of bats, Dreamy Marios, fire and smoke, chasms, screech, dreambeats, power up, create duplicates, throw energy balls, circle of spikes, spidery minions, dark shield

Toad: a lot of basics, dig up coins, blorbs, carry papercrafts, stack up

Toadette: build Papercrafts.

Toadsworth: Bros. Ball, Spin Jump

E. Gadd: Stuffwell, time machine, water pump machine (time paradox)

Broque Monsieur: make blocks, Blitties, Broggy, Grobot, drilldigger, drill, fix

Massif Bros: punching rocks, charging, stomping, bouncing around, stacking up, throwing blocks, and healing, Mario & Luigi's moves

Nabbit: steal things, run away, toss spike balls to block pursuers' paths, burrow, create duplicates, hop on clouds, throw out coins and enemies, spin and throw his bag, sneak up on people, sleep, give healing items to the heroes, steal one of the brother's hammers and use it, kick around a Buzzy Beetle shell

Koopalings: spin, stomp, multiples, breathe fire, shell spin, time bomb, pipes, rings, ping pong

Petey Piranha: eating, burrowing, stomping, flying, divebombing, bite, spew sludge, suck in, shockwaves

King Boo: spirit fire, shapeshift, suck in, multiples, disappear

King Bob-Omb: throw bombs, grab and throw, cannons, kick bomb

Durmite/Wisdurm: charge, suck things up, eat enemies, spit webs, swing around on web, grow bigger,  heart-shaped crystal, magic wand, shoot stars, shrink you, remove blocks.

Shroobs: flying around in their flying saucers, shooting laser guns, firing a massive laser blast, calling in saucers to shoot lasers, swim around in sand, throw spike balls and fish, swing giant hammers, summon flames, throw Shroob-ombs, throw meteors, and send others into battle, throw fireballs and lightning, spin to throw a mace, trap you in crystals, spit up saucers, and throw lollipops

Koopa Troopa

Goombas

Shy Guys: spears, laser Snifits

Hammer Bro, Boomerang, Yo-yo, Chain Chomp, and Limbo versions

Spike

Dry Bones

Buzzy Beetle: laser beam

Monty Mole

Cheep Cheep

Thwomp: move, multiples, volcano, cough up rock

Chain Chomp

Ninji: multiply, hide behind fake walls, spin down from the ceiling, throw themselves as shurikens, substitution

Pokey: roll up, roll like a bar, fling body parts, rise

Boo

Piranha Plant

Mechakoopa: breathe fire, electrify

Blooper

Chargin' Chuck

Wiggler: stomp, charge, roll on ball, grow wings, spit seeds

Virus

Lakitu

Magikoopa

Bosses:

Earth Vellumental

Water Vellumental

Fire Vellumental

Ice Vellumental

Colored Pencils

Rubber Band

Hole Punch

Tape

Scissors

Stapler

Gooper Blooper

Handaconda

Tolstar

Hoohooros

Dragohoho

Chuckolator

Trunkle

Hermie III

Jojora

Yoob

Sunnycide

Sea Pipe Statue

Scutlet

Kretin

Chakron

Bowser's Castle

Tower of Yikk

Fawful Express and Fawful Mountain

Super Peach's Castle of Fury

Grobot

Torkscrew

Mammoshka

Pi'illodium

Robo-Drilldigger

Mount Pajamaja

Earthwake

Zeekeeper

Stages:

Peach's Castle

Overlook Mountain

Shogun Studios

Scorching Sandpaper Desert

The Great Sea

Shangri-Spa

Bowser's Castle

Hotfoot Crater

King Olly's Origami Castle

Beanbean Kingdom

Koopa Cruiser

Hoohoo Mountain

Beanbean Castle

Chucklehuck Woods

Woohoo Hooniversity

Oho Ocean

Teehee Valley

Winkle Realms

Joke's End

Hollijolli Village

Toadwood Forest

Yoshi's Island

Gritzy Desert

Thwomp Volcano

Shroob Mothership

Star Shrine

Dimble Wood

Plack Beach

Bumpsy Plain

Blubble Lake

Bowser's Insides

Pi'illo Castle

Mushrise Park

Dozing Sands

Wakeport

Mount Pajamaja

Driftwood Beach

Somnom Woods

Neo Bowser's Castle

Dreamy versions of each

Dream's Deep

Sunbeam Plains

Doop Doop Dunes

Twinsy Tropics

Gloomy Woods

Mount Brrr

Papercraft Battle

Items:

Mushrooms

Flowers

Beans

Chuckola Cola

Peppers

Yoshi's Cookies

Star Cures

Dream Stone

Dream Egg

Copy Block

Battle Cards

Various Incidental Items

Thanks for reading! Now, let us begin our character sheets!