Nintendo pulled a fast one this morning by announcing Paper Mario: The Origami King with a surprise trailer and a July 17 release date. The jury is still out on whether this new game in the franchise will follow the beloved footsteps of its early titles or the derided formula of its recent entries, but if anything can be said about The Origami King's trailer, it's that Nintendo still knows how to make a first impression.
Paper Mario is known for having a creative art style masquerading darker elements — especially in its more well-regarded entries like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (TTYD). The Origami King trailer sets a similar atmosphere by having Princess Peach walk into her castle's foyer folded like an origami doll and recommend Mario join her, as though she's in a born-again cult. There's no voice acting, but the stilted way each piece of text comes on screen and becomes more off-center over time sells a crazed, brainwashed Peach.
In a lot of ways, this set-up is similar to TTYD. Much of that game has Peach relegated to mini-episodes between Mario's adventure, and over the course of her story, she realizes its antagonistic X-Nauts are going to release a demon from the titular Thousand-Year Door. At the end of the game, Peach is possessed and becomes its final boss: The Shadow Queen. As fascinating an idea as a villainous Princess Peach was, it was short-lived in TTYD because it was a twist reveal. The Origami King could truly let the concept shine.
According to the description for The Origami King on Nintendo's website, it's going to begin with Mario and Luigi invited to Toad Town where they find a "fearsome" Peach under the control of King Olly — hellbent on re-folding the world in his image. Though Nintendo emphasizes the comedic nature of the game, one with references to other Nintendo properties, the possibility of seeing Peach in a different light for an entire game is (hopefully) too interesting to outright abandon in lieu of Mario's journey with King Olly's sister, Olivia.
Though many regard Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Color Splash as missteps, the three games preceding them set a great precedent on characterizing Princess Peach better than almost any title in the mainline Mario franchise. More often than not, Peach is a damsel in distress for Mario to rescue.
In Paper Mario, things are different. The mini-episodes throughout TTYD feature Peach investigating her possible fate, all while teaching the supercomputer TEC what it means to be human. The original Paper Mario similarly shows Peach trying to escape from Bowser's clutches of her own accord, and Super Paper Mario turns her into an integral companion alongside Luigi and Bowser. Some of the scenarios in the latter game are entirely dedicated to her as well, like when she has to deal with a geeky chameleon named Francis by tearing him down in a dating sim.
While the verdict is still out on The Origami King and some strange choices, particularly in that it's listed as an action-adventure game rather than an RPG, one thing it hopefully gets right is its treatment of Princess Peach. TTYD teased a lot of promise in the idea of an evil take on the character, but now the developers have an opportunity to bring that vision to life in a new Paper Mario game by showing her creepy, creased-up actions throughout the story.
Paper Mario: The Origami King will be available on July 17, 2020 for the Nintendo Switch.
