Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

 3DS
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 235 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 147 out of 235
  2. Mixed: 48 out of 235
  3. Negative: 40 out of 235
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  1. MarkusZ
    Aug 5, 2023
    10
    This game is a great mix of Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario. Nice story, beautiful worlds, great battles!
  2. Pilest
    Jul 3, 2023
    7
    Gameplay wise I do believe this is the best in the series. Story wise it is mid. Also the giant battles suck. Goomba 6/10
  3. JasonPrivy
    Feb 24, 2023
    0
    no words can express the amount of disappointment i felt in this game just no
  4. DoktarioMyst
    Oct 13, 2022
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. + de tutorial is optioneel

    +/- Paper Mario veranderd de battle system niet heel veel (vergeleken met Bowser) maar hij veranderd wel hoe je door de overwereld gaat

    - de 2D levels zijn er niet meer

    + deze game zal wel de meeste minigames in de hele serie hebben (en ik vind de minigames de hoogtepunten van de serie)

    + ondanks deze game de "bland Mario" stijl heeft vind ik het niet erg want ze maken vol gebruik van alle karakters. en de meeste zijn nieuw in de serie

    + deze game zit vol met specifieke momenten

    + deze game is uitdagend

    - de toad hide & seek minigames zijn random en omdat sommige een tijdlimiet hebben vind ik dat vervelend

    - ik vind de giant fights een downgrade. ik moet wel punten geven omdat ze iets anders probeerte

    +/- de duoaanvallen krijg je nu door nabbit te vangen. het maakt verkennen minder spannend omdat je geen aanvalstukjes kunt zoeken. ze balanceren het door meer collectibles toe te voegen maar als je niet voor 100% gaat heb je geen reden om erachter te gaan

    conclusie:
    als je van de minigames houd is dit de defenitieve M&L game    … Expand
  5. Babode
    Sep 19, 2022
    6
    I dont hate this game, the battle system is repetetive but still results in great fun. Its just it can get really boring. especially the first part. i would buy Dream team or sticker star instead.
  6. FireBroFilms
    Aug 15, 2022
    4
    ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎
  7. TSNintendogamer
    May 13, 2022
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is great. I haven't played dream team but this is the first mario and luigi game I owned. I've played others like bowser's inside story, partners in time, and the remakes but when I first played the game, I played the ones I mentioned before the remake. Yes some people may complain about there being no original characters but I think they did well with that unlike paper mario sticker star. Yes you have to rescue the paper toads which isn't so fun but it's not that hard so it's kind of fun. It's funny how the lokitu even mocks you about it saying "I bet you're just itching to rescue some paper toads." I feel like they made the best of using established characters because the game does have good writing in other places too. The story is solid because you may have to save peach from bowser once again but lots of things happen during that journey. As for the gameplay, it's really fun to solve puzzles with paper mario there, the paper craft battles are fun too and that's the action part of the game, and the game can get hard too if you play it on normal. Even harder than mario and luigi bowser's inside story. Lastly I remember feeling nostalgic for the game after listening to the ost recently even though I was 23 years old when I first played the game.… Expand
  8. BaldursThones
    Apr 14, 2022
    6
    It followed the basic formula of all the other Mario rpgs but with less creativity.
  9. Flounder
    Mar 30, 2022
    6
    Es ist ein sehr gutes und mittelmäßiges Spiel, das seine Zeit wert ist, aber nichts Großartiges.
  10. greninjaX
    Jan 28, 2022
    0
    what happened here? did the inclusion of paper mario force the developers to adhere to the same weird limitations the modern paper mario games suffer from? there's no unique races or enemies. levels use generic themes and are bland and empty. it's a short game padded out with repetitive missions. this game killed mario and luigi
  11. BeeSting1
    Jan 1, 2021
    7
    An interesting change from its predecessors.

    Good - paper Mario's attack inputs and defend inputs is a fresh addition to the battle mechanics period instead of the same double jump timing that I'm super bored of after playing through all the Mario and Luigi games. - the papercraft minigame is quite a step away from the timing mechanics of the game, but it's still kind of fun. -    An interesting change from its predecessors.

    Good

    - paper Mario's attack inputs and defend inputs is a fresh addition to the battle mechanics period instead of the same double jump timing that I'm super bored of after playing through all the Mario and Luigi games.

    - the papercraft minigame is quite a step away from the timing mechanics of the game, but it's still kind of fun.

    - the new overworld abilities are fun to use.

    - sprinting around the larger world map is fun

    - having 3 buttons to control 3 characters makes this game more challenging.

    Bad

    - there was a block smashing minigame where I had to destroy blocks to save toads. On the big blocks I thought I had to time the triple hammer attack on the last hit, because it's the strongest hit which break s the big block. But in actuality I had to use Mario's hammer to stop the block. But how would I know that Mario's hammer would stop a block that is 10 times bigger than him? The logical method would be to time the last hit which is the most powerful. Because of this twisted logic the game used, I was stuck on this puzzle for a long ass time.

    - that part where you're supposed to guess which hammer bro has The medallion is stupid, because the hint they give is the location of the hammer bro near the m blocks in the back and right, but after having hit all the blocks, I don't remember which area has the m blocks and which area doesn't.

    - the toad mini games grow increasingly more annoying as I progressed in the game. The mini game surrounding them sometimes feel broken, like I feel I am approaching it correctly but the solution is actually completely backwards. They also become quite repetitive.

    - some of the attack animations of the enemies were hard to see when it came to the depth of the attack. This caused me to dodge with the wrong character because I wasn't sure who they were aiming for. This might be because I was playing on the 2DS.

    - Sometimes the papercraft mini games just feel extremely clunky. Maybe that's what it's meant to be, but it feels unfair at times.    … Expand
  12. honchkrow_lover
    Nov 12, 2020
    3
    absolutely terrible , an embarrassment for the series the world is boring and not fun to traverse it is basically 7 cliché Mario locations with no depth grassy plains , desert , beach , castle , haunted woods and snowy mountain , other mario and luigi games worlds were interesting to explore and weird , like compare twinsy tropics to driftwood beach and plaque beach , twinsy tropics is aabsolutely terrible , an embarrassment for the series the world is boring and not fun to traverse it is basically 7 cliché Mario locations with no depth grassy plains , desert , beach , castle , haunted woods and snowy mountain , other mario and luigi games worlds were interesting to explore and weird , like compare twinsy tropics to driftwood beach and plaque beach , twinsy tropics is a boring beach place where you do toad quests and that's about it , driftwood had caves pirate shy guys and exportability , plaque beach had the giant sage tower and tooth theme , also the reliance on already existing characters and enemies makes it feel lazy and boring like they couldn't be bothered making any original characters like in the past 4 games , also the bosses story and battles are very boring the only boss I liked in the game was king bob-omb but that's because he has a gimmick and a mildly interesting fight , most bosses in this game had boring attack patterns and not too hard either , they just feel like big enemies and 3 special attacks in one turn whittles them down quickly , the games plot is nothing special basically the same as the last games , if your world is boring and don't have a good story to tell why should I care , sorry this was probably formatted terribly .… Expand
  13. Chell_R
    Jul 21, 2020
    0
    Boring, tedious, unfulfilling - unsatisfying... *GARBAGE!!!*

    Play the games that came before it - because this... is. GARBAGE!!!
  14. livelovelaugh22
    Mar 24, 2020
    5
    I saw some people love M&L PJ, and honestly, good for them. I wasn't one of those people, but let's jump in. The story is average, gameplay average, soundtrack was OK, and the characters and boss fights were boring. They used the same environments from previous games, and they stole more than they gave. The dialogue is sometimes humorous, but that is few and far between. They had so manyI saw some people love M&L PJ, and honestly, good for them. I wasn't one of those people, but let's jump in. The story is average, gameplay average, soundtrack was OK, and the characters and boss fights were boring. They used the same environments from previous games, and they stole more than they gave. The dialogue is sometimes humorous, but that is few and far between. They had so many things they could mash up with the M&L series + Paper Mario, but they failed to capitalize. Graphics were ok, but the game was the most average and boring stuff in a long time. Not bad, and not good.… Expand
  15. Psychie
    Dec 27, 2019
    10
    I don't think Paper Jam is as good as the masterpiece that preceded it, but it's still a fantastic game. The gameplay is still fun, the music is still great (maybe even my favorite soundtrack in the series), and it gave Paper Mario the treatment that Sticker Star wishes it could give. Now, if only the story was a little better...
  16. robertoiglesias
    Nov 10, 2019
    10
    Another solid entry this time also featuring Paper Mario. This gameplay is enjoyable and I love this game
  17. RedXTL
    Oct 28, 2019
    7
    This is a fantastic game for the mario & luigi series. There is a lot to improve on which shows in the game. Overall A Good game, not awesome but still good.
  18. Nessfan4000
    Oct 10, 2019
    10
    This game is AMAZING! a blast for anyone who likes the Mario and Luigi series and the Paper Mario
    series!
  19. Davrosdaleks1
    Sep 10, 2019
    8
    This is a generally fun game, but it isn't a standout in the series.

    To clarify this is really a M+L game and not a Paper Mario game. The gameplay like in the previous games is a fun combination of RPG battles and button timing. Paper Mario with his own unique abilities is a fun addition. However, I did find several of the special moves and avoidances for boss attacks to be a bit    This is a generally fun game, but it isn't a standout in the series.

    To clarify this is really a M+L game and not a Paper Mario game. The gameplay like in the previous games is a fun combination of RPG battles and button timing. Paper Mario with his own unique abilities is a fun addition. However, I did find several of the special moves and avoidances for boss attacks to be a bit trickier than needed. I'm happy to say they got rid of the long gameplay tutorials from Dream Team.

    This game drops the double-screen/sidescrolling stages from the last two games. I'm okay with that as Dream Team, while fun, just couldn't sustain the energy the concept had when it was first introduced in Bowser's Inside Story.

    Also instead of the giant fights from the last two games, we get cardboard fights in which the characters fight each with cardboard bots in a tank warfare style situation. It's an interesting idea, but it always feels too drawn out for it's own good. You have to recharge your weapons with a musical rhythm timing game, and it gets tedious real fast.

    The overall map isn't as big as some of the other games; a little too much backtracking for it's own good. You just don't get as many sidequests or additional characters, too. I am disappointed there are no real new character or bad guys to fight in this.

    The plot is decent but pretty basic. Watching Luigi's antics remain a highlight of the game.

    I liked playing the this, but it also reminded me how the previous games were stronger.    … Expand
  20. SuperInkLink64
    Dec 2, 2018
    7
    Even the weakest entry of the Mario and Luigi series is still a decent game. The battle system is as fun as ever, with now a THIRD character to control and perform crazy attacks with. The humor is still great as always. And the music is still enjoyable, although less memorable than previous entries. Where this game starts to lose me is its missed opportunities. Every. Single. Character. IsEven the weakest entry of the Mario and Luigi series is still a decent game. The battle system is as fun as ever, with now a THIRD character to control and perform crazy attacks with. The humor is still great as always. And the music is still enjoyable, although less memorable than previous entries. Where this game starts to lose me is its missed opportunities. Every. Single. Character. Is something we've all seen before, which is a foreign topic to the Mario RPGs. All the paper characters seem to just be solely Sticker Star based, and we know how much that game is LOOOOOVED. And most NPCs just seem to be differently colored Toads. While this won't bother too many people, fans of the series will feel a little disappointed. I still have enjoyed my time with Paper Jam, but I will agree with it being one of the weakest Mario RPGs.… Expand
  21. AlbertBoris
    Oct 20, 2018
    7
    Although this is where the Mario & Luigi games start to get worse, it's at least not Sticker Star. I had some fun with it, the papercraft battles are very fun and Paper Mario made the battle system quite good. However, the lack of a good story and generic gameplay makes this game a bit disapointing. It's still a good-to-great game though that I can recommend you
  22. edreesespieces
    Aug 27, 2018
    3
    This game was just awful. I beat every other Mario & Luigi game and this one I just couldn't stomach through after awhile. The papercraft battles are REALLY boring and the camera and controls are awful. There isn't much humor in the games as I've grown accustomed to, and the dodge mechanics timings are poorly mis represented on a lot of attacks. I like the cool new abilities and theThis game was just awful. I beat every other Mario & Luigi game and this one I just couldn't stomach through after awhile. The papercraft battles are REALLY boring and the camera and controls are awful. There isn't much humor in the games as I've grown accustomed to, and the dodge mechanics timings are poorly mis represented on a lot of attacks. I like the cool new abilities and the soundtrack, but that's pretty much it. I got to Bowser's castle papercraft battle and decided that was enough.… Expand
  23. EpicNintendoFan
    Aug 8, 2018
    9
    Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam is one of the best games in the series. The game is mostly fun, but I ended up getting stumped several times throughout the game. I recently started playing, and it's a great game! I think you would enjoy it too!
  24. CyberRobotnix
    Mar 5, 2018
    3
    If you like having mandatory mini games, a confusing story, broken mechanics and all the paper toads from color splash and sticker star, then it's a game for you!

    However, to the real M&L fans, this is just the most blatant insult and definitely such a poor game with very little level design, EVEN compared to dream team bros. Also, this is weird that this game gets much praise whilst    If you like having mandatory mini games, a confusing story, broken mechanics and all the paper toads from color splash and sticker star, then it's a game for you!

    However, to the real M&L fans, this is just the most blatant insult and definitely such a poor game with very little level design, EVEN compared to dream team bros.

    Also, this is weird that this game gets much praise whilst it's just sticker star, but with Mario and Luigi.

    Seriously, **** this game, go play another Mario game worth your money and your time.    … Expand
  25. Anxo
    Jul 18, 2017
    8
    Otro juego maravilloso de esta increible saga RPG. Está al nivel del resto de juegos de esta serie, y como siempre la historia no es lo mas importante de este juego, ni la jugabilidad. El apartado técnico excelente como siempre, y la curva de mejora 10/10
  26. BaranIsCool
    Dec 26, 2016
    8
    Pretty good. It handles most tutorials better than Dream Team by making them optional/skippable. The only tutorials you can't skip is for the Battle Cards which is a new mechanic which makes it's first appearance here. The over-world design is a bit bland but the music makes it more bearable. The newest mechanic sprinting makes traversing this world easier since areas are much larger. ThePretty good. It handles most tutorials better than Dream Team by making them optional/skippable. The only tutorials you can't skip is for the Battle Cards which is a new mechanic which makes it's first appearance here. The over-world design is a bit bland but the music makes it more bearable. The newest mechanic sprinting makes traversing this world easier since areas are much larger. The combat is fantastic and is on par with Dream Team (which has my favourite combat in the series. The story may be weak but the dialogue and character interactions are fantastic and very entertaining. The toad mini-games are okay some are better than others but there are a few I didn't enjoy (the stealth mini-games for example). The giant paper craft battles are okay as well, they aren't as good as the giant Luigi battles from Dream Team. I'd say the giant paper craft battles are on par with the giant bowser fights found in Bowser's Inside Story. Overall I had a fun time It's currently tied with Bowser's Inside Story as my third favourite in the series. I don't think it's as good as Superstar Saga or Dream Team but it's definitely better than Partners in Time. If you are a Mario & Luigi fan you'll enjoy it. If you are a Paper Mario fan whose never played a Mario & Luigi game before this is the perfect entry point.… Expand
  27. DashKoopa568
    Oct 27, 2016
    6
    While this game is rough round the edges, Paper Jam wasn't the best experience for me personally, the papercraft battles were quite tedious and it has quite a lot of relationships with sticker star,however its mediocre none the less.
  28. Adambalm
    Oct 8, 2016
    7
    Im very dissapointed in this game. Im not saying its bad heck its still a good game. But compared to the others this one is very lackluster.

    Cons:The enviroments in this game are all places we have already been to. Grassland, desert, snowland etc. In the previous games they were all locations that we have never seen before. The paper toad missons I dislike so much that whenever I can I    Im very dissapointed in this game. Im not saying its bad heck its still a good game. But compared to the others this one is very lackluster.

    Cons:The enviroments in this game are all places we have already been to. Grassland, desert, snowland etc. In the previous games they were all locations that we have never seen before. The paper toad missons I dislike so much that whenever I can I skip them. Also the bosses... All the bosses here are all ones that we have fought before in previous mario games. While yes there were recurring bosses in the previous games as well like bowser Most of the bosses were still original enemies.

    Pros: With the inclusion of paper mario I like the battles alot in this game. Also enemies in previous areas get more stronger as you do so they don't become overly easy. The music like the previous is absolutely beautiful. Paper bowser can also finally talk again. And the battling I belive is one of the best in the series.

    Overall I would still recommend this purchase full price nontheless the flaws.    … Expand
  29. GamecubeLover
    Jul 20, 2016
    7
    Paper Mario is going downhill and putting paper mario and the real mario together is bland and terrible. The game has SO many glitches it makes sonic 06 look like the best game ever with no mistakes! Well there is a lot of glitches but there hard to do. The graphics and controls, and the levels I can accept but the game can get repetitive at so many points. In my opinion paper mario isPaper Mario is going downhill and putting paper mario and the real mario together is bland and terrible. The game has SO many glitches it makes sonic 06 look like the best game ever with no mistakes! Well there is a lot of glitches but there hard to do. The graphics and controls, and the levels I can accept but the game can get repetitive at so many points. In my opinion paper mario is going downhill heck even the main series of mario is running out of ideas!… Expand
  30. wariothelegend
    Jul 17, 2016
    8
    A cross over between two beloved Mario RPGs. While it doesn't bring any new characters or story line like most RPG titles in the series, it does bring an excellent battle system with epic music to enjoy listening to, and it's fun for anybody at any age. The two problems I had with the game is the excessive Paper Toad Hunts, and the game's too short. But I'd highly recommend it.
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Awards & Rankings

21
#21 Best 3DS Game of 2016
8
#8 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2016
2
#2 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 76 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 76
  3. Negative: 1 out of 76
  1. Gaming Nexus
    Mar 28, 2016
    80
    Mario and Luigi Paper Jam successfully mixes the two long-running Mario RPG series, but outside of a few new Paper-based gameplay surprises it’s the same solid, self-aware role playing experience you’d expect from the Mario and Luigi series.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Mar 4, 2016
    85
    Despite recycling Paper Jam Bros. never looks like a half-hearted effort. [02/2016, p.69]
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Mar 3, 2016
    84
    Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros is an action-packed, varied and in places, amusing RPG with familiar Mario-faces. The story is pretty much nonsense, though. [Feb 2016]
See all critic reviews »