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Watching the trailer for Paper Mario: The
Origami King, it’s clear that this game
has a very…different… tone to a traditional
Mario title.
Princess Peach has been either possessed by
some kind of terrifying origami force, transforming
into an origami monster.
She casts Mario into a pit, and it seems that
the challenge this time is not just rescuing
the princess, but fighting to avoid losing
your very soul.
Even if these elements from the trailer don’t
make up a large part of Origami King’s actual
narrative, there’s no denying it, the game
looks downright creepy.
You might think that Paper Mario is a strange
game series to embrace horror tropes, ala
Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Get Out.
In reality, though, the creative teams behind
the Paper Mario series have been pushing for
creepy gameplay for a long time.
All of the Paper Mario games have played with
spooky environments to some degree, because
the developers genuinely think it’s funny.
In an Iwata Asks interview from all the way
back in 2012, the developers of Paper Mario:
Sticker Star explained how they’d been trying
to incorporate horror elements into their
game, and how it hadn’t exactly been well
received.
While working on the area which would become
Drybake Stadium, the Character design Group,
which produces and supervises all Nintendo
characters, wanted to make some Egyptian mural-inspired
characters for Mario to meet.
This led to the creation of Mural Koopas,
Mural Goombahs, and Mural Toads, which all
have exaggerated long limbs, a little like
real humans.
They fall squarely into the Uncanney Valley,
which the team felt was part of the joke.
When they showed them to other people, the
response was, “gross!”.
At first, the team was pleased, as this had
been the response they’d been hoping for,
but then they realized that, no, people weren’t
enjoying this.
The designs were creepy and offputting.
Horror elements in Paper Mario just didn’t
feel right.
So, the team experimented with a lot of different
designs, but nothing felt right.
They really wanted to go the creepy horror
route, it just felt funniest.
In the end, they decided to try and get their
original designs approved by showing them
to Shigeru Miyamoto.
When they showed him one of the designs, Shigeru
thought it was very funny.
He even said, “Why don't you make it even
more disgusting?”
Producer Kensuke Tanabe said:
“The Super Mario games have an orthodox
lineage that Miyamoto-san thought up as its
creator.
So while Paper Mario, as part of that, must
preserve certain things, I think there is
a point to tackling new and unusual things.”
As such, it makes sense that Paper Mario:
The Origami King pushes this kind of joke
even further.
With overly cute paper cut out characters,
there’s room for experimentation, and that
includes giving a game creepy undertones that
even outspook Luigi’s Mansion!
So why use origami monsters as villains?
Well, this ties into the core Paper Mario
design philosophy.
In the same Iwata Asks interview, Taro Kudo
explains that the driving mentality behind
a Paper Mario game is “Use as many paper
ideas as you can!”
The teams who make these games think about
all the different ways that people use and
play with paper in order to inform the games’
mechanics.
For example, Taro says:
“For battles, we thought about how you could
do damage to paper, like by folding it, getting
it wet, and burning it.”
Folding paper takes centre stage this time,
as Mario faces off against King Olly, the
eponymous Origami King.
This villain possesses Princess Peach, uproots
her castle, and seals it shut with paper streamers.
In true horror story style, Mario and his
friends have to avoid Olly’s magic, or else
have their free will overpowered as they turn
into Folded Soldiers.
It’s an interesting use of the concept of
origami, and how folding paper in a certain
way can turn it into something completely
different.
Now, to be clear, from official Nintendo sources,
it’s clear that The Origami King isn’t
actually meant to be scary.
This is a parody of a horror story, poking
fun at its tropes by showing how ridiculous
they look when applied to colourful paper
characters.
When asked about the future of the Paper Mario
series back in 2016, Kensuke Tanabe reiterated
the design philosophy that had been taught
him by Shigeru Miyamoto:
“When you develop a new game, the game system
has to be novel and creative.”
At this point, it’s impressive that Nintendo
are still finding new ways to make Paper Mario
games stand out, and the idea of using horror
tropes in this setting is sure to make a unique
entry in this beloved, longrunning series.
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