Mario RPGs have been in a bit of a slump. The last few Mario & Luigi games have just been remakes and its developers, AlphaDream, filed for bankruptcy last year. The state of the Paper Mario series has also been turbulent post-Thousand-Year Door, with plenty of fans hating the direction the later games have taken. However, a new game has been announced and it could be a possible return to form for the series.

Paper Mario: The Origami King is an upcoming Paper Mario game for the Nintendo Switch, which Nintendo inexplicably revealed in a May 14th trailer. The game goes all-in on the series’ paper aesthetic with the introduction of Olly, the Origami King, who’s taking over the world by turning all of its paper denizens into origami. Princess Peach has become an origami grotesquerie, along with Bowser’s army, forcing the partially folded Koopa king to side with Mario in a brand new adventure.

There’s some good ol’ RPG combat in here, as to be expected. Now, the Origami King‘s main combat gimmick is that fights take place within multiple rings, with enemies spaced around them. Players have a short time to spin the rings around to line up enemies, which will give Mario a buff on top of allowing him to attack multiple enemies. Part of what made the past two Paper Mario games controversial was that attacks were done using consumable items. However, they aren’t shown off in what little combat footage there is, and the Jump and Hammer commands seem to be permanent.

There’s also another thing people have been wondering about and it’s partners. The first two Paper Mario games had original characters built off of Mario enemies, that acted as allies to Mario, who had different abilities that you could swap around. In promotional materials for the game so far, characters are shown following Mario around, though they haven’t shown up in combat so far. People are also somewhat sour, as said characters lack a distinct appearance and name, so even if the partner system is back, it won’t be the same as before.

Outside of battle Mario, presumably with the help of Olivia the Origami King’s sister, can engage in pro-origami folding techniques. To do so, he grows his arms into folding monstrosities that can pull at paper surroundings. This will probably be used for puzzles and such, though this is probably preferable to the sticker and thing puzzle-solving from Sticker Star.

Now, there are some other things attached to the reveal of Paper Mario: The Origami King to think about. Months ago, there was a leak for multiple Mario games that will be released to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the franchise, including a remaster collection of some of the 3D platformers. This was paired with the announcement of a new Paper Mario game and, with the reveal of this title, it may actually validate the truth of these leaks.

Will Paper Mario: The Origami King recapture what people loved from the first two Paper Mario games? Is that remaster collection real? At the very least, we know that Paper Mario: The Origami King will be coming out on July 17th.

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