Last week, we caught up on Tears of the Kingdom on its anniversary. This week we get into something new yet old as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door celebrates an anniversary of its own. Twenty years on and the revamped Switch version brings new characters, battles, and quality-of-life improvements, not to mention the updated visuals and audio.

We also talk about the recent news that Atari has purchased Intellivision. If you were gaming in the ’70s or ’80s, you were likely to have played one of these systems. Kirk and Trev in particular give their thoughts on this situation, which is touted to be the end of the long-running “first console war”.

Dave the Diver has recently received some DLC, which brings Godzilla into the mix. Plus, we’ve been playing a classic NES title, a new visual novel, and continuing our foray into Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

Thanks for listening, we love putting these shows together, so let us know your thoughts! And don’t forget to leave us a review to help support the channel.

Until next time, game on everyone!

Support the show!

Please support the Pure Nintendo Podcast by leaving us a review on Spotify or liking on YouTube, and tune in each and every Monday for more Nintendo-related goodness. It’s all happening on the Pure Nintendo Podcast!

You can find our podcast on:

• Spotify
• Apple
• Amazon

You can also subscribe to our bi-monthly magazine over at patreon.com/PureNintendo and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PureNintendo. We’d love your support!

The post Pure Nintendo Podcast E62 | Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was originally released in 2004 for the GameCube. The revamped Switch release comes just in time for its 20th anniversary, bringing updated visuals and audio along with new characters, battles, and quality-of-life updates. The color and fun of the original remains intact, though, so whether you’re a new or old fan, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. We’ll be giving our first impressions on this week’s Pure Nintendo Podcast, so stay tuned!

What’s better than one paper-based outing? Two, of course. Paper Trail continues the paper theme with a puzzle-adventure title set in a foldable paper world. You play as the aptly named Paige, folding the world to solve pupzzles and discover secrets.

There’s also some exciting DLC for Dave the Diver this week as Godzilla joins the story. This free DLC features all-new stories and battles, and it’s available now. What makes a good game even better? Well, Godzilla, of course. We’ll be sure to check it out and let you know our thoughts on the Pure Nintendo Podcast as well.

Meanwhile, the Minecraft anniversary sale continues, plus there’s special Paper Mario activities to check it out. In short, it’s another busy week!

There’s plenty more happening so check out the full list of new releases below and let us know which games you’re playing this weekend.

Nintendo Switch

• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – Experience the adventure that unfolds in the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door game! Make use of all the abilities that come with being cursed – er, conveniently made of paper – and help Mario collect the Crystal Stars before the nefarious X-Nauts do. Explore a colorful paper world with charming characters in every fold, twenty years after the original game on the Nintendo GameCube system. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is available today.
• Paper Trail – Paper Trail is a top-down puzzle adventure about leaving home, set in a foldable, paper world. You play as Paige, a budding academic, leaving home for the first time to pursue her studies. On the journey, you learn to fold the world, merging two sides to solve puzzles, explore new areas and uncover long-lost secrets. Paper Trail is available now.
• Duck Detective – The Secret Salami – Solving crime is no walk in the pond. Duck Detective – The Secret Salami is a cozy mystery game about a down-on-his-luck duck searching for answers in a sinister sausage-based conspiracy. Inspect and interview suspects to learn their hidden secrets, then use the information you’ve gathered (plus your own de-duck-tive reasoning) to locate the suspect and bust the case wide open! Duck Detective – The Secret Salami is available later today on Nintendo eShop.

DLC

• DAVE THE DIVER X Godzilla – Get ready for an action-packed collaboration with DAVE THE DIVER and Godzilla! This legendary monster stomps into the world of DAVE THE DIVER for an exciting adventure. Exclusive content including new missions, boss fights and an enticing storyline await in this DLC! The free DAVE THE DIVER – Godzilla Content Pack is available later today on Nintendo Switch.

Activities

• The Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Character Notepad Reward is Here! – Take notes in style with this colorful My Nintendo papercraft reward featuring characters from the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door game. Each notepad includes 20 different designs on 60 total pages. Plus, a paper airplane template and folding instructions are also included! My Nintendo members can redeem 550 Platinum Points** to get this reward. Check out this page for more information: https://my.nintendo.com/news/a69c040d3df46da4.
• Enter the Fold – Have fun with these printables inspired by the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door game! Unleash those retro vibes with the retro Nintendo GameCube cover reward. Bring along some colorful reading buddies when diving into your next book with the bookmarks reward. If you’re feeling more crafty, add some style to your scrapbook with the scrapbook kit or create the perfect money holder card for your Mario-loving grad with the card reward!

Nintendo eShop sales

• Minecraft 15^th Anniversary Sale – Minecraft turns 15! Join a vast community of creators and heroes with up to 50% off Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, Minecraft Legends and more. Buy now and shape your world! This sale ends on June 4 at 11:59 p.m. PT. For more information and to view the full list of games, visit https://www.nintendo.com/store/sales-and-deals.

Also new this week

• 50 Pinch Barrage!!
• Adventure Horror Bundle – Available May 28
• Airplane Delivery Simulator 2024: Realistic Geographical – Available May 26
• Blade Jumper
• Bread & Fred
• C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield
• Cat Warrior – Available May 25
• Chocolate Factory Tycoon
• Claws & Feathers 3 – Available May 24
• Coffee Simulator Tycoon – Available May 24
• Conjured Through Death
• Construction Simulator 4 – Available May 28
• Crazy Stunt Driver: Extreme Racing Simulator
• Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling – Available May 28
• Dish Puzzle – Available May 26
• Doug’s Nightmare
• EGGCONSOLE SHIN MAOU GOLVELLIUS MSX2
• Eternal Threads
• Evidence Destroyer
• Hauntii
• Helicopter Battle Arena Simulator – Available May 24
• Highlaundry Overwashed – Play with your friends! – Available May 24
• I am Titan – Available May 25
• My Universe Discovery Collection 2
• NecroBouncer – Available May 24
• Ninja Shadow Quest – Available May 25
• One More Gate : A Wakfu Legend Complete Edition
• Paper Dash – Invasion of Greed
• Pine Hearts
• Restaurant Tycoon Simulator – Available May 24
• Scarlet Tower
• SlidePuzzle
• Soul Link
• Summer and Winter Sports Games Bundle
• Sunland Town
• Tales From The Under-Realm: After Midnight – Available May 24
• The Glass Staircase – Available May 24
• The Magic and Murder Bundle
• The Quintessential Quintuplets – Five Memories Spent With You
• The Quintessential Quintuplets – Memories of a Quintessential Summer
• Tip Top Table Tennis – Available May 24
• TP Bullet – Available May 24
• Treasure Guardian: Collector Shift Defender’s Saga
• Truck Simulator City Delivery
• Ultra Foodmess 2
• Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
• You adorable! Elfin Clay 2

The post Paper Mario joins this week’s eShop roundup appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

The beginning starts off like any other Paper Mario game. Mario and Luigi get invited to Princess Peach’s castle for a party. When they arrive at Toad Town, things are strange. No one is around and Peach is… different, to say the least. Instead of flat paper, she’s folded into origami.

King Olly, the antagonist of the story, makes his appearance. He wants everyone to be crisp as origami and not full and flat like regular paper. He has crumpled up Toads and turned enemies on his side, folding anything and anyone they can. He binds Peach’s castle using five streamers strung across the Mushroom Kingdom. Thus, Mario and Olivia, King Olly’s sister, go on a quest to get rid of the streamers and ultimately defeat King Olly.

I have to admit, considering most of the games have about eight levels or worlds, I was sad to see there’s only six in The Origami King. The Paper Mario games are fairly short, so I thought this would be shorter. However, each world is pretty long. It takes a few hours to get through one world, and you need to set aside a decent amount of time for the boss battles. (Trust me, you don’t want to start boss battles over!)

Needless to say, I’m happy to pour hours into this game. It’s so great that I want it to last as long as it can. So, let’s get into the mechanics that are good (and some that are not so good).

While this game is tough at times, the overall difficulty level is fairly low. Anyone can pick up and play this game, which is great. But for Paper Mario veterans, it may not pose much of a challenge.

Seeing partners in the trailer made me excited. Yes, there are partners in the game, though it’s not how it used to be in Paper Mario 64 or The Thousand-Year Door. A partner will stay with you for a single area, and they don’t come with you to the boss battles at all. I enjoyed all the partners, especially Bobby the Bomb-omb. They all had great personalities, and I wish I could have spent the entire adventure with them.

Let’s talk about the battles. I wish it were more RPG-like. The battle system in the first two Paper Mario games, especially, was wonderful. Mario had various jumps, hammers, and items, and his partners had their own unique skill set as well. The battle system in Origami King is vastly different.

Mario stands in the middle of the ring while enemies surround him. You then need to move the circles around you or move each section up or down to line up the enemies. This is timed, and you only have a certain amount of moves to line them up just right. You can buy more time and you can also cancel your moves if you made a mistake. So, if you have the coins, you can take as long as you want on this.

Or you can let the timer run out if you’re truly stuck. The point of lining up the enemies is so that Mario will get a 1.5 attack boost and it’ll be easier for you to defeat the enemies in one turn.

I didn’t care too much for this system because I prefer strategy for battle over a puzzle system. Plus, it made the battle incredibly one-sided (especially at the beginning of the game).

With that said, there is a bit of strategy to the battles. Mario has his regular boots and hammer, but you can get items such as iron boots (that stomp on spiked enemies) and a flashy hammer (that does more damage than a regular hammer). Each row of the rings on the battlefield, if you will, have four sections where the enemies stand. The hammer packs a punch, but it can only reach the first two rows. The boots can only stomp on enemies in a single-file line.

I enjoyed that strategy bit, but I felt it could have been done without trying to rearrange the rings.

The boss battles add a little more flare. You still need to rearrange the rings, but they have panels on them such as arrows (that control where Mario moves), hearts, a treasure chest, a letter (to give you hints on how to defeat the boss), an attack spot (you must land on this in order to attack), the Vellumental panels, and an “on” switch (to turn on the Vellumental panels).

You need to carefully plan out Mario’s trek through the rings to get to the boss and effectively attack them. Of course, every boss is different, and most of the time you can’t attack right away or you need to attack a certain spot. This is a reason the boss battles take so long. Usually, I needed to read the letter to figure out how to attack. The obvious answer usually wasn’t the correct way to attack.

I will admit that the bosses usually did something to the rings to make the battles harder, which was a nice challenge. I found the mini-bosses of the Vellumentals to be more fun (and sometimes tougher) than the main bosses.

The Vellumentals are a major part of the game. These are elemental mythical beings with certain powers. Upon defeating them, Olivia will learn how to fold into them and harness their powers such as earth, water, etc. These powers are used in boss battles for big blows or outside of battle in order to complete a puzzle and progress further into the game.

When it comes to gameplay mechanics, Paper Mario: The Origami King has a lot to learn. It’s easy to play and not at all difficult to get the hang of. However, there will be times you’ll get stuck on a puzzle thinking you’ve exhausted your options, and then you realize you forgot to try one thing. This game makes you think, which is great.

Each world is unique, as well, ranging from a vast desert and underground mine built by Monty Moles to a western amusement park run by Goombas, Toads, and Koopas alike. You also get to sail the Great Sea Wind Waker style.

The graphics are stunning. I expected no less from the Nintendo Switch, but the paper and origami aesthetic is strong and the game overall has a polished look and is satisfying to watch. The music, as always, is top-notch. It holds true to the type of music from previous Paper Mario games, even with remixes from old school Mario games.

The story is also strong. It’s unique from the other Mario games (though it holds onto those paper puns, which great). The writing is humorous. There’s hardly anything to dislike about this game.

If you love the Paper Mario series or enjoy playing Mario games in general, you’ll certainly have a lot of fun with Paper Mario: The Origami King. Between the main story, finding crumpled Toads, and collecting the various treasures, you’ll pour a lot of hours into this game.

The post Review: Paper Mario: The Origami King (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM) Issue 53

By Pure Media LLC in Pure Nintendo Magazine (PNM)

66 pages, published 7/24/2020

Wow, time flies when you’re playing Animal Crossing! Hard to believe we’re already halfway through 2020. Nintendo is starting off the 2nd half of the year with a brand new Paper Mario game — Paper Mario: The Origami King. Jennifer gives us an in-depth look at the game and all of its Origami-themed antics. The world of the game has such a wonderful, crafted look. Speaking of crafting, we have another Animal Crossing Corner featuring the latest…

Single issues of the magazine can be purchased in print by clicking the link above. Yearly subscriptions (6 issues) for PNM come at a cost of $9.99/yr for the digital version! Subscriptions can be purchased through our iOS or Android app.

Take part in making PNM great!

– The Question Block

We also love it when our readers interact with staff so that they can also participate in creating PNM and making it fun for everyone to read!  Contribute to PNM by sending your feedback, letters, or questions to questionblock@purenintendo.com!  We take our readers letters or questions, respond to them, and publish the results in The Question Block.

– Nintendo Fan Art

We regularly publish Nintendo fan art in each issue of PNM!  Do you have a piece of artwork that you are particularly proud of? E-mail it to Kaelyn, our artwork curator, at kaelyn@purenintendo.com for a chance to see it published within the pages of PNM!

– Reader Poll

As a fun little extra, we feature reader polls on PureNintendo.com.  The poll, results, and information about the next poll are then published in The Question Block for each issue of PNM.  If you want to make your voice heard, check out the right side bar and vote in our current poll!

A little about PNM

PNM is your source for exclusive interviews, game previews, concept art, game reviews, puzzles and much more direct from the world of Nintendo! Subscriptions available in digital via the interactive apps on the App Store and Google Play for all iOS and Android phone and tablet devices. (Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Industry, Nintendo)

The post Pure Nintendo Magazine Reveals the Cover of Issue 53, Available Now! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Nintendo surprised us this morning with a brand new Paper Mario game (Paper Mario: The Origami King) and it’s releasing in just 2 months! Judging by the trailer, it looks to still have turn-based combat but there are definitely some new gameplay mechanics. I know that Sticker Star and Color Splash are not the best entries in fans’ eyes but we’ll see how this new game fairs.

I’m always excited for any new Mario RPG whether it’s the Mario & Luigi series or the Paper Mario series so I’m up to give it a chance. Be sure to check out the full press release and screenshots below.

Anyone else excited? Let us know in the comments!

A New Paper Mario Adventure Unfolds for Nintendo Switch on July 17

The post Paper Mario: The Origami King Release Date, Trailer, 40+ Screenshots appeared first on Pure Nintendo.