Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
| Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | AlphaDream |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Director(s) | Shunsuke Kobayashi Hiroyuki Kubota |
| Producer(s) |
|
| Programmer(s) | Makoto Aioi Haruhiko Tanuma |
| Artist(s) | Akira Noguchi Takuji Sasaki |
| Writer(s) | Shunsuke Kobayashi |
| Composer(s) | Yoko Shimomura |
| Series | Mario & Luigi Paper Mario |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 3DS |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, known in Europe and Australia as Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros., is a 2015 role-playing video game developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS console. It is the fifth installment in the Mario & Luigi series, following Dream Team (2013), and serves as a crossover between the Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario series, the latter being a cross-genre series developed by Intelligent Systems.
In Paper Jam, Luigi accidentally opens a book containing a paper counterpart world causing all of its contents to spread into the Mushroom Kingdom; Mario and Luigi, with the help of the befriended Paper Mario, venture to save both Princess Peach universe variants from Bowser, who has teamed up with his paper counterpart as well. In the game, the player controls the trio simultaneously through an overworld to reach Bowser's Castle, and fights enemies in turn-based combat along the way.
Paper Jam was developed by AlphaDream while Intelligent Systems oversaw production. The concept of a crossover came to be when AlphaDream conceptualized a third character for the player to control in-game to help shake up the traditional gameplay of the series. They considered the combination to work well due to the two series having shared gameplay features as well as opportunities to use the Paper Mario series for new gameplay options. The game was announced at E3 2015 and launched ahead of schedule, released internationally in December 2015 and in North America the following month.
Reception of the game was generally positive, receiving praise for the introduction of Paper Mario elements and combat, mixed opinions for its writing, and criticism for usage of worldbuilding and minigames. Critics felt the game failed to use the Paper Mario series to its fullest. Paper Jam was the last Mario & Luigi installment made by AlphaDream, followed by two remakes of previous titles in the series, before the company filed for bankruptcy in 2019. Acquire would take over development duties for the sequel Mario & Luigi: Brothership, which was released on November 7, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch; several key staff members of AlphaDream were brought on to work on the game alongside them.