Barred From Using Characters From Mario Universe Paper Mario Devs Had To Make All New Ones

Paper Mario: The Origami King’s producers weren’t allowed to use existing Mario bosses, so they had to come up with new ones.

When you’re dealing with an established game universe as long and storied as Super Mario Bros, there are certain things you just can’t do. Altering the main characters–like Mario, Luigi, and Peach–is definitely off the table. Sure, you can make them into 2D characters or even 3D origami versions of themselves, but Peach can’t suddenly be portrayed by a 12-foot tall talking pangolin, for example.

The same is true of Mario’s villains. Bowser has always got to remain the scary turtle kaiju thing he’s always been, so when it came time to create a villain for Paper Mario: The Origami King, the game’s producers had to come up with something entirely new.

“Since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, it’s no longer possible to modify Mario characters or to create original characters that touch on the Mario universe,” said Producer Kensuke Tanabe in an interview with VGC. “That means that if we aren’t using Mario characters for bosses, we need to create original characters with designs that don’t involve the Mario universe at all, like we’ve done with Olly and the stationery bosses.”

Of course, the goal is for fans to love those new villains so much that they become established in Mario canon, but Tanabe stresses that’s up to whether or not “fans truly accept” them.

As for the game’s origami theme, that was entirely the devs looking to expand on the old Paper Mario formula.

“The idea for origami came out of this process of challenging myself to try something new,” said Assistant Producer Risa Tabata. “The theme running through the Paper Mario series is paper, so I was working with Intelligent Systems to think up paper-based ideas that hadn’t yet been used. Intelligent Systems suggested the idea of confetti, and I suggested the idea of origami. The combination of these two ideas is what led to our new game, Paper Mario: The Origami King.”

You can read more about the making of The Origami King over on VGC, and download the game today on the Nintendo Switch.

Source: VGC