Comic Book Carriers in Games – Paper Mario: The Origami King

April 5, 2021

The use of comic book carriers in games seems to most heavily appear in RPG games. In the case of the Mario franchise, while primarily platformers, multiple titles, such as Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi use RPG elements. The latest such game is Paper Mario: The Origami King. While the contents of said game will not be discussed here, as I have only logged an hour in the game (this is also my first Mario game), how it uses carriers in game is interesting, and adds to the games mechanics and gimmicks.

As the title suggests, Paper Mario: The Origami King revolves around a world where the Mario characters are paper thin (a style I genuinely prefer to standard 3D Mario), and the core enemy of the game is trying to fold these paper characters into origami soldiers for the king. The idea seems very natural, and plays with the idea of the material these characters are presented in, but as for its overall quality, especially compared to other games in the Paper Mario series, I can not comment.

However, what I can discuss is how the game conveys characters speech. Primarily, by using comic book carriers!

The idea of using comic book carriers in a “PAPER” Mario game, is a very appealing and adorable idea, as it ties into that idea of this being a paper world. Amusingly, there is a very clear difference between carriers related to standard ‘Paper’ characters, and the ‘Origami’ characters.

The carriers which appear for the ‘Paper’ characters are almost entirely flat. The only exception being that the root appears to be a separate piece of paper folded behind the carrier. The idea of having this separate piece implies that the tail can move freely behind the carrier to properly connect to the root. It’s simple but provides a straight forward and simple system for the games carrier system. An example below shows ‘Paper’ Mario, and a good ‘Origami’ character, Olivia, talking to a ‘Paper’ Bob-omb. In this case, it is the ‘Paper’ Bob-omb speaking.

For the ‘Origami’ characters however, the idea of the carrier now being on actual paper is given greater depth. The carrier is no longer a clean piece of paper, clear creases can be seen within the carrier, but most interestingly, this also applies to the tail. The tail here appears to be folded over and over, as though the carrier is struggling to connect to it’s root. The tail could have simply appeared the same way as the tails for ‘paper’ related carriers. But instead, the tail appears as almost a perversion of the environment. The tail is trying to point clearly, but instead, the origami nature is forcing it to twist and turn towards the root.

In the example below, you can see the ‘Origami’ version of Princess Peach speaking to Paper Mario and Paper Luigi at the beginning of the game. As it is heavily implied that Peach has been contorted into this shape, the distortion of the carrier plays into this.

While going through the game, I hope to find more intriguing uses of comic book carriers. In terms of quality, Paper Mario seems to be an interesting starting point for the franchise. Especially since 3D Mario is insanely creepy to me.