I get to review a lot of video games for this family game time blog, including family games from Nintendo. Recently I had the opportunity to go to the Mario & Luigi Paper Jam launch party event for Nintendo’s kid reviewers (that’s me).
When we arrived, the room had about 15 other kids siting at tables, heads down into their 3DS XL devices. When we got to our seats there was a gift bag for each kids containing a copy of the game and an amiibo. I received Bowser and can’t wait to use him in the game plus super Mario Maker and Yoshi’s Wooly World (two favourite games in our home gaming collection).. My sister came as my guest and in her gift bag she received her own 3DS XL!!! How cool! Now there is no more need to share my 3DS XL with her. We also received some paper crafts that you could fold into the game characters.
Additional Reading: 8 Reasons to Own Super Mario Maker
The girls from Girls on Games were at the event and helped us make a paper craft of the trio attack hammer from the game. I haven’t made any of the crafts yet but I they’ll be perfect for an afterschool activity (since I can’t play video games during the week).
Even Mario and Luigi came to the event. I don’t usually do character photos but the other kids liked it, including my sister (and mom). You could use photo props to be like some of the game characters.
The party ran over lunch so they offered us pizza, sandwiches, fruit and veggies but most of the kids forgot about eating because they were so in to the game. Thankfully I know how to play a video game AND eat pizza at the same time.
There were some Nintendo experts at the event too. They were walking around the tables, offer kids tips and tricks on how to play the game. They had some good ideas on how to get the most damage out of a attack.
The food was tasty and the crafts were fun but the highlight of the day was playing the game. I haven’t played Mario & Luigi Paper Jam lots but but the game reminded me of Legend of Zelda because of the expanding map. It is very easy to learn and understand. The expanding story and combining the two Mario worlds (3D and 2D) make this a great game. You can even earn different skills that help in different ways. To get a peek of what it was like at the event and my first play of the game, here’s a short video :
That is all that I need to say. Sorry I have to get back to playing Paper Jam. Be sure to look for the game on store shelves January 22, 2016.