New Paper Mario: The Origami King Trailer Shows Strange Gameplay and a Pokemon Cameo?

Nintendo just released a new trailer for their upcoming game Paper Mario: The Origami King. The trailer was only thirty seconds long, but showcases a few interesting moments.

Mario is shown dancing with a crowd of faceless Toads, which begs a lot more questions than it answers. What happened to them? Is Mario trying to save them or escape from them? Could this moment be foreshadowing some kind of horrific face stealing villain?

Phoenix from Paper Mario.

The narrator from the video describes the game as, “one of Mario’s funniest adventures yet.” Suggesting a light and comedic tone that may not go with the whole face stealing vibe brought up above. Also towards the end of the video, a fire-breathing bird is wreathed in flames, resembling a classic Pokemon: Moltres. This is most likely pure coincidence, as it’s hard to make a phoenix that doesn’t at least resemble Moltres, but the thought of a cameo like this is too interesting not to consider.

Moltres is a fire type legendary pokemon introduced in Generation I.

What are your thoughts on the trailer? What happened to the Toad’s faces? Does that look like Moltres to you?

Paper Mario: The Origami King releases for the Switch on July 17th.

• Pokemon (franchise)
• Mario (franchise)
• Nintendo Switch