Yesterday, Nintendo surprised everyone with the reveal of the latest addition to the Paper Mario series, Paper Mario: The Origami King. The game sees Paper Mario teaming up with Bowser and new character Olivia as they battle to free Princess Peach's castle from the clutches of King Olly and his origami soldiers.
The game will feature new additions to the classic combat system, as well as origami-themed puzzles that the player must solve. The announcement of this new game came out of nowhere and served as a reminder that Nintendo still has new stuff in store for the rest of the year.
While other video game companies have been making numerous announcements about upcoming games and content coming out in 2020, Nintendo has been fairly silent on what it has in development, leaving many fans concerned. The company also doesn't seem to be participating in events like Summer Game Fest or IGN's Summer of Gaming, which pretty much every other major gaming company is doing. Nintendo has always marched to the beat of its own drum when it comes to the larger gaming industry, but the lack of any new announcements, via Nintendo Direct or otherwise, is still concerning.
The reveal of a new Paper Mario game helps alleviate these concerns. While latter games in the series have received mixed reviews, the Paper Mario series is still beloved by many fans thanks to its humor, art style and combat system. Not only does this announcement give fans of the series something to play this summer, it also adds fuel to the fire of one of the most persistent Internet rumors this year.
Mario fans have been speculating on what Nintendo will do to celebrate the plumber's 35th anniversary. Last month, Video Game Chronicle claimed Nintendo is planning on remastering several of Mario's 3-D titles such as Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine. The article also claimed a new Paper Mario game will be released, as well as a deluxe version of Super Mario 3-D World.
All of this was planned to be revealed at E3 with a physical event, the company's first since switching to a Nintendo Direct format for its E3 presentations -- but the event's cancellation due to COVID-19 means the announcement will happen digitally later this year.
Nintendo has refused to comment on this rumor, but if the Paper Mario announcement confirms this to be true, 2020 could end up being one of Nintendo's biggest years.