Issue #47: Bent Out of Shape – July/August 2020 (Patreon)

CRUMPLE, CRUMPLE!

Get it? It's like "Grumble, grumble." The old Legend of Zelda line from the hungry Goriya. He complained until he got what he wanted, just as Paper Mario fans have been grumbling for years, waiting for Nintendo to give them a new sequel that's more like the original game in the series and its beloved follow-up, The Thousand-Year Door. But rather than satisfy that hunger, the designers at Intelligent Systems seem to have been satisfying their own creative needs for 16 years now, sending out sequel after sequel with wild new game design ideas. Paper Mario's been in an experimental phase for a long, long time now, and old-school fans are definitely grumbling about it! 

You might even say they're bent out of shape!

We're diving into that discussion here in our second issue to place Paper Mario in the spotlight. We've got a Debate centered on fans' expectations for this brand in particular. We've compiled a full retrospective of all the past Paper Mario games leading up to this point, doing that special NF thing of offering complete historical context for the current moment. We're supporting that with a secondary feature that reminds everyone of all of the past partner characters who Paper Mario has teamed up with in all those older games, too, since the presence or absence of great, unique ally characters has become a critical component of conversation regarding this series. Then we've got a four-page preview of the newly revealed Paper Mario: The Origami King to bring it all together. Is it shaping up to be another experimental gameplay design, or could it be the return to form fans have been hoping for? We'll take a look together!

Also, to acknowledge that The Thousand-Year Door is unlikely to be dethroned as long-time fans' favorite game in the series even if Origami King turns out to be truly excellent, we've dedicated the reverse side of our packed-in wall poster to that Cube classic. Now print subscribers can choose to rep either new-school or old-school Paper Mario on their walls.

And that's not all! We couldn't pass up the opportunity to tie something fun into the new game's origami theme, so also bundled with this issue is an exclusive new papercraft toy of Origami Peach! 

Taken all together, this is the most Paper Mario-packed edition we could possibly hope to provide. I hope it meets your expectations!

Print subscribers, the physical copies of this issue are in production now and will be mailed to you this week. While I'm hopeful that deliveries will be quick, please have extra patience if it seems like your copy is taking longer to arrive than normal. Some copies of our last issue seemed to be slowed down due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic impacting postal services around the world. Only some, though! Most subscribers still got theirs in the usual time frame.

Digital subscribers, keep an eye on your email inbox tomorrow -- I'll get the PDF copies of this new issue sent out before the end of the day on Tuesday.

Thanks as always to all of you for your continued support! And a hearty welcome to any of you who are brand new to the Force as of this issue. Welcome aboard!

~ Lucas M. Thomas