Minor spoilers for Paper Mario: The Origami King ahead!
There are some video games that try really hard to be terrifying, either through disturbing imagery or through cheap jump scares. The scariest games are the ones that surprise you, and 2020's freakiest game might belong to Paper Mario: The Origami King, by virtue of a single ꦜlevel, called the Temple of Shrooms.
One of the main goals in Paper Mario: The Origami King involves breaking the five streamers that have cut Princess Peach's castle off from the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario has to travel to different regions in order to defeat the guardians of the streamers and smash them into pieces. The yellow streamer can be found in the Scorching Sandpaper Desert, which has an ancient Egyptian theme. The storyline quest ꦚinvolves raising an underground palace, called the Temple of Shrooms, in order to find the base of the yellow streamer.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is a game with adorable characters and colorful visuals, so imagine our surprise when we visited the Temple of Shrooms and found it full of Toads that have had their faces r☂emoved.
It's not initially clear why the Toads have no faces. Paper Mario just keeps stumbling across them, as they walk around like zombies. The truth of the situation is revealed when Paper Mario reaches the boss🐠 of the dungeon, as it's a massive hole punch that needs to be smashed from the back in order to harm it. Duri🌠ng this battle, the hole punch will cut off Paper Mario's face, which slashes his maximum HP score. In order to get that HP back, the player needs to pick it up off the battlefield. If they don't pick their face up, then the boss will continue to cut holes in Paper Mario's body, cutting his HP each time.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is one of the most charming games of 2020, which is why the Temple of Shrooms stage is ꧟so surprising. The faceless Toads and Paper Mario getting his face cut off and discarded on the battlefield is straight out 🙈of a horror game (or bad fanfic), and it's bizarre to see in such an otherwise cartoonish game.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is available now for Nintendo Switch.