28 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - Boat Back To Sunbeam Plains, Lakitu Arcade Open

Dear Readers,

Today, I'll talk about our journey back to Peach's Castle and checking out the newly opened Lakitu Arcade along the way.

We head back to the Twinsy Tropics Toad Village and meet the Paper Toads at the dock. They've already finished the nice looking papercraft boat. They choose to travel with Lakitu instead of with us.

Luigi calls the escapee Toads and they board with us cheerfully. Paper Mario gets on top of the mast and turns into a sail! We all head back to Sunbeam Plains. Things look a little different with the extra landscape features made out of papercraft, so we go investigate while the Toads rest here for a while. We have to head back to Peach's Castle too.

Across the river, we meet Monty Moles. They sneak attack by burying underground and throwing rocks at us. While trying to do their dodge challenge, they come up with a golden egg at one point! I wonder what that will get us? Might come across it again later...

We're taking a different path through this area that runs south of the area we were in before. I find the Knockout Boots and give them to Luigi. We come across another Lakitu Info Centre. The Lakitu outside tells us that the warp pipe that was closed off before is now open and it leads to an arcade!

The arcade is high up in cloud heaven. The Lakitu near the pipe explains the three different types of games: Battle Ring, where we can fight previously defeated bosses, papercraft bosses and the Attackathon, where we can try for high scores using Bros. and Trio Attacks. There are some expert challenges to achieve with these games too. The three arcade cabinets look like New 3DSes.

There are some Lakitu relaxing here, sitting at tables using their clouds as seats. The one at the yellow table advertises the Attackathon. One of them at the red table talks about Lakitea and says it's perfection without cream or sugar; the other is taking a break from playing the Battle Ring, trying to figure out what to do about one of Petey Piranha's attacks. At the blue table, a Lakitu talks about the importance of kicking back after doing work; the other is so relaxed, he might take a nap. The Lakitu at the counter is selling Lakitea, which is supposed to refresh body and mind. I don't bother buying any.

At a glance, the bosses have a recommended level for us to fight them at, so they must be stronger than they were before.

I give the Attackathon a go. The only available one is Trio Racquet at the moment. There are three different medals for getting points: S, which looks like platinum; a golden A and a silver B. Is the platinum one a reference to Platinum Games perhaps? :)

This game is quite nice! It's like an endurance version of Bros. and Trio attacks with arcade scoring. With this one, we all take turns hitting the ball at different enemies depicted on the wall. They crumble away and harder ones appear as we progress. Pretty cool! For my first turn I get a bronze C medal with a score of 540. After a few sessions I get a golden A medal with a score of 2430. After every session, it saves, even if you don't get the best score. The only gripe with this is that you really start to notice the saving delay after a few goes in a row.

I'll come back to the arcade later. Continuing on, we come across a shiny Paper Bob-omb, that really throws us with its own attack pattern and it deals a lot of damage! Had to use a few 1-up Mushrooms!

I find a Filler Brooch but don't give it to anyone right now.

Further along the path, we meet a Toad in a panic, who's about to tell us what happened to the princesses, but then says to just follow him to the castle quickly.