The bridge in Paper Jam (SPOILERS!)

[YoshiFlutterJump]

SPOILER ALERT! Major plat details from Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam are unveiled here!

Spoiler: Major plot details unveiled! I recommend only reading this after beating the Bowser Jr. duo!

This may be the most annoying part of Paper Jam. After Papercraft Kamek is beaten, the bridge between Doop Doop Dunes and Bowser's Castle is completely demolished by a cannonball. This was obviously slipped in late in development, for the reasons below.

• The map does not update when the bridge breaks. It updates other parts of the map much later in the game, but not the bridge.
• There is a sign in Doop Doop Dunes that says "Bowser's Castle ->", and that sign does not update at all over the course of the game.
• The bridge never gets repaired, even after you reach Bowser's Castle. This leaves only one way to return to Bowser's Castle, that being the long, tedious trek through Twinsy Tropics Dungeon. This gets very annoying overtime if you keep returning to Bowser's Castle. I know that there would be such a short time to use it, but why not? Maybe you're like me and return to the scraps of the castle quite often. It's fun to return there, but not if you have to go through the entire dungeon all over again every single time! Basically, it's a lot of work with little reward. Pretty much everyone who plays the game wishes that the bridge would eventually get repaired.
• This produces a serious error in terms of the orientation of the castle. According to the cutscenes, it faces west, but the map says it faces south! Also, the map says that the bridge ends at the castle wall, but the cutscenes say that it links directly to the castle. So where would the bridge link: to the wall from the west, or to the castle from the south?
• Before the bridge breaks, a yellow link between Doop Doop Dunes and Bowser's Castle is displayed on the map. This links to Bowser's Castle from the west. After the wreckage, the link disappears, never to reappear for the rest of the game. This is annoying as absolutely nothing happens to the Gloomy Woods links. At first the west link is inaccessible and the east link is accessible, but then the roles are swapped...and nothing happens to the links! Also, because the link disappears after the wreckage, you never find out where the Bowser's Castle end of the link is!
• The most annoying part of the wreckage. It ultimately adds 20 seemingly unnecessary hours to the game, which is why Dream Team is better, in my opinion.

Additionally, I see many YouTubers claiming that they will hack the game to repair the bridge, but they never upload a video of the hack. Has anyone performed this hack? I would like to see it.

 

[ArchagentEverlasting]

I don't remember ever having to return to Bowser's Castle in Paper Jam.

 

[ThatGuy62]

You raise some interesting points about the consistencies, but there are still a few things you may not be considering:

Spoiler

1. What reason would there be for the sign to update? It's technically true until the castle goes airborne and I don't recall too many games that update an arbitrary sign after a location moves.

2. The entire point of the bridge being destroyed is to prevent the Trio from reaching the castle immediately after going through Doop Doop Dunes. The Bowsers have no reason to have the bridge repaired and it's not like the player is meant to be leaving the castle too much during the first sequence, especially since getting there is the entire point of the first three acts of the game (to use a Dream Team comparison, you don't enter Neo Bowser Castle until after it's dropped and thus, visit it technically once. Bowser's Castle in Paper Jam, like most of the areas in that game has you visit it multiple times and changes the area both times).

3. Paper Jam in general seems unpolished consistency-wise. For example, the Bowser Jr. Duo's battle background is the underside of Bowser's Castle (note the thrusters) which doesn't make sense since you fight them at the top of the castle. Then their Battle Ring rematch uses the Bowser's Castle interior background (i.e. the correct background). Not sure if it's signs of changes in development or something else.

I don't remember ever having to return to Bowser's Castle in Paper Jam.

You don't. You can clear the castle without leaving during the first visit.

Spoiler

And at the end of the first visit, it turns into Neo Bowser Castle and flies away.