Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

**Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door** is a critically acclaimed role-playing game (RPG) developed by Intelligent Systems and released for the Nintendo GameCube. It's often praised for its unique blend of humor, innovative gameplay mechanics, and charming art style. Here’s a detailed review of the game: ### Design and Presentation **Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door** stands out with its distinctive art style, which uses a blend of 2D paper-like characters in a 3D world. This "paper" aesthetic gives the game a whimsical and unique visual charm. The colorful and vibrant graphics are complemented by creative character designs and dynamic animations that enhance the overall experience. ### Gameplay The gameplay in **The Thousand-Year Door** combines traditional RPG elements with innovative mechanics: - **Turn-Based Combat:** The game features turn-based combat where players control Mario and his partners in battles against a variety of enemies. The combat system incorporates action commands, where players can perform timed button presses to deal extra damage or defend more effectively. - **Exploration and Puzzles:** The game includes a mix of platforming, exploration, and puzzle-solving. Players traverse different environments, each with its own set of challenges and hidden secrets. The game's puzzles are often clever and require creative thinking to solve. - **Paper Abilities:** Mario can use various "paper" abilities, such as folding into a paper plane or becoming a paper thin character, to solve puzzles and access new areas. These abilities add a unique layer of strategy to both exploration and combat. ### Story and Characters The narrative of **The Thousand-Year Door** is engaging and filled with humor. The story revolves around Mario’s quest to rescue Princess Peach and thwart the plans of the evil X-Nauts. The game features a colorful cast of characters, including memorable partners like Goombella, Koops, and Vivian, each with their own personalities and special abilities. The dialogue is witty and humorous, adding a light-hearted touch to the game's adventure. The writing is one of the standout features, with many clever jokes and references that enhance the overall enjoyment. ### Graphics and Sound The game’s graphics are charming and effective, with a distinctive art style that helps it stand out from other RPGs. The paper-like visual effects are both creative and functional, fitting well with the game's theme. The soundtrack is also noteworthy, featuring catchy and atmospheric music that complements the different environments and scenarios throughout the game. The sound effects are well-crafted, adding to the overall immersion and enjoyment of the game. ### Controls and Performance The controls in **Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door** are intuitive and responsive, with the GameCube controller providing a comfortable and precise experience. The game's performance is solid, with smooth graphics and consistent framerate throughout. ### Pros - **Unique Art Style:** The paper-themed visuals are creative and distinctive, giving the game a unique look and feel. - **Engaging Combat:** The turn-based combat system with action commands adds depth and excitement to battles. - **Humorous Writing:** The dialogue and characters are well-written, providing plenty of humor and personality. - **Clever Puzzles:** The game’s puzzles and paper-based abilities are inventive and fun to solve. ### Cons - **Occasional Backtracking:** The game can involve significant backtracking, which may feel repetitive to some players. - **Complexity for Newcomers:** The blend of mechanics and paper-based abilities might be overwhelming for players new to the genre. ### Conclusion **Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door** is a standout RPG that combines creative art design, engaging gameplay, and a charming narrative. Its unique paper-themed mechanics and humorous writing make it a memorable and enjoyable experience for fans of the genre. Despite some minor issues with backtracking and complexity, it remains a beloved classic and a must-play for RPG enthusiasts and fans of the Paper Mario series.

For a game that is 20+ years old and updated to run on switch, it really still feels like a modern title. Engaging and deep, its narrative really stands out as being more endearing and funny than expected. Just be aware this is a turn based RPG, not the standard platformer. While the game play is a bit slower than some modern RPGs, it’s a game to play when you want to relax.

I'm a big fan of the OG PM: TTYD and this is a pretty good remaster. They are faithful to the original and the graphics are a nice touch up. Pros: It's TTYD, so that's awesome. They have a badge (1 coin) in the badge shop to play the OG music if that's your thing The Pianta Parlor's slot machines are way more fun to play, and with enough skill you can get whichever payout you want. A bunch of Quality of Life fixes for some of the more annoying mechanics. Irks: They don't give the option to skip dialogue bubbles, pressing A while the character is talking does nothing unless you've already heard their shpeil. That's pretty annoying. Minor irks (like really really minor, these are personal preference issues and even then I'm aware I'm being pedantic): The graphics are nice but SUPER reflective. Like the grass of petal meadows area looks noticeably like glass in some spots. When the map gets a positional update in the thousand year door room the spatial distortion waves only stay inside the black letterboxing and I thought the OG effect where the letterboxing got all distorted was a little cooler.

Let me preface this by saying that the original version of this game was very influential to me as a kid, and was inspirational to me as a writer. So this game has a LOT of sentimental value to me. That being said, this remake is absolutely incredible. It has managed to stay mostly faithful to the original, while adjusting for the change in our society and shoring up some of the original's flaws (for anyone who had to do what I did and throw matches in the Glitz Pit in the original to get the Tattle Log done...not anymore, they added Exhibition Matches). It's been amazing to play through the story and see its influence in my current work, because even after all these years, it's always been in the back of my mind, influencing me. I do want to say, I'm incredibly disappointed in the closed-minded bigots complaining about Vivian being established as trans (which she was in the Japanese Version of the original). Letting your hatred for people who are merely trying to live their lives in peace, because they now have a character in a "family friendly" game to relate to, take over to the point where you'll review-bomb it is frankly pathetic. They handled Vivian in a way that is perfectly valid and easy to explain to a child, and she's a wonderful character. I hope one day the hate in some of y'all's hearts is cleansed. But I digress! The point is, as someone who was massively influenced by the original, I fully and wholeheartedly believe that this remake is a wonderful and faithful tale on an incredible classic. Whether you played the original or not, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Mario games are always good. My sons love it.

I usually don’t like turn based combat but Nintendo makes it more fun because precise timing can allow you to block or execute more powerful attacks by pressing the A button just as your attack lands (or just as the enemy hits you in regards to blocking). It makes it feel more action oriented and keeps the battles from feeling boring or repetitive. The art style is beautiful, it looks amazing on the OLED switch screen. If you never played this on the GameCube like me, I suggest picking it up. The only downside is that it runs at 30FPS compared to 60FPS of the original version. It is what it is, this is just a consequence of the Nintendo Switch being so underpowered compared to virtually any other console/PC handheld. It’s not that bad though, I was able to get used to it, even though I play games on PS5 and PC where frame rates can be 120FPS and higher. Here’s hoping the next switch has backwards compatibility and this game will then run at a glorious locked 60FPS.

This is one of the most accurate remakes ever. Better graphics, redone and new music, new features, environmental styles. It’s just amazing. The people complaining about Vivian being trans aren’t really giving honest reviews. This game is honestly worth the price. And there is tons to do, while there were some censored parts, they are more than made up for with the chapter 6 battle music. The only problem I have is that we get no Luigi content for his story. And some sound effects were changed, namely the audio for when Mario starts a special move. But this is great even with the flaws, I would recommend this, and for a walkthrough, the chuggaconroy lp will basically have all the info you may need though it won’t be one to one. If you’re a parent and want to give a kid their first rpg experience, this is my recommendation

Came in good condition some I’ve seen some people get damaged or broken copies, but I’m guessing it might been because they chose the used copies instead of the brand new. The game works well no issues whatsoever and I enjoyed it very much.

Llego en momento indicado

Jogo difícil heim, chegou tudo certo.

Better than the original because the graphics are way more paper like

Great remake of a classic. Kid loves to play it.

Llegó sin problemas, buen juego