Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Overview

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a 2-D role playing game that was released for the Nintendo GameCube in late 2004. In this game the player takes on the role of a 2-D Mario who has to explore his flat world in order to rescue Princess Peach. The game’s combat system is active and requires the player to utilize timing in order to defeat Mario’s enemies. The story is also very quirky and entertaining. Overall Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a great play and makes an awesome addition to any player’s library.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Screenshots

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Full Review

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Review

Does anyone remember Super Mario RPG for the SNES? I probably won’t get a resounding “Yeah!” from the general gaming populace. But Mario’s RPG adventures have always been some of the pudgy plumber’s most memorable moments. His latest quest on the Gamecube features Mario returning to the paper form he took in the original Paper Mario for the N64 to solve the millennium-old secret of what’s come to be known as The Thousand-Year Door.

The game begins with Princess Peach on vacation in the rather unseemly town of Rogueport, which, as the name suggests, is home to all manner of thieves, mugs, and shady-types. While there, she comes into the possession of a magical treasure map. Excited about finding treasure, she mails the map to Mario and asks him to come help her find it. When Mario arrives in Rogueport, Peach is nowhere to be seen. As usual, it’ll be up to Mario to find Peach; with the magic map, the power of the Crystal Stars, and the help of some newfound allies.

When you pick up this game for the first time, the first thing that will strike you is the graphic style; Mario and other characters will be paper-flat in a 3D world, like cardboard stand-ups from a pop-up book. Actually, the fixed camera angles and subtle papery references, like the visible “micro-dots” on decaying walls and the ability to walk across background scenery in some places, make the entire game look and feel like a playable pop-up book. If it sounds “childish” (or dare I say, “kiddie”), fear not, Mario and the scores of characters he meets all feel 3D despite being composed of two-dimensional figures, much like a well-drawn cartoon.

The story unfolds itself (literally) very naturally. The main quest is divided up into 8 chapters, with each chapter concluding with Mario collecting one of the seven Crystal Stars. It’s linear, but PM:TTYD has ways of encouraging you to revisit locations you’ve previously run through, especially during some of the side quests. Each chapter exudes a certain theme: conspiracy, deception, young romance, Sherlock Holmes-style mystery, just to name a few. These themes definitely give the game a more grown-up feel than most of Mario’s prior adventures, stuff that might go right over the heads of younger gamers despite the bright graphics and the game’s “E” rating. Parents need not fear, it’s all in good taste, and there are comic failsafes in place to keep you from taking the story too seriously.

In the overworld, you’ll jump across gaps, bust bricks, and push ever further towards the far-right of the screen, just as Mario always has. Your partners, whose abilities are activated with the X button, will also play a big part in how you explore the world. Early in the game you’ll pick up the college student Goombella, who will share her wisdom and give you hints on what to do in certain rooms. Later you’ll meet Koops the Koopa, who shoots his shell like a boomerang to reach distant items and flip switches. You’ll meet nearly a dozen partners throughout the game with their own special abilities, and you’ll have to use them all to solve puzzles in some of the game’s later dungeons. Of course, your partners will also be powerful allies in battle, each using various combos and techniques that can be very effective against certain types of enemies.

Battles are initiated when overworld enemies make contact with you (whether that contact is deliberate or otherwise), which is nothing especially new to RPGs. However, the battle system itself is one of the most innovative I’ve seen in any RPG in recent memory. Gone are many of the technicalities that make some other RPGs a left-brained exercise, such as mile-long stat sheets, complex element systems, and the like. The stat numbers are kept low throughout the game; initially you’ll be pecking enemies that have 4 HP with attacks that do about 1 or 2 points of damage. It’s far from over-simplistic, but it’s refreshingly simple. But what PM:TTYD takes away, it more than makes up for with new innovations.

Your turn-based battles take place on a stage with an audience that cheers you on. Mario and his partner’s moves are all chosen from a menu, then executed with certain button combos. If your timing is perfect, the attack will do maximum damage, but if it’s a little off, your attack might flop and do little or no damage at all. Also, the audience plays an active role in your battles. Fans of yours might toss you an occasional Mushroom or another helpful item, while troublemakers will toss rocks and empty cans at you. When you see such a rebel-rouser about to strike, you can press X to jump off the stage and kick the jerk out of the arena. And sometimes completely random things will happen, stage equipment failures will send backdrops and stage lights falling your way, but if you’re quick on the A button, you might manage to guard against it. These factors make the game a much more lively experience than if the game were simply waiting for your next command. It keeps you on your toes and from losing focus while you’re trying to decide what move to use next.

Also at your disposal are Special Moves powered by a combination of the Crystal Stars you’ve gathered and how much praise the audience has given you. Whenever you pull off a move successfully you’ll earn a bit of Star Power from the audience. You can also use your turn to appeal to the audience and earn a lot of applause. Perhaps the best way to earn SP is by pulling off what the game calls Stylish moves, which are simply presses of the A button at the right times during an attack. The crowd will go nuts and fill up your SP meter a lot faster. Once you have enough Star Power you can unleash Special Moves that have all kinds of effects, such as refilling your HP and FP (Flower Points, needed to perform Mario’s more powerful moves), rocking the stage with a massive earthquake, and my favorite, a near-end-of-the-game treat that lets you wipe out entire platoons of weak enemies with one shot.

Addictive battle system aside, PM:TTYD has more than it’s share of memorable and colorful characters, such as the rich French capitan Flavio, the indelible wrestling champ Rawk Hawk (whose nobody’s chicken, by the way), and the Holmes-reading penguin detective Pennington, just to name a few. Even the boss Koopa himself, Bowser, appears between chapters of your main quest in some very amusing mini-levels that lovingly mock the original Super Mario Bros., but have Bowser stomping around with his bad self instead. Pure bliss, baby. What really stands out to me is the dialogue, which is some of the most clever, most flavorful writing I have yet to see in ANY video game, period. Spotty writing can dampen even the finest RPG plotlines, but PM:TTYD definitely has it where it counts.