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.### GameplayThe 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 CharactersThe 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 SoundThe 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 PerformanceThe 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.

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.

I nearly 100% completed this game and enjoyed its story thoroughly. This game genuinely made me laugh and cry at times.PROS:-Interconnected world, unique areas with their own themes, or a spin on the classic grassland, forest, beach, or ghost levels the Mario series is used to. Chapter 4 does a great job at this; it has purples and yellows that blend together to give it a Halloween-y vibe.-THE MUSIC. The soundtrack for this game is phenomenal (Listen to the Atomic boo theme and Chapter 6 battle theme on YouTube, you won't be dissatisfied). Every battle in the game has its own music accompanying it.-Gameplay. Here's a tip, try stacking Power Rush at 5 HP near the end of the game, it's fun. Action commands feel tight and SuperGuarding is fun to do.CONS:-Small world map. Lots of creativity shown but felt a bit to tight-knit for my tastes.-Slow text + LOTS of backtracking for 100%. You might as well call this Paper Mario: Thousand Days of Back-tracking because you'll often find yourself walking to and from locations you've been before at a snails pace.-No run button. Could've sped the gameplay up a bit.Overall, it's worth the 40hr experience for a Mario game. I enjoyed my time with it and genuinely had fun in spite of its flaws.

For a game that got made 20 years ago this remake proves that the first two Paper Mario games are definitely the best ones in the series. It has aged incredibly well. Game has very good and humorous writing, combat is simple and fun with each playable character having unique executions for their attacks and support abilities. Besides this, the new features are basically a graphic and aesthetic overhaul. They definitely made the game feel and look like a pop-up story book. Each area, building, props and characters has a very definite paper feel and look to them. Game runs at 30 fps but you don’t really notice it much and it rarely dips in frames unless it gets a little crowded with characters.Overall, this is an incredible game both kids and adults alike would greatly enjoy.