Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

"A Paper Ace"

Imagine yourself walking along a road one day reading a nice book. It's sunny, the birds are chirping, the clouds are happily dancing by; everything seems to be just perfect. Well, almost everything. The book you're reading turns out to be utter garbage, your feet hurt, and worst of all, you're seeing hallucinations of Mario turned paper. Or, is it an hallucination? Meet Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, a game that puts a paper-like twist on Nintendo's ace series. The original Paper Mario came out when the N64 was a dead dog, literally. That killed its sales profits, plus a name that should have been known long before it ever was. Thankfully, the big N finally decided to revive the series in a glorious fashion, and boy am I happy that they did.

Mario has been through the gambit over the years, from sports to resorts, he's had a part in it all. The concept of a paper world definitely isn't something that you'd tend to think about every day, especially in terms of Mario. In true Nintendo fashion, Paper Mario does something that you wouldn't expect it to do, and that's what makes it special. That and the fact that, for once, Mario doesn't look like he's a fat hobo who eats donuts. Not that he ever did, of course.

Story
Bowser, Bowser, Bowser-it's always had to be about Bowser. You have to admit, in practically every Mario game available this big brute has to be an idiot and try to get the girl. For once, someone beats him to it. That's right, the big idiot actually misses the opportunity this time and is forced to take a back seat in place of the new villains, the X-Nauts. The plot starts innocently enough, some evil that destroyed a wonderfully built metropolis is going to be awakened by an even bigger idiot than Bowser who thinks that by releasing it he can rule the world. In order to do this though, he needs to find a pure maiden. Peach just happens to be that maiden, and she's promptly captured. To add to the humor-and keep things interesting-Mario was sent a letter before time by Peach asking him to come to the new local for a vacation. Therefore, when he arrives, instead of a happy time he has to go save Peach from some wacko.

Too many times these days game developers think that you have to be crude in order to be funny, and this game just proves the exact opposite.
Whether it be a fat joke on Bowser or possibly little nuances throughout the game, everything is funny while still being family friendly. That's the key here, it's family friendly throughout. That made the story as a whole much more enjoyable, especially since I didn't have to worry about what I was viewing.

Now because the game relies on wholesome jokes, you'd think that it would be boring, right? Don't think so, because every time you think you're going off to sleep this game has a nasty habit of sounding a fog horn to your head. Not that that's bad, quite the opposite. It's because of that mentality that I paid as close of attention as I did to the character development, and it ultimately was a rewarding experience. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door offers to its players a rich cast of partners that travel along with Mario as he's trying to save the princess. Each one of those partners has a great back-story to them that you'll slowly uncover as you traverse the game, along with the greater reward of getting to see what they do in order to get past it and blossom. It was wonderfully written in many aspects, and it definitely left me with a warm feeling when I was done. If only more stories has the ability to touch me like this, shame they don't.

Probably the most defining difference from this game comes from the fact that the story itself slowly unravels through the humor, something that you rarely see. Maybe it's because games these days try to force a story, or possibly it's because they take too many leaps. The bottom line is that Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door tells the story itself, which is more satisfying in the end to the player than if you felt you were a backseat driver. If you want something that will pick you up and never let you down in a roller coaster of jokes, then this game's story is for you. Not to say that it's perfect, but it does just enough right to make the game better.

Game Play
If there's one thing that I dislike about Nintendo, it's the fact that they have a nasty habit of burying brilliant game play under a kiddy personification. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door plays everything like a fantastic RPG, from the enemy variety to the outrageous adventuring, things fit perfectly. Maybe it was because they did use such a great graphical scheme to get things off, or possibly because the paper mechanics are really all that-the bottom line is that the game works, and it works darn well too.

In an interesting twist, Paper Mario is, well, starting to feel more like a game that takes advantage of the innovation that only paper can provide to the series. Probably my biggest gripe about the previous incarnation of Paper Mario was in the lack of paper use, mainly because they definitely could have used it to a better extent. Not wanting to let a fan down, the developers decided to take advice from an origami expert, molding Mario into such paper creations as boats, airplanes, and much more. This adds depth to the game play, providing that you have the ability to put up with the shortcomings that set in. Because they didn't necessarily mold the game play after it, it felt as though it was half-baked. Aside from some small parts where you do make use of these abilities, most of the game is limited to being without them-it was as if they wanted you to see a glimpse of what they could do, and then leave it for a future installment. Such a shame too, it held a ton of promise with the way that things were originally shaping up.

Luckily, the game has some nice safety nets to fall back on in the form of an insanely well-put together RPG battle system. On the outside, it looks as if it's just another kiddy game that doesn't have the ability to do anything. If you were to leave it at that though, you'd be missing out on a great experience. Not only does the game boast a sweet mix of partners and abilities for you to choose from, but it also has a grand enemy variety to fight. It is turn based, which makes sense considering what they did with it. In an interesting twist, Mario actually dukes it out with enemies-on stage! That's right, you're in front of an audience. If you do poorly, then you get what you deserve and get a car thrown at you, if you do great, then the enemy could possibly get that same fate. Not that you'd want something that big thrown at the enemy, at least Mario has the gut to make it bounce back. Save the baddies!

One thing that truly interested me was the diverse cast of partners that were available for you to choose from. They've already made for a great plot, now they get to help you make for an even better battle. Each of the seven or so partners have their own special abilities both on and off the battlefield, many of which help along the plat-forming experience that this game offers. For instance, while one of your party members may excel at blowing away obstacles to reveal hidden rooms, another may be able to blow up a wall that was blocking a chest. Not stopping there either, on the battlefield each one of your partners brings something unique to the table, which was a surprise considering the nature of this game. Unlike the previous Paper Mario, it was opted to take a much more diversified approach. Some partners end up being meat shields, others have extreme attacking abilities-the bottom line is they made it so that each partner has a purpose, which was very nice.

Because of the kiddy nature of this game, most would probably be fooled into thinking that it's easy. Truth be told, it's not. While you may not feel it directly, a steep difficulty does exist at some points. Not feeling it immediately proves that they did an excellent job of placing in a solid learning curve for a newer player. That learning curve ultimately allows this game to be more accessible to people in general, and it's that learning curve that allows this game to reach the maximum level of difficulty while retaining that enjoyable atmosphere of fun. Not to say that you probably won't have any problems with this game, quite the contrary. The point is you'll be slowly pushed into those problems instead of being shoved through a brick wall like some games have a nasty habit of doing.
Paper Mario: TTYD does a great job of taking advantage of the innovation that only paper can provide, while proving some people wrong that would make fun of its kiddy appearance. Truth be told, it's a very solid game, with very little, if any errors at all. You may have some problems here or there with the difficulty, but it's thanks to the great learning curve that you'll get past them when you're ready. Not everyone will like this game, that's a given. The point is that it did just about everything right, while only having some little problems in the form of lacking true depth on the paper concept. Definitely something that games in general should learn from.

Graphics
Sometimes games opt to do something given with graphics, other times they don't. It's typically very interesting to see what happens in a case where they don't, not that it happens often. Developers generally are incredibly careful with what they do to a game series, particularly when it holds as much clout as something like Mario. Paper Mario wasn't as much of a risk as it was a shot at glory; being that most of the pieces needed for the game to work were already in place, there wasn't much of a risk to begin with. They needed something to top it off however, something that would make people remember it for a long time after they were finished. Let me think about that for a second…paper…world…...what else could they ever need? Jokes aside, things were definitely in their favor when they were messing with the graphics.

Because they were trying in all essence to make this game look much like a pop-up book, color was unquestionably needed. Even though it would be accurately feasible to say that color alone made this game pleasing to the eye, it wouldn't when you think about it. To clarify that statement, color alone didn't make this game what it was, it was the way that they shadowed that color to allow more emotion to be expressed through it. Color shadowing is something that generally isn't used greatly today, for the most part because games tend to go towards a more realistic sentiment. Wind Waker used it nevertheless, to a terrific extent if I may say so myself. As did other games, but this is a review of Paper Mario, is it not? Color shadowing can be thought of as the way of adding adverse affects of light to the base of the color shade. By doing that, they can allow characters to be more accurately portrayed in emotions, as well as be more vivid in color representation. It was extremely important that they did do it that way, for more reasons than one. First, by using a paper-like structure in the graphics, they needed a way for the game to accurately be portrayed. Since you actually don't see the mouth flaps move, emotion is harder to represent. Color shadowing allowed for this emotion to be depicted both easily and effectively, which was pleasant.

Secondly, color shadowing allowed them to roughly sketch each character's frame, which in many ways is the black line that you see around each character. Appreciating it is rather hard, but what would the game be without it? That's a tough question to answer, but in a sense don't you think that it contrasted rather nicely to the backgrounds that were presented? I surely do, as I couldn't imagine the game not using it. Lastly, color shadowing allowed them to place more colors in a condensed space than if they didn't use it at all. Each color is finely represented, and it definitely had to come from somewhere. This is a fine presentation of what the game has to offer, because it is exactly what Paper Mario stands for.

I tend to be a sucker for unique ideas, especially when they make use of a great, innovative scheme. The graphics present both emotion and contrast vividly through the unique color shadowing system, as well as allow innovation to become apparent through the paper theme that this game uses. It was nicely done, definitely something that more games should think about doing. I guess the overriding factor here was that they showed what a game can do when it does take a risk, even if that risk isn't exactly that much of a risk to begin with. Paper Mario was born out of a risk, and that risk definitely paid off, especially in terms of graphics.

Music
So you've already heard about how this game plays out a joke a minute, but what do you think actually pushed those jokes along? If you thought of the characters, then I guess you're at least partially right. If you thought of the music, then you were fully right. Humor, in a game at least, doesn't always rely on the actual joke to make a moment funny as much as a sound or two to drive the point that they are trying to make. Ever think of why they use an awkward silence on some points? Okay, let me rephrase that, because when a childhood friend is betraying someone it's not exactly meant to be funny. Anyway…point taken, it is a great tool to use, and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door definitely uses it more than enough for you to know that they are making jokes with it.

Not everything has to be about gloom and doom, especially in music. Cheerful melodies truly make this game a blast to play with, not just for the spirit that it puts in you as you're playing, but also for the game itself. In every game that you play you'll hear a different track, and what that track does depends on what the developer wants to do. If they are going for humor, then it can go in two different directions. Yeah, they will usually use happiness and all of that other stuff that you'd expect, but often times a developer can also use a sad theme while still being funny. This game does a great job of melding those two themes till the day is done, almost as if you didn't know the difference of when they are doing what. It's when a game does that that you know they've mastered the track that they are using.

Sometimes the music can be a tad bit subtle, I'll give it that. It's definitely easy to overlook a particular track when the dungeon at hand is demanding, and that's when a track should step up to meet that demand. Unfortunately, it doesn't do it at all. Most of the time you'll wind up forgetting that it exists, while other times you'll hear it full blown. The big point that they messed up on was in this, a place that they shouldn't have. Balance is key here, and they are lacking it greatly.

Replay and Tilt
Because the game currently resides in the choice status, it shouldn't be hard to find it for less than 15 bucks. Not that it isn't worth more, but that's about the going rate for the game at the moment. When I first bought this game, I got about 20 hours out of it for getting everything. That translates into about .85 cents per hour, which is a decent price for a game. You may or may not want to replay it unfortunately, it all depends on if you want to listen to the story again. I wound up playing it once, which is a rarity. You may want to play it more, but as I said, it differentiates.

Closing
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door broadly allows innovation to take root in a fine fashion, showing what can happen when a game takes a risk. I'll admit it, I was very skeptical when the original was first announced for the N64. It turned out to be a blast though, and this game is no different. If you haven't bought it yet and need a game that will without doubt bring some humor into your life, then this is for you. Not to say that it is for everyone, but innovation like this only comes around once in a blue moon.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/07