Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

"The witty paper pun is in my other jacket."

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door isn't quite everything you'd want out of a sequel, but it is everything you'd expect. Things have improved but are still generally the same; it plays much like its predecessor and is in fact identical in many ways, with a few new additions and quirks here and there to keep it from feeling like a rehash. So it's about as fun as the first game was, but it's not as exciting.

By my count, this is now Mario's fourth foray into the RPG realm, and the second in which he and his fellow Mushroom Kingdom inhabitants are made entirely out of paper. In the previous Paper Mario game, that last point was only there for the gimmick factor, with the “paper effect” never working its way into the gameplay at all. In TTYD, Mario's thin body comes into play quite a bit, as he can turn sideways to fit through narrow openings, roll into a tube to slip into tight spaces, or fold up into several origami-inspired shapes for various means.

It's things such as this that help to propel TTYD beyond the typical RPG that it could have been. Battles are turn-based but involve real-time elements; fights are viewed by an interactive audience; there's an uncanny emphasis on platforming, puzzle-solving and other un-RPG-like qualities; the game's structure resembles a storybook, with chapters, finales and intermissions to set the tone; stuff like that. It all adds up to create an experience that, love it or hate it, is distinct.

An example of how the game kicks it up a notch in a number of areas is the use of sprites. In the Paper Mario universe, all characters are represented by sprites. Now that the game is on GameCube, Nintendo was able to put more of them on-screen at once. They demonstrate this every chance they get, be it with hundreds of fans surrounding a celebrity in a packed stadium, or with a thousand tiny, goopy creatures overtaking a moving train. Nothing big, but kinda cool nonetheless.

The plot loses Bowser as its central villain but otherwise keeps all the typical trappings of a rousing Mario RPG in place. Princess Peach has once again been captured, this time by spacemen who want to unleash an evil spirit that's been sealed behind a magical door for, yep, a thousand years. Mario, now traveling to a new land in search for his kidnapped babe, must also make an effort to prevent said spirit from wreaking havoc upon the world, and damned if he won't find himself collecting a series of star-shaped objects to do so.

I confess to not caring very much about the story's twists and turns, not one of which is original or difficult to predict. The game, as a whole, is a little too plot-heavy given how uninteresting its tale is. It's the often very funny dialog and genuinely likeable characters that help to keep it from being the pretentious bore it might have been. I didn't care what happened next, but I was amused enough by what was being said that everything evened out.

As I mentioned, the whole game still looks like a cross between a storybook and a Broadway production, capturing that whimsical feeling the first game portrayed so well. Battles are performed on a stage, and all of the environments look like sets, littered with cutouts and intentionally fake-looking props. (One effect I still love: When Mario walks into a building, the front folds away to show you the inside.) The game is divided into chapters, each starting with an exposition phase and ending in an action-packed finale, usually in a dungeon with an over-the-top boss battle. TTYD's production design, how it looks and feels, is an area that the developers spent a lot of time on, and I commend them for it.

In the first Paper Mario, each chapter was separated by a brief interlude in which players took control of Peach as she made escape attempts and managed to learn more about her captors. TTYD plays out the same, but with TWO subplots. I couldn't care less about Peach's plight this time, which involves a love affair with a computer (???) in a space station. What got my attention was Bowser's adventure as a supporting character, which often resorts to fun side-scrolling levels that poke fun at Mario games of old.

This, and many other things (like Luigi's placement in the game, which I won't ruin), strengthen the Paper Mario series' place in the gaming world as a self-parody of sorts. Fans of the Mario games, watch for numerous jabs at the conventions of itself and others in a number of clever references that will separate series fanatics from casual fans.

I still like the way the battle system infuses interactive, real-time actions into standard turn-based gameplay. If you want to hit an enemy with a hammer, for example, you've got to pull back on the analog stick and release when you're given the signal to do so. Nearly all battle actions work similarly, and although this method of combat was sort of taken to the next level in the excellent Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, it's still one of the most innovative battle systems around.

The “big” new feature is that battles are accompanied by an audience, and that you can increase the audience's size and get your fans excited by performing well on stage. This means that you've got to utilize every opportunity to do maximum damage to your enemy – which, I might add, you'd do anyway – and to pull off “stylish” maneuvers, i.e., hit the A button just after using the hammer to pull off a backflip and get the crowd roused. The rewards for a satisfied audience – and the punishments for a disappointed one – won't be ruined in this review.

There's enough variety in design that I can get away with saying that while TTYD is an RPG, it's not just an RPG. There's a fair bit of adventuring, what with the almost Zelda-esque dungeons and puzzles thrown in throughout. There's also a strong emphasis on platforming, and that's an important point to make. I said that the first game felt enough like the platformers of the old days that you'll never forget that you're playing a Mario game. TTYD continues this trend – you could take out Mario and it would still feel like one of his games.

Nintendo also did a respectable job of keeping things varied from chapter to chapter, with each segment feeling different from the last. One chapter takes place entirely on a train, with Mario acting as a detective to solve a set of mysterious occurrences; another has him competing in a nearly non-stop string of battles set in a floating city. The problem with having no clear layout or formula is that some segments will naturally be more enjoyable than others will. One chapter, for example, has Mario taking control of a group of small, Pikmin-like creatures – an element not executed well, as the resulting dungeon is more of a nuisance than anything. A later level also suffers from way too much backtracking, in what feels like an ill-fated attempt to make the game longer. (On the other hand, the entire list of optional missions, found in the central hub, go a long way into making the game longer AND maintaining the same level of entertainment.)

But TTYD's most prominent flaw is that it just doesn't feel like a huge step forward, especially given that there's now an entire generation between the original and the sequel. The standards are higher. You've got to bring out the big guns.

I mean, yeah, the graphics are improved, but by how much? Good for you for being able to fit that many sprites on-screen with little to no slowdown, but in most ways this is barely a step above what was done on Nintendo 64, only with a higher resolution and slightly more detailed textures. The style is still spot-on, but it's nothing super-impressive. As I said, it's an entire generation apart from the first; Nintendo needs to treat it as such.

Same goes for the sound. It would be silly to expect Nintendo to put voice acting into their game; I wouldn't want them to, anyway. But the sound is really low-quality, and the soundtrack isn't even very catchy, which is a disappointment given how good the original's was. Again, bring it up to GameCube standards.

I liked TTYD very much, but it suffers from the problems that most sequels have in that it's more of the same with less impact. It's still generally as enjoyable, but the difference is that we're expecting it this time around. It's funny, but it's not AS funny. It's surprising, but it's not AS surprising. It's clever, but it's not AS clever. It's good, but it's not AS good.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/07