Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

"FINALLY!! Paper beats scissors!!"

Paper Mario: TTYD is a great game for both young kids and adults can enjoy together. This game is actually the sequel to another game in Nintendo's history; Paper Mario for the NES (or Nintendo Entertainment System). Although, sadly, the original Paper Mario was released just before the NES left the stage. But this game will bring every single bit (and pixel) of the original Paper Mario back, and a lot more. It's marvelous style and attraction is very addictive. I myself played it at least 4 times over. You'll probably get instantly hooked this game during your first hour or two of playing it. It has charm for audiences of both ages of young and old. You travel through varying landscape in order to find a very important treasure, while also searching for the missing Princess Peach. But as you trek on, you'll find out that these two paths you're taking are actually one giant puzzle you're going to have to jump, smash, and special attack your way to the very end. This game is easily one of the best games for the Gamecube. I'm going to tell you why...

Story~9.5/10
It's beginning is the usual for a Mario game. The princess has been stolen and it's up to Mario to rescue her. You start out in Rogueport with your first partner, Goombella. As you progress through the storyline, you unravel the dark secrets of what's lying underneath the humble city of Rogueport. You have to gather allies, obtain special abilities, use everything you've got to fend off the evil shadow that's about to engulf the whole world. The reason it's not a 10/10 is that the storyline can get a little repetitive at times, but the whole game is well worth it. To me, the major boost that prevented this part from getting a 9/10 was the whole feeling of gathering strong and powerful allies to help you in your quest to fight the evil in this virtual world is kinda cliche, but a major up on the coolness meter. You might even like the cliche and repetitive, yet exciting and challenging levels even more as you progress through it.

Controls~9.5/10
2 controls are a little cliche; the A and B buttons. A is to jump/interract, and B is to perform a basic Hammer Smash. But, these are the only detriments to the score. Several special moves have you practice your reflexes, tapping abilities, and eyesight. In a small way, this game is actually training you! Then comes the R button. As you progress through the game, you'll find the R button to be even more useful until the end. To add to this, your partners also require you to press certain buttons to activate their specials. As I said before, the only thing preventing this score from being perfect is the cliche A and B buttons, and nothing more. I don't think it should even be considered any kind of detriment to the score, but it's my job to point this out, and there's even a plus side to that. Most kids these days are familiar to hav ing the A or X button being the jump button and action button. The B button is also widely used as the attack or cancel button. Due to this, most kids will grasp the controls of this game pretty easily, but it's still a minor imperfection in this game of diamond.

Graphics~10/10
Sure the game is called PAPER Mario, but don't expect anything like that from Nintendo. Although Mario looks like a piece of paper in this game, there are a lot of things that counteract that. The scenes where elements (such as fog and ice) come on the stage are magnificent. The 3-D scenes showing Mario turn into shapes for a powered attack or special move look nothing like paper. It's pretty hard to see ANY imperfection in this department. Well, there is one. In only a handful of areas, the graphics there are pretty choppy and confusing. Like if you go to the edge of Rogueport Square, you'll see a lot of red and brown. I don't know if that's just a lave and dirt effect, but It's still just a minor imperfection. So minor that it's still a 10/10! Now THAT's saying something.

Music~9/10
The music department was so close to being perfect, if it wasn't for a few flaws. But I'll state the good icing of this cake first. The music Nintendo chose for every level fit it EXACTLY. If there is supposed to be a spooky atmosphere, then Nintendo did as best as it can to give it's game players a scare. But not too much scare, or else it wouldn't be for kids, and that just doesn't suit Nintendo at all. The battle themes are just how they should be. A boss battle has a very dangerous feeling to it, while sub-battles have some sort of wacky, non-important feeling to it. Now it's time for the sour icing. As I said before, Nintendo had to remove some stuff to keep it like a Mario game. I personally felt that the spooky and scary atmosphere would've been a lot more creepier if Nintendo just spiced it up a bit more. Also, the town themes and some other music can get kinda repetitive. During a certain chapter, you have to keep backtracking in the same area, while listening to the music there replay over and over and over again. It takes some of your happiness away, if you know what I mean. But because of the minority of these problems, it didn't cause a gaping wound in the leg of the music department.

Difficulty~9.5/10
This game isn't for the weak-minded. The numerous puzzles take timing, reflexes, and brains. Near th end of the game, you have to collect everything you've learned to get out of a certain area. Just like a flashback, only Nintendo style! But then, there's also the battles. They don't take much skill, just brains. you can't use certain moves at certain times. There are several enemies the prevent you from using and attack, like Jump, and force you to think of a strategy to defeat them. It also requires the skill to plan ahead. If you aren't prepared for an upcoming boss battle, or you forgot something you didn't know you needed, then you have to backtrack to get it. The last thing that makes this game difficult is the fact the you need to know when to use what type of item or attack, and when. The various enemies of Paper Mario have different habitats, so therefore, they have their own attributes too. The fact that certain items cause more damage to certain enemies, and less to others boosts this department's grade.


Replay Value~10/10
It's very easy to pick up a game, play through it, finish it, and then stock it away where it will gather dust. Well that just doesn't happen in this game. There are a couple of things you might want to try out in this game before you put it away. Like for one of your partners, his color that he is and how he looks actually depends on long you keep him during a certain stage. There are also several skits that can work with every character, but you're only allowed to have one out at a time. You can always play the game over again from the beginning to see this skit. There are also the sidequests to do, such as the trouble center, the Pit of 100 Trials, collecting all badges, finding all monsters, hitting it rich in the lottery, leveling all partners to the max, finding all star pieces, and several other adventures you can do, even after the game is over! My guess is that even young children will enjoy playing this game over and over and over repeatedly until they drop down bored. I stay true to my rating and give this game's replay value a 10/10.

Youth/Adult Enjoyment~10/10
As I've stated several times in this review, this game is a GREAT game which can be enjoyed by both young and old audiences. There is also some things I haven't stated in my review yet. There are several times in the game where the characters sort of "interract" with the player of the game. There's are several quotes like "Hey you out there!" and "Yea, you in front of the television" that are repeated in a semi-rare pattern in the game. I have a feeling this mostly appeals to the younger audiences, but there's also the scattered easter eggs throughout the game that make a reference to past Mario games, such as the first Paper Mario game. I have a feeling that mostly appeals to the adult crowd, since most of the kids that play this game probably don't even know that there was a Paper Mario 1. But the last thing I want to mention that probably appeals to both audiences is the themes for every chapter. For this, I'm going to name 3. During one chapter, young audiences will get the "desert island" feeling, while that older crowd will get a "survivor" feeling. On another chapter, kids will receive a "haunted and creepy" feeling, while adults will receive a "sci-fi ghost" feeling. And the last theme I'll talk about will give young children the feeling of being an astronaut, and will give the adults the feeling of actually feeling weightlessness and the sci-fi effect that I talked about earlier, but except without the "haunting" feeling. Overall, for this department, my score is my honest opinion about how I think this game's various audiences will enjoy it over and over and over again. That's why I stick to my rating of a perfect 10/10.

All-in-all/Overall~9.5/10
I really felt that this game had a lot of special things about it. From it's unique way of gameplay, to it's action (and most of the time, comedy) filled chapters, This game would've gotten a 10/10. The only things that shortened the score for this wonderful game is the fact that some parts of it are a little cliche. Part of the storyline has you backtrack to and fro from here to there. The A and B controls were a little simple, but, as I have already covered, it's just a minority and really doesn't count as much. It's just so great of a game that a measly cliche default like the A and B buttons shouldn't really matter. But since this is a review, I have to expose every single flaw and godliness that this game holds. Now it's that time of the review, the part where I summarize what I've stated here in a short and brief paragraph.

SUMMARY
Pape Mario is a game that's SO worth having in your collection for the Gamecube. It's graphics are excellent, even though the title says Paper Mario, the sound can blow you away very early in the game, it's appeal to both the younth and old is legendary, and it's replay value is very high. I'd recommend buying this game 24/7/365. And that's just the beginning. Now, YOU go and play this wonderful game. Who knows, you may just be inspired enough to write a review about it. This is InfernoCrossing, and this was Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

Story--------------------------------------9.5/10
Controls---------------------------------9.5/10
Graphics-------------------------------- 10/10
Music---------------------------------------9/10
Difficulty---------------------------------9.5/10
Replay Value---------------------------10/10
Youth/Adult Entertainment----------10/10
All-in-all---------------------------------9.5/10

Estimate Score---------------------- 9.5/10-ish

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/08/07

Game Release: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (US, 10/11/04)