Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

"Paper Mario is unique, artistic, and humorous."

Paper Mario Thousand Year Door is the sequel to the highly acclaimed title for the Nintendo 64. I never got the chance to play the original, but I heard great things about it. With the release of Paper Mario TYD, I got a chance to play a very creative game. Simply put Paper Mario is unique, artistic, and humorous. Intelligent System's did a great job with this game and it is very apparent of the amount of time, effort, and thought that was put into this game. Paper Mario is a very unique rpg, it plays like no other rpg's that I have played before, yet, it ranks right up there with the best of them. Anyways the story revolves around Mario our favourite plumber, which is no surprise because the game is named after him. The story is basically about these crystal stars that you must find. Not to mention, Princess Peach has been kidnapped Again! As you can tell from my introduction I really enjoyed Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, so keep reading on to find out why I enjoyed it so much.

A creative aura

The graphics are very artistic and beautiful. The graphics won't blow you away like the first time you saw Metroid Prime or the first time you saw Resident Evil 0, but the game will leave you in admiration of the artistic style that it brings to the table. The game lives up to the name because everything does seem like it's made out of paper. While some may think that it is a bad thing, let me assure you that this style is what makes it so unique. The environments are beautiful. While some chapters are very colourful, others are rather bland. The character animation is very fluid and looks extremely nice. The game runs very smooth with no slow downs at all. For the most part, Paper Mario is a beautiful game, with colourful graphics and a very artistic look.

It's hammer time

Paper Mario uses a turn base combat system, but it differentiates itself with the rest. Paper Mario has one of the most unique turn base combat systems that I have ever played. While like all turn base systems in which you take turns attacking, what differs, is the unique approach of this system. Instead of just pressing a button, you feel you are apart of it. For example for Mario his jump attack requires you to tap the button again in order to deal more damage. While it is easy, it requires timing, which shouldn't take too long to get used too. With other characters and other moves, you will be doing different things to deal more damage, this allows you to feel like you are still controlling the characters. Some moves require you to pull the left stick back until it reaches a certain point, some will require you to put a cursor in the middle of a circle, and some will require you to release your joystick at a specific time. On the turn base menu, like most turn base rpgs, you can choose to use items, attack, run away, defend, and use your specials. Some moves will require a certain amount of flower points, while some abilities require you to have badge points. Using your special will cost you SP points, which can be gained by appealing to the crowd or dealing damage to the enemies.

There are no random encounters in Paper Mario, which is good, you see your enemies on the screen and if they see you, they will try to close in on you. While it is easy to avoid them, you should not always do so because you don't want to have to level up a bunch later on when you have trouble with a boss. You can always attack an enemy first by jumping on them or hitting them with a hammer. This allows you to attack first and essentially give you an extra turn, but the enemy can do the same also. After each battle coins or pieces of heart can be collected and you will also get points that will be counted towards you. Get enough points and you can level up. Each time you level up it allows you to choose between adding more HP, FP or BP. As you move along the game you will pick up better weapons, learn more moves, and meet more allies. One very minor gripe is that it would of been cool if you can battle with more characters, but as it stands you can only battle with 2, but you can switch to another party member at any time. What I do enjoy is the battles and while action packed; it is also very light-hearted and relaxing. What also strikes me is the number of humorous lines that are said in this game.

The puzzles in the game are quite simple and rather easy. Not a major fault here, but it would of been nice if it would require more effort. For the most part you will need a certain member that is present in your group in order to solve some of these puzzles. For example you will need Koop and his ability to use his shell to reach certain items or switches. While the puzzles are rather easy, luckily for us the rest of the game is very creative and fun. The story for the most part is solid and as mentioned before there is certain lines in the game that will leave a smile on your face. For most of the dungeons in the game it will require to find keys, solve puzzles, and fight a boss. In some of these dungeons it requires you to backtrack a bit and sometimes it gets a tad bit repetitive. Don't get me wrong though because Paper Mario is still a great game. All in all Paper Mario offers a very unique turn base system and a solid story

The music and sounds of the game might be the weak point of Paper Mario. While it is still good, it does not compare to the quality of the other parts of the game. The music offers a wide and varied soundtrack; the one bad thing about that is none is noteworthy. The game doesn't feature any voice acting, but instead you get grunts and noises from your characters. This does get a bit repetitive to hear. All Mario games traditionally have not featured Mario talking, while I understand the fact that it would be too weird to hear Mario talk, I don't see why the NPC's didn't have voice acting. Again this is, yet, another minor gripe. For the most part though, the music is solid and while lacking voice acting it does not ruin the game experience.

Well the game has a fairly good length for an rpg. The time that you will spend playing the game will also be a great experience. The unique combat system, coupled with the humour and creative core mechanics, makes this a great game in its own rights. I always feel that an rpg should be fairly lengthy because it allows you to get involved with the characters and to get into the story. Paper Mario does just that, while it is not the longest rpg by any means, it is fairly lengthy and allows you to enjoy the humour in the story.

Paper Mario is humorous, artistic, and a joy to play

With the overall humorous storyline and a joy to play, I must say Paper Mario ranks right up there with some of the best rpgs this generation. The graphics are superb and the music is more then solid. Everything is likeable about this game. One minor gripe is the fact that your limited to the amount of items you can carry, while this does make it more challenging it also limits the flexibility of the game. However, overall Paper Mario just presents itself in such an aura that it will marvel just about anyone.

Overall I find that Paper Mario Thousand Year Door is a great game that should be enjoyed by all. While there are a few minor gripes, the good far outweighs the bad. Anyone with a Gamecube should definitely pick it up. The game just offers such a great experience that no one that is a gamer should miss out on. So if you have a Gamecube do not hold off any longer and go out to the nearest game store and pick this game up.

Pros
+ Artistic graphics
+ Unique turn base combat
+ Humorous storyline
+ No random battles
+ A good lengthy quest
+ A great rpg to fill a lacking genre for the Gamecube

Cons
- Music is not noteworthy
- Puzzles are rather simple
- A little bit more backtracking then I hoped for

Graphics - 10/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Sound - 8/10
Value - 9/10
Presentation 9/10
Overall - 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/04, Updated 03/28/05