"Better than the original"

Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door is definitely better than the original Paper Mario. It is seriously one fantastic game. While it may not be the best RPG out there, it is a game that you will want to play and it is a game you will enjoy.

Storyline: The story line is simple, but fun. The story starts with Princess Peach sending a map to you, Mario. The map is where treasure supposedly is! Well, you soon come to find out about this "treasure" isn't a good treasure at all. Not only that, Princess Peach has been kidnapped by the sinister X-Naut group lead by Grodus. The treasure is hidden behind a door, the thousand year door. To unlock it, you'll need all 7 Crystal stars. You embark from town to town, area to area in search of these crystal stars. You meet people and enemies along the way. The story will get you hooked, it isn't exactly deep, but it's good. 8/10

Game Play: This game is an RPG, so it goes by a turn based style. However, there is more to that. When it is your turn, you can attack, use and item or use any special abilities you have. For each attack, you can do more damage if you do something correctly. For example, if you attack with your hammer, you must hold left on your controller and release it when an icon lights up. Or you have to press "A" right before you hit an enemy to do more damage. This was good because it made you more involved. You can also use this same function to reduce the damage you take. The only problem with this is that the damage you do and receive is minimal (Rarely going over 10). Out of battle, you can jump and use your hammer so you can smash up blocks or jump from pillar to pillar. You will also get badges throughout the game which you can use to learn new moves or beef up your stats. The game play is good but I think that more options could have been available if they inflated the damage more but the game play is still great and it's a great way to get you involved to. 8/10

Graphics: Ah, graphics! Just what this game is known for! Well, in Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door, you are Mario. But not just any Mario, you are Paper Mario! While you are made of paper, you will gain the ability to turn into a paper airplane, a paper boat, or to make yourself really thin like a paper. It's rather amusing and a good way to expand your capabilities. Paper Mario sure makes full use of the paper aspect. 5/5

Sound/Music: The sound is great, your jump and hammer sound realistic as do just about every sounds this game. The music is phenomenal. The battle music isn't repetitious and there are several boss themes all of which are good. The wide variety of music is just amazing and this game easily has the best music out of any GameCube game. 10/10

Difficulty: Honestly, this game is rather easy. I never had a Game Over on my very first file though I will admit there were a few times where I came close. It may be a little confusing on where exactly to go without a walk-through and this game is pretty short. I will admit, this game disappointed me with how easy it was but you still need to be aware and level up your guys or you could find this game to be very difficult. 3/5

Replay Value: Replay value is an important thing to me and this game, like most RPGs and like most GameCube games, has great replay ability. You will be able to play this game several times so you don't need to worry about just playing it through once. 9/10

RECAP:

Storyline: 8/10
Game Play: 8/10
Graphics: 5/5
Sound/Music: 10/10
Difficulty: 3/5
Replay Value: 9/10

OVERALL: 43/50 = 86% = B

This is a great game and I would recommend buying it, especially if you liked the original Paper Mario. There was obviously a lot of effort put into this game and it didn't disappoint.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 12/05/04

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