Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
MSRP $60.00
“Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door stands the test of time and is fantastic on Nintendo Switch.”
Pros
Hilarious writing
Memorable characters
Approachable RPG fight
Intuitive motion instructions
Gorgeous visuals
Cons
Lacks ambition as a remake
Battle system will get repetitive
One of the primary issues gamers see when beginning a brand new save file in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a gallows within the middle of Rogueport, the RPG’s central hub.
While The Thousand-Year Door isn’t a darkish sport by any means — it’s truly fairly hilarious — seeing a gallows the place somebody could possibly be hanged to dying must be gamers’ first indication that this isn’t like different Mario video games. The Thousand-Year Door stood as one of many boldest Mario video games when it first launched for the GameCube in 2004, and the identical applies to its Nintendo Switch remake being launched now, 20 years later. Although I’ve by no means performed it earlier than (I solely watched playthroughs of it on YouTube), it has been a pleasure to expertise for the primary time on Nintendo Switch.
This isn’t a remake that fully redefines its predecessor, not like Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil 4. This is way more in keeping with Nintendo’s latest Super Mario RPG and Mario vs. Donkey Kong remakes that refurbish and replace the visuals with some small quality-of-life tweaks. Those with a working GameCube and a replica of The Thousand-Year Door don’t want to fret about choosing this up. Still, anybody grabbing it for the primary time or in a protracted whereas on Nintendo Switch is in retailer for an off-kilter and memorable expertise from the second they see that first picture of a gallows in Rogueport.
The funniest Nintendo sport ever
All these years later, you gained’t discover a Nintendo sport as sharply written as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It’s a full-blown comedy. The journey begins when Princess Peach calls Mario to the city of Rogueport. Of course, she will get kidnapped earlier than Mario can get there, so he units off on an journey to seek out her. He uncovers the thriller of the titular door and obtains the Crystal Stars which can be the important thing to unlocking it. It’s a by-the-numbers quest, however Nintendo infuses the entire journey with comedic delights.
The Mario universe hardly ever feels this vigorous.
Each chapter is devoted to Mario acquiring a Crystal Star and has a singular theme. One has him making his manner up the ranks of a wrestling federation whereas uncovering the nefarious pressure that’s inflicting its fighters to vanish. Another sees him stranded on a abandoned island after a supernatural pressure assaults his ship. These are enjoyable eventualities we don’t get out of Mario’s typical platforming adventures, and Nintendo buffs them up with memorable characters.
There are Mario’s Partners, who vary from the bookworm goomba Goombella to Vivian, a purple ghost who Mario helps rise up towards her abusive household (a brand new translation extra explicitly implies that Vivian is transgender). They’re all nice, however even the random NPCs Mario comes throughout typically have distinctive designs. The Mario collection performs it very secure with regards to creating new characters and ideas or getting too deep narratively, however The Thousand-Year Door shouldn’t be held down by that. That makes this remake really feel refreshing, as do all of its lighthearted comedic moments.
My favourite bits embody ghouls who hold cursing Mario after he frees them from captivity, solely to present him a helpful new gameplay capacity within the course of, and the Pianta mafioso who hires Mario to trace down his daughter after she ran away with one in all his subordinates. I’m undecided how these jokes will land in the event that they’re already ingrained in your reminiscence, however I loved rediscovering The Thousand-Year Door‘s novel humorousness as I performed by way of this remake.
Nintendo
On high of all that, intermissions between every chapter give us a view into Princess Peach and Bowser’s escapades throughout Mario’s journey. I like Peach’s characterization right here much more than the one in her standalone sport launched this 12 months, and Bowser’s segments typically present a pleasant break after the journey’s most climactic moments. The Mario universe hardly ever feels this vigorous.
An approachable RPG
Like its Nintendo 64 predecessor (and in contrast to the 4 Paper Mario video games that adopted), The Thousand-Year Door is a conventional turn-based RPG with spurts of exploration and lightweight platforming. There are some issues I actually recognize about its interpretation of the formulation, particularly preserving the well being and injury numbers comparatively low. My eyes are likely to glaze over in RPGs once I see the enemy has tons of of hundreds in well being, and my assaults deal 9,999 injury.
By preserving these numbers right down to Earth, it’s simpler for me to grasp how a lot injury I’m doing and the way a lot well being my enemy most likely has left, even when I haven’t but used Goombella’s Tattle capacity to disclose that data. Speaking of talents, Mario and his companions can carry out each regular assaults and spend Star Points throughout battle to drag off particular talents. On high of the motion command system that Super Mario RPG gamers will acknowledge, every of those talents requires just a little minigame to drag off.
This is the uncommon Nintendo sport the place each the gameplay and narrative are on equal footing.
When plenty of trendy RPGs like Thirsty Suitors do that, the prompts required to assault get lengthy within the tooth and really feel like chores each time they pop up. The Thousand Year-Door circumvents that situation by making all of its assault instructions take only some seconds to drag off and intuitively really feel just like the assault gamers are selecting to drag off on the time. I’ve to mash a set off to make my child Yoshi companion double bounce or press and launch the A button to take breaths earlier than I attempt to blow enemies away with Madame Flurrie.
It’s an approachable RPG system, though it will probably get boring on the occasions when the sport forces gamers to do a bunch of fights in a row with out a lot variation. Most of the time, it breaks up the tempo with exploration. Across every of the colourful locales I explored, there have been some mild platforming challenges and puzzles that usually require using a accomplice talent, like utilizing Koops’ shell to hit a swap Mario can’t bounce to in an effort to progress.
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Because of the skinny nature of its characters, managing depth notion is usually a bit tough. This isn’t Celeste, although, and after a couple of makes an attempt, I all the time bought wherever I wanted to go and appreciated how these segments known as again to Mario’s roots and broke up the tempo between battles. This is the uncommon Nintendo sport the place each the gameplay and narrative are on equal footing.
A simple remake
So far, most of what I’ve written applies to the sport that was launched in 2004. But what concerning the sport you should purchase for $60 in 2024? As a remake, The Thousand-Year Door is beautiful, however pretty underwhelming. Its greatest enhancements are on the visible entrance. The Paper Mario collection has all the time stood out due to how cleverly it finds methods to include arts and crafts into its worlds and theater stage parts into its turn-based battles.
The Thousand-Year Door nonetheless holds up 20 years after launch
Everything within the sport looks like a paper cutout or a part of a carefully crafted diorama, and the world will fold or unfold itself at occasions so Mario can progress. A fast take a look at movies for The Thousand-Year Door on GameCube demonstrates that it nonetheless holds up very properly, however the Nintendo Switch model of it drastically improves the lighting specifically. While it’s a disgrace that the sport seems to run at 30 frames per second (fps) with occasional body fee drops when the display is crowded, this is without doubt one of the prettiest video games on Nintendo Switch.
The Thousand-Year Door’s content material choices have barely been touched exterior of some localization tweaks, a reorchestrated soundtrack, a Toad that provides up a battle apply mode and basic gameplay tutorials, a accomplice ring that makes it considerably faster to modify between Mairo’s compatriots on the fly, and some different minor additions.
Nintendo
If you have been hoping that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Nintendo was a radical remake that redefines a basic, it’s possible you’ll come away from this Switch remake disenchanted. Thankfully, The Thousand-Year Door nonetheless holds up 20 years after launch, because of some hilarious dialogue, timeless visuals, and an approachable RPG battle system. While it’s a little bit of a bummer that Nintendo’s 2024 sport lineup is usually comprised of remakes, I’m glad Nintendo is giving The Thousand-Year Door a second shot at life. It really isn’t like another Mario sport on the market.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was examined on Nintendo Switch.
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