"Simply put, the best Mario title on the Gamecube."
User Rating: 9.3 | Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door GC
For those who aren’t familiar, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a role-playing game that has a unique battle system with witty and humorous characters that’ll make you laugh throughout the whole game. It’s mainly known as the successor to the original Paper Mario for the N64 and Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga for the GBA, which were developed by the highly skilled Intelligent Systems. Some people may miss the original Super Mario RPG developed by Square-Soft for the SNES, but Intelligent Systems not only followed up the series and made it more humorous, but made the series quite enjoyable and never a let down. You’ll be wanting more and more after you experience one of their titles. Anyways, on to the review! Princess Peach is on holiday and is traveling all through Mushroom Kingdom. While in a town called Rogueport, she receives a treasure map that was in a box from a merchant. She then decides to tell Mario to join her and search for the treasure that lies in Rogueport. Mario then arrives at Rogueport, but Princess Peach is nowhere to be found. Mario went searching for her, and stumbled into a goomba (Goombella), who was also in a treasure hunt. Mario then shows her the map, and Goombella then takes Mario to see Professor Frankly, and archaeologist who knows about the legend of the treasure. When they reach Frankly’s house, he then tells them that in order to find the legendary treasure, they would have to find and collect all seven Crystal Stars. Then they would be able to open the Thousand-Year Door, where the treasure lays behind. Mario must now follow the magical map Peach sent him and go on location for the Crystal Stars! The story above isn’t the whole plot, as you’ll find the real reason for your journey. You’ll also be acquiring different allies for your team other than Goombella. If you’re wondering who my favorite is, I would have to say Bobbery the bob-omb, and you’ll see why when you get him. Throughout you’ll meet many weird and wacky characters that’ll crack jokes and make you laugh out loud…seriously. Not only will you be controlling Mario, but Princess Peach and your all-time enemy Bowser. Bowser goes on his own adventure and tries to get the Crystal Stars before Mario does, but is always late. You’ll get to control Bowser and play through some old-school levels from Super Mario Bros., which is extremely hilarious. All I have to say about it is that you don’t want to be near him when he gets two mushrooms and a star. The game is divided up into chapters, kind of like a story. In each chapter you’ll have to acquire a Crystal Star. You’ll also explore different areas and acquire a new ally on your team. I would say roughly every chapter is 2-3 hours long and the game can range from being 30-40 hours total if you spend some time doing side-quests. One of the biggest changes in this game is that you can now use your paper abilities and turn into a paper airplane and a paper boat. You can also squeeze through cracks and roll up into a paper and go under different areas. The battle system is quite easy to understand. It has a turn-based combat system, and you’ll get to defeat your foes with items such as Mario’s hammer. Though, this time you’ll be performing in front of an audience of different characters from the game and they will judge you on your performance. If you perform well, you will receive star energy for your special attacks. It may sound easy, but sometimes the crowd gets bored and throws items at you, such as a rock or soda can. You can instantly dodge these items or go in the crowd and hurt the audience member who’s about to throw something at you. Though, watch out for what they’re carrying, as sometimes they hold helpful items. When you reach 100 star points, you level up and have the choice of adding more HP (Health Points), FP (Flower Points), or BP (Badge Points). I’d recommend having a lot of badge points, as there are quite a few badges that can help you out in battle. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, everything is basically….paper! It’s a 2D side-scroller that looks well done graphically. The frame rate of the game goes very smoothly and really doesn’t lag. The animations in the game, the environment, and the 2D characters all look very well done in a cartoonish way. You kind of get the feeling when you play The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, how it feels so unique and joyful to experience, which is sadly why many people turn down these wonderful games, just because of the unique graphics you don’t appreciate until you actually play the game. Since this is a Mario title, what would one be without some kind of weird tunes and music? The music goes very well with the environments and some characters, which have their own tune when they appear. There’s also some classic tunes included, one that is from my favorite game, Super Mario World. Though there isn’t any voice-acting included in the game, there really isn’t much need for it. The sense of humor in the text still makes you laugh. I’m actually glad voice-acting wasn’t included, Super Mario Sunshine anyone? Overall, I must say this is the best Mario title on the Gamecube right now. It’s also one of the best RPGs available on the Gamecube. If you’re a fan of the Mario RPG series, you MUST get this game. If you haven’t played the original Paper Mario, don’t worry, this game is perfect for newbies to the series. So go get this game….now!
