It’s hard to believe that Nintendo released Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on the GameCube waaaaay back in 2004! It has somehow been 20 whole years since we were first blessed with this wild sequel to the acclaimed Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64. The Paper Mario series has been active, however, the games that we have got haven’t exactly been met with the same acclaim/adoration that Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has got. The most recent entries have changed the gameplay and introduced mechanics that differ drastically from the classic RPG turn based combat we all know and love. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is everyone’s favourite Paper Mario for so many reasons. It is a classic that deserves to be played.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door opens up with Mario receiving a letter from Princess Peach telling him that there is very valuable treasure buried deep beneath Rogueport, a small town. Before his arrival, Princess Peach is kidnapped by an alien race known as the X-Nauts. They had originally intended to steal the treasure for themselves, and decided to take Peach as a bargaining tool. It is up to Mario and his friends that he meets along his journey to save Peach, and find the treasure behind The Thousand Year Door.
The story also divides in a couple other branches that first time players might really enjoy. You get to see what captive life is like for Peach as she lives on this spaceship for the time being. The ship robot named TEC-XX takes heavy inspiration from HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. TEC begins to realize that is in love with Princess Peach and the implications of that lead to some really fantastic story telling. You also get to see things from Bowser’s point of view as he learns that Peach has been kidnapped by somebody else. His jealously reaches new heights and he decides he has to do the right thing – kidnap Peach himself. Getting to play as both Peach and Bowser is a lot of fun and adds a layer of absurdity to the experience that isn’t often found in other Mario games.
In my opinion, the characters you meet along the way are some of the most memorable and well written across any Nintendo game. Goombella, the first party member you get, is a know-it-all Goomba who always has something to say about every single person you come into contact with. It’s always worth seeing what she has to say because she often provides important tips and hints, but often just talks about how smelly or annoying each character is. There’s also Koops, the wimpy and insecure Koopa kid; Madame Flurry, the vanity obsessed Hollywood diva who harnesses the power of wind; and the transgender icon and youngest of the Shadow Sisters, Vivian. There are many party members with memorable personalities and abilities, and they are each so charming and hilarious. Each is highly quotable and very helpful in battle. Side characters always have hilarious things to say. It feels like every single character was written with individual personalities in mind. There’s a young Toad who really enjoys playing Fire Emblem and other Nintendo games and wants to tell you all about them. There is a Goomba who is an escaped convict who is hiding from the cops. Whether it’s a random character with one thing to say, or Koops’ foot-fetish-having father, every single line of dialogue is a home-run. Each character could be someone’s favourite, and every time I replay Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door I am continuously blown away by some of the jokes they got away with in this game. While this remake doesn’t add any new party members or any new major story beats, it doesn’t have too. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door did its characters so right, and it really doesn’t need anything more.
While the characters and story are the stars of the show here, the combat is no slouch. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a turn-based RPG that adds some really interesting elements to its gameplay that makes it feel fresh even twenty years later. Each round of combat takes place on a literal theatre stage. Each person takes their turn, as if they are delivering lines in a play. There’s even a live audience filled with different creatures across the Mushroom Kingdom that just want to see a good show. Sometimes there will be enemies in the crowd who throw rocks at you. When you see these hecklers, you can press a button prompt to hit them with a hammer and knock them out of the theatre. But be careful, sometimes there can be friendly patrons who just want to throw mushrooms and other items at you. You might accidentally hit one of them without realizing that they were just trying to help. As annoying as it can be to make this mistake, it’s ultimately pretty funny, and there are items scattered all over the world. Seldom should there be a time where you have an empty inventory. Each party member has their own strengths while fighting. Goombella can tell you how much health any given enemy has. The young Yoshi can swallow and spit out enemies that have otherwise impenetrable armour. Koops thrives at hitting more than one enemy, just as long as they aren’t flying in the air. There are also special moves that you unlock every time you beat a boss and unlock a new Crystal Star. Some of these moves provide support where others deal massive damage. These abilities are great to use when you need to win a fight in a pinch.
But what remake is complete without some new things added to it? The first and most noticeable change made in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake is that all of the music is redone! The new soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and evolves on past motifs and themes and elevates nearly every single track. It’s actually kind of nuts how good the soundtrack is, especially when compared to the absolutely phenomenal original for the GameCube. There is a badge you can grab to change the music back to the original mixes, but honestly, when the remake’s music is as good as it is, why would you?
Another big difference is that Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has a new coat of paint and it looks glorious. I was originally shocked to learn that the game would be running at 30fps even though the original ran at 60fps. I thought this would probably be a huge detriment to the game’s overall quality, and would hurt its enjoyability. I was dead wrong, and I couldn’t be happier. The art-style lends itself to the choppier movement in such a way that the frames being cut in half doesn’t even really register in the same way it would in a big 3D-open-world game. Although it is a little bit frustrating that a new game runs worse now than it does on 20 year old hardware. Other changes include a different game that is available to play in the casino, new back sprites for characters that didn’t have them, some new soundbites for important characters, raising the cap of Mario’s base inventory, and more. There are some secret changes that gamers will have to beat the game to discover for themselves.
It’s hard to say anything new about a game that has been around for 20 years. Everything that has ever been said about Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has been regurgitated by every video game journalist on the internet. However, that won’t stop me from singing this game’s praises. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door tackles some really mature subjects that Nintendo hasn’t approached since. There are also some really stellar parodies and references to real life celebrities and other video game characters that have all aged immaculately. The writing is even sharper and quippier than I remembered. I found it hard not to play this game without a huge smile on my face. In fact, I would argue that this could be the most charming video game ever made. It’s got this level of comfiness that is just unmatched, and I genuinely think it remains untouched in that category.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is one of the best games on the Nintendo GameCube, and it goes without saying, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch as well.
