Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door was released for the Nintendo Gamecube in 2004. It is the squeal to the first Paper Mario game that was released for the Nintendo 64 and the second game in the Paper Mario series overall. It brings back the RPG gameplay and the turn based battle system used in the first game and greatly improves on those mechanics in this game. In my opinion, Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door is one of the few Mario RPG games that can challenge what I believe is the best Mario RPG game, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
The story for this Paper Mario has certain aspects that are different from most Mario games, such as Bowser not being the main villain in this game. The story starts off with Peach wandering around the town of Rougeport. She then notices a small chest a local merchant is selling, who tells her that she can have it if she is able to open it. When Peach opens the chest, she finds what appears to be a treasure map. Intrigued by the map, Peach sends the map to Mario, who is back at his house in the Mushroom Kingdom, and tells him to come meet her at the town of Rougeport to help her find the treasure. Although, when Mario arrives in Rougeport, Peach is nowhere to be found. This is where the game starts and where Mario adventure begins. Even though the main objective is to find and rescue Peach, most of the story focuses on Mario and his adventure to find the Crystal Stars, which are similar to the Star Spirits in the first Paper Mario. The story for this game is divided into chapters, like the first Paper Mario game, and each new Crystal Star brings a new chapter and a new part of the story. Even though some aspects of this story are similar to the first Paper Mario game and Super Mario RPG, such as the seven Crystal Stars, Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door I believe has a deeper story and a more interesting story than the first Paper Mario game and an overall story that is just as great as the story in Super Mario RPG.
The graphics and the overall presentation have greatly improved from the first Paper Mario game. Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door still has the papered theme characters and towns but has a more colorful look to it and each of the characters has a little bit more detail in their designs. All of the towns and areas used in the game have amazing designs and each of the different themes fit the mood of the town and the characters that live there. Even the stage area for the battles in the game looks great and very creative. The soundtrack for this game is just as good as the first game. Like the themes and designs for the different towns and areas, the music tracks are also great and fits theme of mood of the areas they are used in and a number of tracks really standout in this soundtrack. It is hard to compare with the first Paper Mario since the soundtracks are equally as good. Although, similar to what I said with the first Paper Mario soundtrack, Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door has a soundtrack that is easily one of my top 10 overall soundtracks for Mario soundtracks and one of the better Mario soundtracks overall.
The core gameplay has not changed all that much from the first Paper Mario game but it did receive updated mechanics and a couple of new features. Paper Mario Thousand-Year Door is still a RPG and still has the turned based battle system and other features you would expect from a RPG game. One of the new features in this game that was not used in the first Paper Mario game is the use of different paper abilities. Throughout the game, Mario receives different paper theme based abilities and allows him to transform himself into things such as a Paper Airplane and allows Mario explore different areas. There are other paper themed mechanic such blowing some paper away to reveal an item or new area to explore. Its a great mechanic that takes advantage of the paper themed environments in the game and it is a mechanic that is used often during the game. The overall battle system used in this game has not changed much. It is still a basic turned based RPG game that features different action commends that Mario and the different party members can use deal extra damage to the enemy. Mario still has all of his basic stats (HP, FP, and BP) that he had in the first game and there is still the Star Point system that allows Mario to level up after and upgrade his stats after reaching 100 Star Points. Mario still has the option to either jump or use his hammer to defeat enemies and use different items. He can still to special moves with different Badges in the game or the special moves that comes from the different Crystal Stars. Although unlike the last Paper Mario, the Crystal Stars work a little differently than the Star Spirits from the first Paper Mario. This time, each Crystal Stars have their own action commends and the better you do, the greater effect the Crystal Star will have. Another small difference in this game is the party members that join Mario now have their own Hit Points. This opens up the strategy in this game a little bit, such as when Mario is in danger of dieing, you can switch the party member in front of Mario so they will take some damage instead. Although, once they lose all of their Hit Points, the party member is lost for the rest of the battle. Another addition to the battle system is the overall battle stage and the crowd. Each battle takes place on a stage in front of a crowd of different characters and even though it would seem like a very minor addition, the crowd and stage effects can have an influence on a battle. Some examples of these effects is one of the characters in the crowd might throw items to help Mario or weapons to injure him. There also stage effects such as pyro which has the chance of damaging Mario or the enemies and the stage smoke, which will cause both Mario and the enemies to miss occasion. The battle stage and the crowd are great additions to the overall battle system that adds some unpredictability to any battle. One last addition to this game is the ability to play as Bowser after each chapter. You still play as Peach after each chapter and she still has side quests similar to the first Paper Mario game but after her section is completed, the game shifts to Bowser and his part of the story. Bowser’s gameplay varies between each chapter and you either be exploring a town and interacting with different characters or doing a little 2D side scrolling platforming sequence with gameplay similar to the original Super Mario Bros. Its a nice addition to game changes up the game a little and gives the player a break from doing the same battles all the time. Overall, Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door has really improved gameplay and the battle system that was used in the first game and introduces some new gameplay elements that take advantaged of a paper themed game, which makes this a fun game to play.
All in all, Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door is an amazing RPG game that built upon the gameplay formula that was introduced in the first game. It also greatly builds upon the paper theme that is used in this game and adds new gameplay mechanics that take advantage of it. The graphics have been improved from the first Paper Mario and now this game has a little more color and detail to different characters and areas in the game. This game has a great story that is deep and well detailed like most of the Mario RPG games and it has soundtrack that is just as great as the first Paper Mario game. I would easily say that Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door is better than the original Paper Mario, one of the better games for the Nintendo Gamecube, one of the better RPG games I have ever played, and one of the better Mario games in the series. Overall, I would give Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door a 10 out of 10.
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