Blair Loveday
My first experience with the Paper Mario games was Paper Mario: The Origami King.
This was always a bit of a crime as the original Paper Mario games are held in very high regard, but with the Switch I have been playing catch up on old titles. Fortunately Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has been ported to Switch, and I can honestly say, I get why people loved this game.
For newcomers to the series, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door kicks off in a town called Rogueport which is built on a site where an old town was destroyed. There are rumours that some treasure was hidden behind a place called the thousand year door which is hidden in ruins of the old town.
Peach sends a treasure map to our old friend Mario and suggests he comes to Rogueport, and Mario being Mario, he jumps on it.
Mario get’s to Rogueport, and you will not guess what happens next, he discovers that Princess Peach has been kidnapped. This time it is Grodus and the X-Nauts. This evil organisation is based on the moon, and shenanigans kick off. I don’t want to spoil any bigger story beats than that because surprisingly, I really enjoyed the story and all the awesome side stories that underlie it. Best of all, heaps of the humour made me chuckle, so it really lands in its own silly or funny way.
When it comes to playing the game, you can split it up into two main areas.
There is exploring the world and talking to people which is pretty standard fare JRPG, but is also loaded with some platforming and light puzzle solving including using your partners abilities. The second is the battles where it runs as mostly normal old school JRPG. When you do attacks, getting specific timing can result in benefits like more damage, which is a fun way to keep you engaged.
The thing I love most about this game though is the art work. The Paper Mario aesthetic is great, but they have overhauled this so much that you wouldn’t believe that the game was released 20 years ago on GameCube. It looks and plays like an excellent quirky JRPG made in 2024 with a bigger budget to make it look beautiful. The music is also incredible, though the annoying chirpy sounds they use instead of voice acting still annoys me.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door isn’t just a good remake, it’s an excellent game by 2024 standards. I can’t recommend this game enough! Whether you’re a fan of Mario or not, this is a damn excellent game by its own standards and is well worth checking out.
Released: May 2024
Rating: G
Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo