The most brilliant game ever -- utterly perfect.

User Rating: 10 | Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door GC
By shemswen | Review Date:
Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door has to be one of the best games ever, if not the best game for Gamecube. This game achieves everything a gamer looks for in a game, and even surpasses it. The plot (SPOILER) is excellent, and a turn from the usual Mario plot. Instead of Bowser stealing Princess Peach, a cult of aliens known as the X-Nauts steals her, leaving Bowser humorously jealous. The plot is separated into three playable characters, Mario, Peach and Bowser. Mario's levels are the main ones, where you have to gather the seven crystal stars to open the Thousand Year Door. Peach's levels are very short, and usual have her conversing with TEC, a computer she meets while being kidnapped by the X-Nauts. Bowser's levels are remixed versions of the original Super Mario Bros levels, involving you to guide Bowser through World 1-1, 1-3 and 3-3.

The music in the game is vivid and wonderful, with brilliant overworld and boss fight themes. As with any platformer/RPG, the boss music themes are always the best. Two boss themes worth noting are the Smorg boss battle, and the final boss.

The gameplay advances from the original Paper Mario for N64, while still having the same enjoyable turn based combat system. One main difference involves an 'audience' actively participating in the battles, with random audience events happening, such as audience members throwing Mario something, such as a mushroom or a hammer. The combat system also relies on 'Star Power', required to activate a special move acquired from a specific crystal star. The star power gauge raises according to how much the audience enjoyed the particular battle move, which is partly to do with stylish moves.

Overall, this game is revolutionary and the best so far of the Paper Mario series. A must get for all Gamecube owners.

Graphics: 9.5/10
Music: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Story: 10/10
Replay Value: 8/10

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