A great sequal to it's N64 counterpart, this game will be loved by any Mario fan of the RPG genre.

User Rating: 9.3 | Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door GC
By Oliwam | Review Date:
Mario is such a universal series. It has been in almost any genre. From sport to adventure, it's variety of genres have won it many fans. Even RPG fans. There is Mario RPG, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and the predecessor to this game, Paper Mario. The Paper Mario games are obviously Mario in paper form. The first one had a lot of success with it's RPG styles. All that has been taken and put into this game, and then added on. The fact that Mario is paper has been used well in this game. You can transform yourself into a paper airplane, a paper ship, a roll of paper, and since being paper, you are very thin, allowing you to walk through think cracks (you have to unlock all this). The way the battle system works is the same as in the original Paper Mario game. You have a partner, and you take turns to attack with the opponent. You can jump or use the hammer, use items, or you can use special moves, which you get when you find a Star Crystal. If you have played the original Paper Mario, you wil be very familiar with this system. You also get star points at the end of each match if you win. Star Points are likes "experience", and whenever you get 100 star points, you level up. When you level up, you can choose to upgrade one of the three categories. HP (hit points), which is health, FP (flower points), which is used whenever you use a special move, or BP (badge points), which the higher it is, the more badges you can use. Badges help increase your power or give you special attacks. There are many different kinds of badges. Though this is nothing new. Though what is new is the crowd. At each fight, you have a crowd. Sometimes, somebody from the crowd can throw something at you, good or bad. As you progress, the stage will be bigger, allowing more people to come in and watch you fight. Also, the stage can have a few effects, like fog or things dropping. This system may be old and there may not be much new stuff, but it still works great.

The story of the game is that you have to rescue Princess Peach (no surprises there), and find the Crystal Stars before the diabolical X-Nauts do. There are 7 Crystal Stars, and if you collect all 7, you may open the ancient Thousand Year Door. Nobody is sure what lies behind the door, but you want to find it out before the X-Nauts do. There are 8 chapters in total in this game. Each chapter you have to do something, go somewhere. You don't also have to go through a dungeon at every chapter (you do in most of them, but not all). In one, you have to fight your way up the rankings. In another, you have to be a detective inside of a train. This is very interesting, instead of doing dungeons all the time. You also aren't Mario all the time. At the end of each chapter, you have to control Peach, and from time to time, you have to control Bowser and take him through Super Mario Bros styled levels which is very cool. This game has a good plot and isn't also the same old go through all the dungeons and get the stars. So this is a very interesting game.

The graphics are great. You are a most of the time a 2D paper figure going through bright colorful 3D landscapes (there are a few exceptions). They also did a great job with the paper graphics and combining them with 3D graphics. It's very interesting. There is such great detail everywhere. As for the sound, those are great as well. The music seems to fit in well. The sound effects are great. There are just no real problems with the sounds.

This game is not a short one either. It's not the longest RPG out there, but certainly not the shortest. Also, there are many events in this game that will keep you going. Basically the only thing to bore you are going through some of the longer levels. Though they aren't bad. You won't be bored with this game. There are also a few extra stuff. Luigi is also on an adventure, and after every chapter, he comes back to Rogueport to tell you about his adventure and how's it going. It's also coincidentally quite similar to your adventure. You can also eventually buy books that contain all of his adventures later in the game. There is also a mouse character that goes on an adventure to Dry Dry Desert, a location in the original Paper Mario, to find oil so he can make money to feed his family. If you invest money to help him financially with his adventure, he will pay you back... that is, if he succeeds. There is just so much stuff in this game, that you won't get bored quickly.

I personally believe that this is a great RPG game, a great sequel to the original Paper Mario, and a great Mario game overall. If you like RPG games, and if you have played the original Paper Mario, then buy this game. You will enjoy it. This game has so much in it, that you won't get bored. This game has such a great plot and many different kinds of events that you wouldn't be able to put that controller down. This game is just so appealing to your eyes, to your ears, and to you in general. This game aint too difficult, just some of the enemies you might want to dodge at certain times. Though remember, the more you fight, the stronger you'll get. That will help you, cause some of the bosses in this game are challenging. So in conclusion, this is a superb game , and many have and will enjoy it.

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