Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

aka: Paper Mario 2, Paper Mario RPG, Paper Mario: Die Legende vom Ƅonentor, Paper Mario: Il Portale Millenario, Paper Mario: La Puerta Milenaria, Paper Mario: La porte millĆ©naire
Moby ID: 15199
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Description official descriptions

A thousand years ago there was a city. One day the city was buried. Another city was built on top, and all that remains of the previous city is a door. This is where the title "the thousand-year door" comes from. It's not known what could be behind this door, but everyone has different theories.

Princess Peach finds a map and mails the map and a letter stating that Mario must come. So Mario comes to place called Rogueport where Peach was last seen. There he meets a female goomba named Goombella. Mario shows the map to Goombella. Goombella then takes Mario to her archeology professor. The professor decides to take Mario to the thousand-year door. When Mario stands in front of the door, the map begins to show the locations of stars which open the door. The adventure begins from this point.

Mario can jump, run, hammer, talk to people, etc.. Mario finds many partners on his quest. Battles play out on a stage in front of an audience. In battle, Mario must keep his fans happy by executing action commands (hitting buttons at the right time during his attacks). Occasionally, in battle, the crowd will throw things at Mario. The player can attack the crowd at this time.

Spellings

  • ćƒšćƒ¼ćƒ‘ćƒ¼ćƒžćƒŖć‚ŖRPG - Japanese spelling
  • 马里億ē‰©čÆ­2 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (GameCube version)

74 People (67 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Chief Director
Assistant Directors
Script Director
Script
Art Director
Character Design Chief
Main Character Design
Character Design
Map Design
2-D Design
Paper Effect Design
Main Programming
Programming
Event Programming
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 86% (based on 44 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 74 ratings with 1 reviews)

Another Deep and Fun Game from Nintendo!

The Good
Once again, this game has the patented originality we've come to expect from Nintendo. A lot of the games out today are entertaining and many are amazingly mind blowing and artistic, they are usually variations on a theme. Realistic FPSā€™s set in either the streets, or on some distant planet or RPGā€™s involving swordplay, spells and orcs etc. are great, but I love the way Nintendo often goes in other directions with games.

They like to push the envelope and come out with titles like the Pikmin series and Chibi-Robo, which are not only fun but also odd and addictive.
Combine this with Nintendoā€™s amazing ability to continually make games centered on some of their oldest and beloved characters, and make them fresh and fun.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door combines all of these aspects and at first you think itā€™s a simple RPG/Fight game, but they give it not only a lot of interesting twists involving abilities, but new characters as well. This game is also surprisingly deep like in LOZ: TWW. Just when you think youā€™ve done most tasks, you discover MORE places and characters.
The graphics are cartoonish as with most NES games, but they are fully drawn, vibrant and with this game have an unusual look. It reminds me of an old pop-up book or a bit like South Parkā€™s construction paper style of animation, albeit more detailed and much more animated.

This game is fun, and because of the unusual nature of the game play and itā€™s depth, it has excellent value. There is SO much to do and find, with many, many secrets and hidden aspects to the game.
It is not particularly difficult, and as you progress normally, you should be able to advance, but it does not allow you to simply rush through. You have to earn your ā€œbadgesā€ so to speak. There are also quite a few well planned puzzles to figure out, and a few of them really test your thinking skills!

The fun thing is that it is so deep; you could replay it after a few months and still find it fun.
It has something for everyone. A fun and amusing RPG mystery and turn based "arena" fighting with some fun twists. They really thought a lot about this game.


The Bad
Not much to complain about.

Some of the fights got repetitious, especially when you began to be more powerful and had to fight a lot of lower characters over and over again.

It suffers a bit from what I call "LevelUp-itis", where you have to run around and fight over and over to become stronger in order to advance. All games have this to a certain extent, but at least they make it less painful by incorporating that aspect into the game via the "Championship" arena. You can fight your way to the top of a WWE type fight arena for money, fame, points and power-ups etc. It still is a bit tedious though.

Some of the cinematics/side stories, involving Princess Peach and/or Bowzer dragged the game down to a crawl, but thankfully it was only in a specific section. Their hearts were in the right place, trying to inject some humour into the game play.

The Bottom Line
A deep, addictive game with lots of puzzles, surprising game play with lots and lots of value.
A good game for the kids, with no gore or adult themes, although it is a bit too complex for kids under 10, involving lots of intricate strategies and ideas. Overall a fun and unusual game with excellent value. Will become a classic.

GameCube · by Oblio (97) · 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Pianta

The Pianta are gangsters in this game.

References

  • A small toad in Petalburg will rave about his favorite video games if you talk to him. When you go into the town for the first time, he will talk about Fire Emblem for the Game Boy Advance. Later, around the time you make it into Hooktail's castle but before you beat Hooktail, he'll be talking about Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. Finally, when you come back to the town after beating Hooktail, he'll tell you that he's playing Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. All three of these games were developed by the company Intelligent Systems.
  • In the scene where Peach takes a data disk from Grodus' room and puts it in his computer, the image shown on the computer screen is the start-up theme for the Famicom Disk System, an add-on for the Famicom (a.k.a. Nintendo Entertainment System) released only in Japan. The Disk System used floppy-like disks instead of cartridges and helped to pioneer the concept of saving game progress. Some of Nintendo's most famous games, such as Metroid and The Legend of Zelda, were first released on this add-on system.
  • When Mario approaches the arena in Glitzville for the battle with Rawk Hawk, one of the crowd members calls him Jumpman. This is the name Mario went by in the original Donkey Kong.
  • While in the X-Naut Base near the game's end, you propel yourselves upward into a air conditioning vent. Normally, you go to the left-but instead, go all the way to the right until you hit the wall and another vent. Turn paper thin and fall into the chamber below. You'll be in a changing room. Open up the curtain and you and your allies will be transformed into 8-bit sprites, just like in the other Mario RPGs.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2004 ā€“ Best Console Role-Playing Game of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2004 ā€“ #2 GameCube Game of the Year
    • 2004 ā€“ GameCube RPG of the Year

Information also contributed by Tiago Jacques

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by gamewarrior.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, JRK, Sciere, Tiago Jacques, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added October 17, 2004. Last modified November 5, 2023.