Intro: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is the fourth game in a series of Mario RPGs. It all began with Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for SNES, in 1996, produced by Nintendo and Squaresoft. Since then, Nintendo has been delivering to us an outstanding array of Mario RPG titles. Unfortunately, Squaresoft didn’t make these games, but hey, they were good. With Paper Mario on the N64 and Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga on the GBA, Mario was ready for his RPG debut on the GameCube.

Graphics: 9.2/10

Mario’s paper-thin 2D look worked relatively well on the N64, so why not use it on the GameCube? In my opinion, this looked and worked pretty well. Mario looked great, as did Peach, Bowser and some of the game’s newer characters. The graphics obviously were better than those of the N64, displaying the power of the GCN. Most people, however, would prefer 3D graphics, or at least something like the cartoony look of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. This unique graphical style is not something you see every day, and it takes a bit of an acquired taste to appreciate. The water looked good, as did the interior scenes and the far-away views when you use certain warp pipes. You just gotta love the way buildings fold up when you enter. I can’t complain much at all, so Paper Mario gets a 9.2 in the graphics department. What I felt boosted the score the most was the uniqueness of the graphics and certain realistic-looking graphics blended into the papery mix.

Sound and Music: 9.8/10

Mario’s latest RPG sported some catchy tunes and cool sound effects. Mario’s hammer reducing a block to rubble, a Koopa shell speeding into a switch, and a Bob-omb exploding, all sounded top-notch. The music was some of the best I’ve ever heard. I found myself humming or whistling some tunes constantly. One of my favorites is the music brought back from the old Mario classics during the Bowser sections, when you take control of the Koopa King. The music played during Luigi’s stories about his adventures is cool. The sound and music in Twilight Town and Creepy Steeple of Chapter 4 is just creepy, keep-you-on-your-toes goodness. The score almost received a ten, but it lost out slightly because I didn’t appreciate the flutter noise the Yoshi partner makes (it should sound more Yoshi Story-ish) and I don’t particularly like the fact that Mario is silent throughout the adventure besides jumping noises and the occasional “hmm” or “hoo, hoo”.

Controls: 8/10

This category did not do as well as I expected. Getting Mario to do exactly what you want is more difficult than meets the eye. I also found myself spending quite a bit of time flipping through annoying menus. You need the menu to do a variety of things, such as swapping partners on the field and using items, and I feel the menus just get in the way. I found myself tripping over, so to speak, the various menus over the course of the game. I found that Paper Mario did a better job with this, using C-button activated menus, rather than the Start Menu.

Enough complaining about the menus, now I’ll highlight the positive control aspects. The Action Command was used beautifully in every attack and counter-attack that Mario performed. The addition of the Superguard was a nice touch: take a risk using it, or guard normally, that is the question. Paper Mario got what it deserved here- some good, some bad, and I feel an 8 is a fair score.

Challenge: 9/10

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a pretty easy game overall. Nothing is too well-hidden, no boss got me down to less than 10 HP (just guard with a partner, placing him/her in front of you to make them take all the damage, and when they die, swap out), and the game didn’t take me as long as other RPGs. Then why the high Challenge score, you may ask. Well it took me quite a while to figure out what to do at some points. I’d bomb, I’d try to slip through, I’d fade into the shadows, but there was no passing a few tough spots. Once you figure it out and get past the frustrating parts, it’s easy. I personally enjoy an easy game over a hard one, and I like knowing exactly what to do, and I find my challenge in actually doing that. Paper Mario’s latest installment did just that- once you know what to do, do it. Merlon kind of helped with that.

Replay: 6/10

Once you do everything and play through the game, why on earth would you want to play it again? There’s really nothing else to do and there’s no multiplayer mode. You know what’s coming, you know the story, and the fun is the suspense, and there is none. You can try to find all the Star Pieces and Badges, but who would really want to? Diehard fans will want to relive the adventure and will play it many times. So, it's an all right score. Let’s move on, shall we?

Gameplay: 10/10

This game is too darn addicting, which is a good thing. I found myself dying to get through the end of my day at times just to play Mario’s latest GameCube excursion. The characters are unforgettable and cool. Every aspect of the game is great and enjoyable, whether it be trekking through the various landscapes for Crystal Stars or taking on various side-quests, such as finding Star Pieces and Shine Sprites and helping people with their problems at the Trouble Center. Nothing gets old, nothing is too difficult or tedious, and the game is just plain fun. Fighting battles is fun: You appear on a stage with an audience. The more excited the audience is, the more your Star Power recovers. You can also appeal to the crowd to boost your Star Power even more. Timing your Action Commands can be difficult at first, but after a while you can master them with ease. One thing that I enjoyed was playing as Bowser and breathing fire at foes. With the ability to turn into a paper airplane or boat, roll up into a cardboard tube, and slip through walls, Mario’s paper aspect comes into play. To sum it up, great gameplay, hence the high score.

Story: 9.5/10

Great story here, considering this is a Mario game we’re talking about. For once, it wasn’t a traditional Bowser-kidnaps-Peach story. More thought was put into it. Peach was kidnapped, not by Bowser, but by a group of villains known as the X-Nauts who want to harness the power of the Crystal Stars to conquer the world. Besides this, there’s this thousand-year door. What is it's purpose? How can it be opened? What lies inside? A few of these questions are answered later in the game (about Chapter 4-ish) and some are obvious, but the game is a mystery in and of itself. The storyline would make a great novel plot, never mind a video game plot. Mario’s done great here. One thing that can possible be improved is the fact that too many details were given away in Chapter 4, midway through the game. I would’ve rather had some of these questions answered near the end of the game.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door does not offer a multiplayer mode.

Graphics: 9.2/10
Sound and Music: 9.8/10
Controls: 8/10
Challenge: 9/10
Replay: 7/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Story: 9.5/10

Total Score: 8.9/10

Score Explanation: What’s there to explain? I average scores that are based on a scale of one to ten (with ten being the best), and that’s what the game gets. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was an outstanding game, and was close to getting a gold medal (9 or better), which is shown by the score. The score was reduced by the Replay and Controls categories, but it’s not that big a deal. It is an improvement over its predecessors and a mold for games to come.

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