Hello, people! This is my first, and possibly not last Review. Today, I’m reviewing Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, or PM:TT-YD for short.

Gameplay: 10/10

Uh, wow! I love how this game works. But the main focus here is the battle system. Remember in Paper Mario when you had to “focus” to recover your Star Guage? Who has the patience for that? However in this game, you have an audience watching your battle. If you execute moves superbly, you can get your Star Guage filled in no time, without wasting a turn! Of course, the audience has its downsides. They may throw hammers and tin cans at you, but they can also throw you helpful items or coins. The audience consists of mostly Goombas, Koopas, Boos, Toads, Shy Guys, Piranha Plants, Punis, and more. You may also see Luigi in the audience ^_^. Anyway, enough ‘bout the battle system. On the overworld, you get these “curses” that allow you to turn into paper airplanes, wafer thin, tubes, or boats. This actually gives it a reason to be called “Paper Mario”. This one gets a 10!

Storyline: 10/10

Okay sure, the princess is kidnapped, but it’s actually for a good reason! Her kidnapper, Grodus, plans to use her to- Iops! I’m not giving any spoilers. Well, it’s a really cool storyline! Not only is that one cool, but I LOVED Chapter 3’s storyline. In that chapter, you become a wrestler and fight your way to the top. Whoever came up with that is a genius. And you can kind of see how the storylines intertwine. Ayup, perfect score!

Graphics: 10/10

Well, these are awesome for GameCube graphics! And they look so smooth and clear. In Paper Mario, I noticed that the characters looked kind of blurry. And in Super Mario RPG, it looked 3D, but you could hardly tell what the characters were! This is definitely a large improvement, the best graphics I’ve seen since Luigi’s Mansion. Many of the special effects are cool, too. Nothing much to say about it, but there you go. 10/10.

Difficulty: 5/10

You may be thinking “Ouch, that must’ve took a chunk outta the score.” But to me, 5/10 in difficulty is perfect! It’s not too hard, and not too easy. It should keep you entertained for quite a while. Some of the puzzles were pretty challenging, though. Some of them are really, really hard, and some of them are easier than feeding a dog. Some of the past Mario RPGs, mostly Super Mario RPG, were really easy. I thought Paper Mario was a little too hard, and Superstar Saga matched up to this game. This is another perfect score. Yay!

Music: 10/10

…Simply… amazing… These tunes are the best I’ve ever heard! In fact, I have the ones I like on my recorder! They’re so addictive! Especially the Shadow Sirens battle, Magnus Von Grapple battle, Grubba’s theme, the song that plays when Grubba takes his machine out, Grubba’s battle music, the Smorg battle music, the X-Naut Base theme, and, uh… those are the ones I really liked! The ONLY track in the game that I found annoying was the Doopliss battle music. I cannot stop hearing this music. *sigh* I wish I had the PM:TT-YD soundtrack…

Navigation: 10/10

Quick note: This is just a new thing I made up, it means how easy it is to get around. Now, you can pretty much memorize everywhere you go, with no confusion getting there! Navigation here is superb, and you can probably memorize the areas around Rogueport by heart once you beat the chapter. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Wow, that’s 5 perfect scores in a row!

Replay Value: 10/10

Omigosh… Tell me this game is not perfect! 6 perfect scores in a row! Anyway, this game definitely had a massive replay value. In the past RPGs, it’s just when you beat the boss, there’s a screen saying “The End!” and the only option is to turn off your system and then arrive back at the save point and fight the final boss again. Or you could just leave and go other places. In this game, you arrive back at Rogueport after you beat the game, and then you can go back and have some fun without being told, “Oh no! Mario, Grodus is going to *insert evil plot here* you must stop him!” You’re actually recognized as a hero. And in addition to that, you can go to the Pit of 100 Trails, which was used as a torcher chamber way back when. Filled with hostile enemies, it’s definitely a challenge. At the very end awaits a fierce dragon and, although he has more HP than the final boss, isn’t quite as hard! A lot of the reason he is difficult is that he had 99 goons in front of him to weaken you for the battle. When I beat him, I had 2 HP left. Here’s a tip of advice when you go down there; use Koops’s Shell Shield move when fighting Bonetail for protection! It works! Trust me!

Humor: 10/10

This is probably the funniest game I’ve ever played. Although more on the dark side, this game nails every joke just right! I was laughing out of my chair at some points, and let me tell you: it isn’t easy to make me laugh! And another funny thing, Mario is called so many weird names in the game, like Gonzales, Murphy, Marty-o, even Luigi! Yeppers, that’s another perfect score! INSANITY!

Characters: 10/10

The selection of characters for this game was genius! The partners were great, even though I have a few doubts about Flurrie, and I liked Grubba, who we meet in Chapter 3. I would have liked it even better if Shy Guy was actually a character to fight. (You may have known already, but I’m a big Shy Guy fanatic.) At least they appear in the audience. Anyway, all the characters had their own unique personality that made them stand out from the rest.

Fun Factor!: 10/10

That’s it. This is the perfect game. The chapters were really fun, especially chapters 3 and 6! In 3, you became a wrestler and fought your way to the top, while trying to see what’s up with some disappearing fighters. In Chapter 6, you are on a high quality train while helping a Bumpty detective named Pennington solve mysteries on the train, and a note you found in your cabin mentioning a sticky, yummy threat. There’s also a lottery in Rogueport that you can check every day to win. I’ve only gotten up to 3rd prize, which got me an Ultra Shroom. I really want to see what first prize is, so that’s what I’m aiming for. I’ll tell you, it’ll be a blast playing this game.

Overall: 100/100

No doubt about it, this is a legendary game, and in my opinion holds the throne of the best game ever. I do wonder if any game will ever be better than Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door…

Recommendation:

I say you buy it if you think yourself a Mario fan. You won’t be sorry; this game is an instant classic!